Option 5 Destination Overdrive

low score here because it has alot of knobs it seems. not saying its difficult to use but ive tried more easy distortion pedals so...

depending on what you use it seems to work great in this department, seems to work well with other pedals and the distortion itself is not to overbearing but has a not too fuzzy but not too metal either kinda sound. the knobs all have a nice ratio setting to them, this pedal can get loud if needs be.

tough metal ehx type pedal, seems to be all one piece, not boss type but indie type make

nice looking pedal, just right size. sounds terrific. not too much to hate about it other than it seems made more for rock than metal. ive been playing 14 years, jeez! anyway tried alot of pedals mostly in the last 4 years and im not saying my search is over with this pedal but its been on my board for awhile now so im pretty happy with it

It's very easy to get a great sound from this pedal. It really doesn't have a bad sound in it.

I agree with one of the reviewers below that this box is more of a Distortion than an Overdrive pedal, although it can do a light distortion/overdrive at low gain settings. The Dest. Overdrive has a beautiful sound with tons of harmonics. It does sound more amplike than just about anything I've tried. It can go from a light breakup to all-out distortion with endless sustain. It's one of the best pedals I've tried to go from rhythm to lead without having to use another pedal to boost it. It does however respond to other drive and fuzz pedals very well. It doesn'r clean up much by rolling the guitar's volume back, but i don't do that anyway; if I want clean, I switch the pedal off. I prefer this pedal for lead work, but use it for rhythm also. It's no noisier than anything else I've tried, and less than most. It also works great with wah and mod pedals.

This box has outlasted many other overdrive/distortion pedals on my board including the Fulldrive, Blackstone 2SV2, HBE PS, NVN Bronto and many many others. At $150, this is a real bargain and one of the most overlooked pedals out ther.

I've gigged heavily with mine for a couple years with no issues.

I called the owner about a year ago regarding use with my VL Pedal Power and he was very helpful, a great guy.

I play hard rock (Zep, Stones, Replacements), and this pedal is a great match. I've been playing over 20 years and have tried dozens of pedals. I would compare it very favorably to anything on the market. I would replace it if it vwere lost. It really makes me want to play longer when I'm practicing. When I use it, I set it and forget it, unlike some overdrive pedals I've owned that I'm constantly tweaking and never loving the sound; The DO always sounds great and actually inspires me to play more. The controls all work very well including the growl control which makes it sound tight(CCW) or loose and bassy(CW).

This pedal is not for beginers. It is really suited to players who know what they want to hear are are willing to spend the time to dail it in. Ultimately this is it's greatest strength but can also be it's greatest weakness in the wrong hands.

The EQ controls interact in a somewhat unique way. Turning one control down turns the others up. (e.g. less mid=more bass. more bass=less mid. less treble=more mid etc...) You can really hear this. it is as if all 4 EQ knobs are being adjusted at once everytime you adjust one of them. Resist the urge to turn them all to 10; that is not the best sound this unit is capable of. Just turning the knobs hoping to find good sounds will not yeild predictable results like a boss/ibanez pedal would. First spend time listening to the pedal and how each knob effects the sound and interacts with the others.

The pedal is like an instrument in itself and like any instrument it only starts to sound good after you learn to play it. Just like guitar some will take to it quickly and others will never get it.

This is a very impressive box and i can only assume that some of these reviewers here don't have the experience or the ear to milk the best tones out of this box. My initial impressions were not that positive but after about 45 minutes of tweaking it really started to open up for me and now i'm in love with it.

This is not a one trick pony. This is one box that can really do it all from tube screamer mid hump lead sounds to thick crunchy scooped chords. From mild breakuo to searing sustain and saturation, all while keeping good string seperation and clarity.

I find that most gain pedals either sound bad with the gain too low or too high this one sounds good at every gain setting provided the eq is set correctly for what you are trying to achieve.

I don't think anyone could say this isn't well built.

I am a certified pedal junky. I have around 150 pedals and have owned 500 or so in my time. I would not say that it is a genre specific pedal. It will work for anything that needs dirt, but I would recommend this for pro musicians with a good ear for tone only.

It comes with a single sheet of suggested settings. Like most such
sheets with overdrive or distortion boxes, they aren't useful.
No two people are going to play alike or use the same guitar
with the same electronics. And no one has the same definition in
their mind for things like "70's Pop Rock." Now that covers a lot of
ground, doesn't it?

But who cares if they get indstructions, anyway? Pantywaists, that's who.

It provides an idealized overdrive sound and acts in an amp-like manner. I always use it with a compressor which enhances its fine
detail, harmonics and overtones at low-to-medium drive settings.

It's almost impossible to make the bass sound farty or thumping
on this unit. It's a characteristic I miss but a facet some would
be impressed with as the unit always provides a very tight, punchy
tone.

It works well with chorus and delay, sitting well in the mix of
home recordings. And it is an overdrive that makes playing the
guitar always a fluid and pleasant experience.

I have had it for almost a year and it currently is the most commonly used dirt box in my arsenal, a list which includes a good
generic fuzztone, a really old Rat, a Jekyll & Hyde and a Blackstone Overdrive.

