OD-20 Drive Zone Review

The Od-20 Drive Zone uses advanced COSM technology to model the sound of classic overdrive/distortion pedals, as well as creating new sounds of its own.

Ease of Use:	8.8
Sound:	9.2
Reliability:	9.6
Impression:	9.4
Overall rating:	9.3
Users rating:	6.4
Comments:	7

overall: 10

Featured review by: mikiedaman, on september 13, 2004

Price paid: $ 229.1

Purchased from: Long and Mcquade

Ease of Use: This pedal is real simple, turn the type knob to the pedal you want, dial in the drive, tone, and volume and start rockin. The memory is pretty simple if you read the manual, but I don't like how it stores the volume you set it to, if you are playing quiet and just practicing and find a sweet tone and you want to use it later the level of the memory will be too low. Overall tho, very easy to use. // 10

Sound: I'm using a squire strat (dont' make fun) and a Marshall JCM900 dual reverb. It sounds amazing, the pedal modellings are great. The 6 Boss ones are beautiful, the homemade tones they came up with just for this pedal are really neat too, a great Overdrive and an over the top metal sound. I like the other pedals too, Ibanez Tubescreamer is great and the fuzz boxes are really cool too. You can get just about any distortion sound possible out of this pedal. The heavy octave effect is pretty good too, I don't like it on high levels it just sounds messy but I keep it kinda low and it adds a depth to the sound. // 10

Reliability & Durability: It looks pretty sturdy, the paint is a bit chipped but who cares, I would gig with no back up for this as the pedals seem solid and I can't see them breaking unless you reall stomp it which isn't nessesary. // 10

Impression: I play everything under the sun, metal, blues, rock and roll, acoustic stuff and this pedal works for everything with distortion, I love having a blues tone and a heavy metal tone right there at the click of a switch. I've only been playing for jsut over a year and this is my second distortion pedal, but it destroys my old Danelectro. I'd definetly buy another one if it were stolen. This is the best distortion pedal out there no matter what your taste of music, even if it changes this pedal will still work for you. I recommend to everyone! // 10

overall: 9

Reviewed by: Froggy7521, on may 27, 2009

Price paid: $ 109.99

Purchased from: Music-Go-Round

Ease of Use: This was my first pedal, and I got a killer tone in less than a minute. It's fun to mess with the settings, and chances are, you'll get a good tone out of it. You don't need to know anything really to work this thing.

I bought it used, so I didn't get a manual. Boss has all thier manuals online though, so it wasn't a problem. Everything is well explained in it.

The one thing that should be noted, is that there is no ON/OFF Switch. It turns on when you plug into the input jack. I had to look it up in the manual to figure that out. // 9

Sound: My setup is an SG plugged into this, plugged into a Line6 Spyder ll 212. My poor amp is dying on me though, so I'm using this pedal to do the work, and run it through a clean channel.

I suggest investing in a noise gate, that is, if you're using the higher gain models. I don't own one, and it's silent when bypassed, but feedback and hum are major problems for me when I have it on. It has a horrible squeal when I crank the Drive all the way up, but I can get a whole massacre of distortion without doing that anyway. The settings with less gain don't have that problem really. I can't crank my amp to see if those settings break to, because I Live in an appartment.

I personally use the MT-2 model, with Drive at noon. Bottom, Attack Shape, and Heavy Octave all the way to the left. And Tone and Level all the way to the right. It gives me this insane distortion that I absolutely love. I'm not really one to imitate other people's tone though. I'm sure you could get just about anything outta this pedal, but I haven't tried. // 8

Reliability & Durability: It's Boss. You could make a bomb shelter outta these pedals. The paint might chip and whatnot, depending on how brutal you are with it, but I really don't see anything but cosmetic features ever wearing down. I literally could probably Drive over the damn thing, and it wouldn't break. Well, maybe the knobs, but that's obviously reasonable.

The only problem is that it goes through 6 AA in 20 hours, but a power supply fixes that. It's a standard 9-volt jack. By the way, this could easily be taken to a gig without a backup, but I think it's always better to be safe, incase of a freak accident or something. // 10

Impression: Overall, this thing is awesome. I love it, and it apparently loves me. I mainly play a Nu Metal, and just all out complete meltdown-like metal. I can nail that perfect tone with this thing. Occasionly I do play light stuff. I enjoy blues and jazz, and it's great for that too. I would suggest this for any playing style, and I'd definitly replace it if it was ever lost or stolen. Like I said though, DO NOT forget your noise gate if you want mid-high.

Message me if you have questions, or if you want suggestions on some good tones. I'd be glad to answer to the best of my knowledge. // 9

Reviewed by: unregistered, on january 12, 2009

Price paid: £ 115

Purchased from: Spectre sounds

Ease of Use: It is incredibly easy to get a fantastic disortion out of this, no matter what your style, the controls are easy to understand and use. There is so much choice to choose from and all the different types of distortion on the pedal sound amazin.
The manual was quite thick so it explained everything I got a feelin but I wouldn't know it's that easy to use. The only difficulty iv had with this is, when trying to Switch the pre set memory distortions you have to press both pedals at the same time and Live this is difficult to dobt this is nothing major and can be fixed with a bit of practice. // 9

Sound: Amazing! No other word for it guys. This thing can turn the crapest, tiniest, cheapest little practice amp into a great sounding piece of kit. I regularlly gig with this pedal so it has been thru a large number of amps, and all I can say is it delievered the perfect sound each time. As for the noise, I have found at very high levels of distortion there is a slight buzz, but this is present with distortion in amps aswell so this is nothing. There is a huge amount of variation between all the effects (and there's a lot of them) so you can always find the perfect setting for your style, from 60's fuzz to nu metal ear bleeding distortion. I enjoy playin metal such as Trivium, Bullet for My valentine, Avenged Sevenfold etc. I find that this pedal gives tonnes of distortion perfect for these styles. This pedal is amazin fos distortion. // 10

