Tech 21 Double Drive

After a few minutes of getting my head around the controls I had found a whole scope of tones I thought were usable.

The manual is brief and gives a good idea of the A/B and A drive controls and also notes the actually frequency from low to hight that the tone is set to. Lovely

Firstly I tried this with my Tele running into an Engl Thunder on the clean channel thru a Frmaus 2x12 with V30 speakers. Using the mix pups. the A drive which, is akin to Vox did a voxy tone well and as I flicked down to the bridge pickup there was the glassy drive which we have heard on a thousand classic records. I was more interested using the A/B to drive my clean a little for more indie type sounds which I achieved pretty quickly.
I was interested in this pedal as I wanted a lighter drive which didn't colour the tone of the guitar as much as my Maxon OD808 or my line6 M13 OD patches and then use my 808 for the more driven tone. This thing lets the sound of your guitar thought and adds to it rather than compressing it and colouring it like my 808, which is not a bad thing when used for more crunch setting or with humbuckers.

After being very happy with the sound of my Tele, I plugged in my Framus which has a JB in the bridge and tried to match the Lead channel on my Engl head. The Harmonoc content was there but the bass boldness and over width wasn't. The clarity on the lead tones blending both ODS knobs was rich and great for leads so this pedal would sit great in an indie rock band or in a metal band as a solo sound of a nice crunch tone.

The last setup I tried was a 1971 fender deluxe reverb with my strat. Amazing blues tone on the neck pickup thru to AC/DC classic rock on the Bridge.
This pedal inline with my 808 is great. I wouldn't solely buy it if your looking for that mesa/5150/engl high gain sounds as there is no pedal which can do that, thats why those amps are so damn pricey, but for a versatile all-rounder this is by far the best OD pedal on the market.

Its made of metal. My mates sansamp is 6 years old and still goings so I would say all good

It hasn't broken and I don't think it will.

As above if you want something to let the sound of your guitar shine and achieve a wide array of tones from indie/rock/lead this is a great little pedal.

No a plug and play pedal, but spend a bit of time with it ( as others have said ) and you'll be rewarded with a wealth of great tones.

I use a tele, a strat, a 335 into various solid state and tube amps. This pedal sounds very, very good with all of them. It really does the job with solid state amps. From sweet clean boost, to just on the edge blues tones, to screaming rock tones...and everything in between, it does the trick quite nicely. The beauty of this pedal is how it lets the natural, inherent tone of your guitar shine through. The controls work well and the tone control is especially musical. Most pedals iwll sound good in your bedroom, but the real proof is on stage. The DD excels in this area. The tones cut through the mix, yet are never thin or shrill.....although I'm sure you could dial those tones up if you so desired. Running it in combo with a Bad Monkey provided some killer tones too. It seems to pair well with my other overdrives. All in all, this is a keeper. I had heard good and bad about this pedal, but for me, it's all good. I'm a happy camper to have in my tone chest. Beats the crap out of many higer priced, botique pedals I've had.

In all my years of gigging, I have NEVER had a pedal fail, so I don't see any problems with this one. It seems to be of sturdy build quality.

Never had an issue with it, but I understand Tech 21 support is top notch.

I play blues, rock, country.....whatever.....but everything comes from a blues base. For me, this pedal is excellent for forging and defining my own tones. While I never try to sound like anyone but myself, I'm sure you could tweak it to find tones of your favorite artists.

It's a very musical pedal that responds well to your touch and the guitars volume and tone controls. It lets who you are as a player come through and doesn't force you to sound like someone else. High marks for this pedal. It just works, and I like that.

This is the Red Limited Edition pedal and I picked it up for a song on e-Bay. I won't go into all the features but need to reaffirm other reviews that this is truly a tweakers dream. The cascading gain between Drive A and Drive A/B and how, much like many tube amps, affects the volume and to some degree the tone. All adjustments of gain cause necessitate an adjustment of Level and Tone, and until you get the hang of it (and you will!), it might piss you off a little. The online manual is a HUGE HELP and you should read the setup section.

For my part, first I adjust Drive A for sustain, then Drive A/B for gain/saturation level, then tone for where I want it to sit in the mix, and finish with Level. The tone knob is VERY sensitive, but works better than any I've used and I've used many OD and distortion pedals. Also, the on/off switch is an actuater and NOT a DPDT or other True Bypass switch, and takes a while to get used to.

Giving this a 7 because again, you need to tweak it. However, once you get it set, it's a killer pedal and only occasional adjustments are needed.

For a stomp box Distortion pedal, it kicks ass at a great price!!!

Forget using it as a modeler because I haven't yet played the pedal, amp, or processor that models an amp perfectly. However, this thing has gain for days if you need it, a tone knob that works, and one AMAZING feature most others don't; it's buffered exactly like a tube amp!!! What that means is that it will drive anything you put in front of it, and dropping a modded tube screamer or other quality OD in front of it produces the most unbelievable lead tones you'll ever hear coming out of a stompboxes. Run this into a tube amp that likes pedals (some of them don't!), and you have a sonic combination that will leave you and the rest of the band looking around in amazement because you just can't believe the tone is coming out of pedals. It's honestly that good!

My signal chain:

>Vintage SG, Les Paul, or Strat > Korg DT-10R Tuner (primary buffer) > Keeley modded Vox 847 Wah > Analogman CompRossor > Keeley modded TS-9 w/true bypass > Tech 21 Double Drive (secondary buffer) > Maxon FL-9 Flanger (sec buffer) > Retro-Sonic Chorus Ensemble > Retro-Sonic Analog Delay > MI Audio Boost n Buff (final buffer) > any available amp.

This is not a True Bypass pedal, but for you TBP freaks, trust me, the value of good buffers cannot be underestimated. It's a mathematical fact that more than 4 TBP pedals in a row results in signal degradation. If you don't believe it, try going back and forth between plugging directly into your amp and your expensive TBP board. Every TBP switch and plug drains a little signal strength which eventually manifests itself as highend loss, the exact thing that TBP is supposed to cure. Placing buffers at key points will fix this, with the most important RIGHT AFTER THE GUITAR (see my tuner in my signal chain).

The buffer in the DD is one of the best around, and because it emulates a tube amp, it will optimize the tone of whatever you is in front of it.

Giving it a 9 which I consider very good.

Tech 21 has been around for years. Mine is a used model from the 90's and it works perfectly. I've been relying on it for months and through some grueling gigs witout a spare; so far, so good. A 9 for now and a 10 if it lasts over 2 years.

They emailed me the link to the manual to this out of production model within 2 business days. What more can you ask for?

I play all styles of rock and pop, some country and jazz, some heavier and some funkier stuff. The tone of this sits well in the mix with a two guitar band, although the buffer is so good I'm now using my TS-9 for rhythms that need a little fur, my DD for slightly more fur (i.e. heavier songs), and the combination of both for awesome, singing leads. I've been playing over 30 years and have owned or played many, many, many different amps, guitars, and stompboxes, and tend to buy mostly high-end stuff. This was by far the least expensive device on my board, and at this point the most important.

I'm going to keep watching e-Bay and purchase any others I can find because I'm sure they'll be highly sought after in the future. As I only have one right now, if it were lost I would be completely depressed because my tone would suffer.

Giving it a 10 because the bang for buck is top notch!!!

4 knobs that all react exactly as they should. The tapers are great and it's easy to get everything from a light drive to screaming sustaining leads.

