Paul White’s review of Tubeholic Overdrive on “Sound On Sound” Magazine

Ogre Tubeholic Overdrive Pedal

Ogre’s Tubeholic pedal overdrive contains no tubes and, as far as I can tell, no alcohol. It does however feature a barking mad piece of metal-craft weighing 440 grammes as its case, which almost certainly costs far more to make than the circuitry inside it. The forehead of the alien face slides back to reveal three controls for level, gain and tone, so nothing too radical there as far as control layout is concerned, while stamping on the alien’s chin activates and bypasses the pedal. As a bonus the Roswell style eyes light up blue when the pedal is active.

The battery compartment is recessed into the non-slip base and requires no tools to open though a standard Boss compatible nine Volt power supply may be used as an alternative to the traditional PP3 type battery. However, with only 6.5mA current consumption, an Alkaline battery should last a fair time.

The circuit is traditional analogue and we’re told it uses NOS (New Old Stock) diodes to achieve symmetrical clipping but that tells only a very small part of the story. Exactly how the circuity is configured is not revealed, but then what does it matter as long as the pedal sounds right, and I can tell you now that it does. Based on looks alone I probably wouldn’t have asked for this pedal to review but having been persuaded to try one, I realised that the designers were onto something — and not just a cheap source of hallucinogenic drugs!

Drive is adjustable from virtually clean, via blues to classic rock grind and it does so without swamping the natural tonality of the guitar. The pedal has a natural ability to pull out harmonics yet it manages to retain a bright edge while avoiding adding any unwelcome grit at the high end. There’s also no significant added circuit noise, which is particularly important for studio work. Think Tube Screamer but with a wider frequency range or a Fulltone OCD with a little more mid warmth. There’s also plenty of dynamic range allowing the guitar’s volume control to back off the drive so you could leave the pedal in circuit and then just dial up the guitar volume for solos. As expected the tone control goes either way from centre allowing the tonality to be made smoother or brighter where the mid position retains the essential tonal balance of the instrument being fed into it.

In terms of audio quality then, this pedal is up there with other respected boutique offerings and it works its magic just as effectively with single coil pickups as it does with humbuckers. The over-the-top case design might not be to everybody’s taste but the practical benefit of the sliding control cover is that your settings won’t be lost when you drop the pedal into your gig bag. It is also fair to say that the pedal isn’t significantly wider (89mm) than a typical conventional so it won’t take up too much space on a pedalboard. While there are cheaper overdrive pedals, given the sound quality and robust construction, the Ogre Tubeholic Overdrive is actually very reasonably priced, so even if you’re not convinced by the Game of Thrones Cod-piece styling, do try to hear one as I think you’ll be impressed.

Ogre Tubeholic overdrive review Ogre Tubeholic overdrive review Sound on Sound

[NAMM] Meet Ogre, new Korean manufacturer

[NAMM] Meet Ogre, new Korean manufacturer

Summer NAMM visitors could discover this year the young Ogre Korean manufacturer of effect pedals and instruments.

Ogre is invading the world with instruments and effect pedals that are innovative both for their design and materials.

The Korean manufacturer offers indeed the Magnox M1, an electric guitar with sculpted magnesium body and headstock, a 25.5” scale length, a C-shape magnesium neck and a 14” fingerboard radius. It is equipped with Sperzel locking tuners with custom buttons, and you can choose between Seymour Duncan TB-4/SH-1 humbuckers or an SSH setup with one TB-4 humbucker and two SS-1 middle and neck single coil pickups. Ogre also gives you the choice between wraparound, Wilkinson VS100N and Tune-O-Matic bridge.

http://en.audiofanzine.com/guitar-distortion-overdrive-fuzz/ogre/tubeholic/news/a.play,n.20893.html

ogre-audiofanzine

Guitar Player’s photo ~ Brazil

Ogre at Brazilian Guitar Player this month.

Ogre na Guitar Player esse mês!

'Sim, esses "brinquedos" são ótimos pedais de guitarra. É o que você irá descobrir ao ler o teste que nosso editor Michael Molenda realizou com os @[665714673499009:274:Ogre Pedals U.S.A] na #GuitarPlayerBrasil de março! Quer saber como eles soam?

:::: Os melhores testes de equipamentos estão mensalmente na GP. Não deixe de ter o mundo da guitarra em suas mãos: https://www.editoramelody.com.br/gp/?area=anteriores'

Sim, esses “brinquedos” são ótimos pedais de guitarra. É o que você irá descobrir ao ler o teste que nosso editor Michael Molenda realizou com os Ogre Pedals U.S.A na‪#‎GuitarPlayerBrasil‬ de março! Quer saber como eles soam?

