Nobels ODR-1 Natural Overdrive

[Old_Iron]

I heard people talking about this pedal for a while, last week I saw a video on That Pedal Show youtube channel comparing it with a Tube Screamer and a Boss BD-2, that video made impossible not to buy it.

It is an amazing overdrive, smooth and responsive, but the best feature in it is the spectrum knob.

At noon it is flat, turn it left and you have a warm mid frequency hump, turn it to the right and it scoops that mid frequencies while boosts the treble and some lower mids, very useful and clever.

If you set the drive all the way down (0), spectrum at noon (5) and level to match your guitar output, you will turn it on and off without noticing any difference in the guitar sound, completely and absolutely transparent.

Worth to check it out if you are looking for a very good overdrive.

That Pedal Show video : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WjCVnFLwP9k

[The_Doc]

One of my favourites which I’ve had for many years. The ‘Nashville secret pedal’

[Pepe]

Ouch, I feel GAS inflaming!

[Old_Iron]

One of my favourites which I’ve had for many years. The ‘Nashville secret pedal’

Very good, isn't it Doc?
Funny that it is not a "twang" kind of pedal, don't know why "countries" like it so much. Maybe the bluesmen...

Ouch, I feel GAS inflaming!

I strongly recommend it Pepe, watch the video to see if you really like it, but I bet you will.

[laurie]

Never seen one of these... Feeling the GAS building.

[Pepe]

I didn't know that the Nobels ODR-1 was so popular and that it was engineered in Hamburg, Germany in the early '90s. I read a bit about it at the original page. The documentation about this overdrive is almost as thorough as Laurie's documentation of his latest pedal builds. At Reverb is an original version from 1993 with a price tag of over 1,000$.

[Old_Iron]

Made a comparison with my favorites Boss (and Ibanez) overdrive pedals : OD-1 (Raytheon chip and blue stripe diodes), SD-1 (JRC4558D chip and yellow stripe diodes) and a Tube Screamer TS-808.

First impression is how nasal and alike they are when compared with the Nobels ODR-1, which is really different.

Second, they combine very well with the ODR-1, specially the SD-1 and TS-808.

My ODR-1 is previous to the bass cut switch change, so the mid hump from those pedals balances the ODR-1 scooped and a bit "boomy" sound, and their smooth overdrive makes the ODR-1 even more... well, smooth.

I like to compare overdrive and distortion with beer foam, there are more granulated foam with big bubbles, and less granulated foam with small and finer bubbles in it. The later is the one I like and call it "smooth" in an overdrive pedal. (Hummmm, beer...)

So, if you have and like the SD-1 and/or a TS-808, but would like them with less mids and even more smoothness, buy an ODR-1 and pair it with one of those pedals.

[laurie]

Made a comparison with my favorites Boss (and Ibanez) overdrive pedals : OD-1 (Raytheon chip and blue stripe diodes), SD-1 (JRC4558D chip and yellow stripe diodes) and a Tube Screamer TS-808.

First impression is how nasal and alike they are when compared with the Nobels ODR-1, which is really different.

Second, they combine very well with the ODR-1, specially the SD-1 and TS-808.

My ODR-1 is previous to the bass cut switch change, so the mid hump from those pedals balances the ODR-1 scooped and a bit "boomy" sound, and their smooth overdrive makes the ODR-1 even more... well, smooth.

I like to compare overdrive and distortion with beer foam, there are more granulated foam with big bubbles, and less granulated foam with small and finer bubbles in it. The later is the one I like and call it "smooth" in an overdrive pedal. (Hummmm, beer...)

So, if you have and like the SD-1 and/or a TS-808, but would like them with less mids and even more smoothness, buy an ODR-1 and pair it with one of those pedals.

Interested to hear a comparison with the 32_OD if you had a chance?

[Old_Iron]

Interested to hear a comparison with the 32_OD if you had a chance?

I will Laurie, good idea, tomorrow I will post the results, it is almost 7:00 pm here now, a bit late for noise in an apartment building, tomorrow morning I will do it.

[fuzzbuzzfuzz]

Before these became well known I had one of the originals in the all-green enclosure, probably around 2005.  Slightly wobbly pots with a larger enclosure than a BOSS.  In particular I enjoyed it with the Tele as it's rather "warm", and fairly natural crunch with a subtle EQ. It's very much a warm blanket foundation overdrive which negates any Tele-like shrillness and could be layered over a solid state amp clean.

Alas, I sold it before any of its current found popularity! There is of course a mini-pedal version for footprint space, though I assume that has no bass tweak switch hidden away. 

Overall it was very natural sounding if lacking a bit of spiky poke. More BD-2/OD-3 than SD-1. It has a "soft attack"/bit of squish to each note that's pleasing to the ear unlike most other drive pedals I have played that feel quite hard and often unatural compare to a nice tube sound.

Incidentally, I see another Nobels hitting high prices recently, the PRE-1, at least here in Japan, possibly artist related. I believe Behringer copied that one too. Again a very solid pedal. I keep meaning to pick up the pink/purple tremolo too as I'm a trem addict and it had quite a few features.

Iirc they all have a secondary output jack or something of the sort...