Horses for courses

[Black Plaid]

So far, no a fan.

Into the Mk 5 clean channel, it's not doing anything for me.

Also tried the 50's Gibson amp, more or less same results.

It was ok into the Mk 5 channel 1 crunch with low gain, but didn't give me anything that just turning up the gain didn't. It was subjectively worse to me.

It reminds me a bit of tube screamer in it's gain flavor, just without the overt clean-tone mix in. Ok, maybe not *that* bad, but, dunnow, maybe I got a dud? The sounds are nothing like the demos I've heard.

You might take this with a grain of salt tho, I've never met a drive pedal I've actually liked enough to use. They are just sort of a curiosity to me, so I own a handful of them.

The compressor, on the other hand is brilliant. So. Good.

 

[Toolmaster Of Brainerd]

What kind of guitar were you using? In particular, what kind of pickups and what positions?

I feel like that kind of thing can make a huge difference in whether an overdrive sounds good or bad. With my Kingsley Page TS, I absolutely love how it sounds with single coils, but for the life of me I can't get a sound I like with it and humbuckers.

 

[Toolmaster Of Brainerd]

Also, say more on the compressor!

 

[Black Plaid]

What kind of guitar were you using? In particular, what kind of pickups and what positions?

I feel like that kind of thing can make a huge difference in whether an overdrive sounds good or bad. With my Kingsley Page TS, I absolutely love how it sounds with single coils, but for the life of me I can't get a sound I like with it and humbuckers.

I used two different guitars, one custom 22 with 57/08s and a strandberg with the Suhr humbuckers. Mostly the bridge position, as that's my go to, but I also tried some in-between and neck stuff briefly on both guitars.

The sound was generally thin, fizzy, and I couldn't seem to get it to fatten up. I tried knobs in various extremes to see if there was anything I could do to make it sound to my liking, but the best I could manage was 'meh'.

I tried to calibrate my ears with a Chase Bliss Brothers pedal I had handy, and despite not really generally liking that either, I was able to get a nicer sound out of it than the Horsemeat.

I am tempted to post a vid to demonstrate the relative sounds, because I feel like my experience is so much different that everything else I've heard.

 

[Black Plaid]

Also, say more on the compressor!

The compressor is a wonder. I've used studio compressors from the cheap Alesis ones in the 90s to a Summit Audio TLA-100a around the same time. The Mary was much like the Summit that I remember. The 90s was a while ago.

Most compressors seem to drastically compromise the tone and generally suck all the energy out. I mean, yes, that's their job, but there's always this top end squash that's so in your face.

The Mary avoids this somehow until you get to the upper compression settings, and tames the transients in an unobtrusive sort of way. The single knob simplicity seems to work really well without having to worry about attack, threshold and release ratios and speeds when all you really want as a guitar player is "a little more, or a little less"

The pedal also has a ton of clean gain on tap. Unity is like well below 12 o'clock. I didn't notice any significant noise from it either. I have a cheap TC compressor pedal that someone gave me, and it's total garbage in comparison in every respect.

 

[László]

OD pedals are so amp-dependent. My Mark V didn't like them at all, but I've had a bunch of Mesa amps, and most of them haven't done as well with OD pedals as without them. With the Lone Star and Fillmore, I'll occasionally use a low gain pedal set more like a boost than an OD, but that's after I've already gotten an 'edge of breakup' tone, just to push a little and add a touch more color.

On the other hand, the Gibson amp wasn't happening for you with the pedal either. So who knows...might work with something entirely different, might not.

I've got a good compressor from Suhr, but plan to try the Mary at some point soon. Optical compressors have always been a thing for me in the studio.

 

[Jazzedout]

I have a cheap TC compressor pedal that someone gave me, and it's total garbage in comparison in every respect.

Is it the TC Hyper Gravity you are referring to? I get quite nice results out if it....
From all the 3 pedals, the PRS compressor sounded more interesting for me (from the YouTube demos...)

 

[Black Plaid]

Is it the TC Hyper Gravity you are referring to? I get quite nice results out if it....
From all the 3 pedals, the PRS compressor sounded more interesting for me (from the YouTube demos...)

I wish it was the Hypergravity. It's the Force Field.