I'm using a Gibson SG Classic and an SG Special as well as a 2007 Gibson Explorer. I play through Duncan, Ampeg and a 1970's JMP. I have owned more overdrive and distortion pedals than you. I swear...LOL! I've played over 20 years and have tried hundreds of pedals. Everything from the standard Boss, MXR, and Ibanez stuff to the newer boutique pedals.

I worked in a Vintage store in Boston around 1991-1993 and I've had vintage Fuzz Faces, Maestro Fuzz-Tones, Octavias, Etc. I remember when the Way Huge stuff came out, very cool!

I have had boutique pedals by MJM, Fulltone, Greer, Blackstone, HBE, Menatone, M.I. Audio, BJFE, Prescription Electronics, LovePedal, and way too many more to list. I am a pedal junkie, I have a problem.

I have had my Double Drive for many years, and I always come back to it. I am using an old big box Rat and my Double Drive as my main distortion pedals. The DD sounds just right in a band mix, where many of the expensive "boutique" pedals failed for me. The controls on the DD give you exactly what they are supposed to, the tone works great and both drives deliver very different sounds that can be mixed together with excellent results. It just works perfect for me.

I honestly can't understand why so many players rave about the BJFe, Blackstone, LovePedal and OCD pedals, None worked well for me. I really liked some of the Greer and Prescription pedals, but so many of the others are way over-hyped by bedroom tone-aficionados. I bought an OCD v3 because of the rave reviews, and it sounded very processed and Hi-Fi, sterile. I also thought the EQ was weird, kind of mid-scooped (same with the Blackstone 2SV3). I actually loved the Blackstone 2SV2 I owned years ago; it was very dumb of me to sell that. Also, the M.I Audio Crunch Box sounded quite similar to the OCD.

Anyway, the Double Drive is like a meat and potatoes tone. I don't believe that it truly captures vintage Vox, Marshall, or Fender amp sounds, but Drive AB gives a bright Vox-like Overdrive and Drive A gives a nice Marshally tone.

I generally don't like pedals that try to emulate amp sounds; I feel they mess with the EQ in a weird, unnatural-sounding way. The DD is different. If you really like the sound of your amp, the DD is a great pedal for adding just a little grit, a heavy distortion, or a totally saturated lead sound with tons of sustain. The tone control is very musical with a great range.

I have never owned a pedal that did light Overdrive, Distortion and saturated lead tones as well as the DD.

This box gets a 10 for sounds and bang for the buck.

I've owned mine for years, it looks like it's been through a war and it has never failed.

You can get a friendly engineer on the phone...Wow!!

I was not a fan of the original SansAmp, the GT2 or the Tri-AC. None of them sounded right for me. I do dig the CompTortion, especially for leads.

The Double Drive is reasonably priced, and sounds much better than 99% of the vintage, production, and boutique pedals I've tried.

Have a blue one, played this two years before this post.
It is quite a strange pedal in fact, not that easy to use since it is so responsive to your set up. If like me you own/play different guitars through different amps then the double drive is very time consuming. It lacks channels, or programs and tech21 does now the 3x.
The drive knobs on my pedal have a very narrow range near max, it boosts unevenly (very smooth from 7 o' to 4o' and then twice all that up to 5o'). Annoying to say the least.
It could use a bit more gain on A/b mode.
Using the two gains push noisefloor up, no wonder but comparatively to standard dist pedals you have far more singlecoils noise for a given amont of drive. Annoying one more time.
No distortion pedal, but a flex-a-ble overdrive.
Volume boost uneven, reminds me of my fender deluxe112 (nothing, then too loud...), annoying again.
I like the bufferred output very much, it allows me to use a 10ft cable from guitar to dd and then a very long cable to my amp at the other side of the stage. No sound loss, great! And I don't even need a psu, since the dd only pumps 5mA from the battery (an Energizer lasts at least 100 hours in this pedal, no one can top it).

I had a bad time with my many guitars/amps. It works well with a twin, or a jc120. Good with a blues junior too.
With my vox vr15/30 not so, with marshall same thing.
Difficult is to chose between light overdrive, clean boost, or full drive. What works well with an amp doesn't with another guitar, and so on for days...
No noise except when using both gains (often A/B at max and A at noon), and there is no choice if you want a good drive sound. Singlecoils not wanted.
Nice tone pot, way useful. Silent switching, no lag.
In fact it is in the sansamp classic's league, needs external eq, and is not plagued by obligatory speaker sim. Same overall softness too, and I guess that's the real point.
You have to try it with your very setup or you won't be satisfied.
I didn't try it with an eq pedal after it, since the dd itself is picky picky...

I use gt2,tri ac and original sansamp for years without the slightest problem (and being pedals they are carried without care, bumps in amp's backs where they share space with beer cans and so on).
That's where the price reflects, tech21 products are professional products, and when you need to rely on them it's priceless. In the same lap of time two boss pedals simply died (an eq and a comp), and two Ibanez wouldn't switch on or off properly (cs5 and ts7)...

Find one sound and stick with it. Or buy one more for another sound and stick with both. From what I hear the dd3x is not that good, I guess the active eq doesn't suit the original design, which is good.
I compared it with t-rex dr swamp, which maybe I should have bought instead(more consistent from one amp to another, slightly airier sound, and two channels).
With my twin reverb I use a behringer od100 for warm, solid distortion and dd for this slightly crunched tone so difficult to obtain. With my bassman reissue it is just the opposite.
Again: try it on your very setup...
I like this pedal, it's professional period.

It's very easy to use, only four knobs, two drives a tone and a volume.

It sounds sooooo wonderful (yeah is THAT good). Well, for starters i'm not a purist or a blues player, i like distortion in the means of metal, to be more precise, on the means of more modern players. I also play punk, but first things first.
I play this little baby with mi '80s Ibanez Studio (love her too) through a cry baby, a ts 9 and the DD (plus many more things after it) through to a Sovtek Mig 50 (the one with no master volume), to a 2x12 with two G12t75s. The sound i get from it is absolutely great. I play in a band with another guy and he has a Carl Martin MKII. We're head to head, my sound is always complemented on. The distortion is smooth and clear. You can drive it up to the max and the notes will still be there! It's veeery sensitive with the knobs, specially the tone knob. It has a whole lot of volume, i normally use like at twelve o'clock. It makes a great match for the ts9, they are a killing couple. We use down tuned guitars and the DD stays clear and does the job all the time.

DEfinetely, don't be misslead by the girlie 'clicke' from the switch, it's very reliable. I always gig with a Voodoo lab overdrive as a backup, but i do not think i'll ever need it... but u never know, u know?

never dealt with them

Well if u read by now, my conclusion is very obvious. To me it's a very good piece of equipment, and for the music i play, distortion is the key part of your sound. And this little baby is the heart and soul of my gear. I have tried tones of distortion pedales, i found some very good ones down the line, but i'll stick with this one, it's a true gem, and more when it's paired with the ts9 (another piece of heaven brought to earth) If lost or stolen i would definitely buy another one.

Pie

Been playing for over 20 years... all kinds of music. up to this point my main pedal was a tube screamer, but it always lacked something. I went to the music store recently and tried EVERY distortion and overdrive pedal. couldn't find the sound I was looking for. then I stumbled across DD. SWEET! ever kissed a girl and it felt like all your dreams came true? it may not be for everyone, but it's the sound I've been dreaming of. I play a Jimmy V Strat thru a Tech 21 60 watt.

never had to call them.

Blues is my thing, but I play a little country, a little jazz, a little classic rock, etc., in a working band. I love the sound of the DD.
If you're still looking for "that" sound, give it a try.
Peace.

