Reverend Drivetrain II

I've had this pedal about 5 years and finally decided to write a review. All controls work fine.

The best transparent OD I've found. Fairly compressed but not over the top. I use single coils - tele, strat, P-90s; Fralin, Anderson, Bare Knuckle, Lollar. Sounds great with all. My main amp is a 64 Vibrolux, but I have or had a DrZ Maz38, Carr Rambler, and most other blackface Fenders. I love the tone of my Vibrolux and wanted an OD that would not color it. This is it! I set the gain at 1 o'clock, the treble and bass at 2, and the volume at about 10. The tone is that of the amp dimed. I also use an MI Audio Blues Pro for more gain(another great pedal), an RGW Bad Bob Boost, and a Keeley Compressor and it works incredibly well with all.

Had it 5 years without a hitch.

None.

Been playing 45 years, mostly roots rock, country, and blues. I haven't owned every pedal but I've had a lot. Original TS9, modded TS10, original Rat, Crowther Hotcake, Fulltone FD2, Hermida Zendrive(way overated) and Mosferatu, Analogman SD-1, VS Route 66, Aramat Green Machine(nice), etal. The only other OD I still have is the MI Blues Pro. For what I'm looking for in an OD(transparency), my search is over.

This pedal realy excels at medium gain overdrive. The mid hump is tamed and it adds a smooth, rich warmth to the compression/distortion. Very responsive - running a Les Paul through this into an Evans Jazz amp. Sounds much tighter than my tube amps. When you dial back volume on the guitar, it cleans up nicely. Compared to the greeen TS-9, it is smoother - less grainy on the distortion.

Haven't ever wanted to ditch this pedal and it is my main distortion during gigs because its ver versatile. I have a Rat too, but it is limited to more abrasive types of rock which we don't play too often.

There has been plenty of coverage of the unit. It is very straight forward and quite easy to get a good sound out of. My only issue was that it had more gain, in terms of volume, not overdrive, than I needed. That is addressed below.

I own about twenty OD/distortion pedals. Included are a Fulldrive 2, AC Booster, Zendrive (a good pedal but I don't understand the frenzy), Keeley modded Blues Driver, Sparkle Drive, Maxon OD-820 and a number of others. This is one of the least pretentious and least expensive. It is also one of my favorites. It will do a mild overdrive and sound like a good tube amp just starting to compress and add some harmonics better than most anything I have tried. The only thing better in that regard in my experience is a Hughes & Kettner Tube Factor, which has a similar sonic signature but more harmonics and more depth to the sound. It is also three times the price. I like the sound when the overdrive, which is fairly mild, when it is pegged as well. I usually run it into an Xotic RC booster, a wonderful pedal, and it really opens it up and kicks it a bit. It is almost embarrassing how much I like this modest little guy. I am giving it an eight, not because I don't like the sound; I love it. But it has gotten to the point where anything that you actively like has to get a ten and that is just crazy.

Seems reasonably well built. I have had it two and a half years or so and no issues. I dont play out but there is nothing that is incapable of failure and I would always have a backup. I am giving it a nine because it is obviously not built to the level, casewise, of some of the more expensive pieces. However they seem to have put the costs where they count.

My only issue was one involving the amount of volume the thing puts out. I was using the volume knob in the botton 10% of its range, which limits control and is usually not optimal for sound. I called Reverend but the pedal had been discontinued by then and was not actually designed or manufactured by them. They referred me to a gentleman, I want to say his name was Bob, forgive me if I am wrong, who actually designed it. He was very helpful and directed me to a different value of resistor on the board to change the gain. Worked like a charm. He could not have been nicer to work with and seemed genuinely please that I like the pedal. He is the head of Visual Sounds. I asked if any of their pedals was the same design and he said they were different. Too bad.

I play jazz, which doesn't apply here, blues, rootsy sort of stuff, and classic rock. Not a metal pedal at all, but I sometimes run a the Tube Factor into it with the volume on the Drive Train at a moderate level and it does interesting things. The output volume of the pedal actually works as a compressor in that configuration. I think this was one of the great bargains and am sorry that it is no longer available. I play stereo into a Fender Supersonic tube amp and a Savage Rohr 15, so there is a 6L6 amp and an EL34. Other pedals include a Carl Martin compressor, Martin Chorus (great), and a T-Rex Tremster. For high gain, the Tube Factor, a Barber Small Fry, or an Xotic BB preamp. Guitars include a Grosh Strat, Hamer Monaco Elite, Hamer Newport Custom Pro, Heritage Les Paul, Gretsch 6120 Reverend Horton Heat model, Heritage 555, Anderson Hollow Cobra and some archtops.