:::: Os melhores testes de equipamentos estão mensalmente na GP. Não deixe de ter o mundo da guitarra em suas mãos: https://www.editoramelody.com.br/gp/?area=anteriores

Yes, these ‘ toy ‘ are great guitar pedals. This is what you will find out when you read the test that our editor michael molenda held with theOgre Pedals U.S.A Na #guitarplayerbrasil march! Do you want to know how they sound?

:::: The best tests of equipment are monthly in gp. Do not leave to have the world of guitar in your hands: Https://www.editoramelody.com.br/gp/?area=anteriores

베일에 싸인 OGRE, 소문의 그 집에 다녀왔습니다.

http://toneofages.tistory.com/118TONE OF AGES기어(Gear) 그리고 플레이어 중심 음악매거진 TOA(Tone of Ages)의 홈페이지입니다.

베일에 싸인 OGRE, 소문의 그 집에 다녀왔습니다.

2015/03/12 09:46

보시다시피, 이 사진은 http://paranoidzine.com

마음 졸이며 25호 원고를 털고 나니 세상이 장밋빛…일 리가 없지만.

송명하 편집장님께서 서울 오신 김에 TONE OF AGES에 두 차례 소개된 OGRE를 직접 찾아가보기로 했습니다.

오우거는 그 유명한 송골매 1기의 베이시스트 이응수 님께서 연구 이사로 계신 곳이기도 하죠.

‘승무’ 등 가사가 좋은 곡을 많이 쓰신 것으로 유명하고요.

경기도 화성시 팔탄면 서근리 205(지번주소 버들로 1362번길 42). 토리밸리 산단 안에 있는 주식회사 한국정밀(대표 김상길)의

악기 연구소라고 보시면 되겠습니다.

금형기술을 통해 전자, 전기제품의 부품을 만드는 회사인데, 여기서 축적한 탄탄한 기본기를

보다 새로운 악기 제조, 좀 더 다른 기어의 생산에 적용하는 회사입니다.

마감도 됐고, 구상하는 일에 대한 정밀 묘사 작업도 할 겸,

편집장님과 바람도 쐴 겸 해서 달렸는데, 오늘은 바람이 너무 차더군요. 문에서 건물로 이동하는데도,

콧속과 목구멍이 간질간질하고 아플 정도였습니다. 그럴 때 달달한 커피 한 잔이 어찌나 달던지.

파라노이드를 보신 분들은 아시겠지만, 책에도 TONE OF AGES 페이지가 있습니다.

여기 소개된 악기 제조업체는 가능하면 찾아보려고 합니다.

해외 악기도 소개하고, 24호 같은 경우 NAMM SHOW2015 Telereport도 실었지만,

궁극적으로는 국내 업체들에 좀 더 많은 관심과 성원이 이어지길 바라는 마음으로

국내 악기에 포커스를 맞춰 가는 중입니다. 해외 악기를 다룰 때는

그 최신 동향이나 트렌드를 테마로 놓고, 거기에 부합하는 국내 제조업체를 소개하는 방식으로 가려고 합니다.
http://toneofages.tistory.com/plugin/CallBack_bootstrapperSrc?nil_profile=tistory&nil_type=copied_post

오우거는 이미 NAMM SHOW의 스타입니다. 2014년이 첫 참가인데도, 그 디자인의 독특함으로

현장에서 단번에 눈길을 사로잡았다는군요. Premiere 기타 매거진에서는

2014년 가장 뛰어난 오버드라이브 페달로 오우거의 튜브홀릭을 꼽기도 했을 정도입니다.

2015년에도 역시 큰 주목을 끌었는데, 마그네슘 합금으로 만든 기타 덕분이죠.

마그네슘 하면 뭐가 떠오르시나요?

고인이 된 마왕 신해철 님께서 생전에 눈이 떨리는 증상을 갖고 계셨는데,

그 때 복용하시던 약의 성분이 마그네슘이기도 합니다.

대부분의 사람들은 가볍고 물에 닿으면 폭발성이 있다는 정도로 알죠.

사실 저도 합금인 걸 당연히 알지만, 손 씻고 와서 기타를 만지기 전에

손을 한 번 더 싹싹 바지에 문지르기도 했습니다. 다 이시죠?

개드립인 거.

그런데 사람들이 마그네슘에 대해 모르고 있는 것이 있습니다.

