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Post by themazman on Nov 3, 2005 10:32:29 GMT -7
Has anyone compared the Air Brake with the Fulltone OCD pedal? Since the OCD is said to have very transparent overdrive with no coloration I'm curious as to what the differences are. The OCD is almost half the cost of the Air Brake. Thanks!
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Post by charlienc on Nov 3, 2005 12:25:29 GMT -7
i'm not trying to screw with you or anything but the two devices are so totally unrelated there is really no grounds for a comparison.
the OCD, whatever it claims to be is still an overdrive pedal, this is its main function at heart.
the Airbrake is an actual attenuator to go between your amp head and speaker cab. you can use it to either overdrive your amp into natural distortion and take down the overall volume, or use it tame the volume alone.
the OCD will imitate the overdriven power section but it cannot deliver on actually taking the volume down at all.
i could not live without my Airbrake. now that i have one, i wonder why i waited so long to get it. truly invaluable tool. O.D.'s come and go, I'm particularly pleased with my HBE right now, but there's always something new to try.
However, a good attenuator, and a Dr. Z one at that, can be used with any setup.
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Post by LittleBlindShakey on Nov 3, 2005 12:31:44 GMT -7
Now that is an interesting comparison though I suspected the answer would come back that it is an unfair comparison. I don’t own nor have I used an Airbrake. But I have used a variety of pedals that were intended to get me somewhere near what an airbrake would do. I thought the Zvek and OCD would get me closer, and to an extent they did. My Zendrive was shipped yesterday so perhaps by Saturday I will have some view into what that gives up.
I am thinking that there is some continuum in the pedals available today. Some get you closer to what the Airbrake achieves, and others don’t. None get you there, I depend upon the users on the forum who have “used them all” to give me insight. I wish there was an Airbrake pedal but I don’t think that is technically possible. I donno, perhaps the good Dr. could make a small pedal and use the pedal board to dissipate the heat... Whenever I think of the airbrake I struggle with going how to bounce back and forth between no Airbrake for clean, and on for grind. I know I can keep reaching back and moving the dial but... Back and forth, back and forth,...
I will be interested in reading the follow on posts.
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Post by Lefty on Nov 3, 2005 18:35:22 GMT -7
I think your missing the point of the Air Brake. It is meant to bascially lower the headroom of an amp. To be able to get it "cooking" without the volume associated with a "cooking" amp.
The idea of an overdrive pedal is to overdrive an amp, or push it into overdrive but then you have the volume issue. And also to ad some sort of simulated overdrive/distortion into the mix. Your best bet is to use two amps one set so it's not breaking up (set clean) and to take another amp and use the Air Brake to attenuate the power to a point where it breaks up sooner without the volume. Even if you had an Air Brake I would not recommend adjusting the attenuation every time you reach for a solo, that would wear an amp out quick.
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Post by charlienc on Nov 3, 2005 19:22:22 GMT -7
Whenever I think of the airbrake I struggle with going how to bounce back and forth between no Airbrake for clean, and on for grind. I know I can keep reaching back and moving the dial but... Back and forth, back and forth,... leave the Airbrake where it's at unless you want to bring your stage volume up. then you would back off on the guitar volume knob to clean up your sound and then crank it back up for solos and overdrive tones. that's what people did before they had mult-channel amps and overdrive boxes. i am a fan of overdrive boxes but there isn't one out there that can do what the Airbrake does.
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maction
Full Member
SRZ for me
Posts: 227
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Post by maction on Nov 4, 2005 14:33:18 GMT -7
Don't know if this is on-topic or not, but my Air Brake works great with pedals. I have three pedals that add a good amount of boost when engaged. I was afraid the Air Brake would squash the dynamics, but it didn't at all. Here's a link to my current board (I know it needs cleaning, and I know I need a power supply): i7.photobucket.com/albums/y252/Maction/PedalB.jpg
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Post by ccaldwell on Nov 5, 2005 22:39:34 GMT -7
I own both. I agree with charlienc. Totally different purposes, but both perform well at their specific purpose.
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