Visual Sound Route 66 V2

This is one of the great effects pedals, so well-designed that it's difficult to fault. It consists of (brilliant idea) a post TS808-type overdrive and a compressor, plus (inside) a noise gate and a buffer - please note then that it is NOT 'true bypass'. It is easy to get a good sound, in fact almost impossible to get a bad sound unless the gain and tone stages are set wrongly. The manual is informative too. I would say that the knob settings are near-impossible to see on a stage though.

Invariably i use a modified Japanese System III Strat or a Tele; this is first in the chain and I would put a chorus and some sort of delay after it...then into a clean Fender valve amplifier. The pedal is totally quiet as far as I can hear, which is very far indeed thankyou.
The compressor; plenty of squish, very musical, defeatable tone control, and hooked up to a chorus it is easy to get those L.A./N.Y. studio clean tones (think Lee Ritenour). I compared it with my Keeley comp (a life-changing pedal!) and in some ways, for some situations, preferred the colouration of the Route 66, the Keeley is after all VERY hi-fi and completely transparent. By contrast, the Route 66 comp seems a little less tiring on the ear, if that's possible?
The overdrive; jumpin! I am not familiar with TS808s but this is an excellent o/d - I compared it with the overdrive on an Xotic AC+, a G2D Creamtone (wonderful pedal) and the Visual Sound equalled both and retained more of my Strats tone, too - very subjective but it's definitely livelier than the AC+ and even at low volume you can easily sense this 'coming back' from the pedal into your hands. However the AC+ has more tonal variations and goes cleaner than this, and the G2D does that too and is just more flexible....swings and roundabouts. So don't chuck your other overdrive out, as no single pedal can do it all. But i have to give this near-top marks for the musicality and response of both comp and o/d.

Can you depend on it? I should cocoa!! It's solidly built, very well designed though those small silver knobs are a pain for a short-sighted middle-aged guitarist with glaucoma to see clearly(I can't read the small print on CDs any more, either). Oh yes, you can depend on it IF you are sensible enough to look after your gear and not throw it around, pour beer over it, etc. As for using it on a gig without a backup...I generally gig myself without a backup...I generally breathe without a backup...I can't afford a roadie or a respirator.

Well they have a good website, Bob Weil gives a good interview and they're all 'brothers in Christ' which may be completely irrelevant to me but obviously informs their entire philosophy. As I understand it, Visual Sound products are manufactured in China like so many things are these days, and it seems to be made well enough that IF you take care of it, it shouldn't need repair. I have no idea at the moment what I would do if it did need repairing.

I play jazz, rock, blues and covers; I have been playing 33 yrs and taught guitar for 10. Excuse me, but I don't feel the need to list my gear, but I do own a VS Jekyll&Hyde which is also a very good pedal with a 'hooligan' vibe to it, if that's possible. I would definitely replace the Route 66 immediately if stolen or lost, as I just love the whole thing - the idea of a comp & o/d all in one is excellent, the design is good, and the sounds terrific. If I put my Keeley comp in line before one of my other o/d pedals I should get the same thing but not this well matched. It is inspiring musically. And cheap at the price.
Visual Sound also do the H2O chorus/delay; I don't need one, but I'm quite tempted! Now if they only did a phaser and flanger double pedal, they'd have covered the lot.

NOT the easiest pedal to use, but not the hardest. Getting a great sound is easy, but getting a perfect balance between the two channels, amp, and guitar is a little trickier. You have to remember that the compression has gain which makes it act sort of like a preamp. This feature is what makes this pedal truly great....The Route 66 does not have one setting that sounds bad so ease of use is STILL a 10...

Obviously, this is where the pedal excels. I have a pretty basic setup. A Fender Hot Rod Deluxe, American Strat, Planet Wave cables, and an Older Ibanez with an Air Norton in the neck and an Evolution in the Bridge(backup Rg4exqm1, basswood body, rosewood fretboard...etc). The beauty of this pedal is that it reacts like a pedal of this caliber should. My Ibanez sound COMPLETELY different than my Fender does through the pedal. Some may say, "DUH!", but compare this to say...a BOSS which makes every guitar sound the same(don't lie to yourself, they do), this is a definite plus. A very transparent pedal.

