Barber Electronics Direct Drive SS Custom Shop

Every thing was said before..I have owned a Direct drive for about 3 years. This DDSS version is now being discontinued for a new direct drive is taking its place...bummer...The pedal has internal pots that I really did'nt think I would like, but I love them..

I loved the 2 direct drives I had, but I just went back to a vintage tone chain, a Demeter TGA2 head with a vintage marshall 4-12 cab. so I wanted a vintage TS808 type tone, but with a bit more presence & with out the mid hump. I set the DDSS to the killer TS808 settings on the trim pots, but put the presence up a tad. I now have the best vintage tones I have had at my fingers in 30 years..The tones can go from very early ZZ top to a nice modern fluid drive that reaks with tone. I was getting alittle burnt out on the hyped mids and in your face tones of the direct drive, and I wanted the best TS808 I could find..THIS IS IT...I like the Landgraff alot too but I find the sustain & warmness better on the DDSS, the Landgraff seems to get a little sterle sounding like a Klon, but the barber DDSS stays very tubey. If I wanted the modern tones I would use my Barber direct drive, but for the sweet vintage cool I love the DDSS..I give it a 20 really...

never once had a problem with the direct drives..the batteries last along time with these also..I play all the time with no back up at all...built very well..

I never had such a great reaction to e-mails or my needs. These guys rule..I really want one of his amps..soon....

I play southern jazzy rock like Satriani meets the allman bros.
Been playing over 33 years and got quite a rep as a tone master.
I love this pedal as it is so easy to get great tones, and the pedal does everything they say it will.
I like the Landgraff also but its $400..I also like the Blue devil OD pedal by MJM..but when I play them side by side I get more tones out of the DDSS..I wish they would not discontinue it, but they are..

This is an update to my review from 2/16/05. I must first get a bit off track here in order to get to the pedal. About 2 weeks after I first wrote the review I took my amp (Peavey Classic 30)in to a local tech and had it modded as per the specs at blueguitar.org. This brought the amp to a whole new level. Really helped to clear it up beautifully which in turn made it a much more pedal friendly amp. It really bugged me before because I could hear the potential within the pedal but due to the nature of my amp in it's stock form I just could'nt make it happen. And believe me, I tried!

Now I am totally digging on this pedal. The problem before was that in its stock form my C30 had this overall "cloud" to the tone and was rather mid heavy. That combined with the Direct Drive SS which also tends to be a bit mid heavy did'nt work out too well. Because the amp is now much clearer and not as thick sounding I am now able to get a much better sound from the Direct Drive SS. I've tried my fair share of OD pedals and they all seemed to come across the same. If you dial in too little gain it sounds weak. Too much gain and it sounds buzzy. For me this pedal is finally giving me the sound I've been hearing but could'nt find. It has this great underlying "grind" to it. It provides a very workable crunch that seems to be underneath it all and yet the top end stays nice and crisp. You don't get that nasty fuzziness that seems to permiate the whole thing. I know it's hard to describe a tone but for me it works great for things that require a clasic Marshall tone. Think Led Zeppelin, AC/DC, Van Halen II.....you get the idea. It doesn't sound just like a Marshall per say, but it provides you with the type of grind needed to help you pull off those classic Marshall moments. Make sense? Fuzzy-buzzy won't get you there. "GRIND" does. I don't have get very extreame with the settings either. The Volume is at about 9:00, the Tone at about 12:00 and the Drive is at 9:30. I find it best to keep the Drive no higher than 12:00 because after that it starts get very clipped and compressed. The internal trim pots really help to dial it all in. I find I have to keep the bass pot all the way up while the other two are about halfway up. I think this is a great souding OD pedal. The best I've tried so far but again, it took modding my amp to get there!!

I'm finding out just how important it is to have all of the right elements for finding a tone that fits ones needs and how one wrong thing can throw it all off. It's taken a lot of experimenting on my part (tubes, speakers, pedals, amp mods) and I believe I'm finally starting to get there. Now that my amp is more to my liking I can now get this pedal sounding the way I wanted to when I first got it. I'm still doing a bit of subtle tweaking but all in all I would say again that this is the best OD pedal that I've tried to date.

