If it's good, it's good.

Just finished playing the set-up above. Sound Drive & Biyang are relative unknowns but good does not necessarily equals boutique. However, the good are most of the time well-known because reputation breeds mentioning.

Tube cleans + trusty distortion = best

These two friends are currently very impressive implements: Sound Drive's Tube 7 head & Biyang's Metal End King. It seems that, for a spectacular distorted output to happen, tube cleans would

complement your preferred distortion unit. This is NOT the case when one employs a tube equipped pedal through a solidstate amp.

Biyang: Metal End King

Tonal performance:

• pedal fulfills its 'Metal' tag; one of the best saturation this side of planet tubeless
• true bypass means no loss of your favoured cleans
• MEK's primary draw is its Amp Simulator function which is the manufacturer's pseudo-tube tone- you'd hear a marked difference when it's turned off, especially if you have your amp's volume cranked up
• for an instant scooped setting (after you have meddled with the 4-band EQ but need a quick switch), there's the High Cut feature.

Rich voicing:

• as if the EQ controls & Amp Sim features aren't adequate, the manufacturer included a 3-channel overall EQ voicing (Modern/ Normal/ Classic) + a 3-channel distortion voicing (Normal/ Bright/ Warm), so that's a 6-way variation for you to mess with
• the Level control, mind you, also affects tone in addition to volume level variation

Concerns:

• size- rather bulky, will affect the pedal board geek
• the distortion voicing's Bright mode produces a bump in volume