Visual Sound Route 66

Quite easy to use. Basically two pedals in one, split down the middle. Read other reviews for the details. The battery door on the back really kind of sucks and is difficult to squeeze a battery into. It's too small and you can just barely get a 9 volt in there. They should cut this hole bigger.

Tones were good. The overdrive part sounded like a TS808, or any of the many TS808 clones on the market. Very subtle, bluesy overdrive. Far from being a TON of gain, if that's what you're after. Very smooth overdrive with little grit. I prefer more grit and edginess in my overdrive, and I'm not some heavy metal guy, but this thing is very smooth and syrupy. Also addds lots of sustain, making the compressor half almost not necessary is you primarily use a compressor for sustain alone. I prefered the sound of the overdrive all the way down, which gives you just a bit of break up. I wasn't nuts about the tone knob on the overdrive half as it was very subtle right up until about 9. Between 9 and 10 (all the way up) there's a HUGE leap in treble. This kinda sucked.

The compressor part was quite pleasant and had a very vintage compressor tone. Can get very squishy and squashy when cranked up and is very nice at low settings. This effect is great for giving your tone just the slightest boost and sweetening. Very nice all by itself. Can also be used wonderfully for a clean boost.

Now my big problem with this pedal is it's noisey as hell. When either effect is engaged you get a lot of hum, especially if you have either gain knob really cranked up. When both are engaged look out! Tons of hum! Sounds like a weed whacker set on high. You expect some noise from a pedal, but this was just unacceptable. And yes, I used it with a variety of guitars (mainly single coil) and amps. All hummed. I sent it back because of this and this is where the low rating comes from. Without the hum, I'd give it a 9.

Seemed fairly solid. Metal case.

Never tried them.

The overdrive half of this pedal is primarily for blues. I don't play blues, I play roots rock and wanted something with more grit and bite. The compressor is great for country, roots rock and any thing else along those lines. The noise factor forced me to return it. If you can live with lots of hum, knock yourself out. Summing up, I liked the overdrive, loved the compressor, hated the noise.

This pedal is simple. It's basically two effects in one. Half of the pedal is overdirve with three knobs (Drive, Tone, Vol) the other half is compression with three knobs. (Sutain, Tone, Gain)
There is also a boost switch for the OD to give it some more low end. It's very easy to get a wide range of sounds out of this pedal. One of the best features about this pedal is it has separate footswitches for each effect.

This pedal is advertized to sound like a TS808, I can't say whether or not this is a true claim or not cause I've never played a TS808, but the sounds I get are amazing. The overdrive is very smooth, and very clear. The definition of each note is very clear even on heavier settings. I can get good blues sounds reminicent of SRV, and the like. The Bass boost switch is nice to give the OD tha extra oomph you're looking for.
The compression was exactly what I was looking for, very versatile giving a great range of tonal possibilites. From a tight squashed signal, to sustain that last for days. Being able to turn each effect on and off independently of one another is a great option.
There is some buzz, but that's my pickups, not the unit. You will get some feedback with extreme gain settings on the compression, but the manual warns of this, and it's expected anyway. With sustain cranked all the way, tone anywhere from 9-12:00. and the gain at about 8:00. I can get a real quiet smooth sustain. When I kick the OD in I can get those great sustaining notes that last for days.
My setup:
60's fender strat > Electro Harmonix Q-tron > Teese RMC3 wah > Route66 > Danelectro Cool cat > Volume Pedal > Danelectro Dan-Echo->Fender Deluxe 112+ amp.
I have a ts9 modded to 808 specs on it's way to me, I don't know how it compares yet, but if you want to know my opinion drop me an email.

I just got this pedal, it's made out of steel so it's durable, and I'm not worried about it dying on me.
I'm being optomistic and giving this a 10.