여타 금속 원소들과는 달리 소리를 반사하기만 하는 것이 아니라 적당히 머금는다는 거죠.

즉 나무와 비슷한 성질을 갖고 있는 셈입니다. 어떤 주파수는 튕겨내고 어떤 주파수는 부드럽게 삼키는,

그래서 결국 사람들이 듣거나 두들겼을 때 일반 금속의 딱딱하고 차가운 느낌보다는

좀 더 부드러운 느낌을 갖고 있는 것이 마그네슘 합금의 특징입니다.

오우거의 이번 일렉트릭 기타는 이 마그네슘 합금을 금형에 넣어 바디와 넥, 지판, 헤드까지

모두 한 번에 만들어내는 방식으로 제작되었습니다.

이 회사, 은근 마니악합니다. 이 기타의 개발비로만 어마어마한 자본을 투입했습니다.

사실 그런 돈 있으면 투자보다 투기를 하는 이들이 더 많은 세상입니다. 굳이 기타를 만들지 않아도

생산적이고 사람들에게 희망을 주는 일에 자본이 투입되었으면 하는 바람을

들어주는 회사라 할까요.

편집장님께서 동영상은 안 찍었다고 하셨는데 만약 동영상 있었으면 그대로 입산 ㅜㅡㅠ 연습 안 한 티가…

실제 연주해 본 마그네슘 바디와 지판은 매우 특이한 느낌이었습니다.

특히 1개월간 연습을 하지 않아 레가토 쪽 프레이즈가 전혀 안 되는 상황에서,

새끼손가락으로 해머링만 해도 소리가 날 정도로 선명한 어택을 자랑했습니다.

그리고 서스틴이 매우 깁니다. 픽업은 던컨인데, 그 출력보다도 소재 자체가 만드는 서스틴이 압권이더군요.

그래프로 보니, 나무와 비교가 되지 않을 정도입니다.

그렇다고 깨지고 시끄러운 소리가 나는 것은 아니더군요.

단단하면서도 매끈거리는 느낌이 에보니 핑거보드의 열 배, 선명함이 메이플의 두 배.

그러나 찢어지는 느낌과는 거리가 멀었습니다.

톤 노브에 코일 탭 스위치가 있어, 푸쉬-풀 방식으로 싱글 코일과 험버커 전환이 가능한데요.

톤 레인지가 굉장히 넓었습니다. 특히 새들의 재질에 따라서도 질감이 달랐는데요,

이는 추후 오우거 측과 재미있는 리포트 프로젝트를 만들게 되면 한 번 제대로.

아직 개발이 다 끝난 게 아니라고 하니 사운드 면도 계속 개선되고 있는 중입니다.

플로이드 로즈 브릿지가 장착된 기타도 있는데, 거기에 7현 기타가 나온다면

개인적으로 구매 의사도…

요것도 송명하 편집장님께서 촬영하신.

우측 펜더 트윈 리버브에 연결된 페달로 테스트해보았습니다.

우측부터, Chronomaster Delay-Boss Chorus Ensemble(CE-5)-Tremoloid-Thunderclap Distortion-Tubeholic Overdrive

순서입니다.

특히 썬더클랩과 튜브홀릭 페달은 <Premiere Guitar>가 선정한 NAMM SHOW2014 ‘Best 10’ 페달,

그 중 1위에 꼽히기도 했습니다.

(관련기사http://www.premierguitar.com/articles/20527-state-of-the-stomp-top-10-pedal-picks-from-namm-2014?page=2)

고급스런 삼족오 문양의 이 보물 상자는?

바로 피크 케이스입니다. 금형 기술을 원천으로 하는 기업이다 보니 실용성과 견고성을 동시에 갖춘 소품을 만들었더군요.

피크의 동심원 무늬도 미끄럼 방지 기능인데, 이 역시 3D 프린팅을 통해 구현되었습니다.

이 회사의 주력 제품 중 하나가 힌지(hinge; 경첩)인데요. 이 케이스 역시 그 힌지 기술이 적용된 것입니다.

닫을 때 소리가 마치 카르티에 라이터 소리에 오버드라이브를 걸어놓은 듯합니다.

OGRE 페달은 빠른 시간에 세계적으로 인기를 얻고 있습니다.

특히 오는 3월 16일에 내한공연을 갖는 주다스 프리스트의 기타리스트

리치 포크너(Richie Faulkner)는 오우거의 크로노마스터 딜레이를 사용할 예정이라고 자신의 페이스북에 올렸네요.