A breeze to dial in!

Sounds like pure tone to me! Not too noisy & the gain is smooth. Kind of sounds like a Barber Direct Drive w/less gain. Sounds great w/Marshall, Fender, Peavey etc...Anything you throw at it this pedal will rise to the occasion. A great Hard Rock pedal. Much better than any most boutique pedals I've ever owned (there's been quite A few).
Very smooth Overdrive Tube tone! It's not a tube screamer clone at all, in fact far superior to the early TS9's & Maxon 808's. No lack of low-end here.
These Pedals are all gone - And they will be worth a fortune in a few years.

It went out on me once & the great dude I bought it from fixed it for free.

I've dealt with Reverend before & they're very helpful.

I'm a Hard Rock/Punk Rock guy. I don't like to play anything else & probably never will. 22 years of touring, recording & being a band dude. It's a lot more fun when your gear sounds great. Work a few extra hours a week & by great sounding gear. I've lost too much time & money on pedals over the years. Don't buy a modded piece of crap pedal. If a pedal sounded like a turd before the mod it's still going to stink after the mod no matter how hard you try to convince yourself otherwise.

Buy a real pedal from the Pedal Mod guys if you have too. Not a modded Boss, Ibanez or others. Long term it's not the solution.

If you can find one of these pedals BUY ONE & put it in storage if you don't need it. If Vintage Ross Compressors & DOD 250 preamps are worth a fortune now I can only imagine what this will be worth since it has little or no limitations.

If you can't find one of these try a Visual Sound (who designed the Drivetrain) Barber, Fulltone, Keeley & other pedals. The Big pedal companies have enough of your money. And it's about time the stopped selling poop pedals.

I don't mean to hog this space, but I have more thoughts, and a more concise review...

I think this pedal does a great thing with the gain knob below the halfway point, anywhere from 9:00, to 11:00 or so, depending on the song. when you crank up the gain, it just sounds weak. the proco rat I have sounds much better for moderate gain (but that pedal doesn't do high gain as well as some other pedals, IMO)...but, when you mix the two pedals it's even more amazing...very jimmy page live, of course each pedal also sounds good on its own, just different character, I like having the three choices (rat, drivertrain, or both). the rat has a more transparent sound, and more bite. the drivetrain (mine has the smooth cap update) is a mellow, somewhat subtle pedal. I might call it "vox in a box", it gives an amp run clean a cranked british amp sound...throatiness, chewiness, sort of a vowel-y sound. sort of what I think a pushed alnico speaker would sound like, when using not pushed ceramics like most of us do. (keep in mind I have next to no experience with alnico speakers or vox amps...just have heard recordings)

so I'd say this thing is a bit limited, but what's not? I own three different overdrive/distoriton pedals because they all do a different thing very well. so for the niche this one fills, I give it a 10

This pedal is quite easy to use and the bass and treble knobs really do impact the sound. The manual gives you some starting points and sample settings which is really all I could ask for.

I use this pedal with my Rivera amps as they match up beautifully with both of them. I have a new pubster and a Quiana. I have noticed in building my various rigs that pedals are very system dependent. In other words a pedal could sound amazing with one amp and so so with another. I would not recommend this pedal to someone using a bright amp, like my Soldano Lucky 13. You want to use a darker overdrive with a Soldano. But, that said, I have tried two $200 plus overdrives with my Riveras and the $100.00 Drivetrain was clearly superior to both of them, really.

It seems well built to me but I can't really give an honest assesment at this point as pedals normally don't break.

I actually have had a good experience with Joe Naylor. I got the original drivetrain but wanted the new one with the true bypass and they swapped it out for me.

