NPD - Boss Angry Driver

[secretroutines]

I needed a more normal drive option, so I got an Angry Driver and now I have two. Blues Drivers have this... “spongey” quality to them that I really like. AND THE ANGRY CHARLIE IS SO AWESOME! I hate on the JCM800 sound because it is so common, but I admit, I needed it at my disposal.

[adamrobertt]

Nice, these are cool even though Josh is a dead eyed weirdo.

[somanytoys]

I pulled a Barber Gain Changer from my small board to test with other similar pedals, and replaced it with one of my modded Blues Drivers. That thing sounds great on the small board, I’ll probably leave it there instead. I’ve been looking for a place for it to get more use anyway.

Never tried any of the Charlies, the only JHS pedal that I have is the Colourbox, but it’s awesome. I don’t use it for the Revolution sound, but it does it.

[lamp]

I’ve had an Angry Driver on my board for 6 months or so and i think it’s brilliant. An external footswitch for extra switching options adds great versatility. I pretty much leave the BD on all the time then kick in the angry Charlie.

[somanytoys]

I do love the BD’s, more all the time. Both of the ones I have were modded - an old Keeley one and one modded by a company called EDNP.

The Keeley one is super loud and gets really grindy fast with the germanium, the other one is smoother and has a knob to adjust some internal tolerances to better accommodate it between single coils & humbuckers - different from the tone knob, but works with it really well.

They work well as lighter boosts or as distortions, but they sound much better in a mix than they do alone. I think that’s why a lot of people don’t really like them.

When I sent that 2nd BD to EDNP to mod, I sent a DS-1 that I had also gotten to JHS for their synth mod. I didn’t like it much at all, before or after the mod, and wished I had sent it to EDNP to do their similar mod as the one on BD instead. It probably would have given it a much more usable sound (for me), that thing was just screechy.

[jorri]

Had a Blues driver. Lots of character but got a mooer fulltone OCD clone 'hustle drive'. A lot more versatile for most situations. Similar ballpark.

[Shadoweclipse13]

I've been interested in trying an Angry Driver. I used to have a Keeley-modded Blues Driver, and with the gain cranked, it would start to slightly fuzz in the most ear-pleasing way. I've yet to find another overdrive that does that.

[somanytoys]

I have the old one with the 2 raised silver covers for the germanium on the top, that looks like some beefed up old car. It does get fuzzy, and. I think it’s because he used the germanium as part of his mod. Maybe others did too, I remember there being many, many mods.

The one I got EDNP to mod for me is much less hot in the gain and has a very versatile and usable tone range, very sweet. That’s what’s on the small board right now, and it just sings.

It’s so nice to pull out an older pedal and have a whole new love affair with it....

[secretroutines]

So here’s are my main takeaways about the Angry Driver in my setup (signal chain is: guitars > Mooer Juicer > Boss MS-3 > L1 EQD Hoof/Reaper > L2 DBA Interstellar Overdriver > L3 Angry Driver > amp) -

1. The Blues Driver side is going to be the clean-ish tone. Works well with each guitar whether it has single coils or humbuckers.

2. Surprisingly, I like the Angry Charlie better with single coils for the main drive sound. I think the Interstellar Overdriver might be a stack and the main drive for my humbucker guitars. We will see on this, I’m still dialing in sounds.

3. The Hoof/Reaper is reserved for the high gain sounds. Running it into the Blues Driver gives it something extra that I don’t think I would have tried before getting the JB-2.