Ultimate Drive Guitar Pedal, Horse Electric Effects Pedals Mini Single Type DC 9V True Bypass

Good

Good price, nice built but the sound was not what I was looking for. Maybe good for others.

This is freaking great. No, I'm serious. I've been playing for over 25 years and have purchased dozens (maybe hundreds) of pedals and effects, and this is probably the best value in a pedal I've ever seen, and one of the best-sounding mini pedals I've used that rivals pedals like the Rat, OCD, Tube Screamer, Boss DS-1, DS-2, BD-2, OD-1 and countless clones. Want to know what it sounds like? If you've ever heard the OCD, it's very similar. Some of the EQ'ing is a bit different, but as far as drive/gain goes, it's spot-on. One thing I love about this pedal is its versatility. Set the gain near the bottom, crank the volume and it can be used as a clean boost. Crank the gain and it makes for a great overdrive. Dime the gain and you've ventured deep into distortion territory. This is also similar to the Rat in tone, IMO, but you can't get those high-gain fuzz sounds with this pedal, and it cleans up a little better than a Rat. It also has a switch that you can engage for just a little more mojo. My only critique of the pedal is the size of the knobs. Those things are small. I get that it's a mini pedal, but I've seen other minis with larger knobs. Oh, and please don't be like some of these other reviewers and complain that a $19 pedal doesn't come with a free $19 power adapter. Come on, son! Anyway, this things is great. Line noise is low with this, the tone knobs works well and I love the gain sounds I can get out of it. I'm currently pairing it with a Rat and an H9 Crushstation algorithm to layer my gain sounds, and this is a vital part of that equation. I'm telling ya, you can't go wrong with this very inexpensive pedal. Cheers.

Today's guitarists look for a lot in the pedals. Lots of promises as much as lots of performance. This Horse branded pedal provides the later, but does not have the name recognition (or elevated price tag) to suggest the former. No matter. It performs well and seems robustly built. The Gain control adds overdriven tube type harmonics, as well as some compression, this from very moderate up to a heavy enough dose to be called true distortion. The level control allows one to balance the output level so that the pedal on/off level matches. But it also allows the pedal to drive an amp's front end and bring on the then overdriven tube's own distortion and compression effects. Add a basic tone control and a switch that enriches the bottom while reducing the highs and a player has lots of good sounding tonal options. Highly recommended!

This is for the Horse Crunch Distortion mini pedal (red). I was impressed with the tone. The three knobs are small, but they have some stiffness to them so that you're not accidentally going to move them (that's a good thing). The footswitch doesn't feel very rugged, which is common with many of these inexpensive mini pedals. That's the only concern I have with this pedal that one day the footswitch could go, but I haven't had that happen yet. If it does I'll break out my soldering iron. Each of the three knobs have a wide range and make a difference. I find the best sound is having all three knobs dialed in just around noon. It's a good distortion and not one of those terrible 'buzzsaw' / 'chainsaw' trebly sounds. It can go high gain, but not in that nu-metal tone. It's nice and tight. I'm glad I got it. I use it as a backup. Worth the $30.

Great for the price. Does the job well.