SIB Varidrive

So easy, the instructions are printed on the back of the stomp box. Only 5 knobs-bass; treble; mid; gain; and volume. Pretty simple indeed. Very easy to get different sounds out of this box.

OH MY GOD!!! I could not believe the sound that this box produces. Absolutely noiseless, even at max gain settings, this stompbox produces tremendous bottom end. As one reviewer said, putting a fulltone fulldrive 2 before the varidrive gives the sound much more clarity. I use the varidrive either with a Vox AC-30 or a Budda twinmaster 12. In two words-absolutely killer.

I have had this for about 7 months with absolutely no problem. Looks like a brick and is very heavy. I don't gig without a backup-unfortunately, I don't have enough money to have 2 varidrives so I use a Bixonic as a backup.

I play power pop and alternative rock (covers band). This pedal isn't heavy metal but it has more than enough gain for the type of music I play (lots of Teenage Fanclub, Oasis, and Ocean Colour Scene). I love the thick globs of bottom end this box produces. I stick a fulldrive 2 before and I get better clarity. I have yet to hear an overdrive as powerful yet somewhat transparent as this. I like my backup-the Bixonic Pandora but it does not even come close. I was trying out a Line 6 distortion modeler but that stuff is a toy compared to the SIB (plus I'm not sold on Line 6 reliability-too many question marks especially that listed here in Harmony Central)/

its so easy it hurts. if you can't figure it out, you have a few issues.

i'm playing a Les Paul standard with a '57 HB in the neck position and a Godin SD through a fender hot rod deluxe (don't laugh, it sounds great). i also use a fulltone clyde wah with this pedal. this thing is flawless. it posesses the best bass i've ever heard from a distortion unit. the EQ sculpts your sound wonderfully and really makes a wonderfully musical tone at all settings. this pedal is HUGE sounding. its so big and warm and poweful. it makes chords and single note lines so d@mn big its unbelievable. it will crush other guitar players' puny distortion tones. its true bypass makes it truly transparent when not on, which is rare. its sounds excellent playing heavy, distorted music such as King's X and it can clean up and give a nice, light crunch. it does clean up well when you back off of the guitar volume and it can really boost a tube amp into that perfect overdrive. this is the pedal i've been searching for. i've gone through tons of pedals to find a good hot distortion, to no luck until now. i can't say anything bad about it. its simply the best sounding pedal i've ever heard.

its built like a tank. i would definitely use it without a backup.

haven't dealt with them..... so i don't know.

i like to play heavy rock and blues rock, such as the black crowes and king's x. this unit was quite pricey, but the tone made it so impossible to pass it by. if it was stolen, i would have to replace it. it has become a necessity to my tone since purchasing it. definitely an excellent investment!

First of all....I Play thru Bogner Ecstacy 101-B Amplifier Heads.I am using # Bogner Heads thru six 4x12 Bogner Cabinets loaded with Celestion Vintage 30 Speakers.It is a Definite Reality that Bogner Makes the Best Amplifiers in the World...!
I was in the studio last week in LA when before calling Rocket Cargo to arrange Transport of Our gear back to Connecticut when the engineer told me to try this pedal before I tore down my gear to put in the road cases.I NEVER use or NEED any overdrives with the Amps I own....but the sheer size of it,and the fact that it is loaded with a 12 AX7 tube,and a High plate Voltage design with AC Power Chord instead of a wall wart made me curious.i plugged it into the 1st Channel of my bogner(out of the 3 it has)and using the setting I never change(my clean tone is super defined with lotsa "Chime" and "sparkle") I put the Varidrive on :Gain-2 O'clock,Volume at about.-2 o'Clock,Mid-10 O'clock,Treble-1 O'clock,Bass-12,O'clock.....and proceeded to Play.
This is the Most Satisfying Low/Med/High Gain Harmonic,Toneful,and Thick sounding Overdrive/Distortion pedal I have ever played-Tried-or Ever Bought !It will make ANY Amp sound 10 times better if you need a Boost-Refined sounding Tone with the help of a pedal.I was so amazed at the sound thru the Bogner-Which DOESN'T NEEDIT AT ALL...that I unpacked my JMP 50 watt head w/no master vol. and tried it thru that-well I Never heard ANY Marshall sound like this(we are a Speed Metal Band......)I got home to Connecticut,and called around.

