This pedal shines in front of a slightly dirty amp or a dirty amp, or in front of another dirt pedal. Just adds that thickness and harmonic complexity that makes playing a joy!

I wanted a drive that didn't alter my tone at all but just picked it up and shoved it forward, this pedal does it. It sounds amazing, my god does Dave Friedman know what a guitar player wants. I put this up against all the overdrives I have currently trying to find the right one, i was using a super overdrive by boss which doesn't alter the tone a lot but just doesn't compare to this fantastic pedal let alone a maxon 808 or a tube screamer IMO this thing beats them all.

Beautifully voiced overdrive! This pedal has a great shine to the tone, and makes my amp sound better. Anything I have tried by Friedman has been exceptional in the tone and versatility department. It looks cool too, the top of the pedal is plexiglass, just like the front of a Plexi Amp. This pedal sounds best driving and sculpting the overdrive channel of an amp or any gain based pedals. It does the edge of breakup tone well into the clean channel, but that's really not its purpose. It really excels at adding something special to your overdrive tone without bumping any of the eq. Recommend for anyone who wants to add some special sauce to their base tone without adding anything undesirable or to drive a non master volume amp.

Let me start off by saying that I'm not really a pedal guy, I've always liked to get my distortion from the amp. Well since the whole COVID thing, my work schedule has changed, available times to play has changed and how loud I can play has changed. Lately, my time to play is typically when everyone in the house is asleep. So I drag out my old trusty Fender Frontman 25R with an Eminence Lil' Buddy 10" so I can play through it using the headphones out. The Frontman's cleans sound pretty good but the distortion sounds cheap and thin though the headphones. So after much research in the pedal department, I narrow it down to a couple pedals with the Friedman Golden Pearl being one of them. Boy did I make the right decision! This pedal makes the Frontman 25R with headphones sound amazing. Playing the pedal without the headphones knocks it out of the park. I plugged it into my Vox AC10 (the amp I usually play) and WOW! The pedal has more than enough distortion for me with a lot of flexibility in tone using the switches and tone knob. With this pedal, I don't think I'll be going down the pedal alley and have a bunch of boxes on the floor...... this pedal is all I need. Sounds about perfect to these ears in my situation.

I bought this a month or two ago and I have to say, it is truly a pedal you'll want to leave on. It is a transparent pedal�it doesn't drastically change the tone or add tons of gain. However, it does give a certain something extra to your sound. Even on a little amp, it gives it an open, 3-dimensional quality that is pleasing to the ear. I purchased this and the dirty Shirley around the same time and have since sold the DS. No knock on the DS�I just liked the sounds I was getting from this pedal better. It's worth the price.