Anthony – Wow, this is an impressive undertaking, and a strong concept. The 3 settings options are well thought out, and I especially like that you included the option to hear “no effects” for reference. Obviously, it will be impossible to demonstrate every pedal offered, but hopefully you can keep adding the most common pedals players would like to compare.
Maybe pedal builders would be willing to loan you pedals for inclusion in this project. Over time, you would build an impressive audio database. The bigger it becomes, the more valuable it will be as a reference source. I think this “comparinator” concept would also work well with pickups and amplifiers.
Hey Jeff try using a Boss SD-1. It’s just a TS-808 with symmetrical clipping and its a whole lot cheaper. Perfect SRV sound if you’re using s strat, i Promise!
(Stevie used two TS-808s. One for main OD and one as a boost)
Most of Fender’s 40watt range amps sound more “grown up” than a blues junior, and are quite a bit louder. A lot of people like the Hot Rod Deluxe or the Blues Deluxe, if I had to choose between the two, I’d tak the Hot Rod Deluxe.
Great Idea having the pedal comparinator. The more pedals the better. It would be great to see the Zen Drive, Tim, Boiling Point, Sweet Honey, some Jetter’s, etc. Anyway thanks.
Hi Anthony,
I just found your website. You are a very good guitar player.
Great work you did with this comparinator! Nice tool.
It gives a very good idea of the tones produced by the different pedals.
Its down to Ibanez Tube screamers and the Bad Monkey =S
i want to Kind the SRV sound but dont if u no what i mean, the same but different,
im getting the with just my amp and some hard hitting, but i need that edge.
what would you sugest?
open to all ideas?
It’s very subjective in my opinion because each pedal will sound different with different amps. I know that many people like the Bad Monkey, partly because of it’s price, but the Tube Screamers are classic pedals that many prefer.
I have to agree, the Bad Monkey sounded the best, to my ears. I have to admit that I have a BM, but I don’t think that swayed my vote, it really just sounds better on most levels. I use mine as a lo-gain boost, keeping the gain at zero, but I’m considering buying another for higher gain settings. It’s just a great pedal.
Hey man !! very very helpful your comparinator !! I appreciate too your work. Your game is clearly, and your tone so great ! so Stevie. Thanks for your work
Wow. Really helpful. Thanks a lot.
Would be great if you could do something similar with distortions…
Of course the more pedals you add to this the better. Appreciate your work a lot.
Just wondering. Where’s all the keeley modded stuff and do you have any plans to mod your amps and compare those in the future on this site. really important stuff here i really appreciate your sharing your stuff with us and all for free. thanks
THANKS I WOULD APPRECIATE IT IM GETTING CLOSER TO SRV SOUND BECAUSE OF YOUR GREAT LESSONS AND DEMO OF YOUR SOUND EQUIPENT. I CHANGED MY STRINGS TO .011′S I SEEM TO GET A FATTER TONE EVENTUALLY WILL TRY 12′S I TUNE TO EFLAT.
I OWN LOT PEDALS BUT I BELEIVE GREAT SOUND COMES FROM THE HEART AND PASSION HOW WE WANT PLAY WITH WHAT I CALL “SOUL” AND TRANSFERS TO OUR HANDS TO THE GUITAR TO THE PEOPLE. SRV PROOVED IT !
I’ve been strugling 2 find the sound that I want 4 a long time ,I have a pod xt live ,but still not quite what I want.
This will save alot of cash in buying al kinds of pedals, the boss os 2 is very close.
Equipment used american standard fender strat fender hot rod deville 4 10″s
Great job on this Anthony! But I’m a little curious – did you find after demo-ing so many great pedals anything that might take the place of the Nobles in your setup?
Man – it’s been said a bunch of times, but I greatly appreciate all of the no nonsense info you provide on your websites/youtube…and your playing & tone is outstanding.
Have you tried out the Radial Tonebone Classic? I think it sounds amazing, but don’t have a Strat style guitar…if you could include it as well (along with your take on it’s features & any settings you found to work for you) that would be awesome! Thanks and have a great Christmas / New Year!
this is a must if you really want to hear the difference between 2 pedals.. some are so subtle that you cant tell unless you switch back and forth mid riff.. Great Idea! and thanks for doing this!
