BE-OD as a baseline drive pedal

[Starman22]

After a month or so of owning the BE-OD I've come to an interesting scenario. I like many gas inflicted members here own way too many pedals than what is really needed, me OD/Dist pedals in particular.

So like many agree the Friedman BE-OD is quite the drive pedal, great voice awesome brown sound in a pedal format. But this is what I discovered: I kept the BE on the pedalboard as a "master" pedal per se. I then A/B played it side by side against numerous OD and drive pedals. First off I found a baseline setting on the BE that i felt was perfect to my ear with the clean amp channel I was running it through.

Done.... don't touch it again.

Then I clicked over to: Boss SD1, Boss BD2, Proco Rat, OCD, Boss DS1.
All the off the shelf generic pedals we all know and sometimes love.

I'd play notes, riffs, chug, etc. using the Friedman to "tune in" the various pedals. With the exception of the SD1 I was able to mimic the BE perfectly with the other pedals. The SD1 is just too mid hump to be as scooped as the BE so that one doesn't count.

But the rest, dead on. Not close, dead on. Now let's be real I am adjusting the BE to a single setting on a particular amp head with a singular guitar and then leaving that alone. The pedal has a huge range beyond this singular setting. But what is strange is I can obtain (to my ears, YMMV) the sweetest BE sound setting on the other pedals. What's also strange is the wildly obscure settings I must say I don't ever remember setting the other pedals to in order to achieve this tone.

So, in short I think there is a bit of BE-OD in most every drive pedal made, it just takes a real BE-OD to show you the path to that sound. It is a distinctly the VH "Fair Warning" type sound.... but viola, strangely available courtesy of Dave Friedmans orchestration.

Think it was Cinderella (80's) that sung "The more things change the more they stay the same".

 

[J-Rocks]

When I use the BE-OD it makes me not want to stomp on any other dirt pedals, I like just using my guitars volume knob with the BE-OD for different shades of dirt.

 

[dfrattaroli]

I love the BE-OD. But I don't see it as an OD pedal at all. For me, it's a high-gain distortion pedal. Similar to the EVH 5150 pedal. I have one on a small board and I only use it as a 2nd high-gain sound when on the clean channel of my DSL. For OD sounds, I use an MXR Il Torino OD. There's no way I can get any of the BE-OD sounds out of that OD. That said, I don't know what settings you're using as your baseline on the Friedman.