FriedmanAmplification BE-OD Overdrive Guitar Effects Pedal

I bought this pedal having already owned the boss metalcore. (Which is a superb pedal ) now Rob Chapman says he prefers the metal core over this. well that's a load of poppycock if you ask me, and I'll tell you for why . This pedal has more clarity to it . It's brighter. The metalcore although heavy as eff is s bit on the muddy side. Guess what though the BO is heavy as eff too and is perfect for death metal and grindcore BUT can also do a whole lot more like 80s shizz and what not . I'm talking thrash, punked up rock noise and glam .

First thing’s first, this pedal sounds incredible. It has the sound of a hot-rodded Marshall stack turned all the way up to 11 in a pedal. Insane amounts of gain, but with sweet overtones and great note definition. It would definitely be of interest to players in the rock and metal genres for both rhythm and lead work.As the marketing lettuce says, the pedal has a very durable feel to it. The switch feels robust and the pots have that smooth feel to them which suggests quality. The casing seems robust and would certainly come through any knocks or drops. Having said that, the unit feels a little light and insubstantial, which may be due to the lack of a battery (more on this later), which might otherwise add weight. Also, the faceplate/logo/control decals on the top are all on a stuck-on thick-ish sticker, rather than being printed on the case itself, and this feels like it would start to peel over time. The corners on mine were loose straight out of the box and you can get a thumbnail under them very easily.But there are other aspects of this which are disappointing and annoying. First, as the blurb says, this pedal runs off a power supply, and cannot be used with a battery. Fair enough. What it doesn’t say is that a power supply is not included! IN fairness, the blurb doesn’t say one is included, but I think if you’re spending £190 on a pedal this is something which should be part of the price, without question. All the cheaper non-battery pedals I have bought from other manufacturers in recent years have included a power supply, so I was taken aback that this ‘premium’ pedal did not.The second major gripe is the trim pot to adjust the overall range of gain. As it stands the main controls offer you anything from a lot of gain to ridiculous amount of gain. Which is great, but rather limits the range of sounds you get out of it. Inside the pedal (unscrew four screws) there is a trim pot, which allows you to turn town the overall amount of gain, and this opens up a lot more tonal possibilities in the lighter, blusey end of distortion, or even making this a boost/overdrive pedal….So why on earth is this excellent feature so inaccessible. It would be much better to have this control mounted on the outside of the casing, and I can’t understand why this wasn’t done. As it stands, accessing the control is a bit of a chore and entirely impractical if you wanted to use different sounds live.My conclusion is this is a great sounding pedal, which has been marred by some thoughtless design and penny-pinching, which is disappointing given the high price. I am pleased with it, but also frustrated by it.Could do better.

This pedal lives up to the hype for me. Best used in front of a clean valve amp. Lovely tone, great sustain too. The tite control is useful to control the Bass response. You can make a combo sound a bit more like a stack for example, Tons of gain, I always max out on other pedals but I'm using this on half gain. I don't use it for subtle overdrive sounds so I can't comment on that. It has a presence control too like the JCM Marshalls.There's a trimpot inside for further (downward) adjustment if needed. Is it worth the money? Well I haven't tried the cheaper alternatives (like the Tone City Golden Plexi) but I have owned many OD and Distortion pedals over the last 35 years and I think that yes it is.

A really good pedal for high gain work , highly recommended for Marshall type overdrives .

As advertised. Excellent.