Barber Electronics Direct Drive w/ Mod Board

Well, all the extra adjustments via pots and trims are nice-- but its quite inconvenient to have the ALL on the inside. I compare with my Kanji 9, which has two 3 way toggles on the top- WAY better.

First of all, you can clean up this pedal switch on in various was. But once you kick in the overdrive-- you start to lose sparkle and something ESSENTIAL from your guitar.

Again, comparing with the Lovepedal Kanji and Kanji 9-- we REAAAALLY spent a lot of time comparing. The Barber is a GOOD sounding pedal.
Great? No. The Lovepedal is great. There is a reason the Barbers are less expensive- to a discriminating ear, the Lovepedals are BMWs or Lotus, and the Barber is a Toyota or Honda. So- I drive both a Lotus and a Honda- their both good cars. But the Honda will never be a Lotus.

They do a lot of different things. But the ESSENTIAL TONE? Lovepedal comes out on top. We TRIED really hard to love the Barber- especially at $40 less than the Lovepedal-- two of us tried, we TRIED. By comparison, it sounded cheaper-- and >>>I noticed this withing the first minute of playing.<<< I thought? Uh oh- where did the tone go?

I spent a good hour dialing it in as best I could- in the end-- couldn't be brought up to the sparkle and quality of the Lovepedal. My guess- cheaper components, maybe more circuitry to go through.

who knows

no comment

Very good pedal.
Stellar? No. Great? No.
Not a Lovepedal.


For $169 I expect GREAT.


I bought the Barber to give it a chance, to see if I was missing something in versatility over the Kanji 9, which has one basic sound
that you can get some nice variations with per the two 3 way toggles.


Maybe the Barber has a few
more tricks in it's bag with all the trim pots and such INSIDE-- but at the end of an hour -- it didn't matter. It's certainly not a turd-- maybe a good hot dog-- but "you can't polish a turd"-- if you know what I mean.

My analogman modded TS9 does far less than the Barber- but what it does, i.e. TONE-- it does better. Do more with less.

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This is a follow up to my 2007 rating and in answer to OBI G's delema(he is the last poster who had trouble finding the right sound and sold his 2 days later,
I wanted to see the new reviews as i am buying another Direct drive with mod to work in tandem with my old one.

I have to say its been 2 years now and this is still my number one go to pedal for recording and personal playing.The reason i looked this review up again is that i want to buy another one in 2009 to run together with my old DD w/mod that is still sounding great.

The trouble that OBIE G ran into is the same exact one that i did in 2007, when i first started using this pedal i was dissapointed to the point that i was going to sell it on Ebay.But i pulled it out after a week or two and really started to tweak it with the cover off and found the perfect sweet spot on all in line settings(pots) the internal bass came up from the stock position and so did the Mid and Fizz filter.Once that was done i had the perfect tone.
Where OBIE G ran into trouble was not using the treble knob as his equalizer to bring in the highs....on this modded DD you need this treble adjustment to smooth out the internal bass pot.I feel sorry for OBIE G as he gave up too early and missed out on the best pedal made!!.
I also have the MI Audio Blues pro and Crunch box as he mentioned nd they are good toobut the DD w/mod is just smoother and more versitile for use live, one could easily do a gig with it alone.

No problems at all... i use it every day for the last 2 years.It has survived Dog Stampedes, Beer water falls,my cloddhoppers stepping all over it,and ton's of cigarete smoke....and it keeps on ticking.

The Barber people are great and most will agree they are hands on owners.

This still gets a 10 from me years later....and i am buying another one as soon as i finish typing this.The only trick to these pedals is taking proper time to adjust and tweak the internal pots to create your own unique sound that fits your amp....allthough i must admit Fender amps are not as compatible as other with this pedal there is something to bright in their make up that gives a scratchy overdrive.But crank this through a Marshall or even a Peavy classic 60 and you have the tone of the gods.

Lots of bells and whistles on this one, 3 knobs outside, and several more knobs and switches on the inside. Manual was in box.

