OD-20 Drive Zone Review

The Od-20 Drive Zone uses advanced COSM technology to model the sound of classic overdrive/distortion pedals, as well as creating new sounds of its own.

Ease of Use:	8.7
Sound:	9.3
Reliability:	10
Impression:	9.3
Overall rating:	9.3
Users rating:	5.9
Comments:	3

overall: 10

Featured review by: mikiedaman, on september 13, 2004

Price paid: $ 229.1

Purchased from: Long and Mcquade

Ease of Use: This pedal is real simple, turn the type knob to the pedal you want, dial in the drive, tone, and volume and start rockin. The memory is pretty simple if you read the manual, but I don't like how it stores the volume you set it to, if you are playing quiet and just practicing and find a sweet tone and you want to use it later the level of the memory will be too low. Overall tho, very easy to use. // 10

Sound: I'm using a squire strat (dont' make fun) and a Marshall JCM900 dual reverb. It sounds amazing, the pedal modellings are great. The 6 Boss ones are beautiful, the homemade tones they came up with just for this pedal are really neat too, a great Overdrive and an over the top metal sound. I like the other pedals too, Ibanez Tubescreamer is great and the fuzz boxes are really cool too. You can get just about any distortion sound possible out of this pedal. The heavy octave effect is pretty good too, I don't like it on high levels it just sounds messy but I keep it kinda low and it adds a depth to the sound. // 10

Reliability & Durability: It looks pretty sturdy, the paint is a bit chipped but who cares, I would gig with no back up for this as the pedals seem solid and I can't see them breaking unless you reall stomp it which isn't nessesary. // 10

Impression: I play everything under the sun, metal, blues, rock and roll, acoustic stuff and this pedal works for everything with distortion, I love having a blues tone and a heavy metal tone right there at the click of a switch. I've only been playing for jsut over a year and this is my second distortion pedal, but it destroys my old Danelectro. I'd definetly buy another one if it were stolen. This is the best distortion pedal out there no matter what your taste of music, even if it changes this pedal will still work for you. I recommend to everyone! // 10

overall: 9.5

Reviewed by: GuitarFreak664, on july 09, 2005

Purchased from: Online Dealer

Ease of Use: The OD-20 has 2 pedals, one to switch between clean/distortion and another to cycle through one manual setting and 4 user presets (a total of 5 distortions at a time). Since the only part of this unit that is digital is the memory, getting the sound you want is fairly easy. // 8

Sound: I am currently playing through an Ibanez SA160 and a Marshall 15 watt combo (don't laugh, its all I can afford). Let me just say that this pedal made my guitar and amp sound good, that's really saying something. You can get any Overdrive or distortion you want from this pedal. It can give you tweakable distortion for any kind of music from blues to classic rock to metal. This pedal is reasonably noisy when the drive is in the turbo region of the knob (but what's new). This pedal has some feedback but, its a distoriton pedal. What do you expect? // 10

Reliability & Durability: Are you kidding, this is a Boss pedal. Boss pedals don't break, they're built like tanks. I would be fully confident gigging without a backup. When nuclear war comes, hide in a bomb shelter made of Boss pedals. // 10

Impression: I play anything from blues to metal and the OD-20 suits these styles well. If this were stolen I would definitely buy it again (I can't afford the GT-8 or anything). With my very small budget this is the perfect pedal, it offers many different distortions (22 in all) for the price of about 2 or 3 single compact pedals. // 10

overall: 8.5

Reviewed by: unregistered, on february 04, 2004

Purchased from: 'Falcon music', Llanelli, Wales.

Ease of Use: The twin pedal is new, Boss' twin pedal (OD-20), it was released early January. It is relativley easy to use, just choose which effect you want, and hit the pedal. Also it has a memory pedal on it to, which stores 4 effects of your choice, to make it easier to change during play, rather than bending down and turning the nob... The memory stuff on it for me is quite tricky. The manual didn't explain how to work it very well. So I'll give a 4. // 8

Sound: Sound Is overall good, taking into account I use an Epiphone sg400 and a Leam 30 watt.

It gives you the use of 22 diferent sounds, including 6 Boss pedals. OD-1 OD-2 DS-1 MT-2 HM-1 BD-1. And a range of Boss' homemade stuff. But the other effects really aren't that good, basically your buying it for the 6 built in Boss pedals.

It's great for metal whethere new or old, I use the MT-2 alot for Metallica stuff.

It has an Octave switcher also which alows you to lower the top four strings down an octave to give a 7 string guitar efect, but it tends to crackle on my amp. Also there is quite alot of feedback generated from this little box.

But otherwise this pedal rocks! The sound is sweet. // 8

Reliability & Durability: This is built as solid as a rock, I think it is very reliable...

I think I would feel confident useing it without a backup, but I always carry spares ;o) // 10

Impression: This pedal is great for any music with distortion or Overdrive. I would have prob asked for the guy to let me try it out a bit longer, so I could figure out that its only worth buying for those 6 Boss effects, But for the price, you could only get about 2 of those Boss pedals seperatly, for the same price as the OD-20. If it were stolen, i'd probrably save for a bigger Boss pedal, like the GT thigy.
The only thing I wish it had is a Wah pedal on the side, It'd be perfect for Metallica then.

Overall its a class pedal, you get alot for the money. Definitely buy it if you're after a distortion pedal or Overdrive pedal.

Od-20... Rocks!!! Literally :o) // 8

Comments

[americablanco]

Nice. I have the Boss OS-2 and its okay. I can get most of these sounds w/ that, except the HM, I've never heard of that.

[cblowrun]

are the distortions on this better than the ME-50 distortions?

[fishpimp]

This is a great pedal if you're trying to dial in 'your sound' or you need a ton of variety and don't care about tonal quality. Playing it next to an actual analog pedal (tonebone, toadworks) makes the OD-20 sound very digital and plastic. I traded it in on a Seymour Duncan Twin Tube Classic and am very happy I did.