Well, I admit that I'm having a hard time with this pedal. But in all fairness it could either be me or my equiptment. I do not for one minute think that this is a bad sounding pedal due to all of the favorable reviews here. I just have'nt found the sound yet. And while I admit I'm not a great player I know I'm not a total hack either. I also have a Tonebone Hot British pedal for the heavey distortion thing and I had no trouble at all dialing in a good tone.

Okay, assuming that it's not me maybe this is just the wrong pedal for my amp. I'm using a Peavey Classic 30 which tends to be a bit of a mid-heavy amp. So far my biggest complaint's with every OD pedal that I've tried is they all seem to be too thick in the mid's and there always seems to be a lack of bass. Even with the mids on my amp turned off I notice those honking mids as soon as I turn the pedal on. As far as the bass response the internal trim pot does help out in that respect. So far the closest I've come to getting a good sound is with pedals volume set around 9:00, the tone at about 12:00 and the drive set at about 9:00. I've tried adjusting the other internal pot's but just can't seem to find the right setting. The other thing I find that I have to do is to run an EQ pedal with the DD and taper some (not a lot) of the mids down in order to get it closer to my liking. I'll work with it for a few hours and think I'm getting closer, but when I come back the next day I wind up starting all over again. I'm not calling it quits just yet as I'm sure the sound is there. I just have'nt found it yet. I'm sure if I had an amp with a cleaner base to work from (like a Fender) it would probably be a whole differant ball game.

No doubt it's a very well built pedal. On that you can be sure. Excellant quality.

Have'nt had to deal with Barber but I've read nothing but good about them which is good to know.

As I said I'm not knocking this pedal at all. Again, maybe the Direct Drive SS just isnt the right pedal for my amp. Either that or I am more of an idiot than I care to admit. In someone elses hands this pedal thru my amp may sound like pure magic. However, I am soon planning on having my amp modded to the Blueguitar spec's so who knows, after that it may a whole differant story. After my amp is modded I'll try it again and let you know what I've come up with.

It was hard rating this 'ease of use' because the pedal is versatile and it depends on your own ear and ability to 'dial' in the tone parameters, both internally and externally. Very easy if you know what sound you are looking for and difficult if you don't. The pedal will respond differently to different guitars and amps etc..(duh!).

My SS pedal has a JRC4558D op amp chip sticking out of the circuit board, this is a good thing for tubescreamer fans and a VERY good thing (in this pedal's case) if you want tubescreamer type overdrive plus more frequency range and more smooth gain. I am playing a 54' strat (custom shop Fender) with Texas Special PUs into a Carr Mercury amp. I have set the internal trim pots to: Harmonics-cranked, Bass-right in the middle (12o'clock), prescence-down at 10 o'clock. I find that unity volume is around 9-10 o'clock on the volume level control allowing for tons of boost (mine set to 10 o'clock for a slight boost). I run the 'tone' knob at 12 o'clock and the gain from 12 o'clock to cranked (depending...) I notice a nice compression happening with the 'harmonics' internal pot cranked (doesn't lose note definition at all though!) very nice 'singing' tone, a slight mid-hump but no where near as much as a tubescreamer (it's there if you want to 'dial' in the mid-hump though..) It gets a little more of a 'growl' than a tubescreamer (even a modded one, I've owned and own tons of em') The SS cleans up real nice when you lower the volume knob on the guitar. Very very quiet even when she's cranked! (nice guitar, amp and well shielded gear helps out here!). This pedal is a major KEEPER and maybe a 'Desert Island' overdrive pedal (if I had to choose today, this pedal would be it!).

Looks good and no worries so far!

Website is cool...I dunno...

This is one smooth, versatile and awesome JRC4558 type overdrive. It beats out any of the tubescreamers (even most of the modded ones! I still like Analogman's 'silver' TS9 though not near enough gain as Barber's SS, maybe AM's silver TS9 in front of Barber's SS? hhhmmmm..) I really like that I can trim the internal pots to suit the amp I'm using (Marshall, Fender, Matchless, Carr etc...) each amp responds differently and being able to 'tailor' the pedal to my ears is genius and kudos to Mike Barber!

Very easy. 3 knobs, and some internal trimpots that are subtle, but very effective for matching bass level and overall brightness. PLug in, set all knobs to high noon, and you're already sounding great.