Reliability & Durability: This is a very solid pedal, tough and durable and I have used this at several gigs without a backup. The only thing is it doesnt't come with an adapter so it runs on batteries, which die without warning so they could just break up and cut out. I've never had this problem so far luckaly. With an adaptor it will be perfect tho. // 8

Impression: This is perfect for any type of music you may play, and I wouldn't replace it for anything else. I'm fully happy with this. I tried a few pedals that they had in including the zakk wild distortion and a few DigiTech and other Boss's and this was the best by far.This pedal has everything you could need and I urge yo to try one! They're awesome // 10

overall: 9.5

Reviewed by: GuitarFreak664, on july 09, 2005

Purchased from: Online Dealer

Ease of Use: The OD-20 has 2 pedals, one to switch between clean/distortion and another to cycle through one manual setting and 4 user presets (a total of 5 distortions at a time). Since the only part of this unit that is digital is the memory, getting the sound you want is fairly easy. // 8

Sound: I am currently playing through an Ibanez SA160 and a Marshall 15 watt combo (don't laugh, its all I can afford). Let me just say that this pedal made my guitar and amp sound good, that's really saying something. You can get any Overdrive or distortion you want from this pedal. It can give you tweakable distortion for any kind of music from blues to classic rock to metal. This pedal is reasonably noisy when the drive is in the turbo region of the knob (but what's new). This pedal has some feedback but, its a distoriton pedal. What do you expect? // 10

Reliability & Durability: Are you kidding, this is a Boss pedal. Boss pedals don't break, they're built like tanks. I would be fully confident gigging without a backup. When nuclear war comes, hide in a bomb shelter made of Boss pedals. // 10

Impression: I play anything from blues to metal and the OD-20 suits these styles well. If this were stolen I would definitely buy it again (I can't afford the GT-8 or anything). With my very small budget this is the perfect pedal, it offers many different distortions (22 in all) for the price of about 2 or 3 single compact pedals. // 10

Reviewed by: unregistered, on february 04, 2004

Purchased from: 'Falcon music', Llanelli, Wales.

Ease of Use: The twin pedal is new, Boss' twin pedal (OD-20), it was released early January. It is relativley easy to use, just choose which effect you want, and hit the pedal. Also it has a memory pedal on it to, which stores 4 effects of your choice, to make it easier to change during play, rather than bending down and turning the nob... The memory stuff on it for me is quite tricky. The manual didn't explain how to work it very well. So I'll give a 4. // 8

Sound: Sound Is overall good, taking into account I use an Epiphone sg400 and a Leam 30 watt.

It gives you the use of 22 diferent sounds, including 6 Boss pedals. OD-1 OD-2 DS-1 MT-2 HM-1 BD-1. And a range of Boss' homemade stuff. But the other effects really aren't that good, basically your buying it for the 6 built in Boss pedals.

It's great for metal whethere new or old, I use the MT-2 alot for Metallica stuff.

It has an Octave switcher also which alows you to lower the top four strings down an octave to give a 7 string guitar efect, but it tends to crackle on my amp. Also there is quite alot of feedback generated from this little box.

But otherwise this pedal rocks! The sound is sweet. // 8

Reliability & Durability: This is built as solid as a rock, I think it is very reliable...

I think I would feel confident useing it without a backup, but I always carry spares ;o) // 10

Impression: This pedal is great for any music with distortion or Overdrive. I would have prob asked for the guy to let me try it out a bit longer, so I could figure out that its only worth buying for those 6 Boss effects, But for the price, you could only get about 2 of those Boss pedals seperatly, for the same price as the OD-20. If it were stolen, i'd probrably save for a bigger Boss pedal, like the GT thigy.
The only thing I wish it had is a Wah pedal on the side, It'd be perfect for Metallica then.

Overall its a class pedal, you get alot for the money. Definitely buy it if you're after a distortion pedal or Overdrive pedal.

Od-20... Rocks!!! Literally :o) // 8

Comments

[americablanco]

Nice. I have the Boss OS-2 and its okay. I can get most of these sounds w/ that, except the HM, I've never heard of that.

[cblowrun]

are the distortions on this better than the ME-50 distortions?

[fishpimp]

This is a great pedal if you're trying to dial in 'your sound' or you need a ton of variety and don't care about tonal quality. Playing it next to an actual analog pedal (tonebone, toadworks) makes the OD-20 sound very digital and plastic. I traded it in on a Seymour Duncan Twin Tube Classic and am very happy I did.

[bossboy]

hey i have this pedal, it is great, but if u play only 1 style i wouldn't advise it. the sound is great but not perfect but very close to the real pedals. also mine has been fuking up lately. the distortion type knob puts on the wrong type like wen its on fuzz face it does rockman instead. so it cant even make fuzz face or octavier anymore. how/were could i fix this?

[Lavatain]

WOOO NEW YEAR

[fEr_0h]

The manual was quite thick so it explained everything

I have this pedal is awesome, but i think my manual got lost because my ain't thick at all its like 2 pags

[davidblackjuda2]

hi guys,i use this pedal with a Marshall 30 watt amp on clean channel,but i only play with the MT 2 and Metal effect,coz thats all i love,i'm much into heavy/black/goth metal stuffs.the DS1 is really deceiving sound,HM2 has got nothing to do with Heavy Metal sounds.the rest are absolute crap!no sustain at all.I wonder if my amp doesn't fit the OD20.the sounds still the same with headphones.is it bcoz its only 30 watt?