Tokai TDS-2 Distortion

As with most distiortion pedals, it's fairly obvious as to what each of the three knobs do: level (output volume), distortion (amount), and tone (color). For consistencies sake I'll compare this model to the Boss DS-1 distortion, since we're all sort of familiar with the sound and operation of that pedal.

I run a total junk setup which suits me just fine. Some generic electric guitar thing running through various cheap solid-state amps.

I tried this pedal both with and without a Marshall ED-1 "Edward the Compressor" infront of it, and it sounded great through both trials, if not somewhat noiser when I didn't use the compression.

I brought this thing without having ever heard of it and didn't bother trying it in the store (a 'good' philosophy giving you a 50% sucess rate, and you can always rip apart the cheap duds you may buy) so I was quite suprised with how lush this thing sounded.
Getting a nice smooth yet fuzzy-as-hell punk-ish/grunge sound is easy as pie. You have to crank this one up perhaps a bit more than your other distortion pedals, with the "Distortion" knob set to about 2 o'clock or thereabouts. The "Tone" knob on this thing is insane, covering about twice the range of the DS-1. This gives you a hell of a lot of tone-selecting power. The sweet spots seemed to be from about the 9 o'clock to 1 o'clock range, but your milage may vary.

Obviously with the knobs on lower settings you get very different results ... I can match the sound of my Ibanez FC-10 'distortion' (it's really an overdrive, let's be honest here) by keeping all the values pretty shallow and playing around with the Tone setting. This is vaguely TubeScreamer-ish for the unaware.

There seems to be a slight midrange scoop, which I see as a plus since it tends to even out things, but others might disagree. Also this unit is pretty damn quiet, so if its going to be last in your chain you might have to crank up your amp a bit.

One final note: as with many older pedals, there is a slight dropout when switching from clean to distorted mode. While it can be annoying I find it is easy to hide around the timing in your song ... it'll only take a few tries, quit bellyaching and LISTEN.

Lord knows how old this thing is, I'd put it somewhere in the early 80s ... and it seems to have held up pretty well. I havent done a hell of a lot with it so far, but a) it's a stompbox, and b) it's metal, so chances are it'll hold up to quite a bit.
The knobs themselves seem stuck on there pretty darn well, and the metal screw holding the pedal down looks like it could stand up to a fair bit of abuse.

I was quite suprised by and happy with this pedal as a purchase. I own quite a few pedals but this one managed to fill a nice niche in the variety I've got. The Boss HM-2 is great for big distorted choruses but can be a little too colored with that digi Boss flavour, likewise the DS-1 is *just* a little too wimpy, and can sound a bit thin. This pedal struck up a nice mid-ground between the two -- it can be distorted as hell but not as colored or a mix-hog.

This pedal is very easy to use only 3 dials, level, distortion and tone.

I use an Ibanez artist semi acoustic with a stereo chorus amp and I love this pedal . It was the first pedal I bought about ten years ago and it,s the only one I've held onto for that long. It's a bit noisy with the treble full on but I play a lot of punk and hardcore so sometimes like that. It gets some real grungy distortion from the bass setting. I also had the tokai heavy metal pedal but sold it as the sound was a lot harsher than this. All in all my favourite effects pedal.

This pedal has been to hell and back. Kicked, dropped, had unknown liquids spilt on it and generally been abused and has always worked. I had to solder a new battery connector on to it when I ripped the old one off changing the battery but thats all.

Never dealt with them.

I also have a DOD classic tube but prefer using this. I use it with a boss noise suppressor and Ibanez compressor sustainer. For good old punk thrash this is it for me I can get a reasonable variation of distortion sounds from it but prefer it full on. I haven't seen a lot of them around but if I lost it I would look out for another one. Cheap at the time I bought it new and good value for money. At the time I didn't really know what I was looking for but over time have come to realise I got lucky and made a good buy. I think the price equates to about $45 us.