I actually went out and bought a Bad Monkey last weekend to try it out on my Mesa F-30 and ended up returning it. It was more of an experiment, than anything else.
It’s not a bad pedal, and it sounded pretty good going through my Roland Cube 20x on the clean channel. However, after having a chance to listen to my guitar instructors Full Drive 2 Mosfet going though my Mesa Boogie AMP, there was a very noticeable difference in tone, AND features between the two pedals. Lots of it could be the way my AMP handles it compared to Anthonys Blues Junior.
Absolute mind-blower !! I had trouble with Firefox (windows) also, but the demo works perfect with Explorer—- and what a demo !!! Using the manual Toggle really lets you compare.
I wonder if yer guitar store will let you review all his wah-wah pedals next.. ( for us Hendrix fans ect. ) … so many claim to be like a “real Vox” wah-wah, it would be great to compare them with your new tool.
What a great idea, You have done a fantastic job with this site. Will You add more overdrives later on?
My overdrives, Digitech Bad Monkey and Nobels ODR-S, sound as good as when I use them together with my Fender Blues DeLuxe. They are good choices for the money.
Greetings from Sweden!
This is a great way to check out the pedals. The first thing I learned is that I am not very much into overdrive. I really like the clean sound of the blues junior. As John Mayer said: “Stevie’s sound was more into volume than in pedals”. Secondly, the pedal that I own, merely because it said “blues” on it, really strikes me as one of the best, together with the voodoo lab. In my opinion the bluesdriver sparkles even a bit more than the voodoo. Maybe, if you add a bit more tone to the bluesdriver, it comes very close to the nobels which sounds just a tag warmer as does the voodoo. But than again, the bluesdriver sounds more Fender. Thanks Anthony, for your super websites, I hope to learn a lot of you!
I think the issue with firefox is related to the quicktime plugin and firefox 3. At least that’s what I’m seeing. Quicktime is disabled in FF3 because it crashes.
I am having an issue getting the comparinator to work. When I click play I see loading/syncing MP# but it never loads. I tried this last night and this morning with no luck. I can load from the results page and play the individual pedals but not the new comparinator. Do you have any ideas?
Well I just figured out my issue thanks to your question about the browser. I normally use Mozilla Firefox and have never had any issues on your site with this browser, however it will not load the pedal comparinator and play.
I just tried Internet Explorer and it worked just fine.
Also, do you plan on offering your opinion and thoughts about the Pedals. Finally, is the ultimate goal of this comparinator to find the pedal that has the best SRV tone, with that being the case many of these pedals can be eliminated very quick in the search for SRV tone.
February 3rd, 2010 at 3:40 pm
Good job, very helpful..
Thanx.
Reply
January 22nd, 2010 at 3:37 pm
Anthony – Wow, this is an impressive undertaking, and a strong concept. The 3 settings options are well thought out, and I especially like that you included the option to hear “no effects” for reference. Obviously, it will be impossible to demonstrate every pedal offered, but hopefully you can keep adding the most common pedals players would like to compare.
Maybe pedal builders would be willing to loan you pedals for inclusion in this project. Over time, you would build an impressive audio database. The bigger it becomes, the more valuable it will be as a reference source. I think this “comparinator” concept would also work well with pickups and amplifiers.
Reply
November 29th, 2009 at 2:31 pm
Hi Antony, is it possible hear a Ibanez TS9 and Maxon OD808? for hear the differences with Ibanez ts808 and maxon OD9….
TNX
Marco
Reply
Anthony Stauffer reply on December 1st, 2009 1:03 pm:
Hi Marco,
My schedule does not leave much time for adding new pedals, but I hope to replace the comparinator with something easier to update in the future.
Reply
November 21st, 2009 at 1:29 pm
like the idea of comparing pedals-what would you recome with a fender princeton chorus amp to get close to srv sould
Reply
Andrew reply on February 2nd, 2010 8:47 pm:
Hey Jeff try using a Boss SD-1. It’s just a TS-808 with symmetrical clipping and its a whole lot cheaper. Perfect SRV sound if you’re using s strat, i Promise!
