Is the ethos all its cracked up to be?

It does have a good clean boost and it is very simular to the Zen but it just didn't work for me.

 

It's a great Dumble-like pedal. I didn't care for the lowend on the original, but the TLE-mod from what I've gathered has fixed this.

Whether it's worth the money or not is all up to you. It looks like there are a few different pedals on the horizon worth checking out if you want smooth lead tones with lots of sustain - Andy Fuchs of course will be releasing his Plush Drive that sounds really great from the clips I've heard. The Zendrive is Dumble-ish, but doesn't have a lot of gain - so that may be a shortcoming based on your setup.

 

Clay Jones

 

Jack,

I've played all the pedals in this vein, played real Dumbles and plenty of clones....the Ethos is the closest out there imo, both in tone, and feel/response. My buddy Blueser sent me his to check out and I did not want to send it back.

I've got my own on order, when it arrives I'll send it to you to check out if you like.

 

The Zen is a great "touch" OD, but it doesn't have the Ethos clean channel. And the clean channel is where it's at imho.

 

FWIW there is a Guy on The Musictoyz forum That said He went to a Robben Ford clinic in CA and claims Robben said He prefers His Zendrive to the lead channel of His Dumble. Right here's the thread.

 

Jack,

I've got both the Ethos with the low end mod, and a Zendrive. I play mainly Stratocasters with low to medium output pickups. I'm playing through a Tone King Meteor II set sparkly clean, or a Princeton Reverb. I had the Zen for almost two years before I got the Ethos.

I like the Ethos much more for the sounds I most like. To me, and with my gear, the Ethos sounds much more amp-like. I find the Ethos even more sensitive to picking dynamics than the Zen, and as I've said before, I've dialed the Zen to within an inch of it's life and it always has a square wave kind of buzz riding on the notes. I'll probably catch flak for that because everyone claims the Zen is so smooth. Not compared to the Ethos. The Ethos can be dialed to sound harmonically rich and urgent, but without the buzz. Here's some more blasphemy, I like the Ethos overdrive significantly more than the Fuchs ODS 30 SLX I had for two years. To each, his own, but the Ethos is the most satisfying of that kind of tone tool that I've played.

James

 

Owned a bunch of the "D" style pedals, including the Zen and Howie...

I sold them all after the Ethos, it's the best one hands down.

Just for a reference, the Dumble tone I go for is RF's Handful of Blues album and I think I get scary close to nailing it minus the playing.

 

I dont know if i am a fan of the dumble tone or not....but I didnt find the ethos to work for me...sounded unnatural....and compressed(not the good kind)...i sold it for what i paid....so im happy