Careful with the mids and growl controls; it's easy to make it sound like an old nasal Rockman. However, even that sound has its application if you're into Def Leppard or computer drums-era ZZ Top.

Utterly.

Sir, please explain to me precisely what the growl control does
and how the tone controls interact, if they do. It's a mystery,
so I just spin the knobs and remember what I liked best.

This is a substantial overdrive with a design that makes it difficult to sound -bad- straight out of the box. It has a good amp characteristic and is fun to play through because it does not
irrationally suborn the personalities of different guitars.

I would like it even more if I could make it sound Blue Cheer-ish.
But that would make it a generic fuzztone, no?

Pretty easy to use...however, not quite sure what the 'growl' control was supposed to accomplish. Manual provided was nice as it gave a template for different sounds to start with.

I used this pedal with a THD Bivalve. I ran it with both a set of KT-88's and EL34's. The low gain was pretty much unusable. Some overdrive pedals work well as a blues pedal...this isn't one of them.
The high gain was what this pedal is suited for. However, the sound was very processed and thin. The pedal was touted as sounding like a real tube amp...which IMO is a bit of a stretch.

Didn't own it long enough to judge.

Never dealt with the company.

Not real impressed with this pedal. For the price you'd be better off going with one of the Boss products for half the price. I expect more from a 'Boutique' pedal.

I play rock to metal...and needed a pedal to give me channel switching capability with a one channel amp. This one didn't make the grade and got sent back to MusicToyz.com the next day after I tried it out twice.

You would have a hard time trying to make this pedal sound bad.

I use a G&L Legacy loaded with a Joe Barden humbucker in the bridge and the stock alnico neck & middle singles.My pedal board consists of a TU-2---Vox wah---Option5 ---Ts-9---echo machine---Phase 90.I plug into a Marshall dsl 50 or a custom built Tritschler amp depending on my gig. I use the clean channel only.
I play various styles of music from Vince Gill to Ozzy and this pedal covers the ground. The only problem I've had with this unit is when I have the pedal set at it's sweetest sound it also boosts my volume quite a bit so I usually have to back the volume or gain back below nominal level. Oh well... the pedal still smokes.

I've been using this pedal for over a year now and I've only had one problem. At a gig the pedals volume cut in half intermittently. That night I took the pedal apart checked the solder joints found that my output jack was loose causing a ground short. Took about 15 min. to find a socket set and about 30 seconds to fix it. (the inside is built very well I might add) serial # 015

I don't see this pedal crapping out on me in the near future.

The option 5 has moved it's way onto my pedalboard for good, and has become a large part of my sound. Hats off to a job well done.

This pedal was one of those purchases I didn't intend to make, but was glad I did. I stopped by their booth at the Indiana Guitar Show last fall (2002) because I couldn't believe the sound I was hearing. Real tube sounding overdrive! Not some noisy, grainy crap like most overdrive pedals. In fact, this unit isn't really a pedal...it's a preamp in a stomp box. Getting a good sound is easy. Option 5 includes a great starter chart for different types of music. There are 6 controls...Growl, Bass, Mid, Treble, Drive and Level. Totally easy to use. It's designed to be used with your amps clean channel. In fact, at the show, they were demonstrating it through a blackface Fender Bassman. It doesn't get much cleaner than that. But when engaged, LOOK OUT!

I've used it with a Peavey Classic 50 410 and a Peavey Duel. No matter what amp you use, it is sonically consistent. Very quiet operation even when cranked. Not only is the overdrive super-tubey, it sustains like crazy! As good as using most compressors. If you like to bury the whammy bar, you'll immediately notice how the sound doesn't flubber or die out.

No problems at all. I'd use it on a gig without a backup. Super sturdy construction inside and out.

The guys at the show were super friendly, making sure I knew exactly what this pedal was capable of. The owner of the company, Jay Woods, was kind enough to email me personally and thank me for my praising email, and an invitation to call anytime if there was ever a problem.

I play mostly classic rock, some blues, and the occasional chunky stuff ala Alice In Chains. This pedal is versatile enough to handle anything. It even sounds good direct! Try doing that with one of those "thrash" pedals. I've been playing for 25 years, using mostly my '70 Les Paul, Ibanez 550 and an SG. This thing even sound good with my Strat. Usually any type of od with my strat makes lots of hissing and screaming, but not this one. You will not find a quieter pedal. The purchase price also included the AC adaptor...nice not to have to buy one seperate. You can literally make ANY amp with a clean channel sound like a monster tube stack. No kidding. I even hooked it up to a buddys junky old Crate solid state combo amp and it blew us away. I have recommended this pedal to every guitar player I know and will continue to do so. I've not used any of their other products, but if they're built anything like this one, how could I go wrong. Check out their website... www.option5-online.com

It is very simple, your basic Eq bass, mid, treble. A Output Level control a gain control and a growl control which really doesn't do a whole lot.

