NGD’s KOT + Balaguer Feral

[maddnotez]

Pretty awesome NGD’s for me.

Got the King of Tone. It has high gain on both sides, the toggle switch and 4 jack options.

For me, this pedal is amazing and lives up to the hype. I haven’t tried every OD out there but I have tried a bunch and so far this is the only one I will use over the Koko. Can’t say I’m ready to sell the Koko just yet because it’s a little different and I still like it but the KOT is pretty awesome.

I also got a Balaguer Feral Humbucker that’s scheduled to be delivered today. Can’t comment on that just yet but it will be competing with a BKP Miracle Man.

BTW: I’ve had pretty bad luck in the past with custom builders and Joe Balaguer is definitely the best one I’ve dealt with. Super nice guy, who is cool but also seems to understand the business and customer service sides of things. Very important imo and he also makes a killer product.

 

[ChurchHill]

Nice! Glad to hear you're enjoying the KOT. Looking forward to your thoughts on the pickup, too.

I've finally made it the top of the KOT waiting list, but I haven't ordered yet. I'm curious about why you went with the high gain option on both sides. I've been debating that option, too. I'm sure I want it on at least one side, but am wondering if the two sides are different enough to warrant having it on both, or if only getting it on one side might make it a little more versatile. Which side is your favorite?

I've never heard of Balaguer before, but I'll have to check them out. I've got a set of BKP MMs in an Explorer (had a set in an LPC, too, but they were too much there), so I'm familiar with them. I'll be looking forward to your review of the Ferals and how they compare.

 

[mystixboi]

I love love love Balaguer Guitars. I have two of them with three more in the queue.

Not only are his guitars amazing, but joe has the BEST Customer service in the industry. I can’t speak enough about how great he is to deal with. Enjoy the new gear.

 

[Hardvalve]

Put a set of Balaguer Ferals in a custom build from another company, and absolutely love them. I am putting a Feral in the bridge of my Suhr Modern, replacing the Suhr Aldrich. Getting an Evergreen to go in the neck of my 1985 Heritage Custom. Super impressed with the guitars I played he made, especially the Balaguer Hyperion. He is doing a lot of custom stuff, and even some headless designs. Will get a headless when they come out.

 

[maddnotez]

Nice! Glad to hear you're enjoying the KOT. Looking forward to your thoughts on the pickup, too.

I've finally made it the top of the KOT waiting list, but I haven't ordered yet. I'm curious about why you went with the high gain option on both sides. I've been debating that option, too. I'm sure I want it on at least one side, but am wondering if the two sides are different enough to warrant having it on both, or if only getting it on one side might make it a little more versatile. Which side is your favorite?

I've never heard of Balaguer before, but I'll have to check them out. I've got a set of BKP MMs in an Explorer (had a set in an LPC, too, but they were too much there), so I'm familiar with them. I'll be looking forward to your review of the Ferals and how they compare.

I looked into the high gain/low gain a lot and I’d definitely recommend it for at least one side. One reason to get HG on both is supposedly it is the same exact sound with a little more. It’s like 3 notches difference on the dial. Most people won’t use the drive below 11:00 anyway so in that case it literally makes no difference at all.

You can’t get the high gain as low as the low gain and vice versa but would you even use that little amount of gain anyway?

My friend has one with LG on one side and I might stop by tonight to compare the two. I guess one side HG only could be more versatile if you run the LG side really low.

One thing I lll say is that I feel the toggle switch is a waste of $50. I’m more of a set it and forget it type of guy when it comes to using an OD so unless you plan to use the pedal for your actual distortion or unless you’ll be switching between clean Boost/OD on the fly, the toggle is overkill to me.

I need to test it more but another thing is I don’t think the volume is enough to effectively use one side as a lead boost. To get the always on OD where I want it the volume is pretty high at like 2:00 or more. Maxing out the other side doesn’t give a huge volume boost imo. Maybe if it was Low Gain it would make more of a difference I don’t know. Other pedals like the paraEQ or anything with a huge DB Boost is way more effective.

I love the KOT but tbh I’m curious to try the POT to see if it’s really the same exact thing or not. If it is, I could see myself using that instead.

 

[RockyStar]

I love love love Balaguer Guitars. I have two of them with three more in the queue.

Not only are his guitars amazing, but joe has the BEST Customer service in the industry. I can’t speak enough about how great he is to deal with. Enjoy the new gear.

Too bad he doesn't do more than 12 custom builds per year. He lost me when he encouraged me to just get a optioned model.

 

[ChurchHill]

I looked into the high gain/low gain a lot and I’d definitely recommend it for at least one side. You can’t get the high gain as low as the low gain and vice versa but would you even use that little amount of gain anyway?

My friend has one with LG on one side and I might stop by tonight to compare the two. I guess one side HG only could be more versatile if you run the LG side really low.

One thing I lll say is that I feel the toggle switch is a waste of $50. I’m more of a set it and forget it type of guy when it comes to using an OD so unless you plan to use the pedal for your actual distortion or unless you’ll be switching between clean Boost/OD on the fly, the toggle is overkill to me.

I love the KOT but tbh I’m curious to try the POT to see if it’s really the same exact thing or not.