4 knobs, bob's your uncle

depends what you are looking for. Me i like a nice smooth clean & bright distortion. this box won't be for metalheads unless you are looking for an old school sound. with careful tweaking on the pedal and your amps eq, you should be able to achieve a sound you like. i give it a 9 only because this pedal is not for everyone but if you are looking for something that will deliver anything from robben ford style smoothness to Van Halen "Meanstreet" this pedal rocks.

not had any problems with it, I have a 2 year old son who always manages to get to it and it works absolutely fine. If i did have any critisism, it would be the switch seems a little spongy. wouldn't gig without a back up because of this

can't comment

fantastic pedal if you know what you are looking for. as i said before it is not for everyone, but tone is a matter of opinion there is no right or wrong. me personally i love it. Plus I got the cool red one so it sticks out like dogs balls

4 knobs. level--tone--a/b--a. pretty easy to use but you will have to experiment to get the right sound for you depending on the amp and axe you use.

ok. here is where it gets a little stupid sometimes in some of these reviews. tone is a personal thing and again it all depends on your setup, style and what sound you are looking for. THIS IS NOT A DISTORTION PEDAL, IT IS AN OVERDRIVE PEDAL FOR PETE`S SAKE! IT WILL NOT SOUND LIKE A DAMN BUZZ SAW. GET A BOSS METAL ZONE FOR THAT SHIT. IT IS MADE TO SOUND LIKE CLASS A & CLASS A/B TUBE AMPS........

i use a `78 gibson les paul custom. i have used this pedal on these two very different sounding amps with my les paul and here is what i got.......

this pedal sounds great on my `84 peavey heritage vtx with the level at 3/4, the tone at max, a/b at 3/4, and the a set at 0. instantly had a very good sound and tone, very easy to tweak. can get a great marshall tone with ease. took about 30 seconds.

now, on my `81 marshall jcm 800 half stack it takes a lot more tweaking to get a good sound but it can be done. this is what i do. level at max, tone at 3/4, both a & a/b knob at 0. works like an old tube screamer this way. boosts the pickup signal to create a real good overdrive. with the marshall gain set at 5 and the master at where ever you want it you will get a fine overdrive tone. could`nt ask for a better tone...

my peavey has a tube power section with solid state preamp. the marshall as we all know is all tube.

in my opinion this pedal with the overdrive set too high causes the pre amp tubes in my marshall act strange and get a totally unusable,muddy sound. the marshall already sounds killer so with the pedal set as a booster you will get much better results..

as far as the peavey goes this pedal really makes that amp sound good as hell. i actually use my peavey more than the marshall because of ease of transport and small stages. the peavey does a fine job and sounds great with the right equipment. i need clean tone and dirty tone for different songs and the marshall is never completely clean. that is why the peavey does a much better job for a variety of differnt songs...

looks tough enough to me. i have read reviews about the stomp switch seeming a little weak. that is because this pedal does`nt use an actual click switch like some do. it is a spring loaded switch that touches a small actuator in the circuit board to bypass..so far so good....

very very very good. i emailed them with questions and the responded with in 24 hours with very good and complete answers. they are clearly not affraid of sharing their knowledge.........

this pedal is one of the best i have used. like i said before it all depends on what you are looking for. i would definitley try one if you can before you buy as it may not suit your needs. i play soouthern rock,blues,country,metal in my band the TECH 21 DOUBLE DRIVE suits my needs perfectly. if it ever got stolen i just hope i am not the one who catches the damn thief because i would be in jail the next day..............

Definatly one of the easier 'odd ball' drive pedals on the market. I was up and running with a tone I was happy with in minutes (actually I found many settings I liked! which is strange cus usually I only like one :P)

The manual is good, especialy since it explains the tone knobs strange-ness, and how the two drive knobs react with each other.

Mine is the black limited series one. Dunno if their is a sound difference

Recently I have scaled down my rig from a huge setup consisting of 2 amps, 13 pedal boxes, tuner, power supplys, wireless, five guitars, and even an e-bow. In my scalling down to less than 1/4 of all that I had to find stuff that replace my EQs, and drive pedals with something that would be able to cascade into my Crowther Hot Cake, and still sound good on its own so I can have 3 different drives, but only two boxes.

The Double Drive is the one!

With the both drive knobs turned pretty close to 12'oclock (right before it starts to get gritty) I get this wonderful natural smooth overdrive out of my AC30. Even the bridge of my Gibson 335 is still smooth and powerful. No strange harmonic frequencys, and no gritty trebely breakup, just nice alt-rock style drive!

When Cascading into my Crowther Audio hotcake (which is set for a much heavier sound) I get a very miniscule volume increase, and keep the whole rig keeps its definition while getting that third channel Dual Recitifier sound. The most surprising is that both pedals are actually set for a deeper tone, and when cascaded into each other I get a really bright, and cutting tone! Great for lead lines or times when I need to be on top the mix.

I'm a lil scared about the switch. It dosn't got the nice 'CLICK' but instead has a girly 'clique' to it. I know it's not a big deal, but non-clicky switchs scare me.

never delt

I play in an original rock band, and have been using a huge number of stomp boxes for years. Now with my new simplified rig I only put the best stuff in.

This box will most likely always have a place in my board, its sounds great, its light, and gives me exactly what I need. It even replaced my Sparkle Drive, which has been a mainstay of my tone for years! I might upgrade it to the tripple memory version when it's available and replace my Hotcake!

Stolen? I would hunt him down and kick his/her ass because its now discontinued!

This product, like many other Tech 21 products, is personalized individually for each guitarist....Which means it can be a hassel to find a sound that one can be contempt with....There are 4 buttons on the Double Drive. A level, A tone, A/B Drive (Marshall, Fender), A Drive (Vox)

Wow....It may be difficult to pull sounds from this box....But once you have found the right sound, you will surely fall in love with this product.....The tone knob, like many stated, has a very small sweet spot....Incredible Alternative Rock Tones!!!......I'm not sure if it would suite "Metal Heads"....But I'm sure anyone could find a sound suitable to their ears....The sound is so beautiful....I can only compare this product with an orange.....Then again, I do use tubes.....It does warm up my solid state as well....Unbelievable!

So far, so good!

I have not had to contact them

Unbelievable....Period!

Pretty simple to use, except the Drive A and Drive A/B knobs may throw people off. It's not like a Jekyll & Hyde overdrive, with two footswitches, but it's a cascading drive, meaning they layer on top of each other at the same time to achieve the tone you want. The manual describes everything perfectly, and it even warns you about the touchy tone knob. For $50 Canadian (compared to the new price of $135 Canadian), this pedal is a steal for what I use it for.

I use an Epi Flying V with a Duncan Invader in the bridge, going into the Double Drive, and then going into a Fender FM 212R. I use a light gain on the amp (5-7 on the first gain stage), with the Double Drive adding an overdrive to it. It gives it a bit of a bass response when it's turned on, but it can be dialed out if you really want it out.

The settings I have it on (Level: 1 o'clock, Tone: 11 o'clock, Drive A: 11 o'clock, Drive A/B: 1 o'clock), it is totally silent. It gives me a great crunch tone (yes, even with a solid state amp..), but it's not really something I'd gig with, just because it's a pretty elementary set-up. I'm quite happy with the tone I am getting right now, it gives me a Zakk Wylde/Pepper Keenan-esque drive, with screaming pinch harmonics. If I had some sort of Class A or Class AB tube amp, I'm sure I'd be confident enough to gig with this set-up.