This is where this pedal shines, it is sounds absolutely gorgeous. I can get such a wide range of sounds from slight overdrive to full out tube drenched saturation. It sounds like a tube amps distortion not a distortion pedal, it turned my fender bassman into a monster. I can get wonder feedback to, not out of control squealing crap from cheap hi gain pedals but I can hear my notes turn into lovely harmonic feedback of the note. the destination is not at all noisy even with the drive cranked. It a has an active bypass that buffers the signal so there is not loss of sound quality. I just cannot get over how much I like this pedal I prefer using this over my friends jcm 900. I only give it a 9 because the growl control doesn't really do much to affect the sound but that doesn't bother me because the sound it fine as it is.

The casing is made of strong metal so I would trust this thing without a backup, I opened it up and the work inside is impeccible. These are all handmade by jay woods, I only live about an hour away from him and so if I have any problems they said I can bring up to him and he'll fix it right up, not that I would have any problems. He spends about 5 or 6 hours making each one of these so there is a lot of heart and soul in these pedals

I haven't dealt with them, but from what I hear they take care of everything for the lifetime of the pedal so nothing to worry about there, this guy knows what he is doing and makes a truly proffesional product

If This pedal were stolen I would probably cry then go buy a new one until a could find the person who stole it beat him down with much fury, get my pedal back and then happily own two destination overdrives

I got this pedal about three months ago, when it forst came out. It has: Growl, Bass, Mids, Highs, Drive, and Level controls. Nothing too complicated but the controls are very interactive and very sensitive to your amps settings, especially the bass response. The Growl control makes the sound looser or tighter and also takes a bit to get the hang of it. Comes with a sample setting sheet which is very useful to get starting points for different sounds.
Runs on 24VDC, no batteries, so you have to use it with the supplied wallwart or run it at the non optimum power of 18VDC that some power supplies provide.

I've been playing guitar for 12 years. The guitars I currently own are: Fender Strat Plus with Bill Lawrence pickups, Heritage 150cm and Brian Moore i9. I play through a Fender Blues Jr amp, in which I put a Weber Blue Dog speaker. I usually play bluesy stuff and classic rock for which I have a Fulltone Fulldrive 2 (pre FM), a P.E. Facelift, Fulltone 70, and a Fulltone Soulbender as my gain-type pedals. I got the O5 to get the type of higher gain Marshally sounds which I couldn't get from the Jacques Fuseblower 2 and Rat 2 which I still own.

The sound and operation of the O5 is very amp-like, the saturation is very gradual and is extremely responsive to picking dynamics, more so than the FB2 and the Rat. This may be due to it running at higher voltage than most pedals ... my Fulldrive seems more amplike too since I began to run it at 18VDC.

The overall tone is transparent, and it doesn't automatically have the midrange boost that for instance my Fulldrive has, although you can dial in enough mids if you want to. If I had to compare the basic tone of the O5 it would be something like the Fulldrive 2 in non-comp mode, with MUCH more gain available, and with a 3 band EQ.

Tones available can go from very clean bluesy to classic Marshall (woman/woody/brown all of them) to higher gain and scooped metal sounds. Of course I'm talking ballpark, not absolutely nailing the tones. As I said before, the sample settings are a good reference point. The Growl control can help dial all the way from looser 70's crunch to tighter more modern metal sounds, and can help fine tune your blues tone if you choose low gain settings. It interacts well with other pedals including Wah.

Drivewise there is a lot of usable range, it can get distorted but not so over the top to the point of mush. The Rat2 has about the same gain on tap but it gets fuzzy ... the O5 doesn't and is less noisy. It is not totally quiet especially at higher drive settings, just like any high gain device. It's plenty loud too.

Think of it as another channel of your amp. I have even run it at low drive (using it to simulate my cranked amp) and hitting my fuzzes before it to get a Hendrix type tone at home practice volumes and got good results.

Very solidly built. About the size of a Voodoo Labs pedal, but twice as tall. I've had it only for a couple of months but no probs so far and don't really forsee anything going wrong. Out of curiousity I opened it up and the main board is attached to the bottom of the unit with cables running to the pots on the main body. Even if something simple went wrong, like breaking a switch (which I have replaced a few times on other pedals), I would have to take it to a tech to prevent ruining the pedal ... no big deal if you ask me.

Top notch. They have responded to my e-mails in no time and in a very helpful and friendly manner, and solved a minor problem (replaced a bad wallwart that came with the new unit) almost immediately.

How it would compare to a Tonebone or other of the best high gain pedals out there beats me, but it is a very good sounding pedal. It is certainly miles ahead of the Rat and it has a more convincing amp-like distortion than the FB2. I will still use my Fulldrive for lower gain applications, although the O5 can get very convincing low gain tones. I bought the O5 for higher gain so that's how I'm using it. I have it set for a medium/high gain Marshally sound. When I need something over the top I just push the O5's front end with the Fulldrive.

I got this pedal because the soundclips at their website impressed me more than others I had heard before, and I'm glad I did. If it were stolen or lost I would probably get another, although I would love to try a Menatone KOB or one of the Tonebones. Those pedals would have to really blow my socks off for me to pay the extra USD 80 and get them instead of the O5. I do wish it were a two channel pedal, and I would probably pay the extra whatever $$$ for it.