I'm mystified by this pedal. I've never heard anything but good out of anything Barber has made, but I really hated the way this thing sounded. I tried 3 different guitars through 2 different amps. No matter what settings I used, the external AND the mod board, it sounded like someone threw TWO blankets over the amp. No treble response at all. SUPER crazy compressed. Even through a Blackface with the bright switch on, it just sounded flat. Maybe a lot of people like this? I'll give it one thing, no fizz coming out of this bad boy.

Seems well built, people have had them for years.

Didn't deal with them, but I have heard Dave Barber is a great guy. I didn't bother him with the fact the pedal didn't suit me. Not his problem if it's not my taste.

I've been playing for over 20 years. First time ever a pedal has gone back after two days. I tried everything possible to make this pedal open up and sound like the god-like tone everyone says it's capable of. I A/B'd it with my MI Audio Blues Pro, which I have never heard anybody hype as much as the DD... and the Blues Pro kills it. Maybe it's just not my cup of tea.

A rating in this category could be misleading because it should get a "2". It's a somewhat complicated pedal with the mod. A tweaker's dream though. Anyone looking at this review should be looking for a more complicated pedal.

The foundation of this pedal is of course a Direct Drive. I like the basic sound of it but needed to fine tune it more and the mod does that in spades. I definitely had to take some time with the back off, plugged in with manuel in hand and small screwdriver for the mini trim pots to dial in all the different adjustments. This could take lifetime! Lol. I am not going into detail on each one of them but the most notable are the mid, and note shape. The mid was the 1st thing I needed to adjust from the stock DD. Just lowering it a tad. The note shape was a surprise. It really fattens up the sound like adding a 4x12 to your rig. The gain switch adds a little more gain as well as some girth and saturation. I use this pedal for high gain soloing and power rhythm. The pedal is versatile enough for all purposes, boost, low gain-high gain. I was having alot of difficulty finding an amp like high gain pedal for solo's etc. This pedal pulled it off. Unlike the countless high gain fizz boxes I tried. It can really sound like a Marshall stack on steroids. Classic chunk, vintage tone, with great sustain. Also great chord definition. Pinch harmonics no sweat.

Really solid build and no break downs what so ever.

Probably the best. If you need any advice on settings or trouble shooting, David Barber is always available by phone or on the web at the "Barber Shop Forum".

I like to play hard rock with this pedal. It's agressive classic tone. Although it can cover anything from BB king to Steven Vai, Mark Knofler to EVH. How many pedals can do that! Also gets into some petrucci territory(the older stuff). I would not only replace it if were stolen but, I already have 2 of them! My pedal board(s) are loaded with barber's. Using each one in it's specialty. Not to say that is all they can do is in their nitch. But, what the DD/Mod does for high gain stuff is amazing.

This pedal is very simple. It has three knobs which control the level, tone, and gain that is placed on your signal. I haven't found a bad sound yet, and it is quite flexible. It can approximate a tube-screamer if you want, or it can be adjusted to produce a much thicker tone with stronger gain. The mod board allows for a lot of extra tweaking, and a sheet was included with the pedal to explain all of its features. I have not gone in to tweak anything yet because I'm so happy with it's current sound, but it seems fairly easy to adjust.

Excellent. Generally much thicker than the tubescreamer clones I've played in the past. It is also more transparent, allowing my guitar's voice to come through clearly even with a high level of gain. I play with several Reverend guitars, and the DD really allows the unique character of the Reverend to shine through. The Direct Drive doesn't do a particularly clean boost, to my ears, but it can dial in low levels of gain that are very usable. In my opinion, it really shines when the gain is between 25-50% and starts to thicken up.

I've always favored a tubescreamer overdrive sound, but this pedal extends into other realms of OD which I have been happy to explore. I play a lot of blues and rootsy-rock type stuff, and the Direct Drive is a perfect fit. The only reason I'm not giving it a "10" is because I can't see giving any pedal a "10."

The construction quality is flawless. Barber has a reputation based on reliability, so I have no worries.

Never used it.

Very, very impressive pedal. I doubt I will ever need another OD.

Very easy to use three knobs all you will ever need on the out side, and the tweeking posibilities on the inside are endless using easy to dial trim pots.