I'm not sure if I could 100% depend on it, because the switch is pretty picky. It takes about 2 pressed before it turns on, which is fine by me for now. If you're a hard stomper, you'll have no problem turning this baby on and off, though.

I probably couldn't afford a new model of this, so I would not gig with a backup. I'm sure this would stand up a gig or two though, unless some idiot spilt their beer on it.

For the style of music I play (Zakk, C.O.C., Pantera, Sabbath, etc. inspired stuff), this is a perfect match. Great for overdriving a signal a la Zakk Wylde, or using it as a solo booster. It would be completely unusable with both gains maxed, but then again it would also sound like ****.

I kind of have formed a bond with this pedal over the last couple months, and it's become an important part of my set-up, makes my tone a lot thicker than the amps 'More Drive' feature. With the 4 years of hearing tons of different amps, guitars, and styles, it's safe to say that I may have found the overdrive I need.

I only compared it to a Boss SD-1, and that Ibanez Tone-Lok series Tuebscreamer, and I was lucky enough to test drive them through a half-driven Soldano. I though hard about which pedal to get, and I finally settled on this one, knowing that I could achieve a multitude of tones with it. It definitely helps me make music, and the ability to combine the two drives is a major selling point. If it were lost, stolen, or destroyed, I'd try and find another one just like it, but probably wouldn't buy new, because the price is a little outrageous.

Four knobs. Main volume, tone, type 1 o/d, and type 2 o/d. It is really not very difficult to get a good sound out of this pedal at all. I think it is more of having to know what you are looking for rather than just stumbling onto something. But after just 15-30 minutes or so of just looking for the sweet-spot, most users will agree that this is a very versatile and terrific pedal. For the more experienced player, it should not take too much time. For a less experienced player who may just want noise and distortion, it could take a bit longer. In either case, both types of users will be rewarded well. Manual is decent and is a basic user guide. Go by what your ears tell you. Too many reviewers on this site complain about simple distortion pedal or overdrive pedal instruction books. To those complainers I say, "Use your ears!".

My setup is Strats (texmex usually with self-scalloped necks) > Vox 847 wah > Keeley TS9 mod pedal > Tech21 Double Drive > EH small clone to Marshall mgdfx 50 watt combo. I have also just received a Keeley DS1 Ultra Mod but have not really had much of a chance to give that a try as the Tech 21 Double Drive has turned into such a great performer. I usually use the clean channel and keep the Tech 21 DD on. It is thick, crunchy, and leaves the Strat with a real gooey kind of dist/od that would make any crunch-head happy. On a good portion of my strats i use a Dimarzio Virtual Vintage 402 or 403 or 404 or 409 pickup in the bridge position. These are hum-cancelling pups that are really great sounding!

I set the Tech 21 Double Drive as follows; with the master volume on the amp set at least 50% higher than the volume on the clean channel, I set the Double Drive volume at minimum 1-3 o'clock, the tone to about 12-1 o'clock, the 1st o/d (next to tone control) at about 3-4 o'clock or just enuff to back off from the max eliminating any hiss, and the last knob at about 2 o'clock.

With this setting, my bottom end is thick and does not lose any definition. Chords ring out beautifully. I have to mention that not only will power chords ring especially well, but even Robin Trower type of open/power chords ring well with beautiful overtones. The soloing on the top strings is sharp, and yet thick at the same time. Bottom end has plenty of meat and there is almost no noise or hiss even at louder volumes. Keep that 1st o/d level below max when playing loud and the second o/d knob at 3pm or less and the noise will be almost minimal.

I set the TS9 to be max on the volume and a bit less on the level so when i do any soloing i just hit the ts9 on and i get the extra punch i need. Still not noisy.

A great pedal. Really thickens up a Strat well. Bluesy on the neck pup. I played outdoors last weekend in my drummer friend's backyard with this setup and he absolutely cud not believe the sound and volume of this setup. It virtually filled up the neighborhood! He is in 3 bands currently, and his guitarists have pretty big equipment and this setup smoked them! Loud, thick, sustaining, note ringin' out delight!!!

Get 1!

Built well! Looks cool. Not worried about reliability in any way. Besides, they have a great reputation, and I can't imagine they would refuse a request to fix any problem that would arise.

Have not had to deal with them yet, but not worried if I have to. Since I have not experienced it yet, I can only give an 8 here which is based on my belief of their solid reputation from people I know.

Play blues and Hendrix/Trower type stuff. Just jamming and having fun. No serious band. However, I am very critical of my sound. I fell in love with the Tech 21 Double Drive. I was actually going to check out a Rat and found the Rat not what I was looking for. I happened to see this in the case and just checked it out and bought it on the spot. Lucky me! Would buy again if lost or stolen.

Great pedal. Part of my main board now!

Thanx Tech 21!!

Tiene 4 controles: level, tone, class A dist, class AB dist.

Sonido increible. Si hubiera que ponerle un solo pero, seria que a altos registros de ganancia es algo ruidoso pero, ?que pedal de distorsion con la ganancia casi a tope no es ruidoso? :-)
Como todos los pedales de Tech 21, derrocha calidad a raudales. Tengo bastantes pedales de overdrive/distorsion (ThunderTomate TS808, Boss OD-1, ThunderTomate Muffiman II y Marshall Bluesbreaker II) y he tenido otros tantos (Boss DS-1, Marshall Guvnor Plus, Marshall Jackhammer, Rat 2, Fulltone DP-1, etc), y el sonido del Double Drive te enamora desde el primer momento. Y esto, tanto si lo utilizas como booster (con el level y el tone casi a tope y los knobs de dist a cero), como overdrive (class A/class AB) a registros medios o como distorsion (con los controles A/AB a tope). Incluso, si pones los dos controles de ov/ds a tope se consigue un sonido cercano a un fuzz. Esta ultima posibilidad es la que menos me gusta, pero esta ahi como opcion. Se nota un incremento de ganancia brutal entre el 8 y el 10 (a tope) en los controles de ganancia (A/AB); es curioso... El sonido de la distorsion A es algo mas opaca que la AB, q es algo mas aguda y brillante. Los dos sonidos te enamoran al instante.
Mi equipo actual es el siguiente: LP Standard ebony '91 - Boss BCB60(pedalboard) con: Boss AC-2, Marshall Bluesbreaker II (modo booster), ThunderTomate TS808 o Boss OD-1, Tech 21 Double Drive, EH Small Clone, Boss PH-2; - Marshall DSL-401. Los pedales los utilizo sobre el canal limpio del Marshall, con tres sonidos saturados base: TS808 a media ganancia para ritmicas crunch, Double Drive con la ganancia A a las 3 p.m y la AB a las 9 p.m, y el Bluesbreaker para darle mas sustain a alguno de los dos sonidos anteriores (en solos).
Como el Double Drive tiene mucho realce, conviene jugar con los controles de leve del pedal y del ampli una vez tengas tu sonido saturado A/AB ya que se puede sobresaturar demasiado. Los controles del pedal son muy interactivos y elcontrol tone puede llegar a ser hiriente en determinados momentos (igual se busca este sonido en algun momento...)
Tenia muy buenas referencias de este pedal y estoy muy contento de haber acertado. Como todo, pruebalo y si no te gusta lo puedes vender rapidamente, je, je...

Muy bien construido (como todo lo que fabrica Tech 21) y con una estetica maravillosa. Me encantan los productos Tech 21.
Solo le pongo un pero a los pedales de esta marca: la conexion ac de corriente es en el lateral, lo cual a veces es un incordio. Seria mucho mejo si lo tuvieran arriba como los Boss, Fulltone, Marshall y tantos otros.

