My Super Duper (SHO 2-in-1) clone will arrive tomorrow.

[Diego]

Haven't even played a SHO before, but I ordered one. You know how GAS works like.

Any tips?? What should I expect? I understand it's very different from say a LPB-1. How do it's dynamics operate, assuming it's a faithful reproduction?
Any tricks I should know to get the most from it?

Can't wait to try it with both my Strat and my Ibanez.

[Agileguy_101]

I've not actually played the SHO - I had a Box of Rock for a year or two. The boost side is an excellent pedal in its own right, but I understand it more than a bit different from an actual SHO. Twilightoddesey would be the one you want to ask - he's had an SHO for quite a while IIRC.

I feel your GAS pain. I've got a pedal coming in on Thursday that I've wanted for a long freaking time.

[atreidesheir]

Do NOT turn it all the way up. Speakers and ear drums will die.
Keep the master volume low.

[Surgeon]

Love mine (I own both SHO and Super Duper).
Start low...
Lower settings will enrich your tone a little with subtle volume boost. Higer settings will bring much more gain but really pure in nature, like nothing you'd experienced before (I assume).

Too much of either when cascading both will result in mush and weirdness (and may damage a few things).

Think of it as a way to obtain 4 different volumes and levels of drive:
1- amp without anything
2- amp + first SHO
3- amp + second SHO
4- amp + both SHOs

You won't regret it... lovely pedal.

[Diego]

Thanks guys! How does it play with high output pickups? I get a gut feeling it's not so good?
The bridge pup in my Ibanez is really hot.

I want a dual Demon combo in it actually, love how detailed it sounds. Then I can blast the **** out of it with the SHO.

[Surgeon]

Thanks guys! How does it play with high output pickups? I get a gut feeling it's not so good?
The bridge pup in my Ibanez is really hot.

I want a dual Demon combo in it actually, love how detailed it sounds. Then I can blast the **** out of it with the SHO.

Good question. I'm a Custom user myself but at 14k it's not what you'd call high-output.

YOu'll have to let us know then!

[atreidesheir]

Good question. I'm a Custom user myself but at 14k it's not what you'd call high-output.

YOu'll have to let us know then!

14K sounds like a beast. Anything over 9k is hot to me Luv the custom BTW.

[Diego]

Wow guys!

Just finished testing it. It's so different from anything I've tried before.
This is the biggest cliche of them all, but with a slight boost setting, pretty much everything sounds better. I understand why some think of it as a "permanently on" pedal.

It adds a lot of detail to the high strings and balances out the sound a lot, for clean sounds it's just sick, off and my guitar just sounds dead in comparison, it feels like an active preamplifier or something.
And it's not a fixed reaction, it varies a lot depending on what you plug into it.

It has insane amounts of clean boost and it makes things sound really thick, it just has so much balls and character, not a conventional way to boost an amp but man it's fun.

I need to crank my amp and try it later on again... So far so good, awesome.

[Surgeon]

That's exactly how it sounds to me. At low levels it just brings a tad more richness to your tone, definitely a good pedal to leave on and forget.

[gibson175]

SHO's are heaps of fun. Quite a unique sound thats really hard to describe. Bright without being brittle, fat without flab. Spongy yet responsive. I dunno...but they definitely are cool.

[SteveAlysis]

SHO's are heaps of fun. Quite a unique sound thats really hard to describe. Bright without being brittle, fat without flab. Spongy yet responsive. I dunno...but they definitely are cool.

This.

[atreidesheir]

They shimmer. Tube preamps sound lovely being pummeled by them. SHO & 2in1 are the only thing I ever loved from zvex. The rest is a bit,...don't like them .

[JeffB]

Distortron has that element of glassy highs and fat bass, of course though its meant to emulate the JTM 45. Also rolling down the volume knob for cleans sounds much better than with the pedal off or any other gain box I have ever tried. Stays glassy and clear.

