Product: TopHat NOD-1
Price Paid: US $200 used
Submitted
05/15/2004
at
09:17pm
by
Brian RSTL
Ease of Use
:
10
3 knobs - gain level and boost. two footswitches gain & boost, can use it seperatly or both at the same time which is really nice. true bypass and has a boss style jack.
Sound Quality
:
10
nothing short of excellent. I plug into a rickenbacker 360 or a reverend rocco custom into a top hat club royale 2x12 with weber alnico blues.running sovtek el84's and 12ax7 and a gz34 recto tube. the wonderboy truly allows my guitars tone to shine.
its completly transparent and offers just the right ammount of gain without sound harsh and brittle. the wonderboy is the most natural overdriven sound i have ever heard. I have been through 20 overdrive/distortion pedals and this truly is the best so far. I think i have found my IMHO the warmest most transparent and versatile overdrive in the market. I will sparingly use my ts-808 from now on. This pedal is what I have been looking for and all ears are totally different and good tone is toatally
something we all have our own opinions about. The reason I like this pedal is that it reacts to MY style of strumming, MY type of pick attack and Fits into MY own personal style. If you have the chance to demo this pedal then i suggest you try it out.
Reliability
:
10
Top hat amps are in my opinion my perfect sound. The owner of the company was very helpfull when I ordered my amp from him. I have owned 3 club royales and have never once had any problems with them. dont see this pedal breaking anytime soon and if it does Im sure Brian at top hats will be able to work something out. I also owned a top hat xpressor which hasnt failed me yet or its 2 previous owners.
Customer Support
:
10
like i said Bri's the man !
Overall Rating
:
10
I play in an indy rock band, lean towards brit rock experimental and melodic grundge.
The top hat products cover my style perfectly and I doubt any other product will be able to fit the bill as well as these products do. Its not metal shred stuff but can hold its own in a heavy rock band. If this pedal was ever lost or stolen I would save up some cash and get another one as soon as i could. I honestly can find a damn thing I hate about it...... enough talking ...Im gonna go play!
Product: TopHat NOD-1
Price Paid: N/A
Submitted
03/13/2003
at
07:31pm
by
Anonymous
Ease of Use
:
9
This is a two stage overdrive pedal. Gain and level control for the distortion, just level for the boost. No manual, it's not necessary.
Sound Quality
:
10
I'm using this pedal with a Flying V w/DiMarzio Norton and Fred pickups into a Vox wah I rebuilt with Fulltone parts. I'm using a Marshall 50w Plexi reissue with a straight 4x12 w/30w Celestions. I use the wah before the OD, and it sounds great. I used to use a Fulldrive 2 with this setup, but I found that I like tube screamer type pedals better with Fender amps, which I don't happen to own. So I bought this pedal hoping to achieve a smoother, creamier sound ala Malmsteen, Schenker or Steve Stevens. I really like it. It is very thick sounding, with no added midrange crap. I run the mids wide open on my amp, anyway. The overdrive sound on this pedal reminds me of an old DOD 250. No chainsaw or buzz, just a smooth ripple at low gain levels. Higher gain levels yield mud, as I use relatively high output pickups. The boost switch adds output level and presence. The cool thing is, unlike the Fulldrive 2, you can use either function independently. Variety is cool. When I bought this pedal, I figured I'd just e-bay it if I didn't like it. Well, I ain't e-baying sh*t! This rig is the BALLS! Now I gotta find me a small amp that sounds good with this stuff. (Marshalls are loud...even the reissues)
Reliability
:
No Opinion
I don't know about this yet. I pulled the back off the pedal, and was surprised to find that there's alot of parts in there. Usually, when something sounds this good, you find out there's not much to it. It's built very well, though, so time will tell.
Customer Support
:
10
Brian Gerhard has great customer service. Boutique companies will not stay in business long if they don't. Top Hat makes a Marshall copy that sounds great, too.
Overall Rating
:
10
For a long time, I've been looking for that warm, brown BANG! sound. You know the one I mean: Malcolm Young meets Randy Rhoads, gets mugged by VanHalen, then gets drunk at bar with Ace Frehley. I don't know if this is it or not, but I like it, so I'm gonna work it. Also, I don't like many effects, though I'd probably buy a phaser and flanger if I could find ones that sound like the old MXRs, but had true bypass. In the meantime, this will make an able companion to my VOX wah. (it gets lonely on the floor all by itself)