Gente seria los de Tech21. Les pregunte por la garantia y en 24 h. me respondieron.

Soy musico aficionado y toco desde hace 13 a?os. En casa toco un poco de todo, aunque mis predilectos son Beatles, Rollings, Free, Led Zeppellin, AC/DC, Weezer, Oasis y Los Nikis (grupo punk-pop espa?ol de los a?os '80s). Estoy en un grupo de versiones (cover band), basicamente de pop-rock 60's-70's (beatles, Creedence, Clapton, etc...). Mi equipo lo describi arriba, aunque en casa toco con un JMP-1 + Boss GX-700. Tambien tengo una Les Paul Special Faded Double Cutaway (P-90's), que la utilizo sobre todo con mi grupo.
Si se me perdiera o estropeara (esto ultimo lo dudo, je, je...)el pedal, me compraria otro sin dudarlo. El pedal tiene muchas cosas positivas, fundamentalmente su gran calidad y el tono que se consigue tanto si tocas en un ampli a valvulas como a transistores; tienes un increible sonido valvulero y profesional a golpe de click

This thing has ALOT of different sounds. Take your time and play with it before you deside on it. I found that starting with all my knobes set to 12 and either increasing or decreasing from there was a little easier.

To start out with, I listen to and play indie/alt rock. I do not go looking for that perfect I have a custom strat and a Fender Toronada with Classic 57's installed through a stacked Tech21 Trademark 60 w/ Power Engine 60. I do not use this amp to model anything, so I won't try to say "my amp sounds like..." It sounds very clean which gives me a lot of room to play with different FX. I run some Boss stuff, a Zvex Wah, and a, Electro Harmonix Bass Balls. Lately I have been on a distortion/overdrive kick recently. Normally I use a Boss DS-1with the distortion level turned all the way down. However, this was no longer giving me the "umpf" I was loking for. I started looking at a bunch of the boutique stuff that is out there. Zvex, Smart People Factory, Toadworks were the main companies I was looking at. These were all good sounding pedals, but they all sounded to much like themselves if that makes sense. Bascally, when you hear a Zvex pedal, there is no denying that it is a Zvex pedal. I needed something that had a big sound and also had a lot of variation. The Double Distortion was just that pedal. It lets you vary the sound between that of a Class A and Class B tube amp. It's Tone control is also very sensitive. So the slightest turn can impact the sound. I think this pedal has a very unique sound, but still manages to be versetiel.

You can throw Tech21 stuff of a bridge and it would still work.

Never needed to deal with them. Like I said, you could throw this stuff off a bridge and it woulod still work.

I think it's a great pedal. Big and ballsy. If you are looking for a heavier sound, you may want to try the XXL pedal. This won't get that tone. However, for big sound similar to the sounds of Rival Schools, Afghan Whiggs and old Sunny Day Real Estate...this is your pedal!

I have owned this pedal for a couple of years. When I first bought it, I thought it was just ok....but what I discovered is that the controls are very interactive and very sensitive. You could interpret this as "hard to use" but what I found is that after I found the correct settings for my equipment and my ears, it's probably the smoothest overdrive I've heard, and I own an original ts808, a Roger Mayer fuzz face, a Boss OD as well as a whole lot of others in the past that I no longer own because they sucked. My point is that at first this pedal may seem just ok, but if you spend some time to get the settings right, then mark them so you can easily return to them, this is a very underrated pedal. I give it only a 7 for ease of use because the documentation is lame and the knobs have no numbers, which they need because the majic markers wear off and are hard to see at 3am.

I play a Les Paul and a Stratocaster and I own several vintage fender blackface tube amps (super, vibroverb, princeton). I haven't played this through a transistor amp. I mostly play classic rock and blues, been playing for 30 years now.

The sound quality once you get the settings right is excellent. Liquid smooth sustain (less buzzy than a ff, less raspy than a ts) with excellent touch sensitivity and good retention of the instruments/amps character, which is fairly rare in OD boxes. It's the kind of violin tone where you want to play and not put the guitar down for hours. That said, I think it excels for lead work, with the settings I like I think you lose some clarity for rhythm....I like the 808 tube screamer sound better for SRV type chunky rhythm/lead/blues playing and this one better for late 60's 70's hard rock lead sounds. It does not have true bypass which I think it should have, and hacking it up to do that is not easily possible given it's design.

I took it apart. It's built solid but not as good as some boutique pedals. It has a quality aluminum housing, but it could be thicker. The connectors are soldered to the board, which makes it very hard to replace a bad connector. I liked the sound so much however, I bought a backup. All that said, I've never had an issue yet in two years, but it hasn't been used as a hockey puck. I did try it out as a basketball once, still works but didn't bounce very well.

Never dealt with them....such an expressive pedal should come with better documentation and examples.

I'd give it a 10 overall if it had true bypass and numbered calibrated knobs....but it does retain most of the tone in bypass mode, and it can also give tons of clean, non noisy boost non bypassed if you need it. You just lose a tad of fullness and sparkle...vs a true bypass from guitar to amp. If you have good ears and play through a good tube amp you know what I'm talking about.
Other than that, sonically, I think this is one of the best overdrive pedals out there. It's definitely a pro quality sound, as good as anything I've used. Definitely in the top 5% but don't judge it quickly. Spend some time tweaking to get it right. The controls are very interactive, and very sensitive. With 4 knobs, that can take a while. In particular, the tone control has a magic "honky" setting for a particular amp/guitar/pickup combo. Find that setting.

This is a follow-up to a review I posted in May '04

Well due to laziness I haven't put this box on EBAY but I have found a use for it. It seems to do a fantastic job at light, edge of breakup distortion through my '79 SF Deluxe Reverb set clean. I'm talking "Castles made of Sand" or "start me up" overdrive as well as modern country OD. Using a tele or strat I set A/B to noon as a starting point and can add A up to noon before the sound deteriorates. This setting adds that shimmering fatness to clean tones that is VERY reminiscent of my Deluxe on 4-5 with a tad more midrange (not a bad thing). Chord clarity is excellent and the nearly flat bass response of the pedal(there is some rolloff)is a welcome addition. At this low gain setting the farty unmusical bass found in the higher gain tones is almost nonexistent. My modded TS-9 sounds thin, nasal and lacks definition by comparison.

The DD still gets a 6 because I can only find one sound that works for me in this box. However, the mostly transparent light OD tone is the best I've heard from a pedal. It kills my modded Boss BD-2 which sounds scooped, harsh, and has a fizzy unnatural decay by comparison. TS style pedals, while good for midrange heavy lead tones, are particularly horrible for rhythm OD light or otherwise. So for now the Double Drive has earned a spot on my board as the lo-gain box until something better knocks it off.

Takes a few seconds to get some great warm overdrive. Editing is as simple as turning a few knobs. The manual is worthwhile only for it's explanation of the sensitivity of the tone knob. It is a little bit funky, but obviously the people at tech21 know about it.

I've played it on an Epiphone Elite Casino and a Gibson SG into a late '60s Fender Twin. It's class A style OD sounds great. I messed with the A/B a little bit. It sounded good too, but I'm not as into that kind of tone. I got this pedal for one use and it does exactly what I need. This is a good pedal for Beatles, Stones, Badfinger, etc.

