Paul Chocrane's "Timmy" OD pedal...

[Yamaha Man]

just bought one to replace my Ibanez Tube Screamer OD pedal. I've read that the Timmy pedal is very sought after and has great reviews...I saw it compared to a $370 boutique OD pedal and it sounded identical. I found it at reverb.com....apparently they are handmade and hard to come by. After listening to the demo's I thought it sounded much better than my Tube Screamer. Apparently they offer a transparent over drive which lets the true sound of your amp and guitar come thru, not just adding a distorted sound. I'm not quite sure I understand it all, but the demo's I heard do sound very good. Everywhere I look I'm getting rave reviews on it.

[Dru Edwards]

Paul Cochrane is a well respected in the electric guitar pedal forums. I've never played a Timmy before but I've read rave reviews over the years. I'm sure you'll be pleased.

Another great transparent OD is the Soul Food. Amazing pedal. I bought it the first time I played it.

[Yamaha Man]

I'm sure I'll be very happy with it. Everywhere I look I'm seeing 5 star reviews about it. My pedal board is coming along nicely, because everything is so well organized, I can swap out pedals in no time and try out different things to find which pedals work best for me. I've got tons of options with this board and can get a very wide variety of sounds with what I've got. The Timmy pedal should be a fine upgrade from the Tube Screamer. The man who makes them only makes small batches of them at a time, so I got lucky and was able to get one without a long wait for a custom order. Sometimes you have to wait for 6 months to get one. Right now there's just a few available.

[Dru Edwards]

The Tube Screamer has it's place. It just depends on whether you like that mid boost hump or not.

You can try experimenting with stacking OD pedals. For example put your Timmy in front of you TS or vice versa. Just don't crank both pedals. Perhaps one is always on for rhythm and then you step on the other one for a nice lead tone.

[DanR]

The Timmy also works well as a clean boost pedal, which is how I've been using mine. The individual treble and bass controls come in handy, also. Timmys aren't hard to find and they're reasonably priced, practically cheap.

[blue]

Been playing for almost 40 years.

I've never found anything that beats a Boss SD-1, which is basically a tubescreamer with a twist. The "Super" doesn't mean "metal".

There is different for sure. But there isn't anything "better". I want something that goes from barely noticeable to moderate. If the pedal covers that range, I'm happy, whether it's my more expensive (though not crazy) VFE Blues King (which lives on my pedalboard), or my Boss SD-1 which is the one I grab when it's just guitar into OD into Amp. If you want a specific range of performance from barely noticeable to YIKES! find a decent pedal that does that and stop looking

The true obsessive quest for the ultimate OD is something to do instead of playing, which doesn't bring the satisfaction one would hope to a lot of people apparently. I mean you get a pedal to make your playing sound the way you want, but so many spend more time on the gear than the playing, which means your playing WILL NEVER SOUND THE WAY YOU WANT IT TO because all that potential practice/jam time is frittered away shopping.

Get a good one, stick to it, and learn what it can do backwards and forwards and don't worry about what it doesn't do.

[Yamaha Man]

Well for distortion pedals, I have the Tube Screamer, the BOSS DS-1 Distortion pedal, the VFE Dark Horse, MXR Octave Fuzz, and the Echoplex pre-amp. Add the Timmy to this collection and I should have a great selection to chose from. Similar to my experiments with the chorus pedals, I'll try them all out to see which ones I like the most. I'm already getting some great tones out of my pedal board, so it's no it vain.

[blue]

Originally Posted by Martin Maniac

Well for distortion pedals, I have the Tube Screamer, the BOSS DS-1 Distortion pedal, the VFE Dark Horse, MXR Octave Fuzz, and the Echoplex pre-amp.

About 1979 to 1982 I regularly played in a Black Sabbath cover band. The DS-1 was a game changer! For heavy Distortion the value of the orange DS-1 is RIDICULOUS. I probably paid between $65 and $75 back then. Plugging that number in an inflation calculator means I paid the equivalent of at least $220... You can walk in to guitar center and get one for $39 today I would point out that a Boss back then cost well into the boutique range.

I'd love to call the DS-1 underappreciated, but just like the SD-1 it's one of the most used pedals ever

[redir]

The Timmy gets great reviews for sure. But I cannot imagine ever replacing my 80's TS9

[Yamaha Man]

I have a tube screamer but I have a problem getting usable sounds out of it. It's either not enough or too much....I really like the Echoplex pre-amp, it's so simple to use and I get a great tone from it. I think that's why I like the Timmy, it looks like it would be simple to use and get a great tone from it. Plus I like having both treble and bass cut controls right there. I haven't tried the Timmy yet so I can't say for sure, I'm just going by the demo's I heard on You Tube and other people's reviews.

[Yamaha Man]

Originally Posted by blue

The true obsessive quest for the ultimate OD is something to do instead of playing, which doesn't bring the satisfaction one would hope to a lot of people apparently. I mean you get a pedal to make your playing sound the way you want, but so many spend more time on the gear than the playing, which means your playing WILL NEVER SOUND THE WAY YOU WANT IT TO because all that potential practice/jam time is frittered away shopping.

I may be spending a lot of time demo'ing and shopping, but it's definitely paying off for me. My pedal board sounds like a million bucks, and it is a true joy to play with it. I can emulate many artists now, and that gives me a great starting point for practicing. The pedals I have are studio quality pedals which would sound great on recordings. This is what my goal was. Yes I put some time and money into it, but boy is it paying off big time now, and in the long run I'm much better off than if I would have bought a bunch of cheap knock off pedals.

[M@tt C]

The Timmy is VERY nice. Much more transparent than a Tube Screamer type OD. Lots of flexibility, and top notch build quality.

[Yamaha Man]

That's good to hear. I bought this pedal without trying it first, just going by other people's reviews and you tube demo's, so I'm not that sure about it.....it'll be here Monday so I'll get to try it out then....if it doesn't work out I'll sell it and get a Marshall Governor. If it does work out then great.

[Yamaha Man]

Oh the heck with it, I just ordered a Marshall Gov Nor Over drive pedal....This way I can do a complete and fair shoot out with the Timmy.......

[DesolationAngel]

Originally Posted by Dru Edwards

Another great transparent OD is the Soul Food. Amazing pedal. I bought it the first time I played it.

Funnily enough... first chance I had to play a Timmy I didn't buy it because I figured my Soul Food had that particular ground covered. I'm sure the Timmy is 'better' (perhaps) but the Soul Food is an amazing pedal for the price.