I really like this pedal and it is certainly going to be a part of my sound for a while, unless I'm using my Soldano as I alluded to earlier. With the right amp, it has a beautiful sustaining sound that really just feels like your clean sound, just heated up. The reason I am posting a review after owning this pedal for four years is that I recently have built two other rigs and have tried two $200.00 plus overdrives, and the Drivetrain II is at least as good as both of them, and better with both of my Riveras. Too bad they don't make it anymore, but I bet the Visual Sound products are very similar as they owner of Visual Sound took part in the design of the
Drivetrain II.

update: I just wanted to say that the tone controls on this pedal are pretty useless, I'm using a version that was sent back and had the "smooth cap" installed. (yours has this if you look on the bottom and there are two dots on the arrow, or if you look inside the pedal and see a capacitor sticking out of the PCB). the treble and bass controls seem to affect the volume more than the actual treble and bass. and as I said in my previous review, the treble control has no effect on tone or volume in the first half of its range. it's like they are second and third volume controls with just a hint of a tone control thrown in. very subtle, nothing like the vox valvetone tone control which has a huge range. with my setup I don't find this to be a problem, the drivetrain II is my favorite pedal and I use it all the time with any of my 3 amps, at various gain settings. the gain control, unlike the tone controls, has a wonderful range, all the way from clean (no gain, just colors the tone) to vintagey crunch. when I need more gain I use my big muff or shredmaster.

another trick I have found with this pedal is if you set it for low gain, 9 o'clock is my usual setting, and you run a distortion or fuzz pedal BEFORE the drivetrain, you get this awesome creamy high gain sound. works really well with the shredmaster, which I find to be sort of fizzy on its own...a pretty good radiohead lead sound. running the drivetrain BEFORE the big muff (we have just switched order here) is a cool sound too, it sort of thickens up the fuzz sound, makes it a bit "juicier", a little bit of standard gain added to the sort of dry-ish sounding fuzz, another great sound, in pumpkins territory

I just love the sound of this thing

Extremely easy. Volume, bass, treble and drive knobs. Buffered bypass (not everything with a stomp switch is truebypass) so good at the beginning of your chain to drive cable runs. Way better "off" tone then Boss or others I've tried. Good instruction sheet with sample settings and care guide. 9vDc jack. Bright green LED. Don't like the placement of battery hatch (not the end of the world) and the feet on the bottom may fall off with use. Just super glue them and you're fine. gets an 8 because of the battery hatch and how it makes pedal board attachment interesting (not really bad at all but not a perfect 10).

Joe Naylor and his elves are fantastic about support. I live in Detroit so when I decided to check out Reverend gear I went to the factory. Joe and Jesse were both very helpful. They let me try a bunch of stuff, custom order a guitar with NOS Reverend colors, and wander around like an idiot for a few hours. There are only 3-5 people who work there and build their stuff. Now, about the cry baby below this post. Reverend is the epitome of the small American company that gives a damn. The reason you could not find a distributor in Taiwan is that Joe is very selective when it comes to who gets to sell his stuff (if you had bothered to ask him or check the Reverend website for a forum you would have known that). That's why Joe went direct from his website; he cares about his reputation. Second, how much time do less then 1/2 a dozen guys have to make pedals when their amps and guitars are being sold faster then they can make them? There is a reason these pedals were discontinued and it isn't for lack of tone or quality. It's a business, do the math. Third, the reason Reverend outsourced the production to Taiwan (a common practice in the music biz as Taiwanese guitars are known to be of good quality) was so the damn pedals wouldn't cost a million dollars and poor bastards like me could afford one. I don't think he could afford to hire an extra guy and buy the gear to produce his own and still break even. I'm glad you enjoy your pedal as much as I do but keep yer yapper shut if you don't do your homework.

SETUP-
Reverend Rocco or 1966 Fender Duo-Sonic 2

through

1965 Fender Princeton Reverb or a B-52 100 watt (tube) head through a celestion loaded 4X12 slant cab

pedals: plugged into a Loooper truebypass pedal that switches between an overdrive loop (drivetrain 2 or ts-9) and a distortion looop (tonebone hot british) or can bypass both. Next is a frantone peachfuzz to a ToneFactor Omega Fuzz. This pedal plays great with others. It pushes my peachfuzz beyond pumpkins territory.

