This one came about because of a few pics and comments I was noticing where people were buying multiple Tym effects and chaining them together on their pedal boards. I noticed that it was mainly with my mini pedals, although people were cascading my bigger pedals with minis as well. With pedal board space at a premium, and power supplies running out of outlets, I thought I'd work something out.
This idea works well with nearly all my two know mini pedals and there are more options coming soon, but I thought I'd start with a drive pedal that I would certainly use live. In fact, I did use this set up for years in a band I played live in and it was the only pedal I used at the time.
It's no secret how much I love both of these classic 70's overdrives. I make them in several different versions and the Tymexar is the basis for many of my distortions including the official Bob Mould Beauty & RUIN as well as several custom pedals I've made for friends. Cascading these two drives can give you so many options into so many amps.
The Tymexar is of course my version of the classic 70's distortion and is still, I think, one of the greatest distortion pedals ever made. Simple, dynamic and rich, it can go from a mild overdirve/boost to a full distortion and keep it's clarity intact. It's the classic 70's "Marshall" drive sound, along with of course .....
The ODP666 is my version of this 70's Overdrive and while being very similar circuits, as explained in several previous blogs, it has a character all it's own. It also goes from mild overdrive (preamp) boost to full distortion and while basically having the same "engine", it has a nice harmonic to it that the Dist doesn't have. It's probably more sensitive to guitar volume control too which makes it a very versatile little unit.
So, since I've seen a few peoples boards who own both of these, and it's something I would personally use, and I have made these for friends already, I figured it was time to make it available as a standard Tym effect.
I emailed Tone and said I wanted to make them as one pedal in the flat top enclosure I use for my Fuzz Munchkin/Tatanka etc. but this one would obviously need 4 knobs instead of 2 or 3. With the knobs offset slightly they even out distance and still make sense. Since this enclosure already runs two stomp switches and two LED's, everything seemed to fall into place.
Tone emailed back the artwork and as always, I loved it. The tear down the middle was exactly what it needed to differentiate the pedals and makes it very clear what they actually are without being confusing or complicated.
As this is a reasonably simple "double drive" where each effect can be used independently, or cascaded together, it ends up being VERY versatile where one can be used as a boost, then distortion or a distortion, then boost ..... or the not so faint hearted, two distortions.
I emailed Tone with a bunch of my effects I can do this with after a few customers came in one Sunday to chain my mini pedals together while we picked our favourites. Some work better first, or with certain other pedals. I made a note of what I particularly liked and Tone did up some artwork.
As I needed more enclosures for Munchkins I redrew the enclosures to have the 4th knob added as standard so I didn't have to drill every box to make these. The idea behind these is to keep it simple, and therefore as cheap as possible while offering more options and less real estate for people who like owning more than one of my pedals. Because of this I won't be adding series switches or clipping options like some of the custom ones I've made for people, but hopefully I've picked the best options of running two of my standard two knob mini pedals in one package with one power supply and offering the best versatility and tones.
The first batch of these should be ready in a few weeks and will be available, like all my effects through my site as I have time to make them. Some more versions may become available as people request for two to be "put together" for convenience.