(Stevie used two TS-808s. One for main OD and one as a boost)
Reply
October 11th, 2009 at 7:10 pm
Hi Anthony,
Can you recommend a Fender amp in the forty watt range that will sound as good as a blues jr. please.
Thanks.
Robb
Reply
Anthony Stauffer reply on October 12th, 2009 1:34 pm:
Most of Fender’s 40watt range amps sound more “grown up” than a blues junior, and are quite a bit louder. A lot of people like the Hot Rod Deluxe or the Blues Deluxe, if I had to choose between the two, I’d tak the Hot Rod Deluxe.
Reply
robb douglas reply on October 12th, 2009 6:19 pm:
Thanks Anthony.
Reply
Justin reply on November 3rd, 2009 2:46 pm:
Great Idea having the pedal comparinator. The more pedals the better. It would be great to see the Zen Drive, Tim, Boiling Point, Sweet Honey, some Jetter’s, etc. Anyway thanks.
Reply
July 8th, 2009 at 7:41 am
Hi Anthony,
I just found your website. You are a very good guitar player.
Great work you did with this comparinator! Nice tool.
It gives a very good idea of the tones produced by the different pedals.
Mario
Reply
June 10th, 2009 at 7:51 am
Its down to Ibanez Tube screamers and the Bad Monkey =S
i want to Kind the SRV sound but dont if u no what i mean, the same but different,
im getting the with just my amp and some hard hitting, but i need that edge.
what would you sugest?
open to all ideas?
Reply
Anthony Stauffer reply on June 11th, 2009 6:18 pm:
Hi Liam,
It’s very subjective in my opinion because each pedal will sound different with different amps. I know that many people like the Bad Monkey, partly because of it’s price, but the Tube Screamers are classic pedals that many prefer.
Reply
Justin reply on November 3rd, 2009 2:42 pm:
I have to agree, the Bad Monkey sounded the best, to my ears. I have to admit that I have a BM, but I don’t think that swayed my vote, it really just sounds better on most levels. I use mine as a lo-gain boost, keeping the gain at zero, but I’m considering buying another for higher gain settings. It’s just a great pedal.
Reply
May 17th, 2009 at 1:14 am
this is a great tool, but it’s not working for some reason. I keep getting ‘500 Internal Server Error’ messages, even when I open it in a new window.
Reply
Anthony Stauffer reply on May 17th, 2009 6:42 am:
Hi Simon,
What browser are you using?
Reply
Simon reply on May 18th, 2009 1:10 am:
Hi Anthony, I think you’re an awesome guitarist.
It’s working now. Yesterday is wasn’t working for me on firefox, IE and google chrome. Working on firefox now.
Reply
April 12th, 2009 at 9:53 am
What is the full drive’s song please ?
Reply
Anthony Stauffer reply on April 13th, 2009 9:53 pm:
Hi Pierre,
the backing tracks for these demos can be downloaded here: http://www.steviesnacks.com/lessons/backing-tracks/
Reply
April 12th, 2009 at 5:56 am
Hey man !! very very helpful your comparinator !! I appreciate too your work. Your game is clearly, and your tone so great ! so Stevie. Thanks for your work
Reply
April 4th, 2009 at 4:31 pm
Wow. Really helpful. Thanks a lot.
Would be great if you could do something similar with distortions…
Of course the more pedals you add to this the better. Appreciate your work a lot.
Reply
March 21st, 2009 at 12:37 pm
Just wondering. Where’s all the keeley modded stuff and do you have any plans to mod your amps and compare those in the future on this site. really important stuff here i really appreciate your sharing your stuff with us and all for free. thanks
Reply
March 13th, 2009 at 8:05 am
Anthony,
If you get your hands on a Boss OD-3 I’d love to see how it compares some time.
Thanks!
Gary
Reply
March 8th, 2009 at 1:08 am
I’m getting the following message:
Heroku | No such app
There is no app configured at that hostname.
Perhaps the app owner has renamed it, or you mistyped the URL.
What should I do?
Thanks!
Reply
Anthony Stauffer reply on March 8th, 2009 6:38 am:
Hi Marcel,
Sorry about that, the server where the Comparinator runs had changed and I forgot to update that link. It should work now.