Seems like it's built pretty tough. The footswitch doesn't seem to be going anywhere (wish I could say the same about my Line 6 DL4... but that's another topic). I don't forsee needing a backup for it.

n/a

I play a lot of British Invasion music so this pedal is a great match. I've been playing for about 13 years. If it were stolen or lost I might invest in a fulltone dual drive, but for the money this pedal is great. I love the class A overdrive. I would love it more if it had 2 footswitches for each gain stage. It's a great pedal, it does one thing and does it well.

Easy to get good sounds from this unit. The manual is easy to understand and will give good starting point.

This pedal can sound just like a Marshall amp by using the A/B drive and a less fizzy distortion with the A drive, A drive has a little more mid to it as well. I play an Epiphone LesPaul standard to the Double Drive a/b with an American Women pedal to an Marshall AVT 150 combo.I like the A drive sound for rock ballads and lighter rock tunes, also works well for rythmn on American Women. A drive is really compressed from 2 oclock and up so some chucky or muted stuff doesn't sound very good, but below that it sounds great. Still working on a mixed sound that I'll use. There is some noise when the gains are cranked. I keep the tone between 2 and 5 depends on the song. Lots of sounds to be found.

Seems to be built strong and would use without a backup pedal I have options with my set up.

E-mailed Tech 21 about the Double Drive and got a response in 2 days not to bad, the info given was helpful.

I play mostly 70,s & 80,s rock pedal will give me sounds to make what I play sound close to what I hear on the records (note records)

This posting is to correct errors made by an earlier poster. The reason that most distortion pedals lack bass has nothing to do with the bottom half the wave being clipped as both halves of a pure sine wave represent a single frequency. The reason that one experiences a loss of bass with most pedals has to do with pre-clipping stage equalization. The standard design practice is to place a high-pass (bass cut) filter or series of filters before the clipping stage as too much bass in the signal during clipping results in a ?farty,? less focused tone.

This posting is to correct errors made by an earlier poster. The reason that most distortion pedals lack bass has nothing to do with the bottom half the wave being clipped as both halves of a pure sine wave represent a single frequency. The reason that one experiences a loss of bass with most pedals has to do with pre-clipping stage equalization. The standard design practice is to place a high-pass (bass cut) filter or series of filters before the clipping stage as too much bass in the signal during clipping results in a ?farty,? less focused tone. A low-pass (treble cut) filter is placed after the clipping stage to remove harsh higher-order harmonics from the modified signal.

Doddle .. does what it says on the tin.

This may help explain the previous reviewers loss of bass with some distortion or overdrive pedals(it's easier to draw a graph, but you can't do that here!)

When you overdrive a signal, you push the signal beyond it's normal amplitude. All this means is that you "clip" the upper and lower ranges of the the wavelength to provide an overdriven or "clipped" tone. The downside of doing this is that you are effectively chopping the tops and bottoms off of the wavelengths. This in turn means that you lose those frequencies (upper and lower) Hence you lose bass (the higher frequencies tend not to be so noticeable).

Most pedals provide a bass or tone control to compensate this but they add an unatural element to the tone .. hence most overdrive and distortion pedals never quire seem as good as an overdriven valve amp.

So there!

Anyhoo .. the Double Drive, used to push an already mildly overdriven amp is superb .. primarily because all you are doing is pushing the input signal harder, not adding another element to the signal.

Stick to my pedal board in a nuke-proof flight case. Never had a problem

No nonsense pedal. Good price copmared to others I tried that do the same thing.

Really, really easy. You want class A (vox) you turn the A knob. You want A/B (marshall) you turn the AB knob. Use both for more gain or combo tones. Turn both off for clean boost. How is that "counter intuitive". Sheesh

I've had it for a year now so I have a good feel for what it can and can't do. First the good stuff.The clean boost works well. The pedal is transparent for an OD. Its one of the few pedals I've tried that REALLY doesn't suck any bass out of your tone. The mid range is subtly emphasized but it is nothing like the honk of a TS-9. The overall quality of the distortion is smooth and quite amp like. So what's the catch? The difference in tone between a and ab is minimal. A is slightly grittier and ab is slightly smoother with slightly more midrange but they are not different enough for my taste. The sound is very compressed and lacks the touch sensitivity of a good amp or even some pedals. The pedal is noisy at higher gain levels. The deal breaker is that all the bass that the pedal captures distorts in a very unmusical manner. If I play thirds on the E and A strings it sounds completely unnatural. Something tells me this is why so many OD pedals have a noticeble bass loss when kicked in. It must be filtered out to prevent exactly what I'm hearing from this pedal. Perhaps there is no way to have accurate bass and musical disortion in the same pedal.

professional build quality

Not bad but not good enough for me to keep. Its Ebay bound.

Pretty simple, but as someone else has said the 'A' and 'A/B' labels are counterintuitive, the guy in the shop seemd completely confused and didn't know how it worked. However, the thing sold itself to me, a nice easy way to get a bit of drive into a bug clean Fender amp without messing up the sound. That's all I wanted and it seems to give the kind of sound I wanted.

I'm using a 94 special edition ash bodied Strat with Musicman Albert Lee Pickups and a Custom Vibrasonic amp. That's all. It gives me the option of a cooking sound without actually having to cook, or make the ears bleed.

Well, it seems well-made and I'd rely on it.

Never had need to contact them.

I was in the USA and thought it good value at just over half the cost of one in the UK. Mine is blue which is a major plus point :-). This is one of those little boxes that I am likely to stick with unlike other pedals that are gimmicky, noisy, unreliable or ultimately having no practical use. This one will get a lot of use.

This unit seems pretty basic, but I think you have to spend some time tweaking it to get just what you want out of it. Mine is Orange/Red and labelled "limited edition", but I think newer ones are black. There's a level control (straight forward enough), a tone control (high-end rolloff) and a control for AB gain and A gain. This is a little counter-intuitive. The signal starts at the A control (to emulate Class A amps) and then goes to the AB (AB Amps) control, which essentially adds a different type of voicing and "doubles" the gain structure of the setting from the A control. Tech21 NYC does a better job of explaining this on their site. I find that it is pretty easy to get good sound from this, and there are a variety to be had. You have to be careful though, because its easy to achieve severe amounts of gain from this unit and in my opionion it is possible to reach a point of over-saturation where there's just too much and then it becomes unusable and sounds as if the whole pedal is overloaded and ready to meltdown. This only happens if you try to dime both the A and the AB controls, but happend more readily when A is cranked and AB is running pretty high (3 o'clock or so). All in all, its pretty easy to use, but also very easy to bump a knob and lose your ideal sound (pretty sensative controls).

I use a variety of guitars but my signal mostly starts with either a solid body w/a Duncan 59 in the neck and Custom 5 in the bridge (I can split both) or a semi-hollow body with a Jazz in the neck and a JB in the bridge. From there I go to a Fulltone Clyde Deluxe Wah -> Carl Martin Compressor -> Double Drive -> Voodoo Labs Sparkle Drive -> Guyatone MD3 delay to a Fender Custom Vibrolux Reverb. I bought the Double Drive to give me that hi-gain, modified, cranked Marshall-like tone (think the lead-tone in the Black Crows' version of Hard to Handle) and this pedal delivers that to me on a platter. I can't confirm this, but something tells me that this pedal excels when places in front of a good tube amp. I used to play solid state and digital amps, but I've given up. Everything is still better with tubes. It seems to work in concert with my amp and produces a wonderful singing, cutting (without being harsh) tone that I just can't get enough of. You would not believe how huge my amp sounds (and its only a 40 watt 2x10)!!! My one complaint about this pedal - and it really bugs me - is that I seem to lose a lot of the characater of my neck pickup and my wah (not necessarily used together) when this pedal is engaged. I don't understand if its some kind of impedance or signal mismatch or issue between pedals or just a quirk of this pedal. I need to spend more time tweaking and troubleshooting to figure out why this is. However, I mainly use this pedal with my bridge pickup (full and split on the solidbody) and without wah, so I am overall very pleased. This is not a true bypass design and it doesn't need to be. It is quiet and transparent and the benefit is that even with the pedal in the off position, you get a buffered signal out to better drive the rest of your effects and the long cable back to your amp. I have both true bypass pedals and non-true bypass pedals. I think true bypass has its place, but I also think it is WAY over-rated.

