NPD - Free The Tone SOV-2

[Jimi75]

Hey folks,

I have just ordered my new mid gain pedal. I was totally blown away by Matt Schofields sound, and as he plays Two Rock amps and this very pedal, I decided to give it a try and make it a good fit for my Two Rock.
Anybody here, who's got the pedal or had the chance to play it?

J75

[Robert]

I saw one today at NAMM. So you have a two rock now? Which model?


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[Jimi75]

Hi Robert,

Yes I play the Studio Pro 35 combo (1x12) and it is a tremendous amph! Kills every 4x12 ;-)
So, have you heard the pedal then, too? I ordered it "blindly" and can't wait to add it to my rig. Sold my old TS-9 to compensate the investment....

[Robert]

I tried it today. It's hard to try gear in such a noisy environment but I'll try again tomorrow. Congrats on the amp! What style of tone does it do?


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[Jimi75]

Thanks a lot for your efforts Robert!
The amp suits a lot of styles except of Metal and twangy Country. It has a mild character and in fact it transports the real tone of the guitar. In its base it is a mix between a Dumble and a Fender style amp, but if you push it it also gets a nice Plexi-ish growl. Foremost it's a perfect platform for pedals.

[Robert]

The ms sov sounded great. I might have to buy one! Musical sounding with nice sustain. The had another overdrive that also sounded sweet, the red jasper overdrive.


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[Jimi75]

Good to hear that! The Red Jasper was my 2nd alternative, might get that very soon, too. The FTT pedals are said to be very organic.

[Robert]

I think I liked the red jasper better. Both awesome though. They also had a very nice distortion pedal, I forgot the name.


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[Jimi75]

Okay folks, the Free The Tone SOV-2 arrived 2 days ago. First thing I recognized was the made with love packaging. Fine work here, plus there was a battery included already. You do not find that very often.
The pedal itself is a battery eating monster, because the voltage is pushed to 15v inside the unit - however that works - you definitely want to use that pedal with an adapter. The build quality is top notch, I would say it's slightly above the general Fulltone quality, somehow the pedal just feels better in my hand and the knobs are more sensitive.

The first thing that bothered me was that the pedal is not as transparent as I hoped for it to be. I've sold my TS-9 to figure that this red beast is not as midrangy as a TS style pedal, but it is middy in another way. Second thing is I chose this one over the FTT Red Jasper (Low Gain), because I wanted to substitude my Fulltone OCD and believed the SOV-2 had enough gain - well....it quite doesn't. I always have my TC Spark mini Booster on (godly pedal, extremely transparent) kicking in the SOV-2 gives me a very meaty and organic sound, but if I play legato lines something is lacking. The OCD connects the notes better BUT it sounds lifeless compared to the SOV-2. Okay, lifeless is maybe totally exaggerated, as the OCD is a cool pedal too, but the SOV-2 is really taking your guitar tone and working with this basic tone, so you can not compare the two pedals nor the SOV-2 to a TS style pedal. The SOV-2 does the best job when the gain is below the noon position - exactly the way I can almost make no use of the pedal, as my TC gives me already enough hair on the notes.

Do I sound disappointed? Well I must be fair. From an objective point of view, this is truly the best pedal I have ever checked, it's tonal quality and headroom are great plus it is very very musical. For low gain solos it's just WOW, for rhythm playing it lacks some transparency. I will take some time over the weekend to try it with different settings and then I will reconsider. My stomach tells me that it adds even more quality to my sound, but I have to use it the right way. Still the OCD is on my board - guys the OCD saved me so many times over the past 5 years.....

Wanted to record a clip today - at home - but the battery said goodbye and I ran out of batteries so here is a clip of a guy that uses the same setup I use - the sounds presented sound 1:1 like it does in front of my Two Rock. Maybe you wanna leave a comment on the sound or drop an idea of how to use it (definitely not only as a boost! Too expensive for this purpose ;-)). I will record something on my own over the weekend, hopefully.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X_dSnJs6ZUA

[marnold]

Sorry to hear that the honeymoon period was so short with this pedal. As you noted in your amph thread, just because something is good doesn't necessarily mean that it is you.

[Robert]

I thought the pedal sounded too much like the "typical" Robben Ford tone with the gain up past 12. I think you'll need to push your amp into a good amount of overdrive in order to use this pedal for lead. Let me know how it goes!

[Jimi75]

Okay, have spent another hour in the rehearsal room. Actually, this pedal sounds 3 times more amp-like than my OCD. I have pushed the Two Rock harder with the boos, just as Robert suggested, on the one hand it sounded really good, on the other hand it was getting really loud...the sound guys will hate me. Robert you were also right t with what you said crossing the 12h mark with the gain. I mean I would never sound like Robben Ford, but if you really pretend doing so, this pedal delivers the goods. However, past noon position it overlays the great sound of the amp too much. I will keep the pedal for first and not return it - as I am also still new with my Two Rock I will just try out different settings over the next few months. Got all the time in the world.

[Jimi75]

Update! Have you ever experienced buying a record and having a hard time to get access to it, only to figure out later that you love that record? Well, the Sov-2 and I had a rough start, only to skip the über romantic honeymoon phase and to go "almost" directly into a true love affair :-)

No kidding - I love this pedal! Robert was right with suggesting to push the amp a little more...I then could keep the drive level under 12h and the most gorgeous sounds started coming out of my amp. Transparent, creamy, woody and very amp like. Truly the most organic pedal I've ever had the pleasure to play.

[Robert]

Cool, now you have to get the Red Jasper too! Haha :)