my DR2 is set at: gain-11:30 treble-3:00 bass-3:00 volume-9:30

Really interactive bass control. It will boost the bass and lower mids well beyond what your dry signal provides if needed. treble control is not very dramatic but totaly adequate. No crazy feedback at my settings and I can get really loud. not fizzy on the attack or the decay like most boss stuff. A REAL overdrive. Can be a great clean boost too! just turn down the gain and crank the volume. it's weird but I tried this through a small good quality 100w solid state bass combo (15 inch speaker) and it floored me. crazy sounding poweramp crunch. no kidding. volume control goes WELL OVER unity (mine is below 10:10). it is like a tubescreamer without the mid hump as advertised. also, no loss of bass (bass to spare actually) like a ts-9. some like a good mid hump. I use both to get what I want. You can hear your guitar very clearly through the grit. I get a great rock tone from it, big full chords and all the picking nuance you'd want. It cleans up like a champ too (from your guitar). Almost a 10 but my all original (Jensen speaker and all) Fender Princeton Reverb cranked is a true ten. great pedal. How do I know? It gets damn close to my Princeton some of the time. I read a review that mentioned the James Gang. This pedal can do this with my 66 duo-sonic 2's bridge pup.

I've had it for over a year. Played several dozen gigs and countless practices without a problem. Pedal functions perfectly.

Like I said before, if you're in town go to the factory and say "hi". There is a good chance Joe will be there to answer the phone if you can't visit and have to call. Best support in the biz. A true innovator, making new ideas affordable for the commoners. Mine had a one year warranty but since they are out of production this may not apply to you.

I play post-rock, math rock, some shoegaze stuff, psychadela-pop and good old chord pop. been playing for 12 years now. I've considered buying another one to use in tandem. I would replace it in a heart beat. My favorite parts about it are the versatility in the E.Q. section, lack of the mid-hump (which leaves your guitar's tone mainly intact[i.e.-"transhmarent") and the ability to actually boost the bass and lower mids (bass control is highly interacive). Also, it cleans up great. I find I am leaving it on all the time more and more. I just use my guitar's volume knob to get a good clean tone with added sustain.

No difficulty in use. Easy to tweek to your own liking.
My pedal has the older big nobs.

I play a Japanese 52' reissue Fender Tele. Also have a MIM strat. for backup. Mostof the time I run it through marshall 2x12 solidstate (only b/c I live in southeast Asia...and unlike the west, venues here provide all the equipment.
Overall, I am pleased with the sound. I'm not a distortion man...I like "overdrive"..and this pedal does just that...gives a nice thick and warm sound.

I purchased my drivetrain about 8 months ago...has been very dependable so far. I use it without a backup.
*Complaint #1..the rubber nobs on the bottom came off within one to two months of purchase. Even though this does not affect sound....its poor quality.

They seemed nice when I ordered it over the telephone.

COMPLAINT #2: After shopping around and reading reviews I decided on the Reverend Drivetrain II. I live in Taiwan and was told they did not have them because they were an "American" company. So, I ordered directy from the company and had to pay around $40 for international shipping. When I happily received my product..I opened the box only to see the pedal was MADE IN TAIWAN...the very place I live. My point is REVEREND's slogan is "...the small American company that gives a damb," yet their products are NOT made in America.
DON'T CLAIM TO BE SOMETHING YOU ARE NOT!!!

Very easy to use with nice EQ and clean boost.

This pedal is a fine OD unit. From light crunch to creamy sustained leads. The EQ on it really impacts the tone. The treble control is the secret - it doesn't just add high frequencies, but to my ears ups the mids slightly and boosts the drive. As a result, you can get a mellow crunch then crank the treble leaving all other controls the same and you can get a sharper distorted sound that's louder with more mids - kind of Marshallesque (is that a word?). Maybe not as extreme as a Marshall can be, but definitely enough for me. Want more aggressive edge? Keep cranking the treble. The datasheet that came with the pedal gives nice example settings. I leave the bass almost off since I use a humbucker guitar. Even at that setting, its still plenty warm. For you single coil players, there is alot of Bass/warmth on reserve with this pedal! In summary, this is the only distortion pedal I use. But I really only play classic type rock - both mellow and hard and not really any metal extreme stuff. For that, you'd need to get that pedal endorsed by Dimebag Darrell or Zakk Wylde or something.

I've tried other OD's that were pretty good sounding (Boss SD-1 and Route 66), but this pedal edged them out.

Owned for a couple of years. So far, so good. I do take good care of my gear.

Reverend has great customer support. I've used it for other things.

Sound quality is superb. I play a wide range of music and this pedal covers all of the distortion bases. If lost/stolen, I'd get another if available - I think this is out of production.