I called : TEDDY at WWW.GASPEDAL.COM 1-888-400-7436/ or 516-338-4316
and he said he has them in stock,and would send one to Our Studio in Connecticut.It arrived the next day and I have never un-plugged it from the Marshall.. If there is a bad sound in this Pedal....i cant find it. No rocket science or voodoo involved....this is the Only pedal you need from Clean Boost,to slight overdrive, to Hard Rock,,,,,to METAL ! If you are looking for all the straight forward answers to your pedal hunting-Call WWW.GASPEDAL.COM at 1-888-400-7436,and ask for Teddy to help you OUT. Tell em Vince sent you. He will Gladly answer and provide you with all the help/advice and service you need to find the right pedal for you.This Pedal is simple to use....like an amp only smaller. It's Built like a Brick shithouse too.Dont drop it on yer foot,or you'll be limping across the stage,and not dancing !The manual is really not needed(good thing,as it is really not anything to write home about.)This unit can accomodate lesser gain tubes as well....so the extreme end of the Units tones need'nt be worrysome to the lesser gain crowd.It'll digest 12au7s as well as 12at7,and on down the line.

Sound quality is the BEST I've ever heard(unless you have a Bogner like me....then you dont need ANYTHING.)
I use ALL Jackson USA Custom Shop Korina KING VEES,Randy Rhoads RR-1 Customs,The Original Randy Rhoads PCS series,and a couple of PRS McCarty's and some Charvel (early 80s) Super strats,all USA San Dimas.
All my Guitars are loaded with Seymour Duncan JBs and an assorted bunch of other Seymour Duncan High output pick-ups....they sound anemic thru the Marshall...BUT with the SIB,they sound God-like !These pedals all sound good. I've now heard several others,and they all sound alike.I ONLY USE IT WITH THE JMP Marshall head....the Bogners NEED NOTHING in the weay of this Pedal....although i first played it thru the BOGNERS and it BLEW ME AWAY !

I would think this pedal will be around after ANYTHING in the way a Guitarist can put it through. I mean with a little care and "watchfull eyeballing"...whats gonna happen ? It can be used as a weapon to Kill the thief who would dare try to steal it after hearing
how good it sounds.

I wouldn't have the slightest idea of how the customer support is.I haven't needed it,and I doubt I will....but If I need anything in the way of Retail support,or Great service and advice I would call TEDDY at WWW.GASPEDAL.COM 1-888-400-7436 and get another if needed in a pinch,or needed at all.That Dude is the Most knowledgeable individual in the FX arena (retail wise),and the Fairest person Price wise I have ever handed $ over to!He stands behind the products he sells,and will certainly help you out,AND remember your name Way after the sale is Complete.I Rate the Guy I Bought My Varidrive from as "Incredibly Kind and Helpful" and i paid Full price(which is very fair in my Honest opinion.).Go to gaspedal.com and be Happy !

GO GET ONE AND BE BLOWN AWAY AT HOW Great IT SOUNDS.

This is a very easy pedal to use. Volume, drive, low,mid,high, switch, in and out. Acts like a preamp. I like that. It dosen't color the sound much. The eq is actualy usefull and acts like an amp,each knob interacts with the others.

Oh man have I searched for a good overdrive pedal. I've tried most everything and I really wanted one with a tube in it so as to not introduce any more silicon into my signal chain . But didn't like the Vtwin at all. I've owned several boogies and none of them sounded as dark and bad as that pedal. Anyway the Varidrive had one 12AX7, but it's wired in class A so that the tube is always working (both sides) at peak. You get so much more harmonic richness with a class A circut. It's really hard to find a setting that sounds bad. Max the highs, soop the mids and lows, and it still is not unpleasant. It can do clean boost, that hard to find just barely breaking up, a good imitation of Marshall style crunch, and Over the top, not quite Tremoverb territory but close. With the right pickup and amp you can get a very nice scooped mids metal tone that sounds so much more alive and real than any solid state pedal.
Which brings us to a quirk of the Varidrive. Maybe it's just the amp, but this pedal sounds amazing through my 70 Super Reverb. All the tones listed above sound best on this amp! I have a 78 JMP and it really dosen't do much for the Marshall. Dito with my VHT 50ST, and my Boogie Studio .22. But it is heaven with the Super! This pedal just comes alive with Fender tube amps. I've run it through bandmasters, twins, etc and they all sound great with it. I think that a really really clean amp is needed to appreciate the tone in this box. It's not noisy unless you are running it through an amp that already has a gain stage and you are cranking the drive. But that's not this pedals forte anyway.

Seems very sturdy. It's quite big and built with heavy guage steel. I did have some trobule with the switch the first day or two, but it was just dirty (it's self cleaning) and it went away.

Never tried.

I've been playing for over 21 years. I have the last 5 years been on the tone hunt that so many of us are, and I think I've got most of the G.A.S taken care of. If I had to have one setup it would be this pedal and my Super Reverb. It's so versital and does the clean, bluesy, crunchy, highgain thing better than anything else out there. It is a bit expensive, but it blows the V twin,HK, etc.. pedals out of the water. If you are looking to use a clean channel and a pedal to produce your overdrive this is it, If however you are looking to augment your already distorted amp, or you have a solid state amp, I would make sure and test it with your setup before buying, but even then I think you will find it the best on the market.

