The left side of the vs/xo is an open road circuit and so is the left side of the Jekyl and Hyde V3. It also has a ton of tweak-ability. A lot of people think it’s the same as the right side of the VS/XO because of the controls and how they look the same, but it isn’t. It’s actually the open road circuit with a clipping switch and bass knob.
R.J., I'd love to see you give the Truetone VS-XO a workout. The Nobles side has a lot more tweakability than the Open Road, and the Tube Screamer side is even better!
I have the original NOBELS, the mini Nobels and the Wampler Belle and i keep the Belle in my board. I use it at 18 volts and it's a fantastic open clean sound, plus a bass knob and a side button where you can have a different voice option. Killer pedal, super versatile tool. You can get so many great tones.
Good comparison. I use my Open Road mainly with a Fender Princeton (non reverb), where the bass kick adds some welcome *oomph* to the amp’s overall sound. Works well with the Brilliant channel of a Vox AC50 too.
My first thought when you switched to the Open Road was "Bassier, and more compressed". Love these videos. You have a way with making the subtle differences noticeable.
Thanks much for the great comparison RJ; and especially for all the candid commentary -- very helpful to me. And I totally agree with the idea that a great sounding pedal (or amp, guitar, etc.) plays a key roll in inspiring your playing dynamically (as you play). This is quite important IMO.
Yessir!!! I’ve been using the Open Road for ever!! Keep coming back to it! I always run it with the gain between 9-11 o’clock and push it with an 808 circuit. Killer in front of a Quilter Tone Block amp by the way!
Woah that's a lot of tasty OD for $100! Love your playing as always. Actually I think the Open Road is more comparible to the original Nobles ODR-S. Have you tried one?
A while back, RJ did a demo of the Aion Andromeda which is supposed to be a ODR-1 clone with a bass control. I wonder how that one compares with the Nobels?
I've been curious about that pedal kit too. I've seen good things on forums, but I've never actually heard one. Thinking about ordering an ODR-1 mini and sending it to XTS for their mod
Darn it, RJ, you're gonna do a JHS to the used market. Lol Totally digging the modded DS1 thing that's going on with the Open Road when it's gained up. It's a rock box in disguise from what I can hear.
I bought one used a year ago when I heard one in a John Bollinger review vid. He was demoing a new guitar and mentioned this pedal. Was a cheap buy on Reverb last summer!
Really RJ I'm diggin'the Open Road, Sure the Nobels has great sound but there R those settings where the Nobles is smoother but I like the Bassie Tone of the Open Road, Great Comparison R.J. my money would go on the Open Road even if they Cost the same!!👍🎸🤘🤠
I’ve never owned the Open Road but I did have the Double Trouble that sold to Shane (intheblues) from Australia. He made a demo of that. Now that they’re called Truetone vs Visual Sounds they should reissue all the old pedals.
Hey R.J. if you let me, i would like to recomend you a simple circuit try the Texas Rangemaster, i love what he does to my guitar tone, a friend of mine copy this circuit for an experience and then gave the pedal to me
@@RICO_SUAVE21 doubt it. Nobels doesn't make money off inflated prices in the used market. They may be subtly different (like every model of Tube Screamer) but probably not much. Especially if other companies are cloning the circuit.
Hi, I had one of those Open Road pedals and I found that the bass got too be too much if the Drive knob was set any higher than at 9:00 so I flipped it but for what I sold it for I should have just kept it.
I like nearly all of the popular pedals, but still don’t get the ODR, I’ll keep trying. There must be something in there. Sounds like the OR gets a solid three of of five stars
My 67 yr old Dad is a gigging bassist going on 4 years. One day I comment that his guitarist had an ‘ice pick’ sound that needed some ‘rounding off’…maybe a little ‘warmth’. My Dad looks at me and goes, “What the fuck are you talking about? How could an ice pick be a sound?” 😂
You have to watch more jhs vids….. if u r gonna quadruple the price of a discontinued used pedal u have to make it sound EXACTLY like the famous vintage pedal. Pretty good video, just work on talking up the pedal that u wanna ruin the value of a bit more. 😁
Well all pedals amps the player and guitars will sound sound the same in the player using them even 2 guitarists use the same guitar amp and pedal board so comparing is doesn't really matter
The Open Road is discontinued. I find the Nobels tighter with lots of bite. Once you have a Drummer and bass player rocking out even the Nobels can sound like it needs a bit more bite to cut.
Great in-depth comparison! I came to similar conclusions in a video a few years ago, but yours is much better. Still use my Open Road regularly. Haven't yet sold my old Nobels - yet. ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-PlP2eTdw9dI.html
The post monkey period: ne vid format on yt everywhere: wow that junk sounds great. Play it, dont buy hyped old and new stuff. Hope ytbers can make a dime from that, otherwise its back to: new amazing, buy!
Neither of these pedals sound great - there is nothing transparent about either them, and both sound like pedals. And especially with the original Nobels, their quality control was terrible so you never know what you're getting. The Vemuram Shanks ODS-1 has a better sonic quality than both of theses. And the Mythos current line of overdrives destroy both of them at much lower prices.
Sounds nice, but your playing is why I am here. In the nobles video with TB, the pedal he liked the best consistently, blind, was the mini nobles, the cheapest of them all. They really tried to downplay that in the video, but he consistently chose the mini nobles time and again, when presented against a vintage and full-size nobles, blind.