I have used several other Tech 21 products and thier stuff truly is top notch.

I've contacted them vie e-mail with questions from time to time, and they sometimes respond and sometimes don't. If I called and got nowhere, I'd take off more points, but I have not called so I'll give them the benefit of the doubt.

In my opinion, this pedal is very unique and delivers some astonishing sounds. Its built well, easy to use and sounds great for any type of Rock and Roll tones. While you can obtain more subtle overdrives from this unit, I use it more for an all out distortion pedal, where I think it accels (I use the sparkle drive for the more subtle overdrive tones). I just don't know why a world-class wah or top notch neck pickup would have difficulty coming through this pedal. I guess nothing is perfect!

Very easy to use. Y4 knobs: level, tone, Driva A and Drive B. You can select either Drive A (Voxish) or Drive B (Marshallesque) or combine the two with varying degrees. Havent tried the manual since it's so easy to use.

My current performing setup is an 81 Les Paul Standard with a Fender Super amp. For lighter overdrive I use a Vox Valve Tone pedal. I was looking for something to give me more overdrive for some of the harder rocking tunes that we do...without going into a distortion pedal. Since getting the Super amp I have had a hellova time getting decent overdrive sounds. Most overdrive pedals sound thin on Fender amps. I even think a TS9 sounds somewhat thin. The Double Drive did what I was looking for: more overdrive with fatter sound.

Not much noise to speak of with this pedal. One thing I've noticed is that the tone control is very sensitive. there is a very small sweet spot on it..otherwise 90% of the adjustment potential on it is crap. One other thing: I dont notice a ton of difference between drive A and Drive B. A is warmer with B having that Marshall brightess. I combine the two for a happy medium.

Only real complaint I have with this is that when you turn the volume down on your guitar...this doesnt clean up. That's a little weak.

I was looking for a Vintage Rat pedal at first, but

No idea. Havent owned tech21 before. Seems prett sturdy however. Good chassis.

No idea.

I play blues Rock, classic rock and some 80's rock. I only recently got this pedal. As mentioned before, I originally wanted a vintage Rat. I always thought of a Rat as being a Fuzz...I found out otherwise after playing one. You can get a very sweet sound out of the Rat by keeping the Distortion down. However, Since I couldnt find one I decided to test out the Double Drive and was impressed. You can go from a very mild overdrive sound to a very full sounding "Brian Mayish" to "ZZtopish" overdrive. As someone else mentioned, it would be ideal if this had 3 buttons: 1 for each drive and one for a combined.

easy, but to get a good sound out of this thing is impossible. trully a really bad product.

the worst. never heard anything as bad as this before. the A drive sounds o.k. very tiny and thin, the A/B side is terruble a big mess. it clips like crazy. trully trully a bad product.

dont know, i returned it the day after it arrived from musicians friend. it felt very light, the battery compartment was made of cheap plastic. so i dont think it would of been very reliable.

never dealt with tech 21. i was also thinking of getting a killer wail, but after this experience tech 21 is on my never to buy list. i dont think their products are quality products.

the worst. if you want a good distortion unit get the marshall pedals or the boss sd-1. dont spend your cash on this junk. it really really sucks!!!!!!1

Very easy ti get good sounds out of this thing. A and A/B knobs increase the saturationof each, level increases volume, tone adds treble bite. Manual is minimal but how can you make this complicated?

I use a telecaster and a L.P. Jr. through a Fender Hot Rod Deluxe. This is the pedal if you can only afford one amp. This pedal will give you a Marshall tone or a Vox AC-30 tone. You can also dial them in together to create some cool new tones.

Sure its dependable. I'm not going to put it under the truck tire or anything.

Never dealt with them. Hope I won't have to.

I'm into rock and altcountry. The Vox tone is great for my sound. I'm very happy with my simple but effective tone now. If I could add a feature I would put two footswitches on it to set a tone on each and be able to access them with one stomp. I guess thats a bit picky but I'm supposed to be critical here right? Very natural-sounding distortion and cool clean boost. This is pedal for musicians who like their guitar tone and just want to color it a bit. Buy it--it's cheaper than a Vox and a Marshall amp.

This is really quite a pedal. I couldn't believe the sound it made coming out of a 15 watt fender blues jr. Amazing. I already have a sparkle drive, and was looking for something with more distortion. I couldn't believe my ears! I was standing there with my strat in front of a blues jr, with this plugged in, and got this monster tone! I am in love. I'm not into metal, but this gets some cool vand halen and early ozzy tones. That's not my style really but I like playing it sometimes and it's great to have that option available to me.

Great pedal. I've been playing 8 yrs, and am very happy with it. I've had every piece of gear under the sun, and was very impresssed. Only 100 bucks? Man I wish I'd given this a try before wasting my money on high end boutique crap.

Sound quality is ok when the distortions are turned up, but compared to the GT2 or the Tri-AC or Tri-OD, they sound unrealistic and harsh. Sound is muddy, with the high-end peeled off when the distortions are turned all the way down to the "clean boost" setting. The Tri-OD gets better class-A type sounds, and the GT2 excells in class-AB arena.

I've owned almost everything Tech21 makes. Currently, I use a Tri-AC, a Tri-OD, and a Killer Wail. This box doesn't make the grade. Skip it and pick up a Classic, GT2, TriOD, or TriAC.

Easy to use. Was dialing up a variety of tones in no time.

Modern and vintage Telecasters with a couple of Juniors and Melody Makers through a tweed Deluxe. A wide variety of overdrive levels when using the mix controls for A and A/B. A bit noisy when both drives are maxxed but that can be expected. Very nice clean boost with the drives turned down. The dynamic range is wonderful.

Seems dependable. Upcoming gigs and studio work will put it to the test. Will toss the Guv'nor pedal into the gig bag just in case.

Haven't dealt with Tech 21

Rock and alt country player. 30 years playing. Main guitar is a '68 Telecaster but I also sling a '96 Amer. Std Tele, a 59 Les Paul Junior, a '65 Melody Maker and a '96 Amer.Strat through a Fender Blues Deluxe.A great pedal for dialing up overdriven AC30 to Marshall Plexi tones and just about everything in between. Would like to have seen seperate controls for bass, mid, and treble instead of one tone knob. Did an A/B against my old Marshall Guv'nor pedal, a Boss DS-1, and a Tubescreamer reissue and the Double Drive is the hands down winner. The other pedals are able to approximate the Double Drive but they are limited in the amount of variations. Just can't compete with the Double Drives ability to create a wider range of overdrive tones

Easy. This is how I like my effects pedals - especially when I fumbling around in the dark between numbers!

Using a Fender Twin / Hot-Rod Deluxe. Great sounds - this is the overdrive I've been looking for (and I've had plenty of the little blighters). The big issue with most overdrives/distortions is that they sound great in the shop/bedroom, but crank them up during a practice or a gig and you're back to the 'wasp in a jar' problem.