With the gain on fairly high, the tone at around 3 o'clock, and the compressor on(gain at noon) you can get an awesome jazz/fusion sound. I've been looking for this sound for a long time. Very reminiscent of Greg Howe. However, only humbuckers are going to get this sound, with my strat(one piece maple neck) it's impossible. EXTREMELY creamy overdrive, which is expected from a tubescreamer knockoff, but with way more gain and way more bottom end thanks to the bass boost. Many tubescreamers lack a good tight bottom end and gain, so this pedal solves both!

The pedal does have a noise reduction circuit, but the factory setting is set at the lowest position. You actually have to take off the backplate, pull out the circuit board(be careful!) and turn the little white plastic piece. Its not hard, but I figure the higher the setting, the more tone is sucked so mines is set at around half way.

For Stevie Ray Vaughan licks, again this is an excellent pedal. Turn the amp way up, put the gain at around 8 o'clock(barely any at all), turn the tone knob up, and you have all your great blues tones. The crisp attack, vicious snap, and piercing mids are all there. This includes a beautiful lower end. I use 12's on my strat and this pedal only boosts the lower end without sucking any tone at all. The greatest reason for owning this pedal is the additional gain available from the compressor side. You can go from SRV licks, to a rich and very thick distortion with the same pedal

Yes I can depend on it(I bought the Guitar Center extended performance warranty anyways) and I would gig without a backup...although it is some what hand wired so the warranty does provide some relief. :)

Excellent...great thing about smaller companies, customer service.

Most guitar centers should carry this product so you can test it out. Trust me, you won't be disappointed from either side of the pedal.

See other reviews for features. Just the fact that this has 2 pedals in one is pretty great. I???d also like to mention VS???s proprietary stomp switches. They???re absolutely fantastic. They don???t click like a normal switch, but have an extremely solid & comfortable feel. I wish all my stomps had them. Pretty easy to get a great sound, but tweaking volume levels between the two sides can take a little effort. Overall, pretty much plug n play.

Well, I was looking for a new compressor right when the newly redesigned Route 66 showed up on Musician???s Friend. I???d heard tons of great stuff over the years, so I decided to give it a try.

First, there???s the OD side, based on a tubescreamer. I use this mainly for solos, and it has a nice, warm sound that still cuts through a mix very well. There is a ton more gain and volume available than in a TS (I???m familiar with reissues only). As with a standard TS, the tone can get a bit muffled below say 11:00. However, the bass boost gives much more body and depth to the sound, and I prefer to leave it on.

The compressor side is just awesome. Nice and thick sounding, pretty quiet, and does exactly what I want it to. I use it for funk and reggae rhythm playing, and sometimes as a solo boost.

Of course you can also combine the two sides, which is primarily what intrigued me about the pedal. I wanted the ability to get nice, sustained lead tones. Works like a charm. It can be a bit of a trick balancing the levels between the three functions of the pedal, but it just takes a bit of patience, and I tend to ride the volume on my guitar anyway.

This thing seems absolutley top notch in quality. I???ve been rehearsing and gigging with it for about 4 months now, and I haven???t had any issues. Seems to be as sturdy as any other pedal I own.

never had to deal with them

I???ve been playing for about 25 years. I currently spank it in a rock, funk, reggae & soul band. My main guitar for many years has been a late 80s American Std strat. Works very well with this pedal. I also run a Bad Monkey, Barber Ltd, MXR Phase 90, crybaby, digiverb & digidelay through a 1x15 Peavey Delta Blues. My pedalboard is pretty much set at this point, though I???d like to upgrade my delay pedal someday. I???d have to replace the Route 66 if it was lost or stolen because it???s pretty kickass and I love the tones I get out of it. Makes me want to try some other Visual Sound pedals. Maybe they???ll put their delay in a single pedal? (hint, hint) I give a 10 here because it does exactly what I want it to do.