First of all, lemme just say that my main overdrive sound comes from a Bogner Shiva EL34. That's my basis for comparison when I'm trying out OD pedals.

So, the Barber SS...Simply Unbelievable. This is honestly the BEST, BEST, BEST high-gain overdrive pedal that I've ever played through. Don't get me wrong, it CAN do tubescreamer type sounds, but this pedal excels at incredibly realistic tube-like saturated crunch. Dare I say that this pedal sounds Bogner-esque? Detailed, focused midrange, strong solid bottom, smooth top, and just awesome note clarity.

Another awesome feature is that it plays equally well with HBs and Single Coils. Usually, if you plug a Les Paul into a tubescreamer, you hear this weird clean signal surrounded by a buzzy overdrive. Not with the SS. The SS sounds great with HBs and SCs.

ALSO...the SS has volume to SPARE. With the Boss DS1, Maxon SD9...if you plug in a les paul, your clean tone is WAY louder than your maximum distortion volume. Those pedals just can't get loud enough. The Barber SS is at unity-volume level at 12:00. So you have PLENTY of headroom for clean-volume boost.

I've had a bunch of distortion pedals. The Boss DS1, Maxon SD9 (a way overpriced DS1)...these things are glorified transistor boxes with buzzy fuzzy distortion and a completely useless, harsh tone control.

I've also played TS9s, Boss SD1s, fulldrives...all great pedals, but not capable of high gain at all.

My best description for this pedal is if you took the best botique tubescreamer-like OD you could find, but made it high-gain. Then you're in the SS territory.

I think it says alot that I'm comparing this pedal to a BOGNER...not some piece of garbage Marshall TSL or some line 6 junk...this pedal (plugged into any decent tube amp) can REALLY hang with some botique amps out there.

Built as good as you can get. Switches, jacks, and Pots are mounted to the steel enclosure, NOT the PC board. Major plus.

True Bypass = awesome.

I called Barber, and spoke to Mr. Barber himself. If you called Boss, would you ever get to speak to Mr. Boss? I think not. I have no doubt that Barber would help out in a flash if anything happened.

Overall, this pedal is THE BEST heavy-OD pedal I've ever played. The tone control is actually USABLE, unlike the Boss and Maxon tone controls.

I gig with a Bogner Shiva as my main setup. But for smaller gigs, I plug this Barber DD SS into a Fender Pro Junior (15 watt 1x10" combo) and get a deceptively-expensive sounding tone out of it.

I highly reccomend The Barber DD SS to anyone who wants a versatile, realistic soudning OD pedal that works well with ALL guitars.

I know this review might sound like I'm blowing smoke up Barber's butt, but trust me: I've played ALOT of pedals over my 10 years of playing, and I'm completely, finally done searching. This is it.

Real easy to get a pretty good sound going; a bit of work to tap the true potential of the thing and get THE sound you're looking for. I'm still tweaking my internal trim pots, but those aside it's your basic three knob OD pedal. Be warned if you turn the internal Harmonics all the way up: the volume becomes VERY touchy. I found my best results so far have come with the volume and the drive both at about 9:00, and the tone anywhere from about 11:00 to 2:00.

UTTERLY FANTASTIC. The most articulate distortion I've ever had, but it lacks nothing for bottom end. Very little noise. Simply the very best stompbox I've ever owned.

Have only gigged with it once and used it a few times in rehearsal, but it seems like it should be pretty solid. Metal chassis, neatly put together inside, the switch is pretty heavy duty, jacks are nice and tight... the main control pots could have a little firmer touch, they seem to move around a little too easily for my taste. Won't give an opinion on this but I'm not worried.

No experience here. Again though I'm not worried; small companies like this live and die by their brand name, and can't afford a bunch of disgruntled people whining about being out $100 or more on a defective unit.

I play a broad mix of classic and modern rock, reggae, blues; I play an American Strat and an MIJ Tele, running into a couple of pedals and a Yamaha DG Stomp, all running into the front end of a Fender Champ 12 1x10 tube combo slaved to a Carvin solid state 1x12 combo. This pedal is exactly what was missing from my rig; the switchable channels on the Fender combo have never quite balanced out, the OD channel at minimum gain and volume is about 20 times louder than the clean, and in my slave arrangement I bypass the preamp in the Carvin.