It is as easy to use a a master volume amp. It has drive, volume, high, mid, and low knobs.

My usual setup is a Gibson SG or Strat -> Fulltone Clyde Wah -> Fulltone Fulldrive 2 -> SIB Varidrive -> Boss CE-3 chorus.

This pedal has a nice warm, harmonically rich, tubey sound. Compared to this pedal, my Fulldrive 2 and Burn Unit pedal sound flat. It is a fat sound. So far in my pedal search, this is the next best thing to having a channel switching amp. In fact, I like it better than the drive channel on my Crate Vintage Club 50.

It has more gain than my FullDrive 2 and Burn Unit. I think it could be used for stuff like Pearl Jam, etc. I think it has about as much gain as the Mesa Boogie V-Twin pedal that I owned.

I bought this pedal as a replacement for the V-Twin because the V-Twin sounded too muddy through my Twin Reverb. It was also much quieter.

I like that it has true bypass. I like how it reacts to guitar volume changes. I like the fact that you can use a pedal like a fulldrive 2 to boost it just like you would boost an already distorted amp.

Sometimes the tone seems too thick. That thickness results in
less clarity. My Burn Unit in particular has much more clarity
than the Varidrive. At high gain, I don't mind it that much, but at low gain, I expect much more clarity. I only got to gig with the pedal once and I was disappointed about how poorly it cut through the mix. I ended up using my FullDrive2 most of the time at that gig purely due to clarity.

I discovered that the Varidrive actually sounds better if you use together with another pedal like the FullDrive2 with the Varidrive. The Varidrive gives it the warm, rich, tubey sound while the FullDrive2 will give the tone more clarity and focus.

By the way, the tube you use seems to make somewhat of a difference. Right now I'm using it with a Sovtek 12AX7LPS. I think this particular Sovtek tube made the pedal sound smoother.

I have not encountered any problems whatsoever with this pedal.

Never dealt with the company. Therefore I will not provide an opinion.

I mostly play 70's classic rock with some 80's and 90's.
I have been playing guitar since 1984 but have only been playing out the last four years.

I've owned Boss DS-1, original Marshall Guv'nor, ART SGX-2000, Fulltone FullDrive2, Barber Electronics Burn Unit, Boss Metal Zone, Tech21 SansAmp GT2, Mesa Boogie V-Twin, Blackstone MOSFET overdrive. I've extensively tried RealTube, Ibanez TS-9 reissue, Stamps Drive-o-matic, Klon Centaur. I think this pedal and the Blackstone MOSFET overdrive sound the closest to the overdrive channel of an amp.

Really easy to use.. Sounds good no matter where you set the knobs.. Very Vari adjustable.. Volume, Drive, Bass, Mid and Treble knobs.. When you move a knob just a little bit you notice a big time change, unlike most boxes..

I play a 70s Fender strat-o-caster through a Soldano Soul-O-Verb 2x12 combo..

This box is not even close to being noisy, I really don't know how SIB does it??

Like I said before, "tweak" any of the knobs and get huge changes!! The "Box O Tone" This thing has un real tube overdrive / distortion.. From Metalica to a cleaner funky 70s ka-chink ka-chink tone, you know like Prince..
I personally play "In your face" Blues, and this thag is great for my style of playing.. I really don't need my TS-808 anymore, the VariDrive does it better..

Very Dependable!! This box is built like a "Brick Ouse", Dig??

Never had to deal with SIB yet.. If I did need it fixed or Repaired I would bring it to WILLIES AMERICAN GUITARS in St. Paul Minnesota.. They always take care of me!! WWW.Williesguitars.com

Tell 'em "Shy Willy" sent you!!!!!!!

You really can't compare thwe SIB Varidrive to any other over drive or distortion pedal or even rack overdrive / distortion units!! I've tried many others and nothing even comes close to the VariDrive! The Matchless Hot Box is a grat sounding box but didn't suit my Blusey style.. I found the Hot Box to be way to harsh sounding for me, plus they cost like one million dollars now after Matchless went belly up.. (that "Collectable" thing you know!) With the SIB, I find that you can hear each string ringing on it's own even when you have the drive cranked! When you use a Rocktron or Digitec overdrive or Distortion unit the strings are melted together and doesn't sound very articulate or smooth at all..

I just ordered a SIB Echodrive.... I can't wait to see what the SIB boys do with ECHO, cho, cho , ho, ooooo

Not a bad sound in the box! When I first got it, for grins I thought I'd start off with the treble all the way up and everything else all the way down. The idea was to hear it at it's worst and go for improvements from there. It sounded great! Like adding a whole new front end to your amp.