This is the very latest version of Visual Sound's Route 66. It's essentially two pedals in one; a compressor/clean boost on one side and TS-808/Tube Screamer copy on the other; more on this later as calling the overdrive side "a copy" is doing a great disservice to what the pedal's potential has to offer. Additionally, on the compressor side is an on/off rocker switch that allows you to either use the tone circuitry or bypass it completely. The overdrive side of the pedal has the usual knobs a la the Tube Screamer but adds the addition of a bass boost rocker switch; a great help for lower volume playing or fattening up single coils. If you know how to use a Tube Screamer then you know how to use this. Simple, direct, effective.

This pedal is first in my signal chain. Visual Sound uses what they refer to as "pure bypass" as opposed to "true bypass". I know there's a lot of controversy over this whole bypass concept but their built in buffering system that they put in all their pedals is a stroke of genius, especially if you run a whole lot of pedals in your chain. It helps to eliminate or at least mitigate line loss when using a bunch of true bypass pedals and long cable runs and does it brilliantly. There is absolutely no discernable change in tone that I can detect whatsoever other than to say that it sounds like my guitar is running straight into my amp tonewise. They've also added a nifty little noise reduction circuit internally that can be enabled/disabled by the user and has a noise reduction trim pot as well. It comes set from the factory in the "on" position and noise reduction set at minimum. I've never heard a noise reduction circuit that I liked until now.....that's because I always 'heard' the noise reduction circuitry! Not here. Again, no tone sucking or weird artifacts. It just works like it should. This is the best compressor I've ever used (I know, taste is subjective) and I've been playing professionally for 40+ years. There is so much range in the controls that you could merely use it as a wonderfully clear and neutral clean boost or use it to squash your signal and make it darker or brighter using the tone circuitry. The overdrive side is patterned after the old standard Tube Screamer/TS-808 but to my ears it is much smoother, a little less grainy, and has gobs of gain on tap. I have an old original TS-808 and in a side by side comparison I have to say that the Visual Sound pedal easily captures the tone and nuances of my old pedal but with a much more harmonically rich vibe; plus, it's a whole lot quieter. The cherry on top of the sundae is that you can boost your overdrive sound by running the compressor into it at the same time for even more tonal variety and refinement. Ahhh, sweet tone and sustain for days! For my needs and for getting two pedals at less than the price of one so called "boutique" pedal it's a solid "10".

Any pedal, no matter who built it, modified it, or designed it can go down on a gig. I have no concerns whatsoever of the reliability of this pedal. In fact, this new version has a couple of new features that the previous didn't, making it just that much more failsafe. The new casing is a solid piece of metal with smoothed edges, no folded thin metal like the previous version. It feels solid and secure, like a big Boss pedal (the gold standard over the years for reliability in stompboxes IMHO). They've also "idiot-proofed" this pedal by keeping the input jacks free from the circuit boards so that should you accidentally step on an input jack cable you won't take out the whole board. Also, these pedals are set up internally in such a way that should you use the wrong type of power adaptor the pedal won't work; no smoke, no cursing, just no output. Finally, all the Visual Sound V2 versions have a new proprietary footswitch that is silent and smooth (no click) and is designed in such a way that they say that it's good for "10,000,000 stomps". I don't know about you, but I don't think I'll be around long enough to "out-stomp" that claim.

Well, here's the good part! I've met these guys before and I've got to say that this company sets the bar for customer service and support. They certainly want you to have great tone and they absolutely want you to be happy. How many companies can you say that you're able to communicate directly with the president should there be a problem? There is a family atmosphere to the way they do business and I know that if I were to have an issue that they would jump on it and get it resolved immediately. No worries here!

As I said earlier, I've been playing for 40+ years as a professional and I've pretty much used all the toys out there effects-wise. This pedal has been super-glued to my pedalboard! Perhaps more people would be using Visual Sound pedals if they charged a whole lot more like a lot of the so-called boutique pedal companies do. I think some people feel that they have to pay a bunch of money to get great tone, flexibility and reliability; not true. Here's a company that gives you two (count 'em, two) pedals in one for less than you'd pay for, well, you know the brands out there if you've been in the biz for a while. I look forward to using more of their pedals as the new versions are released. Get one before they realize that they've way underpiced their products!