Pearl OD05

Four controls, Overdrive and Output (straight forward), Frequency and Frequency gain (less straightforward). The Frequency selcets which bit of the frequency you want to alter, and gain allows you to raise or drop it. This sounds less versatile than standard treble, middle and bass, but it provides a wide variety of options, you just have to take time to find them.

I bought mine second hand and at times there can be a background hiss (seems to vary with which guitar and which other effects its played with). That said, the sound quality and varieties are really good. The sustain from the pedal is excellent, and it allows that edge of feedback sound with ease. I can even get a Schenker half cocked Wah effect. I use with a Valve amp (Cornford Harlequin) and a variety of effects (am trying to get a complete set of Pearl pedals) and at the moment a Jaydee SG.

No problems yet

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The tones and overdrives make this a good buy. The hiss I think is specific to mine rather than generic to the pedal as is varies a lot with what equipment I have in the chain. Of the Pearl pedals I have so far (Distortion, Flanger, Chorus and Compressor) this is the best.

Here's where I differ with most of the other reviews of this pedal. I did NOT like the parametric EQ on this pedal as a tone control. If it had Treble, Bass and the Sweepable EQ that would be great, but by itself the parametric didn't suffice for me. I use parametrics in live sound and recording, but I think there is a good reason they don't show up in a lot of guitar stuff. Especially as the lone tone control. To quirky, and that makes it not as easy to use.

This pedal does the Tube Screamer type overdrive pretty well, but not better than others to my ear. It's too gritty/grainey for my taste, but that's how I feel about all Tube Screamer pedals, so if you like the TS sound, you'll probably like this pedal a lot.

Still, the EQ limitations put this a couple of steps down to a standard Tube Screamer type pedal and way below an inexpensive but great sounding pedal like the Digitech Bad Monkey. For what these are going for I think the hype is more than the pedal deserves.

Built tough. I doubt you'd have a problem with Pearl pedals.

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I read some great reviews on this pedal claiming it was very smooth and creamy sounding, and since I have found very few overdrive/distortion pedals that sound good to me I thought I'd give it a try. I was disappointed. More grit and grain to the distortion than a TS9 or 808 and those are too grainy for my taste. On top of that the parametric EQ made it impossible to get a tone I liked out of it. You can notch or boost certain ranges of frequencies, like a parametric is suppose to do, but you can't do what a simple Treble and Bass control would allow you to easily achieve. I really wanted to like this pedal, but I didn't.

Eq gain, frequency,overdrive and volume make the OD05 easy to setup and sculpt your tone.
You would have to be stupid to get a bad sound from this stomper!.
Easy battery door removal makes a nice change from the "screwed on" type too.

The 05 is a sleeper and is worth looking out for, i've never had a Pearl pedal before and this one is a peach.
Has two, yes two JRC 4558 chips inside ala Tubescreamer, and can produce the sound of the TS808 without the loss of bottom end which is a known issue.
The eq is "pre" drive, and gives you a ton of sound options.
Single coil or humbuckers sound full and meaty through this pedal, Jap '62 reissue/ epiphone 335 dot into JMP 1 preamp.
It can get a little "mushy" when the overdrive is set too high and doesn't clean up enough at lower settings, otherwise its perfect and a future classic!.

Well this is 20 years old and still going strong, the pots needed a clean out and the battery wire connection is a bit weak but its a strong metal box and will out last me probably !.

There's none, other reviews will explain more but Pearl dont make fx pedals any more so you're on your own.

For a great general use overdrive this is a fantastic pedal, dont pay 500 bucks for a ts808, this can cover that tone and more ( just dont tell anyone ! )
For a heavy metal tone its a bit subtle, but perfect for that SRV "zangy" strat solo tone or warm Gibson comping, go find one in a boot sale for 50 its worth 200 bucks easily !.

para eq gain and range, drive, and volume. you know what to do!

I had to review this beast. I have had a ts10(with the jrc chips), sparkle drive (too modern sounding and lifeless IMO), and I have a boss od1 (first series, really dig it, sweet). The para eq is pre drive, which means you can do anything with this beast. It has more gain than a ts or an od1, and its a very smooth distortion sound, not fuzzy at all. It has the Jrc chips like said in earlier posts, but its the eq that does the job. Man, I have played this with my Gretsch (and it is SO sweet, bring out the tone of the guitar so much more), and I ran this into a pignose 7/100, and the pignose ROARED! and this is a pignose Im talking about. Beautiful. It fattens the signal and THEN distorts it, very smoothly. I see these things are starting to go above the $150 mark, but still you can find them cheaper if you look. I prefer this tons more than the ts, more drive, flexibility. Can suits all kinds of music because of the awesome Predrive EQ...drool.....

Its coming up on 20 and looks great!

Hmmm, I heard Pearl was trying to distance themselves from the pedal making biz, which they saw a failure. Where they wrong! All their peds were ace!

What an awesome piece of machine. This is the absolutely greatest pedal cause it can basically immitate all other od pedals (save the clipping). A bit of noise but thats to be expected.....I wont rate it numerically because some people want that tubescreamer, but that sound is here....all of pearls pedals were made with a little something extra to edge out the market, they just didnt catch on, and thats a shame, cause they were awesome.....

Very easy to dial in a variaty of sounds that anybody can use.

