It's supposed to be a Fender Deluxe Reverb in a box. So, how's it stand up to the hype?
I tested it two ways, the first was through my amp, a Fender Pro Reverb. I set it so it was clean sounding, the EQ was flat and the reverb was off. The pedal was set so that the volume was a little louder when the pedal active and the gain set around 6. I set the tone controls to be fairly flat as well. So, when played hard and driving the the amp pretty hard it's not a bad tone. Is it a clone of a Deluxe Reverb? Not quite. The pedal does have a gritty-ness in the mids that's typical of these COSM-type devices. The PODS have it too, to my ears. No matter, is it usable as an extension of my signal chain? Yeah, I think it has a place to that Derek O'Briend tone, a little louder and still clean but with a bit of hair and bite to it. I'll use it at a gig for sure.
The real reason that I bought this was to be able to plug my lap steel straight into a PA and not need to drag an amp to a solo gig. It's actually a respectable tone, again, it's not perfect and sounds a little processed. But it means that I can get on a train with an acoustic guitar and a steel guitar and play solo gigs on the road.
Over-hyped? For sure. Useful, once you strip all that away? Yeah, I think so. I'll take it to my gig at the Moorings Bar tonight and see if I can get a better tone out of the big bad-ass Marshall stacks they have for the back line.
Bottom line? My wife liked the sound and actualy commented on it as I was testing it this morning. That hardly ever happens....
