4 of the Best 2 Channel High Gain Distortion Pedals

Like I said in the intro I was a touch disappointed by the size of this when it first arrived - as I felt it could have been more compact. The good news is that the Deluxe version adds in a Mid Frequency dial and reduces the Tightness dial from the original BE-OD to a toggle-switch per the same control topology as the Dirty Shirley Pedal. The Green Channel / Channel 1 is the same as the original BE-OD, while the Second Blue Channel is default set with a little less gain - meaning that each Channel would be used for respective Lead and Rhythm tones. The key advantage of this pedal is the 7 controls per channel - for ultimate tone-sculpting ability. I used to feature the standard BE-OD in my chain, I still like it, but it's mostly an understudy nowadays to the REVV G3 and G4. Right now I'm thinking I would rather just want an updated compact BE-OD with the same control topology as featured here, and as per the Dirty Shirley pedal - which I also already have.

So this pedal offers you one more channel than the rest - whereby you can default set the pedal to operate in True-Bypass, Buffered Bypass, or Clean Channel mode. If you select the top Clean option on the toggle you get an always-on Clean Channel with Tone and Level controls. On top of that you then get Rhythm and Lead Channels - each with Gain, Bass, Middle, Treble and Level dials, along with Bright switch, 3-way Feel switch - Fat/Tight/Thick, and 3-way Mode switch - Artemis, Gemini Red and Colossus Lead - from those respective KSR amps - each giving you progressively more gain. So in overall feature terms this gives you the most bells and whistles, and overall I actually feel it justifies its enclosure size - it also benefits from a really cool light up logo which changes colour per Channel designation. I haven't yet decided whether this one is quite for me, but it's probably the one I'm right now most drawn towards next to the Empress Heavy.

In some ways I see this as a dual Suhr Riot to a degree - although the gain circuit extends further downwards to cover vaguely Shiba territory too. Much like the Empress Heavy you have 2 identical Channels here and you can select either one as your Rhythm or Lead and tune to taste, and much like the Empress the footswitches work in very similar fashion whereby you hit the left or right one to engage each channel - and they switch as appropriate. In this instance you get a standard five controls per channel - 3-band EQ plus Gain and Level - which is somewhat traditional, but quite different to the Empress Heavy above. The Suhr Eclipse also has a 'Voice' dial which tunes in the high frequency character mainly - to adjust pedal to respective amplifier or otherwise set a brighter or darker core tone. This is obviously the lowest cost option here, and while it's not a properly High Gain dedicated pedal like the others featured - it nevertheless hits those Suhr Riot style tones with ease - albeit with more tone-sculpting ability. On a head-to-head with the Empress Heavy, I feel that the latter still somehow allows you to dial in a great range of tones and textures - which validates my acquisition of that all those years ago. The Eclipse though would make a great understudy / rotation alternative. Fantastic demo by Pete Thorn above - particularly the opening track!