I feel that this is the#1 best overdrive distortion pedal i have ever owned period.I have rated other pedals on this site and have always compared them to this Direct Drive pedal.This is a pedal you can use over and over and still find different types of sounds.For solos the brilliant clean cutting distortion just blows me away evertime.Also using the internal trim pots you can dial up just the right amount of presence and bottom end as well as mid control.I use it along side a keeley modded BD-2 using the bd2 as a boost.The direct drive is so touch sensitive as well, your volume pot on your guitar is your 4th knob on this pedal it cleans up beautifly.For blues or rock from SRV to Clapton this pedal can do it all.No noise can be heard from it at all and a 12 o'clock setting across the board will do nicely.
One other feature on the internal trim pots that i like is the anti Fizz filter that takes out unwanted treble fizz and the pre-bass trim pot helps with bottom end as well as having your choice of regular or advanced gain.These pots are easy to tweek and give endless posibilities as to type of structured overdrive you can achieve.

I got one of the first modded Direct Drives to come out and have had it over a year now with no trouble at all.

Have not had to use it but i have read they are very good, David Barber seems to have a good reputaion in that department.

My overall ratting on this pedal is a TEN i have never given out a Ten before but this pedal deserves it!.I have been a player for over 25 years and have a good ear for sound.I also own over 14 od/dist pedals boutique and standard.

If it was to be lost i would buy another in a heart beat, i am also puchasing the New Direct Drive Low Gain pedal and on a waiting list for it right now.

This pedal is easy to get a good sound out it without messing with all of the internal trim pots and switches. However, those pots and switches allow you to REALLY dial in the sound you're after in a distortion pedal. I have several Barber pedals, and they all have different flavors, and they all sound great. The manual shows example settings for a variety of distortion sounds, straight and to the point.

I'm using Robin, Hamer, G&L guitars with WCR, Lollar, and Suhr pickups. Amps are a Valvetech 30W el34 amp, and a rebuilt/customized Silvertone 1482 (yea, really), both through a Celestion g12h30 speaker.

As a distortion box, it's pretty durn quiet when engaged. Out of the box, it sounded very good. I was able to dial the kind of distortion I was looking (listening) for by tweaking the internal trim pots and switches. Probably took 45 minutes to an hour to really dial it in. Time very well spent. On the one hand, I should give it a 10, but David Barber will no doubt come up with something as good (maybe even better). The Small Fry might qualify, but it is a pedal of a different flavor, so I can't say it's "better" than the Direct Drive w/ mod board. This pedal can nail the medium/high gain distortion sounds I'd hoped it could do.

Very reliable pedal, just like all of David's stuff. Built to take the abuse life on the road can deal out.

About the best customer support of any company that I've dealt with. Awesome.

It's very tempting to give 10's all across the board, but I have done that before and later realized why I shouldn't have - so two 9's and three 10's. Anyway, I play a lot of different styles, but the more common stuff is rock, R&B, funk, latin rock. I don't use this pedal on the straight ahead jazz gigs, however. At least, not yet.

It it were lost, yes I'd definitely replace it. My favorites features are probably the internal controls, specifically the mid and harmonics.

A note about the types of amps that I run my Barber pedals through. I've tried them through a Framus Dragon head (100W, el34 tubes, 3 channel, fixed-adjustable bias, solid state rectifiers), a Fender Bandmaster (fixed-adjustable, 6l6 tubes, solid state rectifier), a Valvetech 30W custom (el34 tubes, cathode bias, 5u4 rectifier), and a Silvertone 1482 (6v6 tubes, cathode bias, 6x4 rectifier). In my experience, Barber OD/Distortion pedals sound extremely EXCELLENT with my amps that are cathode biased/tube rectified. However, my Framus Dragon is not very distortion pedal friendly. Any OD box sounds kinda blah through it. The Bandmaster is better, but not as OD pedal friendly as the Valvetech or 1482. Again, this last bit of amp comparisons are IMHO only. I have not tried Barber pedals through a fixed-adjustable biased, tube rectified amp. And there are fixed-adjustable, solid state rectified amps that are very pedal friendly.