Barber ODs more suited for Marshalls or Fenders?

[Vishnu]

any thoughts on the subject folks?

 

[gerraguitar]

Well...I've heard...that the Gain Changer does for Fender amps what the Timmy does for Marshall amps. I love Barber stuff, I have the TP and the cDD, and I'm very much craving a GC but for some reason haven't gotten it yet, I'm sure they do wonderful things to anything they get plugged into.

 

[Novabut]

I run a Tele and a Strat through the Gain Changer into an old Mesa Boogie Studio 22. The clean channel is pretty bright and fenderish and i love what the GC does for it. It fattens up single coils just enough without getting flabby, and has a ton of tonal flexibility. It's not the most transparent OD (not a Timmy), even on the most open (LTD v2) setting, so if transparency is what you're after there are better choices.

 

[Vishnu]

I have a stack of Barbers and was considering a Marshall JCM800 but heard a Fender deluxe up loud at the weekend and I am reconsidering my choice of amp!

hence the question

 

[Vishnu]

I run a Tele and a Strat through the Gain Changer into an old Mesa Boogie Studio 22. The clean channel is pretty bright and fenderish and i love what the GC does for it. It fattens up single coils just enough without getting flabby, and has a ton of tonal flexibility. It's not the most transparent OD (not a Timmy), even on the most open (LTD v2) setting, so if transparency is what you're after there are better choices.

lack of fizz is more important to me than transparency

 

[zsno]

I had a Deluxe Reverb years ago that the Direct Drive was best friends with. Since then, I've mainly been playing through a TopHat Club Royale, and it likes the DD too, but it just doesn't do the same thing it did with the Deluxe Reverb.

I picked up a Silverface Twin yesterday, and briefly plugged my board in to play...the Direct Drive definitely loves Fender amps.

 

[mysterious1s]

They sound great thru fenders. Cant speak for marshalls tho.

 

[Trotter]

My Direct Drive sounds great though every amp I've tried it with. Last night I was playing it though my Allen Brown Sugar and really digging the tones.

 

[mjcyates]

Mine have sounded great through whatever I play through but I think they sound best through Fender style amps.

 

[mg550]

I think the Gain Changer is versatile enough to sound good on anything.

 

[mizzlfoshizzl]

Had the B-Custom Cool, currrently have the Half Gainer. All sound great through all my amps (see signature) and definitely not fizzy. The custom cool was a little too low-gain and not a lot of output for my application, but the half gainer is fat and punchy with a great twang to the strings. Love me some Barber pedals.

 

[ShelbyStrat]

My Barber Small Fry rocks through everything I run it on.

 

[Fulldrive-1]

My Direct Drive was more suitable for ebay!

 

[still.ill]

The Black Direct Drive has sounded kickass through any amp I put it too. It does nice things with the Fender Bassman channel of my Mustang II.

 

[MoPho]

I think the Gain Changer is versatile enough to sound good on anything.

I agree with this.

 

[0xeneye]

I think the Gain Changer is versatile enough to sound good on anything.

^^^
+ 2.
The LTD SR great with Marshalls and Vox.
The DD and DDSS rule on Fender.
The UnLTD goes everywhere.

 

[jlagrassa]

I think they would sound great into any good amp... even Solid State, that said I have been using Barber pedals into clean Fender amps for years there hard to beat! The Gain Changer and Compact Direct Drive are excellent pedals!

 

[Rockprocess]

I am a huge Barber pedals fan because of the fact that for me it has worked great with both Marshall, Fender and any other kind of amp.

Why? For me it comes down to the mid control. Many of his pedals have a mid trimmer on the inside if there is not an actual mid knob on the outside. When I've used pedals that didn't work for a Fender or Marshall it came down to too much or too little mids.

In my experience, many Marshalls I've played already had a lot of mids, so I would want to pair that with a overdrive/distortion pedal that doesn't add a lot more mids on top of that (unless thats the sound I'm going for). A lot of Fender's I've played have naturally scooped mids, so I look for a pedal that has a healthy dose of that.

Enter the mid knob. Depending on what EQ nature of the amp I'm playing, with a mid knob, I can dial in a complimentary amount of mids. Thanks for mid controls Mr. Barber!

 

[PatrickE_FenderADV]

I think the Gain Changer is versatile enough to sound good on anything.

I agree. The GC is one of my faves and may be back on my board sooner than later. The toggles and gain range make it a very universal OD.

Fwiw to the OP, I played a GC into a Fender for a year and they were top notch... Awesome combination.

 

[Ros]

My Gain Changer works with everything I've tried - from a Marshall JVM410H to a Fender CS Dual Professional and even a Blackheart Little Giant. Barber fan for life, here!

-R.