MXR CSP21 GT-OD Custom Shop

Overdrives have been used since nearly the beginning of the electric guitar. People have been boosting their amps with everything under the sun way before I was ever born. The GT-OD is an attempt of MXR to try to release a sort of TS-808 style clone. It's a nice, transparent sounding overdrive that can really deliver in terms of boosting your tone and giving you a nice kick. The pedal features your standard volume, gain and tone knobs. It also has a basic switch to turn it on and off. There's really not much different compared to the other pedals out there.

UTILIZATION

The pedal is built tough. I've never gigged with this exact pedal, but I've gigged with similar ones, and they always seem to last. In fact, I've never had a failure from an MXR pedal, personally. However, I have had to repair some of my friends' pedals, but it was usually just the switch that needed to be fixed after years and years of hard abuse. The pedal itself is very easy to set up, but just in case, there is a well written manual for you to read so you can see how MXR themselves tend to set the pedal up. It's a very clear and well written manual.

SOUND QUALITY

The pedal works great for all kinds of styles and genres. First, I plugged it into a Fender to see if I could get that SRV kind of tone. Sure enough, it was there. It's very organic sounding, and it responded quite nicely to my picking dynamics. I then moved on to a Les Paul in a JCM800 with this up front. I could get everything from AC/DC to Slash and even Slayer. It was able to do all those genres without any issues at all. The final test was putting this through my 5150 in an attempt at getting a modern metal tone. I picked up a Jackson with EMGs, and it was pure brutality. The trick to boosting those higher gain amps is to keep the gain on both the pedal and the amp low. You don't need to turn it up much. You're just looking to tighten it up.

OVERALL OPINION

The pedal is great, and I could see having this on my board if I ever decide to switch things up a bit. The overall sound is very much like a tubescreamer, so if you're used to those kinds of things, this should be no different. I actually recommend buying pedals used if you can as they tend to be better buys, and you can't mess them up quite as much as amps or guitars.

this pedal does one thing but does it very well: the overdrive. Need I say more?

UTILIZATION

The setup is super simple. Three large knobs that can shape the sound easily, without having to make knots in the brain. It's simple, intuitive and effective, we immediately sound!

The manual is clear enough, but in fact, the pedal is so easy to use that we did not need.

SOUND QUALITY

I use this pedal with Gibson SG Standard and paul, and I plug in a VHT head CL50eQ and baffle marshall slash edition.

I'm a fan of big crunch and big, organic and grainy distortion. My amp and my guitars are perfect in this register. Well this pedal makes the sound even better. Whether on the clean channel to generate crunch / very rock / vintage distos or the saturated to give more body to the sound and move a big crunch to a big distortion channel.

This pedal has a really big potato for overdrive but also knows how to be discreet and act as a very effective clean boost.

OVERALL OPINION

I use this pedal for three years and this is the only one I could not live without me. Used to cruncher clear sound or to enlarge a distortion, it is just perfect and can manage its saturation level very effectively.
The value for money is excellent, and I would do this choice without hesitation yardstick.

not much to say except that instead of the PSU is just super boring ...

UTILIZATION

easy ... the three knobs are efficient and regular ...

SOUND QUALITY

very nice tight grain, good bass, good midrange, treble not too aggressive ... we can go from clean boost to drive light through the big drive ... the pedal has its own color but it's still very accurate, it not bleed, though the notes remain detached ...

OVERALL OPINION

good .. this is where it goes bad, you have to talk QLQ hand ... LED! it has an independent life ^ ^ she lights up when she wants as she wants, it's annoying ... I spun a tech who knows his stuff and he do not get it ... nothing to do ... level ergonomics is pain in the neck anyway ...