I've been playing for 6 years, I play classic rock, and jam music. (Hendrix, SRV, Dire Straits, Zep, Phish, Dead, etc) This overdrive is what i was looking for, nice thick and smooth, just the right ammount. And the compression is amazing. I can't reiterate enough how versatile this pedal can be.
I've played several other pedals both compression and OD, and other combinations. (Danelctro Daddy-o, 70's MXR Vintage Dynacomp, Tech 21 comptortion) This pedal blows them all away. The Daddy-o was nice, but not nearly as smooth as this, a little bit rougher around the edges (which is sometimes desierable.) The Comptortion was the only other pedal that i know of that is trying to combine distortion and compression, it didn't have independent switches, and it got noisier the more compression you added.
If it were stolen I'd get another, without a doubt.
The one thing I liked more about other OD pedals was separate EQ knobs (i.e. treble, bass, mid) but the one tone knob can dial in exactly what you're looking for on this pedal.
This is the best pedal for the money, it combines two effects, and does a great job of keeping them independent of each other, and at the same time offers great possibilities when they're combined.

Easy to squeeze a great tone outta this box...dialing in overdrive is straight forward, the compressor takes a few knobs sweeps to figure out how the unit reacts to you signal and once you figure out how much "squash" you want, you are in chicken heaven....with sauce!

ricky 370-12/"debbie" gibson 345->rt.66->Fender Fuzz/wah->Boss ps-3->Maestro stage phaser->eh microsynth->digitech time machine->amps. Isolated, this unit is not too noisy....(true hard-wire bypass with a great buffer circuit for long pedal chains like mine) but when you add more shit to my chain, yer likely to p/u something...EXPECTED.
by itself, if you really squash yer sound you get a LITTLE bit o' noise...but noise is what you make it...

I've had no problems. Yes, I'd go live w/o a net with this one fur sure.

I met Bob Wilde (sp?) a couple weeks back. He seemed like a real down-to-earth guy who is gear minded, not MONEY minded - I doubt that you'd have any problem in dealing with repairs with Visual sound unless they take off like a rocket and don't hire more techs~! I image this piece just might take them there~!

the music i play varies from trip-rock to jazz and everything in between, this pedal is great for solid, stand out leads and country-style squash twang-especially with a ric!
This pedal is a real switchblade in a sea of one trick ponies - overdrive is very versitile and musical and the compression is a real gem - to put them together is a true brainstorm idea!~
I hope Visual sound comes out with more dual pedals soon! (how about a chorus/delay Bob? :)

Just as easy as the Jeckyll and Hyde. No difference in usage. Two effects. TS808 and a Vintage type Compressor effect. Same manual which has suggestions for settings. Easy to get a TS808 sound, but may be difficult with untrained ears for combining the compressor and fat switch with the ts 808 portion.

Great sound. I own the Jeckyll and Hyde and its my main overdrive unit and I wanted to try this out since there predecessor was really good. However, I am still disappointed in Visual Sound with the non true bypass feature. Visual sound needs to get with the program. Everyone else who makes great pedals use it. I tried my dammest to get someone to convert my Jeckyll to a true bypass unit. But its too complicated due the switches being part of the switch board.

Anyway, the pedal has the same great TS808 tone. Also the fat switch and compressor does a excellent job on enhancing the TS808 tone. I love the fact that I don't have to crank my tube amps to the hilt to get this cool compressed sound. It sounds wet and juicy which I like.
Visual sound made the TS808 portion definitely sound better than the orignal in my opinion. I had owned three TS808's in the past. And the best thing that the original TS808 had that no clone could copy was the wet juicy factor of the sound. Now they nailed with the compression feature and fat switch. So thumbs up. This will go on my board for sure and stay.

I gave a 8 for the reason that they are not making these in true bypass. Such a great pedal and it deserves this in my opinion. All my effect are true bypass except the visual sound pedals and that sucks to me. And to some, true bypass isn't worth it because it makes a "pop sound" when switch. When my experiences has been this on that aspect. If you put a pedal in a certain order in your effect chain it will either reveals the "Pop" or hides the "pop". For example. Analog Mikes Clone Clone( an example) makes pop sounds when you run the pedal alone or before an overdrive or distortion unit, which really holds back the tone of any phasor, chorus effect anyway. When I put it after the distorion pedals, I discovered there is no longer a pop or deppreciation in tone.