Selling: VS Route 808

Going for a good price- Visual Sound Route 808:

• Route 808 overdrive, box included, 8/10 condition
• No reservations/ trades
• Self-collect @ CCK MRT station
• Enquiries through e-mail
• Price is FINAL: $90

It's true

Visual Sound effects are now known as Truetone & the manufacturer is slowly phasing out the former brand name from the shelves. Starting off with the Jekyll & hyde pedal above in its Ver 3 manifestation, the manufacturer will be re-looking into other offerings as well, including its popular One Spot adaptor for pedals.

VS: Route 66 V3

This isn't new, the Visual Sound Route 66 pedal had been done before & it proved to be a popular 2-in-1 offering. Instead of cascading 2 overdrive units in a single housing, the Route 66 offers a compressor-overdrive pairing. The V3 version here has some refined features notably the clean mix control there that helps to balance unaffected signal in the output section which translates into more sustain. Unlike the wedge/pentagon outline of its predecessors, the V3 returns to a more traditional rectangular design that helps separate both ON/OFF buttons so having them sitting a little further apart means you can prevent accidental activation from taking place.

Taking the good route

I am not a Tube Screamer purist by any means, I admire any derivatives which manifest respectable tones especially the ones doing me good in terms of my playing. I was at Sound Alchemy yesterday & bought the (Visual Sound) Route 808 pedal you see here. As the hue & numerical assignments suggest, this one's in the likes of a TS808 but not entirely. I'm particularly attracted to the pedal's drive saturation which isn't available from the TS808. If you think you like Keeley's modded Tube Screamers for the tone but won't fork out an awful lot of money for one, do check out Route 808. Mind you, it's an alternative, not a poor man's version.

Driving hyde!

My VS' Son Of Hyde is one of the most rewarding distortion unit I own (it might not be so for you, it's ok... you are not me) due to its grittiness. Today I had the chance to pair it with the Cool Cat Transparent OD, on other days, I usually coupled it with my TS7. The result was a thicker, overall distortion voicing. This pedal would be more rewarding with an external bass control knob...

Distortion R Us...

These are all the distortion units I own bearing the 'Distortion' tag on them. They aren't excessively intense, just enough to out-drive an overdrive but nothing excessive to be worthy of a metal-type assault:

• Visual Sound: Son of Hyde
• BOSS: DS-1
• ARTEC: Soloist Distortion
• MXR: Distortion +
• Toadworks: Mr. Ed
• Seymour Duncan: Power Grid

PS: Elmo is not a distortion unit...

Visual Sound: Son of Hyde (Part 2)

I've tested the SOH thoroughly today & was content with its performance, suffice to say that if you are not interested in the DS-1 type of mild serving, the SOH is one to invest in.

The pedal's drive benefits from its Volume level enhancements; the higher the volume, the more saturated the distortion.

Being me, I simply had to pair the SOH with my 'workhorse' booster, the Ibanez TS7 & it's a lethal pairing indeed- this pair can match whichever metal-type distortion you have in store, bring it on! As this set-up benefits from a cascading gain effect, the saturation & harmonics trigger would surpass a stand-alone metal distortion & that's definitely good news for solos.

Visual Sound: Son of Hyde

My latest acquisition is yet another distortion pedal, this time a product by Australia's Visual Sound. This year, the manufacturer decides to release some trimmed-dimension pedals, some of which are actually detachments from the original unit which features a 2-in-1 module. The Son of Hyde here, is the distortion half of the parent Jekyll & Hyde. This SOH is only one such pedal in a series known as the V2 range.

As this pedal is a solitary distortion unit unlike its parent's twin offering, the reduced feature afforded trimmed dimensions as mentioned & this would be a welcome news to pedalboard mongers (of which I am not). Your eyes are not deceiving you- yes the pedal is missing a BASS control but it's not entirely unavailable, just hiding underneath the housing (that white circular contraption at the top portion), mounted on the circuit board. This isn't the only concealed tweaker, the board also features a built-in noise gate (the other white circular contraption at the bottom portion). It is activated by a minute slider switch so the user has an option to deactivate it should it get in the way of his/ her utility. The final noteworthy feature which I'd like to mention is the hinged battery flip cover; the fact that it's attached to the baseplate means you would not lose it should you fumble in dark performance venues.

Tone-wise, the SOH is my current favourite distortion unit. The mere 'distortion' label to many of us would invoke an image of a certain mild-mannered orange distortion box but 'mild' isn't what this pedal has to offer. Yes, at lower drive settings, the SOH is more than capable of a mild, booster-type distortion which many of us swear by, but turn the drive up & you can hear the rage of this little ditty; there's enough intensity & saturation to rival a metal-type distortion. The BASS control is maxed-out by default so there's lots of bottom end but it did nothing to muffle the overall drive voicing- this is what I find impressive. The noise gate function here is set to 'ON' inherently but dialed up to a rather low treshold value, however it did its job by suppressing excessive background hissing/ humming.

All in all, the SOH is a great discovery on a personal note since I have tried the original Jekyll & Hyde unit & could not credit its overall performance on grounds of tonal/ drive excellence (it may be a preferred unit to some of us but certainly not me). If you are looking for an alternative to the Landmine distortion because you need a more responsive EQ section, this is one to consider.