Reply
February 17th, 2009 at 9:50 am
Great site! I hope you are planning to put the “Holy Fire” box in your pedal selections.
Reply
February 17th, 2009 at 3:10 am
CAN U SHOW AMP SETTINGS WITH PEDAL SETTINGS.
THANKS I WOULD APPRECIATE IT IM GETTING CLOSER TO SRV SOUND BECAUSE OF YOUR GREAT LESSONS AND DEMO OF YOUR SOUND EQUIPENT. I CHANGED MY STRINGS TO .011′S I SEEM TO GET A FATTER TONE EVENTUALLY WILL TRY 12′S I TUNE TO EFLAT.
I OWN LOT PEDALS BUT I BELEIVE GREAT SOUND COMES FROM THE HEART AND PASSION HOW WE WANT PLAY WITH WHAT I CALL “SOUL” AND TRANSFERS TO OUR HANDS TO THE GUITAR TO THE PEOPLE. SRV PROOVED IT !
Reply
February 13th, 2009 at 7:37 pm
Ah. So that’s the difference between Asymmetrical/Symmetrical clipping.
Reply
February 1st, 2009 at 12:03 pm
I am very impressed and thanks for this. I thought the bluesbreaker was a surprisingly good pedal.
Reply
January 25th, 2009 at 9:12 am
Hey Anthony, this is great !!!!!!
I’ve been strugling 2 find the sound that I want 4 a long time ,I have a pod xt live ,but still not quite what I want.
This will save alot of cash in buying al kinds of pedals, the boss os 2 is very close.
Equipment used american standard fender strat fender hot rod deville 4 10″s
Reply
December 19th, 2008 at 9:29 pm
Where’s the other poplular ibanez ts-9??
I’d like to a/b the ts-9 and the ts-808…
Reply
admin reply on December 19th, 2008 10:23 pm:
The TS-9 that I had borrowed to use in this demo was not working unfortunately.
Reply
December 16th, 2008 at 2:00 pm
I am also wondering which version of the OCD that is, because it doesn’t sound anything at all like mine (ver. 1). Thanks for all the hard work.
Reply
admin reply on December 19th, 2008 10:29 pm:
I was not aware that there was more than one version, but this one was new and off the shelf so it’s probably the later revision.
Reply
December 14th, 2008 at 5:36 pm
Great job on this Anthony! But I’m a little curious – did you find after demo-ing so many great pedals anything that might take the place of the Nobles in your setup?
Reply
December 13th, 2008 at 5:47 pm
Anthony,
Man – it’s been said a bunch of times, but I greatly appreciate all of the no nonsense info you provide on your websites/youtube…and your playing & tone is outstanding.
Have you tried out the Radial Tonebone Classic? I think it sounds amazing, but don’t have a Strat style guitar…if you could include it as well (along with your take on it’s features & any settings you found to work for you) that would be awesome! Thanks and have a great Christmas / New Year!
http://www.tonebone.com/tb-classic.htm
Reply
December 13th, 2008 at 8:24 am
Anthony:
Which version of the Fulltone OCD is that? v3 or v4?
Apparently there is quite a difference between the two versions.
Reply
December 11th, 2008 at 6:53 pm
this is a must if you really want to hear the difference between 2 pedals.. some are so subtle that you cant tell unless you switch back and forth mid riff.. Great Idea! and thanks for doing this!
Reply
December 8th, 2008 at 4:51 pm
What a great site you have here. The MP3 switching demo is absolutely killer, a really great idea. I look forward to future installments.
Reply
December 7th, 2008 at 11:57 am
Is it just me or does that cheap Bad Monkey pedal seem to hold its own?
Reply
Gearhund reply on December 9th, 2008 11:17 pm:
I don’t think the BM sonds the best, but it does sound like the best value!
Reply
JR reply on December 13th, 2008 1:32 am:
I actually went out and bought a Bad Monkey last weekend to try it out on my Mesa F-30 and ended up returning it. It was more of an experiment, than anything else.
It’s not a bad pedal, and it sounded pretty good going through my Roland Cube 20x on the clean channel. However, after having a chance to listen to my guitar instructors Full Drive 2 Mosfet going though my Mesa Boogie AMP, there was a very noticeable difference in tone, AND features between the two pedals. Lots of it could be the way my AMP handles it compared to Anthonys Blues Junior.
