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The Nobels ODR-1 Overdrive… Best Ever???

2K views 21 replies 20 participants last post by  Alex  
#1 ·
Well, if you listen to Nashville studio ace and superlative player Tom Bukovac, the answer would be YES!
Our very own @teleboli turned me on to the Nobels (or “No Balls” as Bukovac lovingly refers to it in fun), and I thank him for that! 🎉
The Nobels was invented in the early 90s by a German fellow. It’s been the darling of the country guitar community for a while now. They say it doesn’t sound as much like a pedal as you might think - more like a transparent “real amp” tone. I really love mine and it occupies a place of honour on my ever shrinking board.
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Probably the most effective and potent way of conveying the charms of this pedal would be to have Tom himself (also known as “Uncle Larry”) show you…


 
#4 ·
I think it's one of the more useful low gain od/boost pedals out there. I have the full box and the mini versions - loved them both, but have since switched to the Wampler mini-Belle and I doubt that pedal will ever leave my board.
 
#9 ·
ODR is one of my faves. 30th anniversary is really good and the bass cut knob makes it a lot more usable with fat sounding guitars. Karma ODR-10 is about as close as you can get to an original from what I’ve seen, I love mine. Running it at 18v drops a bit of bass. Here’s a good video comparing most of the newest versions to an original With an A/B switch. The karma is virtually indistinguishable.

 
#10 · (Edited)
For those who never read my previous posts about it...
Since thicker wound strings provide a hotter output than thinner unwound ones, without any additional intervention, they tend to result in greater clipping. The Tube Screamer and Boss SD-1 attempted to provide roughly equivalent clipping across the entire fingerboard by rolling off the bass. They each provide a 6db/octave reduction in bass content, starting around 720hz. The net effect is like turning down the "sensitivity to clipping" for those frequencies. The side effect is that they result in what is often referred to as a "mid-hump".

Nobels used a related, but different, strategy, very similar to what is used in the Proco Rat (albeit with less gain attempted). Rather than a bass rolloff, they use a lesser flat gain across the spectrum, with an additional boost for content above roughly 2.3khz. So the mids and highs are pushed closer to the clipping threshold by accentuating them, rather than by de-accentuating the low end. The advantage is that, in trying to get equivalent clipping across the fretboard, you're not forfeiting bass and "body". The disadvantage is that it takes more parts.

I modded a TS-808 I made in this triple-drive unit. The toggle on the right selects between 2 clipping diodes, 4 diodes, and no diodes. The toggle on the left selects between standard TS bass-cut (down) and ODR-type (boost the highs but don't lose the bass). There is a LOT more to the differences between an ODR-1 and a TS, but this conveys the difference between their respective approaches to achieving similar clipping across the fretboard. The best illustration starts around the 2:00 mark.

 
#13 · (Edited)
The Nobels difference from classic ODs is the Spectrum control. Although, they classify it as a passive variable filter, it is semi-filtered by an active device. The schematic shows a transistor as a partial load from the control termination of the pot.
The server is experiencing difficulty presently...will post image later.

Edit: the Spectrum section from the main schematic:

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#16 ·
I had the Nordland twice and thought it was great. Made by Kai Tachibana, the inventor of the original Nobels OD. I had one at the same time as the Vemuram ODS and found the Vemuram simpler to get a great sound from so have kept it. The Nordland is very versatile and has many great sounds in it, just harder to dial in. I found I was always tweaking it whereas the Vemuram just always sounds “right”. YMMV, as they say.
 
#19 · (Edited)
I like the ODR-1 a lot. I've got an old 2nd generation one. (The silver one pictured in the middle left of this photo)

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#21 ·
FWIW, I've been using this in my gig rig for a few years now & no plans to pull it:
IMHO, the best of 2 worlds: Nobels ODR and Ibanez TS9, even better stacked!