Nady TD-1 Tube Distortion

The Nady TD-1 is a tube based overdrive pedal that is designed for electric guitar. The pedal has a real 12AX7 tube in it to account for it’s warm and realistic sounding drive. It’s got ¼” connections for both input and output and comes with it’s own power supply, although I don’t remember the voltage for it. You can’t rack this up as it’s a stomp box.


UTILIZATION

Using the Nady TD-1 isn’t difficult at all. It’s set up in a user friendly fashion that even new users should fine easy to use. It has pretty in depth EQ control, with high and low bands which give you parameters for gain and switches for further high end control and mid boosting. It also has a knob for presence. The drive section gives you parameters for level and drive, with the drive having a setting for either high, medium, or low gain. It’s in depth but no hard to use, so I don’t think a manual is necessary.



SOUND QUALITY

The tone of the Nady TD-1 is quite nice overall. It’s possible to get a good variety of different overdrive sounds with the pedal, all of which are real sounding, meaning it sounds like it could be straight from an amp’s overdrive. It’s a really chunky and thick sounding overdrive in general. I don’t own this pedal any more as I’ve since replaced it with a Tube Screamer and a few other pedals, but when I did I used it with a Fender Jazzmaster and a 1976 Fender Twin Reverb primarily.


OVERALL OPINION

The Nady TD-1 is a nice alternative to the Radial Engineering Tone Bone pedal, as it’s a very similar pedal that was without a doubt modeled after it. It’s cheaper and definitely shares a similar sound. Nady doesn’t exactly have a great reputation for making quality gear, but the TD-1 is definitely a nice pedal that gives you a real tube overdrive sound for a lot less than the other guys.

The Nady TD-1 is a true tube analog overdrive pedal, with adjustable equalization, gain, level, etc. There are 1/4'' inputs and outputs and it is not a rackable effect.

UTILIZATION

No trouble at all setting this up - simply plug your guitar into the input and send your output to an amp. There is plenty of control for tone and it is pretty easy to get that tube overdrive sound that I am looking for. I haven't had a need for the manual as I just tweak the sound by ear.

SOUND QUALITY

I love the overdrive that this produces - to me it is pretty similar to the overdrive on newer Fender amps, and since my amp is older and has no built in distortion, this is really great to have so I can achieve that specific tube overdrive sound. I use this with guitar only but it can of course be used with anything you can plug into it. There is a switch for low, medium, and high gain and the three different channels can make for some nice overdrive variety.

OVERALL OPINION

I've had this pedal for about a year and it does exactly what I need it to do. I use it mostly for rhythm guitar and is great for power/barr chords. It has a great crunch because of the built in tube. I also have a BK Butler overdrive pedal and while I prefer the BK Butler, this is a bit cheaper and can achieve a pretty similar sound. The number of control knobs are really a selling point for me as well, it allows you to have total control over your tone. While it is a bit expensive, I would still make the same choice today and love having it in my set up.