The Barber is many times better than those ODs, and tons better than the OD sounds on the DG. I have had various OD boxes over the years, from Boss/DOD models to Snarling Dogs, and they've all come close but not quite had IT. This pedal has IT and more, and I'm pretty confident that no matter what your version of IT is this pedal can dial it in.

If it was stolen or damaged or lost I would buy another one in about half a heartbeat. If I hit the lottery I would probably get one for every room of the house. I think it's a fantastic deal even though the price seems high compared to a Boss or whatever; this pedal is virtually on a par with a T-Rex or Fulltone at about half the price. Some of the best money I ever spent.

Easy.Standard overdrive pedal MO.

extreamly musical,two dimentional sound.This pedal is truly responsive to your playing.Covers a lot of musical spectrum.(not metal).If you want to play metal,get a Boss MENTAL ZONE and go blow your ear drums out!

It seems like it is well built.Very clean inside,nice cosmetics outside.

Ten all the way.Very pleasant to comminicate with.They take time to answer questions.

I have had,probably like many of you,numerous distortion,overdrive boxes over the years.This one stands out in its uniqueness in that it has a sort of two dimentionality to its sound.I have never had a pedal like this.I am absoultly loving it.Barber has defenitively come up on top with this one amongst the distortion,overdrive fray.I did tryout the Fulltone distortion pro,but did not keep it for too long.

Sorry, these comments are more of a response than a review, but review info is also included. This pedal is easy as heck to use. If you complain about removing 4 screws to access the board's 3 pots for harmonics, presence, and bass, then maybe you should play something less demanding ... like a harmonica or triangle. Simple to use ... end of story.

If you think a distortion pedal is the same as an overdrive, then you had better go back to guitar pedals 101 and start over. An overdrive slams the preamp tubes, and by definition, does not overly color your sound. A distortion pedal creates a distorted signal from your guitar and passes it onto the preamp of your amp. A Ratt does NOT SOUND ANYTHING like an overdrive. This pedal is hotter than most overdrives, with tons of control, and the ability to make every one of your guitars scream when you kick it in for leads. Warm full tone on the neck single coil, added spank and sustain for the Stevie position, and a bridge single coils will just rip. The suggested settings are excellent, and you just need to tweak a bit for your own tatse.

Built really well ... only time will tell though ....

NA

If you want a versatile overdrive for a clean channel that alows you to play smokin blues leads, this pedal is gold. I prefer it to the Tube Screamers and Fulldrives. It is a bit hotter than say a Hot Cake or Sparkle Drive, but the gain does not hide the bite or greasy notes ... if you understand what that means, then definately buy this pedal.

Well, in actuality....NOT that easy. I must have opened/closed this pedal at least 5 times, and ended up setting it to "stock", or pre-dip sw. settings in the long run....see below.

I guess I will have to be the "dissenter" here....oh well. Been playing for over 30 years, have had so many amps/pedals......well, suffice to say I am a tone freak, but am at the point (and have been for some time), where I pretty much sound the same, regardless of the gear. My main guitars: Tele's, my tone preference: crunch, meets Fender BF grind. Kinda like "Funk 49" type tones, only with some ZZ Top grind and mids added. Bassically, a simple rock n roll tone, where I can ride the volume knob all night, and hit my Keeley TS9 or other booster for solo's. Not too complicated of a recipe....as stated earlier, these days, 90% of my "tone" is in my hands. Anyway, ordered the DDSS as an alternate to my other drivers. First off, FOR ME......this pedal was WAY too gainy. With the harmonics pot set to half (where I started), and the gain set to 9:00, the pedal DID NOT clean up well when my Tele was backed down. (btw, I run a Texas Special in the bridge, which is not a high-output p/u). With the gain backed all the way down, as with many other pedals, the tone took a shit, and lost alot of it's authority, and sparkle. Hence, I backed the harmonics all the way down, and set the bass & presence at half. Again, still too gainy for my tastes ( I am NOT a blues guy either folks, this pedal emits alot of dirt, even set to be relatively clean
). I ended up coming to the conclusion that the most "open" and airy, or amp-like tones I could get out of this pedal (into my BF Fender's), was to run the dips all the way down (why have em then???), and still....and here's the REAL KICKER....when a/b'd next to my ol' RAT......it sounded almost identical!!!! Yes, folks, save the little added mid-bump provided by the DDSS, the RAT sounded as good, and was more controllable from the guitar. No bullshit. Which also led me to the conclusion, as others have stated, that this falls more into the "distortion" category, than a true OD type drive. Fine.....I could live with that....I use my rat for my Marshall-wannabe type tones, and this does them as well. BUT, hell.....I certainly didn't pay $130.00 for my Rat....and I didn't have to take it apart to control it either. Back went the DDSS. Trust me here folks.....you want 90% of what this pedal can do, and in some respects %100+, get a Rat, and better yet, get it modded by Keeley.....it still will be cheaper, sturdier, and will never need to be opened. Just my 2 cents. This is by NO MEANS a bad sounding pedal, not at all. But it really lacks some importanat nuances that an off-the-shelf, old vintage Rat has.....crazy.......I know.

