KoT just arrived

[rickman769]

I just plugged in my KoT for awhile and compared it to my other drives (Timmy and Kanji eternity)
I was a bit surprised to find that everything I've read about it doesn't seem to be what I ended up hearing. Bear in mind, I do like a darker tone and did my tests with a CS Strat through a Shiva EL34
I've heard folks say that the Timmy is brighter and grittier and that the KoT has lots of gain and a mid hump, but I found the very opposite to be true.
I've messed with the dip switches and I feel like I don't even get a volume boost until both the drive and level knobs are at or past 3 o clock.
The Kanji is much darker overall and has a very strong low mid presence with a some high roll-off unless the glass knob is cranked. At least triple the overall output and more gain than my high gain red side in DIST mode.
The Timmy I found to be much more versatile, the treble and bass knobs let me fatten, brighten, or darken the tone and there was more gain on tap in addition to overall output.
The KoT compared to all of these sounded a bit thinner and very low on output.

Am I crazy here or did I get a weird pedal?

Thanks

[Sub City]

It definitely sounds better at 3 O'clock or past; I run it with a Tone Press before. A bit fatter on the high end strings than the Barber LTD. I like the fact it's a 2-in 1 pedal with the boost on the left side. Overall, I'm liking it. Just got the latest Timmy, so I'll be comparing it soon.

[never-enough]

I have never heard the kot described as having lots of gain or a mid hump...
It is a low gain, non ts-based drive pedal.
The available output varies depending on the mode.
I don't ever have the volume or gain knobs set below noon in any of the modes.

[orogeny]

Your sig. . . Tal Farlow!!!???

. . . . good friends with Dave and Phil Petillo. . .

. . . they still speak of him very fondly.

I know a cat in Saratoga who has one of Tal's old Petillo guitars. . .

SOOOOOO beautiful. . . .

Phil can talk your ear off about Tal. What a gem. . .

It definitely sounds better at 3 O'clock or past; I run it with a Tone Press before. A bit fatter on the high end strings than the Barber LTD. I like the fact it's a 2-in 1 pedal with the boost on the left side. Overall, I'm liking it. Just got the latest Timmy, so I'll be comparing it soon.
A fellow guitar player and I went to hear Tal and this guitar player said to me,"No wonder he can play so good, look at those long skinny fingers !" Well, I thought for a few moments and I said, "No, that's not right... Segovia had fat fingers and Django could only use two on his left hand." I said, "That kind of playing doesn't come from the fingers, that kind of playing comes from the heart and soul." -Johnny Smith

[romo]

I have never heard the kot described as having lots of gain or a mid hump...


+1. One of the things I really like about the KoT is that you can get a good, clear, low to mid overdrive tone without it boosting your volume too much. This makes it much more useful to me because I like the tone of my amp clean, and the KoT adds a little more gain, kind of like adding a second channel to my amp. I can switch it on and off without huge jumps in my volume. Too many other overdrive pedals need to add a big volume boost to sound good. If you try get less volume boost they end up sounding very compressed. That makes it difficult to keep the volume level balanced between amp only and amp + effect. KoT solves this, the downside is that its not very useful as a clean/solo boost.

[analogmike]

Could be a problem with the pedal but my shipping guy has a great ear and not many bad pedals get out. KoT does not have a lot of distortion, a bit less than a tube screamer. Maybe a slight mid boost but not much. It's got a softer edge than the Tim/Timmy.

You need to remove all other pedals from your chain to test.

The easiest way to test if the pedal is ok (you would need two pedals to do this with almost any other OD pedal) is to set both sides to clean, all DIP switches down. Set all knobs to 1:00. Then you can compare the sides to each other.

Plug a guitar directly into it, into a clean amp. With single coils, the ON sound should be about the same as the OFF sound. Not much volume change. With humbuckers you'll have to turn it up.

It's about impossible for both sides to have a problem, if they match the pedal is ok.

In OD mode you have to turn the level up higher, and in DIST mode higher yet. Hope that helps!

[Kreiger]

Well, first off, every pedal (4) I've gotten off Mike has been great and he has a stellar rep so the problem most likely is when you come to places like TGP (or even talk to friends) about pedals and gear your will hear completely different opinions about the same exact pedal.

If I had the time a could do a hilarious side-by-side of people saying stuff like:

Guy #1: The Dano drive is as good as any $200 OD out there. Sounds geat, very sparkle-y.
Guy #2: The Dano drive is complete junk and sounds like an AM radio. No pro would touch one.

So, point being, don't let you expectations make you think the pedal is effed. Even clips and whatnot on websites are somewhat useless (especially w/ ODs).
I've never owned a KoT though, so I can't tell you what I think. (Dano Drive IS awesome, though-)

[MeMota]

I've heard folks say that ......the KoT has lots of gain and a mid hump, but I found the very opposite to be true.



That's exactly what I found... and what I expected.

From the Analogman Web page:

The KoT is one of the few overdrive pedals available that is NOT based on a Tube Screamer circuit. It does not have a huge amount of distortion. In OD mode, it has a little less drive available than a Tube Screamer. The KoT has less compression than a tube screamer, and also does not boost the mids or cut the low end as much.

Do you LIKE it though? I'd leave the dip switches in the normal position, and experiment with stacking the two sides if you want more gain and bite.

Great pedal IMHO.

[rickman769]

Yeah, I don't want anyone to think I'm upset about the pedal. I do like it, it just wasn't quite what I expected. The lack of significant volume boost surprised me, but it's just something I'll try to get used to.
Thanks for all the replies, especially Mike. It's really good to know you're out there to support your customers.
I'll spend some more time with it over the week and see if we can bond a bit better :)

[vintage66]

I just watched the gearmanndude video and his settings seemed to mirror those of the op-everything's up pretty high to get a boost. It sounded pretty good too.

[Bensen]

I'm sorry, but what's the KoT

[Sniper-V]

I just plugged in my KoT for awhile and compared it to my other drives (Timmy and Kanji eternity)
I was a bit surprised to find that everything I've read about it doesn't seem to be what I ended up hearing. Bear in mind, I do like a darker tone and did my tests with a CS Strat through a Shiva EL34
I've heard folks say that the Timmy is brighter and grittier and that the KoT has lots of gain and a mid hump, but I found the very opposite to be true.
I've messed with the dip switches and I feel like I don't even get a volume boost until both the drive and level knobs are at or past 3 o clock.
The Kanji is much darker overall and has a very strong low mid presence with a some high roll-off unless the glass knob is cranked. At least triple the overall output and more gain than my high gain red side in DIST mode.
The Timmy I found to be much more versatile, the treble and bass knobs let me fatten, brighten, or darken the tone and there was more gain on tap in addition to overall output.
The KoT compared to all of these sounded a bit thinner and very low on output.

Am I crazy here or did I get a weird pedal?

Thanks

Hmm, you either haven't quite figured the pedal out yet or there is something wrong with the pedal in function, because the KOTv.4 rocks dude!

By far my favorite OD pedal and it should sound like these clips I did:


KOTv.4 @ 1:55 - 3:30
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dBVu9_Fdnyw
dBVu9_Fdnyw


KOTv.4 @ :59 - rest of the clip
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6bRQNh5260w
6bRQNh5260w

[CyberFerret]

I'm sorry, but what's the KoT

The "King of Tone" overdrive pedal by Analogman. I am lurking trying to find out more about them - apparently there is a 1 year+ waiting period for a new pedal. I've been scouring the forums here and eBay for a second hand one to take a look at...

[overture2005]

I received my kot4(red side high gain mod) last week.
It's one of the best, I can get lots of great tone out of it.
So far kot4 is my no.1 pedal.