Product: Eden Analog Austin
Price Paid: UNKNOWN
Submitted
12/21/2007
at
10:53am
by
Drew
Email: fastredponycar<at>gmail dot com
Ease of Use
:
10
Like their Nashville and Detroit, this has the traditional 3 control knob layout. Drive, tone, level. That's all you need with this thing. You don't need instructions. Turn knobs till you hear what you want. It can't get any easier to use.
Sound Quality
:
10
This is where the men are separated from the boys. I've owned at least a dozen overdrive pedals. Several iterations of the tube screamer (keeley, maxon, stock), boss overdrive pedals and this stands neck and neck with the best boutique pedals out there.
It's true bypass, so if the battery takes a dump, the tone is unaffected.
From the layout, the Austin appears to be a variation of the tube screamer and uses the very popular TI RC4558P op amp. it's conveniently inserted in a socket mounted to the circuit board so if you want to try swapping different chips in there, it's very easy.
So how does it sound? Awesome. It doesn't color the tone in the way most tube screamers do. It's extremely neutral and doesn't mess with the natural voicing and tone of the amp. I've used it to drive the clean channel of my amp for a nice hot SRV type tone. It works great to tighten up and add more drive to the overdrive channel of an amp too and regardless of how much gain is being used with the amp, adding more with the austin doesn't muddy up the tone the way a lot of OD pedals will and also unlike a lot of overdrives, it won't turn your amp into a screaming feedback banshee either. My keeley DS1 ultra and baked mod tube screamer would squeal and feedback like crazy if I didn't turn it off when I stopped playing. This thing stays quiet, just like it's supposed to.
The tone knob does a great job of controlling the character of the gain. Rolling it all the way back gives a nice smooth fat push to the amp and all the way up gives a very strong, tight and aggressive push.
Reliability
:
10
Hand built in the USA with the highest quality parts. The price of these reflect the quality of the assembly, parts and most of all the TONE. I've got one of their Nashville overdrives also as well as their compressor and they all reek of quality.
You never know if something can break. I've seen multi-thousand dollar amps go up in smoke and cheap solid state amps that have been gigged with for years never have a problem so it's always a crap shoot if something will break or not but for the most part, if you take care of something that is made from top quality parts and assembled well, chances are, it will last a lifetime. These are simple little pedals that most anyone with soldering and basic electronic skills could repair should anything break but with eden offering a lifetime warranty, that's not a problem. Try getting boss to do that...
Customer Support
:
10
I've met Chris who owns Eden and he's a musician just like us and genuinely cares for their products and customers. There are no bean counters at Eden that would buy lower quality resistors or capacitors or pots or switches just to make an extra buck. They've spared no expense with these and during a set break at one of our band's shows, he asked how I liked his pedals and how I used them, and talked gear for a while.
Overall Rating
:
10
I play everything from blues to metal. I've been at this for almost 16 years. I've owned a carvin V3, carvin valvemaster, trayor, THD and now a mesa studio preamp. I've owned about a dozen overdrive pedals ranging from cheap to top of the line and this one definately deserves a spot at the top.
It's transparent, quiet, doesn't mess with the tone, doesn't alter the character of the amp, it's built like a tank, it's easy to use and smokes my old keeley tube screamer and DS1. It truly offers a new place to take my music becuase I can get that in between tone and drive on my clean channel that is really not accessible any other way as well as take my overdrive channel beyond what the amp alone is capable of.
The pedal costs more than a lot of other overdrive pedals out there but you really get what you pay for with the edens. Their compressor is one of the best I've ever heard as well so I know the quality extends beyond their overdrive pedals. You really do get what you pay for with these guys.
Eden is a mom and small pop company that genuinely cares for the products and customers and with them all being hand built, such a low production means that every sale has to be good. Every customer has to be pleased. Whether or not they all are, I can't be sure... but Eden can be sure that THIS customer IS.
