Every time I hear someone play an ODR-1, I dig it. It’s just a really good sounding pedal! I had somehow missed until a couple years ago that it was something of a Nashville staple pedal.
Back in like 2021, I had a guitar buddy that had one, and he loaned it to me. I really liked it. It was like a Tube Screamer but without the mid-hump. Did I mention that I really liked it? So I found a mini-ODR for $50 shipped, so I got it. For some reason, it never did much for me. I never could get it to sound like I remembered the other one sounding. So a year or so later, I traded it off. I think it was in that box of pedals that I traded to GC for my PodGo.
Since I got rid of it, I’ve always remembered really liking that one I had borrowed. I should’ve just gone back to that buddy and asked if he wanted to sell it, but I never did. I’d still occasionally think I needed to try one again. Being the fan I’ve always been of Wampler, about a year ago, I had some Amazon credit, so I picked up a Belle.
I like the Belle. To my ear, it’s a lighter OD than what that buddy’s ODR could be, but it’s a good sounding pedal. It has that button on the side that’s supposed to do something to the clipping, but, honestly, I don’t hear a difference. I actually ran it on my board for a while. I ran it into a klone, and those two sounded really, really nice to my ear.
So last weekend, during all the Labor Day gear sales, I saw someone that had one of the full-size ODR-1 pedals on sale for $100 shipped. So I bit. Got it in this week, and I’ve played around with it a bit. I like it better than the mini that I had. Or at least how I think I remember the mini sounding. (Yes, I know they probably sounded just the same, and I’m being stupid.) Got it all set up to a sound I like, and it’s a nice sounding pedal.
Then, today, I remembered that I have an old Visual Sound Open Road in the drawer. From what I’ve been told, it’s an ODR-esque pedal. So I pulled it out this morning, lined up the new ODR-1, the Belle, and that Open Road. I played around with them to get them sounding the way that I like them. Once I got that done, it shouldn’t be too much of a surprise that they sounded pretty much the same. I was, also, reminded just how much I like that Open Road. For drive pedals, it sometimes gets shoved to the back of the drawer and forgotten.
After this morning, I’ve actually got that Open Road laying on the floor to take the place of a TS-clone that I have on my board at the moment. I had forgotten just how much I like that pedal. I’ll swap them out this afternoon.
The Belle and the ODR will go into the drawer. I’m not looking to get rid of either at this point. I’m glad I got that ODR. Otherwise the the Open Road may’ve stayed buried in the back of the OD drawer for a while more.