Seemed well built, although the high-riding knobs were easily knocked out of whack. Not a big issue, but it always bugged me on the Fulldrive, and this was the same....knobs that move if ya breathe on em!

From what I have been told/read....A+.

Only a 5 here folks.......this is a fancy Rat......and it has such a hot signal, that when backed off......the fizz stays....the tone goes.

Very easy to get any number of great tones from. The internal trim controls are also extremely effective but kind of a hassle to deal with since you have to open up the pedal to get to them, but at least they're accessible - allowing for an even broader range of tones than the pedal already offers. Honestly, there's so many different tones in this thing it's crazy. The instructions are brief but informative and the suggested settings cover a lot of ground. This pedal requires a little more interaction than most overdrive pedals due to the internal trims, so experimentation will yield the most impressive results. Take your time, dial it in and your off to the races.

Superb overdrive tone! BELIEVE IT. All I can say is it's inspiring to play through and is extremely responsive to string attack. Even the higher gain settings hold together with clear, tight bass and great string definition. Very impressive tone for both rhythm and lead. This pedal has a permanent home on my pedal board in the high-gain spot. Here's where I place mine; Fulltone Clyde Deluxe > Barber LTD > Barber Direct Drive SS > Voodoo Lab Microvibe > Line 6 DL4 > Barber Launch Pad. Everything wired with George L and powered with Furman conditioned power strips. It's totally quiet in my rig and the bypass is very clean. Afer experimenting with the internal trims, I finally left mine adjusted to the suggested vintage Marshall setting and closed her up (probably for good!). As prior posts have mentioned, you can turn the tone control all the way off and get a really transparent overdriven tone, it's not like the tone controls your used to - this is a different animal altogether. Having said that, I prefer my tone control at about 11:00 and keep the drive right around 12:00. For my purposes, this setting just wails. Big, open 3-D sound with no mid-range humps, filtered-out frequencies or unwanted EQ tweaks. Very articulate overdrive with a turbo-charged, transparent tone. For the record, I use the following guitars and they all come alive with this pedal; MIJ 68' reissue Strat, American Standard Tele, MIJ 72' reissue Tele Thinline, Carvin DC-127, PRS Santana SE with SD 59's and a Reverend Slingshot Custom with those killer P-90's. Now, I mostly run everything into a Carr Mercury, but also use a Fender Hot Rod DeVille 4x10 and a nice little Mesa Subway Blues with a 2x12 cab. The Direct Drive SS kicks butt with all my equipment and it's hard not to smile when you kick it on. Kudos to Barber.

I haven't had any problems with the SS at all. The pedal is well-built with quality components. Not expecting any trouble.

I've called Barber a few times and discussed not only the Direct Drive, but his new LTD low-drive pedal and the magical Launch Pad he also manufactures. Always helpful, accessible and friendly, you can't go wrong with the smaller American manufacturer's like Barber, Reverend, etc.

Been playing for decades and enjoy a wide variety of musical styles with a wide variety of musicians. Normally, I'd be stepping on this type of pedal for mostly Rock and Jam style sets, but the overdrive is so transparent and workable it gets used for Blues and even Country flavored tunes as well. I've tried to get a "bad" sound out of it just for kicks but there's not a bad sound in there, even with extreme trim adjustments. Remarkable. Factor in the very reasonable price and fantastic customer service and it's a no-brainer. If your looking for a similar tone in a lower-gain package, be sure to check out Barber's LTD which is another gem.