I have a Gretsch Sparkle Jet, a Hamer, a Strat plus, two Teles, a Hagstrom and a Jerry Jones Baritone. I use a Mesa Boogie MK IV, a JC 120 and a Rocket A-10. I also have about 20 pedals (SIB Buttface, Z Vex, Menatone Crowther and others) and the varidrive is in a class all it's own. The clean tones (with the weaker tube options) are really nice. It's like an amp upgrade. The mid gain tones are very natural sounding and the high gain never gets fizzy. For a "colorless" boost for clean tones I set the treble all the way on and put the bass a bit. it seems to be voiced kind of dark which is great for me. Anything from the Metalica chunk to Mark Knopfler solo tones. Really thick and perty!

Like everyone else says, built like a tank. I do feel like I need to be careful switching the tubes in it. The socket is mountied to a circuit board that gives a little when you pull or push on the tube. No big deal though.

Being able to ask the designer and builder of a piece of equipment is great. He responds pretty quickly to emails.

I've been playing for over 30 years and I'll play almost anything. This is a pedal any hick or hair band could use. VERY versitile. Really beefs up clean tones on the lowest setting and the high gain sounds are very complex and thick in all the right places. Does the "just starting to break up" tones better than any other pedal I've heard.

The varidrive controls are straight forward, and easy to use. Volume gain treble, bass, and mid controls. The volume control has a great deal of range. I only wished that it had two sets of everything and an extra switch to access a second set of settings. (That is probably a bit much to expect from a pedal).

I use the Varidrive with a custom shop 57' les paul custom, and a 58' les paul flame top, through a 68' plexi marshall half stack with the original 25 watt celestions. When I first bought the varidrive, I didn't enjoy the way that the pedal was voiced. It was built like a tank, but sounded a bit like it was voiced for someone who plays at low stage volume levels, (I don't), with exagerated low end that was voiced very very much under the frequency that a guitar produces, and highs that were a bit Metalica like for my taste. The mids were also voiced a bit low. I called Rick at SIB and he was Extremely helpfull. He offered to revoice the pedal to my liking, and did a perfect job of doing so. I asked for the pedal to produce just more of the natural frequencies that my Vintage Marshall produces, and in no time at all the pedal was back in my hands, and sounded like a million bucks!

This pedal is built like a tank.

Rick and Tomo at SIB were both very nice, and helpfull. These guys are the best.

I play blues/rock and after the voicing change the pedal is perfect for my style of playing. The stock varidrive would be great for those of you looking for the scooped mid metal sound. Compared to a full drive 2, and a tube driver, this thing is in a whole other world. Full sounding, big, not neccesarily transparent though. It does have a sound of its own, but if you dig that sound, look out, your in for a little tone fun.

This is a follow-up to a previous submission. Very easy to usa. It would be difficult to get ea bad sound from the Varidrive.

This is what I wanted to report on. I am using a Les Paul with 500T and 396R pickups. Into a Boss GT-5 Processor. I have a Mesa Boogie Formula Preamp first in the Boss effects chain with the Preamp section of the Boss turned off. I come out of the Boss into the Varidrive and into the front end of the Mesa Boogie then to a Peavey Classic 50-50 all tube power amp into a Carvin 2X12 Cab. The Varidrive is superb! I use it on the clean channel of the Formula for a crunchy OD and on the two distortion channels of the Formula, the Varidrive send chills up my spine from the incredable great sound.

1 12AX7 tube and class a wiring. Built like a Brick

I have used the Varidrive in clean channels of Marshals, Mesas, Carvins and others. The Varidrive overdrive is much better in my opinion.

Good sound comes easy. 5 nobs Volume, Drive, Treble, Mids, Base. I did not rececieve a manual wit my new purchase.

I play an Epi Less paul with Gibson 510T and 496R into a Boss GT-5 eff. with the Varidrive first in the effects chain. My amp is a peavey classic 50-50 into 2 carvin 2X12 Cabs (stereo) I am a gear head and hav other amps as well. But who cares? I like chunky overdrive and quality (hear every note) distortion.My favorite guitarists are Albert Lee, the Eagles guysand Steve West

I would use this unit without a backup

I Emailed Rick befory purchasing and he got right back to me and still sends me notices of reviews. I like customer followup.

I have been a pro for 30+ years. I am no playing contemporary Christian music. The S.I.B. fills all my needs for quality overdrive. It's sound is my favorite feature and the AC power supply and the Trucklike construction. I opened it up and it is really well built and thought out. I may add a power brake to my system if I can find one the goes to 4 ohms. The only thing I miss is being able to tell when the unit is active or off (The power LED is onn when it is plugged in