Haven't had it long enough yet, but the footswitch looks sound, and the box is metal, so it's in with a good chance of surviving prolonged stomping from my Doc Martens!

Had not reason to call.

I play 60's/blues - this pedal is a great match.

All I would add to its successor is an additional footswitch so that I could switch between a low-gain setting and a hi-gain setting - switching both in could provide a third, monster-gain, setting.

4 knobs, easy peasy lemon squeezy..
volume level is straightforward 'nough so really you have only 3 knobs to tweak.
manual gives 5 suggestions but you oughta just try it yaself.
all settings are very easy on them eardrums..

holy moly!
haven't heard such great overdriven tones out of a stomp box since, like, ever, man!
you are not going to be disappointed with this baby.
just set the A/B drive on full and mix it with the A drive half-way and you'll pee in your pants!
sweet creamy sustaining tone is how i'd describe the result.
forget about what ya read in the ads on even and odd harmonics..
whatever they did in this box, they sure did it right..

looks sturdy 'nough...

haven't had to deal with them yet...

have finally found the holy grail of overdriven tonage.
it fits nicely between my strat and my marshall combo

Quite easy; 4 knobs, only 2 of which you'll change much.
Good sounds pretty much right out of the box. Getting a specific
sound from your mind, however, like any effect, takes a bit of dialing.
The default easy settings are low-gain Marshall and Vox drive.

Manual should have more suggested settings. They must have spent a fair amount of time tweaking this thing; you think they'd share some of the insight gained.

Using Tele with SD Broadcaster PUs mainly; 2nd axe is ES-135 with P100s.

Not noisy at all; a very musical, professional-sounding pedal.
The effects are quite good; I just got the thing and am reluctant
to gush just yet. As I say above, though, low-mid gain Marshall (where you can still hear every note)is easily achieved as is Vox gain.

However, I have found it hard to get a realistic Fender breakup a la cranked Deluxe. It can mimic a cranked Bassman better, but I still haven't found that luscious, classic rock and roll tone.

I wanted this to warm up a Princeton Chorus with 2 Jensen P10Rs in it, as well as give me some bit of Vox jangle. The jangle is there, and this is an easy, inexpensive way to get that at bedroom levels without cranking tubes.

I must also say that this pedal does not color your sound, which I consider a compliment and a sign of a good piece of equipment. The bypass also seems absolute. Another plus.

I have not really explored the cascading effect that his pedal can achieve. Right now, I am trying to find the sweet spots of each effect separately.

Just got it. Seems solid.

N/A

Good match for those looking to dupe EL-84 type gain on an amp that uses other tubes or is solid state. If you are looking for that, try this as I don't know of any other pedal out there that can do this. Vox used to make a pedal, but I cannot find it, and that pedal would still be one-dimensional, so try this. It is very versatile.
There is nothing to say negative about this pedal; so I won't. It is well made and sounds very professional.
I would not get this pedal to put into a Twin or other loud clean amp if you were looking to emulate the sound of a Fender cranked.
However, for blues/rock flavors a la Marshall (not metal, alt, grunge) and Vox-ish sparkle---this pedal shines.

Dead easy but there are really an infinite number of sounds available due to the interaction of the two drives and the tone. Some very cool sounds available and yes it does do a fine job of emulating the POWER amp stages of class A and A/B tube amps as they approach meltdown!!! Can be a little disconcerting to other band members but to me thats a plus!!

Using with Reverend Rocco, Tech 21 killer wail, reverend Drivetrain, Doyuble drive, Voodoo lab micro vibe, MXR Phasre 90, dod echo. boss ce 2 chorus into Tech 21 TM 60. (great amp). Pedal is going to give you noise due to the level of gain available. Not a drawback. Quite easy to dial up "just on the verge of overdrive" tones through to complete insanity. As I have said the controls are b=very interactive and once you get used to whats doing what you can just go from there. It is very responsive to different guitars too. Very adept at sending an already smoking amp into massive harmonic nirvana!!! (that may not be encouraged by certain amp manufacturers!!!)

Never had a problem with any Tech 21 gear, built to last. Gig without even thinking about backup, though I have the reverend too and the amp which has wonderful overdrive distortion already.

Only ever dealt with Tech 21 direct once and they were very helpful, you get the idea that they take great pride in their work.

Play rock/blues covers originals etc, been playing for 18 years or so. Suits all of it well, as long as you can remember what your favourite settings are. Would recommend it in an instant, just spend some time getting the sounds you want and have a good mess with all the controls, sometimes extreme sttings are cool too.

Very easy to work with. Only 4 knobs: Level-Tone-DriveA/B-Drive A.
It is very sturdy build, juist like all the tech-21 things.
Good manual, altoug you have to get used, that the signal is going trough the Drive A-voicing first. So you can get a Drive-A patch, or patch A/B or blend them together. Very good thinking !

Sound ! That's for certain. First of all, I have other tech-21 stuff (GT2-Tri AC- TRI O.D-Double drive). They are all good. But the tri-A.C is comming last place. The double drive now, the voicing is different to the TRI-AC, it is more the voicing of the TRI O.D..
This thing emulates the class A amps verryyy well. You get a really warm, sweet and mellow vox tone out of the drive-A voicing.
It is not harsh at all, in comparing to the boss GT6 or Digitecs e.o.
You really have a good dynamic control by playing style and roll of the guitarvolume, just like a real tube-amp does. I play this Double drive trough a Peavey Delta blues (el-84's) and also trough different fender tube amps.('65 deluxe reverb, Super reverb, twin reverb, bassman) They all sound very nice with the double drive.
Now the drive A/B (fender and marshall type) is less impressive.
But that issue is far better with the GT2 and the tri O.D.
you can also link other pedal together with the double drive, like chorus, or other clean booster. Just place them after the double drive.
The tone pot is very acurate. It reacts on the slightest change.
I always start at 12 o'clock, wich is bassy, and start twiddling around.
I use this pedal as well with a strat, tele, les paul (look out for the tone pot) es 335 (very nice) and a full jazz body (very impressive).
To me, this double drive is next to the classic and the gt2, the best tech-21 pedal there is.
The drive A/B is also satisfying, good voicing, good if you haven't got anything else. There are other makes that does this job also very good, but when it comes to the A-class amps, this is the thing.
I can deal in a sound, blindfold you, telling you I am playing trough Vox or Orange, and you WILL believe me.
I am working in the biggest music shop in town (muziek en vizie - Antwerp (Belgium)-Europe) and I have convinced many musician by doing this trick.
Well done tech-21

Completely noiseless, unless you dial the full max of the gain, but that is normal. True by-pass like other tech-21 stuff. I have other pedals as back up, I play in a rythme and blues band (bluesbrothers-roomfull of blues style) so I rely on other pedals also.
But I won't be afraid for a pedal break-down of this double drive.
Very long battery life.
Just like other tech-21 stuff, never had any problem with any of them.

Never had any problem with any of my tech-21 pedals.

As i wrote before, I play mostly rythme and blues, and old soulmusic, with different guitars (strat-tele-es335-les paul-full jazz bodys -p90 pichups) and different amps (all tubes - fender- peavey).
Now it is hard to find a good vox amp, and most of the used ones are in such a bad shape, and the prive is real high, I went looking for alternatives. I have tried many class a-emulators (every make there is) and to me, this double drive is the closest thing you can get.
you may even A/B it next to an original. Forget all the line 6, pod's,
boss and digitecs!
As I wrote before the a/b drive is also top quality, but not exclusively for tech-21. But the drive A is oolalah!