Kapo_Polenton
Well-known member
and...
it's definitely a cool pedal but by no means the be all end all. The coles notes of it is, pretty much anything sounds good and will work great with a JCM800 or JMP. They take pedals insanely well. As for the Cusak, I like the tonal options available on the toggle switch and it can add a nice grind and juiciness to the amp depending on how it is set. There is quite a bit of gain on tap but I found it gets a little too thick for me past 1 pm on the gain. When you get an 800 up with some volume though, it doesn't take much to kick the amp into gear and because of that, I don't think the cusak really offers that much more than a standard TS-9 does. In fact, A/B'ing it with my TS-808, I would give the edge back to the 808. Level all the way up and no gain or the gain just barely cracked. Maybe a tad less grindy but also more cut to my ears. Definitely worth trying the cusak if a regular TS variant doesn't do it for you but there is a reason that the SD-1 and TS-9/7/808's have stood the test of time.
As for the pedals I have tried, my top few right now (when you get the master volume up at least to 2 where you can hear the differences ) are:
OD-1 clone - the OD-1 just does what I always wished the SD-1 did. It absolutely cuts and kicks the mids and sounds amazing.
TS-808 - love this one too. A little less cutting but a beautiful crunch that does what we all love, especially on gained up amps.
KoKo Boost V.1 - man, I have tried to kick this one off the board but I love how the clean side hits another OD when you need just a bit more. The mid side is awesome when you get the amp opened up as well. When stacked over another overdrive i also find it not to be as noisy as stacking other drives or boosts.
Notable mentions:
EWS- Little brute drive. Nice crunchy tone that feels like "more" of what you have. This one surprised me and I dig it.
GE-7 - good ol classic. Shape to taste, sounds great.
SD-1 in a pinch and at volume, hard not to go to this one. There are so many "mods" or "improvements" people do to this one but I think it sounds great as is.
Anyway as always, everyone's tastes will vary but I suspect the amount of cusak's in circulation on reverb or ebay are probably due to the fact that people felt it was a cool pedal, but not that much different than their tube screamers when used as a boost.
it's definitely a cool pedal but by no means the be all end all. The coles notes of it is, pretty much anything sounds good and will work great with a JCM800 or JMP. They take pedals insanely well. As for the Cusak, I like the tonal options available on the toggle switch and it can add a nice grind and juiciness to the amp depending on how it is set. There is quite a bit of gain on tap but I found it gets a little too thick for me past 1 pm on the gain. When you get an 800 up with some volume though, it doesn't take much to kick the amp into gear and because of that, I don't think the cusak really offers that much more than a standard TS-9 does. In fact, A/B'ing it with my TS-808, I would give the edge back to the 808. Level all the way up and no gain or the gain just barely cracked. Maybe a tad less grindy but also more cut to my ears. Definitely worth trying the cusak if a regular TS variant doesn't do it for you but there is a reason that the SD-1 and TS-9/7/808's have stood the test of time.
As for the pedals I have tried, my top few right now (when you get the master volume up at least to 2 where you can hear the differences ) are:
OD-1 clone - the OD-1 just does what I always wished the SD-1 did. It absolutely cuts and kicks the mids and sounds amazing.
TS-808 - love this one too. A little less cutting but a beautiful crunch that does what we all love, especially on gained up amps.
KoKo Boost V.1 - man, I have tried to kick this one off the board but I love how the clean side hits another OD when you need just a bit more. The mid side is awesome when you get the amp opened up as well. When stacked over another overdrive i also find it not to be as noisy as stacking other drives or boosts.
Notable mentions:
EWS- Little brute drive. Nice crunchy tone that feels like "more" of what you have. This one surprised me and I dig it.
GE-7 - good ol classic. Shape to taste, sounds great.
SD-1 in a pinch and at volume, hard not to go to this one. There are so many "mods" or "improvements" people do to this one but I think it sounds great as is.
Anyway as always, everyone's tastes will vary but I suspect the amount of cusak's in circulation on reverb or ebay are probably due to the fact that people felt it was a cool pedal, but not that much different than their tube screamers when used as a boost.