I agree with the toggle being a waste. I just wouldn't be changing it that often, and I don't mind having to open it up to do so.

I'm almost wondering if the HG option on both sides might be more versatile than just on one side, even though that doesn't make a lot of sense at first. While I don't have the KOT, I do have both HG and normal versions of the Beano and the Sun Face. It seems to me that you can still get the normal gain sounds out of the HG, or at least close enough for practical use (I serious doubt I'd ever use that little gain, so I agree with you there, too) but you can't get the HG sounds out of the low gain. It just makes the knob a little more touchy, but that's not a huge change, and, well... if you're already on 10, where do you go? I'm heavily leaning towards the HG option on both sides now.

I'm curious, too, how close the POT is to the KOT. I picked up the POT a couple of years back, which is what led me to get on the KOT waiting list. I would think that getting the HG option would make the KOT a little more different from the POT, but that's not a reason to not get the HG on both sides. What I can say is that the POT is absolutely amazing and is still on my board while others have come and gone. Personally, I hope that the KOT is pretty close to the POT, because I don't really have room for both... LOL!

Hope you get a chance to compare the two yourself. When I get my KOT, I'll let you know what I think and maybe post a short clip of the two. Thanks for letting me know your thoughts on the KOT!

 

[mystixboi]

I love love love Balaguer Guitars. I have two of them with three more in the queue.

Not only are his guitars amazing, but joe has the BEST Customer service in the industry. I can’t speak enough about how great he is to deal with. Enjoy the new gear.

Too bad he doesn't do more than 12 custom builds per year. He lost me when he encouraged me to just get a optioned model.

I would keep checking in with him... what were you looking to do?

 

[maddnotez]

I looked into the high gain/low gain a lot and I’d definitely recommend it for at least one side. You can’t get the high gain as low as the low gain and vice versa but would you even use that little amount of gain anyway?

My friend has one with LG on one side and I might stop by tonight to compare the two. I guess one side HG only could be more versatile if you run the LG side really low.

One thing I lll say is that I feel the toggle switch is a waste of $50. I’m more of a set it and forget it type of guy when it comes to using an OD so unless you plan to use the pedal for your actual distortion or unless you’ll be switching between clean Boost/OD on the fly, the toggle is overkill to me.

I love the KOT but tbh I’m curious to try the POT to see if it’s really the same exact thing or not.

I agree with the toggle being a waste. I just wouldn't be changing it that often, and I don't mind having to open it up to do so.

I'm almost wondering if the HG option on both sides might be more versatile than just on one side, even though that doesn't make a lot of sense at first. While I don't have the KOT, I do have both HG and normal versions of the Beano and the Sun Face. It seems to me that you can still get the normal gain sounds out of the HG, or at least close enough for practical use (I serious doubt I'd ever use that little gain, so I agree with you there, too) but you can't get the HG sounds out of the low gain. It just makes the knob a little more touchy, but that's not a huge change, and, well... if you're already on 10, where do you go? I'm heavily leaning towards the HG option on both sides now.

I'm curious, too, how close the POT is to the KOT. I picked up the POT a couple of years back, which is what led me to get on the KOT waiting list. I would think that getting the HG option would make the KOT a little more different from the POT, but that's not a reason to not get the HG on both sides. What I can say is that the POT is absolutely amazing and is still on my board while others have come and gone. Personally, I hope that the KOT is pretty close to the POT, because I don't really have room for both... LOL!

Hope you get a chance to compare the two yourself. When I get my KOT, I'll let you know what I think and maybe post a short clip of the two. Thanks for letting me know your thoughts on the KOT!

I’m not 100% but I think the POT is supposed to be the KOT with high gain mod already on it. Idk, I definitely want to compare. If you happen to be near St. Louis let me know.

Ideally for me the POT would be able to get that one sweet spot that I like from the KOT. I love having options and tweaking is fun but at the end of the day this is an always on OD for me.

One of the best, if not the best I’ve tried so far.

Also here’s a pic of the new pups. I’m a loser and waited until the last minute to order new pots for the guitar so I won’t install for a week or so :/ (definitely need new pots)

 

[ChurchHill]

I’m not 100% but I think the POT is supposed to be the KOT with high gain mod already on it.

You're right, according to AnalogMan, the POT is one side of the KOT with the HG option and the mode switch. I do flip between modes on this one, but the KOT would make that redundant for me since it's almost always either DIST or Boost depending on how much bite I want. I've been using it in front of my main drive pedal (currently either a Suhr Riot or a Friedman BE-OD) for more saturation.

I'm using a Timmy as an always on boost/drive/buffer at the end of the chain. Before I added that, all my other drive pedals sounded, well, like pedals. With the Timmy, both the Riot and BE-DO sound and feel a LOT more like an amp. The POT doesn't change the character of the drive as much as it just adds more too it. The boost is really nice, but I usually use the DIST mode to add just a little more bite. That's not to say that the OD isn't great, too, just somewhere in between the two. Definitely a great pedal in its own right.

Actually, I'm about 5 hours away from St. Louis, so not too far. Spent a lot of time there when I was younger. And yeah, I always think I've got enough pots, caps, wire, solder, etc., every... single... time... LOL!