Id like to try the SHO as im in the market for a clean boost.

[ratherdashing]

I used to disapprove of people building SHO clones because they are a current production pedal and so forth ...

... then I looked at a schematic.

I now retract anything I ever said against cloning this pedal. Go nuts.

I just can't feel sympathy for a company that charges that much for what is essentially $5 worth of parts (not counting the cutesy-poo paint job). More to the point, the SHO is itself a clone of a very old preamp circuit. Heck, Jack Orman got the idea to turn it into a guitar effect long before Zach Vex did (except Orman added a few improvements, including a filter cap to cut out the "crackle okay").

So yeah, clone away. Heck, I might even build one for myself.

[Surgeon]

I used to disapprove of people building SHO clones because they are a current production pedal and so forth ...

... then I looked at a schematic.

I now retract anything I ever said against cloning this pedal. Go nuts.

I just can't feel sympathy for a company that charges that much for what is essentially $5 worth of parts (not counting the cutesy-poo paint job). More to the point, the SHO is itself a clone of a very old preamp circuit. Heck, Jack Orman got the idea to turn it into a guitar effect long before Zach Vex did (except Orman added a few improvements, including a filter cap to cut out the "crackle okay").

So yeah, clone away. Heck, I might even build one for myself.

This is one of the many reasons I haven't had second thoughts about cloning it (nor the super-duper).

However, if Z felt it was useful and could be sold: good for him. I know I never would've used this circuit if it wasn't for him and I would've missed something.

Another thing you may or may not know RD: 90% of his early pedal designs (including the BOMetal, BOR (not counting the boost section of it), etc...) is a few SHOs cascaded into each other with a few coloring additions... It's a circuit he's very fond of.

[ratherdashing]

This is one of the many reasons I haven't had second thoughts about cloning it (nor the super-duper).

However, if Z felt it was useful and could be sold: good for him. I know I never would've used this circuit if it wasn't for him and I would've missed something.

Another thing you may or may not know RD: 90% of his early pedal designs (including the BOMetal, BOR (not counting the boost section of it), etc...) is a few SHOs cascaded into each other with a few coloring additions... It's a circuit he's very fond of.

I did know that.

I am a big fan of his pedals, but they're definitely very simple and derivative circuits.

No disrespect intended though ... there are only so many ways to make an overdrive/distortion pedal, and most of them have roots that can be traced back to a handful of circuits.

[Surgeon]

I did know that.

I am a big fan of his pedals, but they're definitely very simple and derivative circuits.

No disrespect intended though ... there are only so many ways to make an overdrive/distortion pedal, and most of them have roots that can be traced back to a handful of circuits.

Exactly... Just like so many boutique pedals are TS with slight variations. same goes for a bunch of boutique amps as well...

The ground-breaking designs are very few

[atreidesheir]

I think if you have the skills and curiosity, cloning is a good way to appreciate gear or not.

You learn right away who are the innovators and the posers.
Who is full of tone or hot air.
Zvex fills the web with sales pitches, but some people eat it up. AND the SHO sounds great.

So you can find the vero or schematic of the circuit and make it. That is what someone else did several years ago.

Jack Orman's AMZ website is great.
a lot of great stuff there for musicians.

[Diego]

I'm really loving this pedal. It does something to the dynamics that I can't quite explain, it's a bit of compression, a bit of bloom.

I don't wanna go nuts in the gain cascading game with other pedals, but that would be a fun game.

Now I want a Fuzz Factory.

[MetalManiac]

I'm really loving this pedal. It does something to the dynamics that I can't quite explain, it's a bit of compression, a bit of bloom.

.

someone once said to me that all genuine clean boost does is make the sounfd louder. I thought that can't be right, but then I thought, if your amp was totally clean to begin with, then thats what it'd do.
Then I thought that using it to drive a good tube amp just on the edge of breakup , would do pretty much what you just stated; " a bit of compression/a bit of bloom".