I am so happy that i got this pedal!!!.I have been playing for 20+ years and have a few tube amps,bunch of pedals and rack gear.My style of music is 80's rock/metal.Thru the years my ear has gotten very
sensitive to all the different tones and there are many out there.I
have discovered that each individual overdrive can sound good with one
amp but not good with another.This pedal is so versital because of the
onboard semi-parametriq eq that it sounds great with a bright amp
(jcm 800)and a dark amp(dual recto).You can dial-out the midrange hump
that most overdrives have(Boss sd-1,Ibanez ts-808/ts-9/ts-10)or bring
it back in.I have owned the famous ts-808,and eventhough it is a good
pedal,i always hated the fact that it rubbed me in the low end department.As far as noise it,is good.Not noiser than any of your
standard overdrives.I am an overdrive fan and i have owned and tried many of them,including overpriced boutiqe ones.I also use an Mxr 10 band eq after the pearl for further tone shaping and a compressor before it.It does not mind having pedals before or after.This has
become my favorite overdrive hands down or up.Richie Sambora used to
endorse Pearl pedals back in the early 80's.

Very road worthy.Looks very well built and solid.

Never had to deal with them and i do not expect so.

If it was lost or stolen i would not be concerned because i am installing a lowjack device in it and a kill switch.If the thief is
a starving musician i would hope that he would call me so i can tell him how to unlock it and keep it so he can enjoy it as much as i am.

IN, OUT, four knobs and a stomp switch. What could be easier?

The quality of sound on this little yellow relic is amazing. I've been playing for 20+ years and I've owned this pedal since 1985 and I have NEVER heard better crunch, grit, and tone. The Fulltone did NOT live up to my expectations, and nothing else ever came close. The onboard parametric EQ makes this the singlemost versatile OD around. As another reviewer said, it even beats the illustrious Ibanez Tube Screamer, which I have known all along since I went up against some guy who had one of those in a competition many years ago. Creamy dreamy and transparent, with more of everything you want and less of everything you don't.

This is made by a drum comapny. It is a micro tank. The laquer is a bit chipped though, after all these years. I also had to replace the 9v connector. Bad design there.

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If I had my choice to have one pedal between me and my amp (a hand made replica of a 59 bluesbreaker) I'd probably choose my AnalogMan compressor, but if I could have two pedals, the seconds would definately be the OD-05. This thing is magic. From cranky blues to ripping shred, it's all in there.

very easy to use.

I play a late 60's les paul custom, through a jcm 900 50 watt marshall
and i gotta tell ya , you kick that od 5 on man, and you just take off.
i have mates who have tube screamers and even they admit the pearl cranks . they reckon it can deliver a better range of sounds.

rock solid man

dont know never had to find out

the reason i got a pearl overdrive was strictly, it seemed a better pedal at the time . for me anyway. you see in the early 80's tube screamers didnt have the name they have now.so i purchased on trying all of the differant models. well Im not sure if any of you know this
but my pearl od 5 pedal has two JRC 4558D OP AMP CHIPS just like the early ts 808. mmm mmmm I guess they came standard in those days. maybe the pearl is the holy grail.

The OD-5 is a combination of paremetric EQ and overdrive. It is "two pedals in one".

Typical Japanese quality. Jap '62 reissue Strat through Fender Blues Deluxe.

Yes - rock solid.

I was in a "Mom and Pop" music store where I know the proprietor very well late on a Saturday aftrnoon. An agitated man came in, desparate to sell, claiming to have have been a Pearl/Yahama rep/agent. He claimed that Yamaha agreed to stop selling drums if Pearl would stop selling guitars and effects. He had several Pearl guitars and effects, all N.O.S., and was given a quick cash price. As far as I know customer support for Pearl pedals is zero.

I subsequently bought a 2nd hand version for #15. These are good overdrives, which also double as parametric EQ's.

Fairly easy to use, but since there are four knobs it may take some tweaking to get the sound you're after just right. It has EQ Gain, Frequency, Out Level, and Overdrive knobs. The real treat is in the Frequency, because you can shape the sound of the signal from anything to warm and somewhat muddy, to sharp and shrill. The middle frequency's are some kind of hollow sounding, like you're playing through a wahwah in fixed position.

It can be a bit noisy, but I figure that's the case with most overdrives. The sound is very , and with some tweaking you can get a very warm, round Santana-like sound. It's an overdrive, so don't expect a metal sound from it. A decent (not too) distorted rock sound is easy to get however. You can get a Boston-like rocksound easily, but it really shines in the lead-department.
Compared to an Ibanez Tubescreamer, the Pearl has a far better tone and is more flexible.

Heavy stuff, steel plate housing, sturdy knobs. This thing will not break easily. It's made somewhere in the '80's in Japan, when things were made to last.

I had an OD-05 for years and one day I decided to get rid of all my stompboxes and so I sold the Pearl, to buy a digital multi-effects. I sold it to Dr. Daktari, a nice guy and pedal collector (http://www.geocities.com/SunsetStrip/Vine/6655). Recently I switched back to stompboxes and regretted I sold the Pearl. But then I was able to buy another OD-05 for a real nice price of 50 guilders, which is about 23 dollars. I am very happy I have it back (well, another one that is) and I will not sell it again...