Reply
December 5th, 2008 at 8:57 am
This is great! Usually I wold have to open up youtube videos in like ten different tabs! haha. Thanks, Anthony
Reply
December 5th, 2008 at 2:18 am
INSANE. Awesome job, my friend!
Reply
December 4th, 2008 at 7:12 pm
Great idea! This is a great resource for checking tone. Hope you add more to the list.
Reply
December 1st, 2008 at 1:58 pm
Cool comparisons! A great job. Makes me wonder what’s with the hype on all boutique pedals. Sound what matters. Thanks a lot for the demo!
Reply
November 30th, 2008 at 11:43 am
Absolute mind-blower !! I had trouble with Firefox (windows) also, but the demo works perfect with Explorer—- and what a demo !!! Using the manual Toggle really lets you compare.
I wonder if yer guitar store will let you review all his wah-wah pedals next.. ( for us Hendrix fans ect. ) … so many claim to be like a “real Vox” wah-wah, it would be great to compare them with your new tool.
BTW — You play Great !!!
Reply
November 29th, 2008 at 2:58 am
What a great idea, You have done a fantastic job with this site. Will You add more overdrives later on?
My overdrives, Digitech Bad Monkey and Nobels ODR-S, sound as good as when I use them together with my Fender Blues DeLuxe. They are good choices for the money.
Greetings from Sweden!
Reply
November 28th, 2008 at 11:59 am
Way Cool!
Works just fine for me using FireFox 3 on Linux.
Maybe I picked the wrong two pedals to a/b a lot,
but the TS-808 and maXon OD-9 seem to sound very similar !
Great comparator!
Reply
November 23rd, 2008 at 7:27 pm
Coolest thing ever!
Reply
November 23rd, 2008 at 6:36 pm
This is a great way to check out the pedals. The first thing I learned is that I am not very much into overdrive. I really like the clean sound of the blues junior. As John Mayer said: “Stevie’s sound was more into volume than in pedals”. Secondly, the pedal that I own, merely because it said “blues” on it, really strikes me as one of the best, together with the voodoo lab. In my opinion the bluesdriver sparkles even a bit more than the voodoo. Maybe, if you add a bit more tone to the bluesdriver, it comes very close to the nobels which sounds just a tag warmer as does the voodoo. But than again, the bluesdriver sounds more Fender. Thanks Anthony, for your super websites, I hope to learn a lot of you!
Reply
November 23rd, 2008 at 5:10 am
Everytime you think Anthony out does himself, then the next day it;s like wow… just keeps getting better!! Thanks..
Reply
November 21st, 2008 at 4:47 pm
What a great service you’ve provided here Anthony, thanks a heap. Nice playing too! I look forward to seeing what you have to offer in the future.
Cheers,
BK.
Reply
November 21st, 2008 at 2:13 pm
I think the issue with firefox is related to the quicktime plugin and firefox 3. At least that’s what I’m seeing. Quicktime is disabled in FF3 because it crashes.
Reply
November 21st, 2008 at 10:34 am
I am having an issue getting the comparinator to work. When I click play I see loading/syncing MP# but it never loads. I tried this last night and this morning with no luck. I can load from the results page and play the individual pedals but not the new comparinator. Do you have any ideas?
Brian
Reply
admin reply on November 21st, 2008 10:39 am:
Hi Brian,
Can I ask what browser you are using, and which pedals you are comparing on which settings, or does it just not work for any of them?
Thanks,
Anthony
Reply
Brian reply on November 21st, 2008 1:21 pm:
Well I just figured out my issue thanks to your question about the browser. I normally use Mozilla Firefox and have never had any issues on your site with this browser, however it will not load the pedal comparinator and play.
I just tried Internet Explorer and it worked just fine.
Also, do you plan on offering your opinion and thoughts about the Pedals. Finally, is the ultimate goal of this comparinator to find the pedal that has the best SRV tone, with that being the case many of these pedals can be eliminated very quick in the search for SRV tone.
Reply
November 20th, 2008 at 7:51 pm
Very cool. You can hear the subtle differences between each pedal. A++++.
Reply