이 딜레이는 클린 부스트 기능도 갖고 있습니다.

부스트에 온-오프 기능이 있으면 금상첨화겠네요.

국내 제조사들이 어려움을 호소하는 가운데서도 오우거는 금년 여러 가지로 도약을 시도하고 있습니다.

해외에서도 1000~3000$ 사이 가격대에서는 한국 기타에 대한 관심이 높은 만큼,

오우거는 물론이고, 많은 한국 제조업체들이 힘을 내 성장했으면 합니다.

미약한 힘이나마 보탬이 되고자.

송명하 편집장님의 깨알 방문기. http://www.paranoidzine.com/534

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[파라노이드] ‘오우거’에 다녀왔습니다.

흡사 외계인을 연상시키는 디자인으로 이목을 모은 이펙트 기억나시나요? 지난 락큰롤코리아 2014에서는 경품으로 받은 분들도 계실테고… 기억 나지 않는 분들은 아래 사진을 보시고… ^^ 오늘은 오우거에 다녀왔습니다. 얼마 전 발행된 통권 파라노이드 통권 24호 <2015 NAMM Show> 리포트 기사에도 등장했던 오우거의 이펙트들입니다~

이펙트들은 일단 생산된 후 이렇게 에이징 과정을 거친다고 하네요~

돌아오는 길에 페이스북에 접속해보니, 다음 주 월요일에 내한공연을 가질 주다스 프리스트에 젊은 피로 수혈된 기타리스트 리치 포크너가 일본 공연에서 딜레이를 오우거 제품으로 사용할 거라는 포스트도 보이네요. 아마 국내 공연에서도 사용하지 않을까요? ^^

'Richie: Probably the most amazing looking delay pedal I've ever seen! Sounds pretty good too! Bought it without even trying it out! Our #priestarmy in #Tokyo will hear it tonight at the #Budokan! Pure metal fury in a pedal!!! RHRF DOTF «--< #judaspriest #redeemerofsouls #priestfamily #ogre #priestintheeast'

Judas Priest

Musician/Band · 4,620,068 Likes

· 21 hrs ·

Richie: Probably the most amazing looking delay pedal I’ve ever seen! Sounds pretty good too! Bought it without even trying it out! Our‪#‎priestarmy‬ in ‪#‎Tokyo‬ will hear it tonight at the ‪#‎Budokan‬! Pure metal fury in a pedal!!! RHRF DOTF «–<
‪#‎judaspriest‬ ‪#‎redeemerofsouls‬ ‪#‎priestfamily‬ ‪#‎ogre‬ ‪#‎priestintheeast‬

다음은 오우거에서 본격 생산 예정인 마그네슘 합금 바디의 기타입니다. 진열되어 있는 기타들은 이번 남쇼에서 진열했던, 일종의 프로토 타이프 들이고, 5월경부터 본격적으로 양산형 생산에 들어간다고 합니다. 가격은 픽업과 같은 파츠들을 어떤 걸로 사용하느냐에 따라 보급형과 고급형으로 나뒤어 출시될 예정이라고 합니다. 일단… 만져보고, 들어본;;; 결과로는 무척 가볍고 튼튼하다는 느낌이었습니다.

미팅룸 한 켠에는 오우거에서 나온 제품들이 진열되어 있습니다. 하얀색과 가지색 이펙트는 양산형이 아니고, 전시를 위해 특수 도장한 제품들입니다. 아… 마징가 제트와 그레이트 마징가, 그렌다이저는 오우거 제품들이 아닙니다. 카부토 쥬조 박사님의 작품이죠;;;

오우거에는 한명륜 기자와 함께 갔습니다. 한 기자가 잠시 테스트해본 이펙트들입니다.

오우거 기타를 위한 하드 케이습니다. 기타와 마찬가지로 무척 날렵하게 생겼는데요, 제질은 카본입니다. 기타가 워낙 튼튼하기 때문에(사실, 저희가 본 영상은 기타를 3층 건물에서 떨어트리는… 염통이 쫄깃해지는 아찔한 실험 영상이었습니다. 물론, 멀쩡했습니다;;;) 오히려 케이스가 깨지는 걸 주의해야겠네요;;;

요렇게 색색깔로 나올 것 같네요. 이 모양에 어깨끈이 추가될 계획이라고 합니다.

숨겨왔던 기타 실력을 맘껏 뽐내고 있는 한명륜 기잡니다. 드림 씨어터, 도켄, 미스터 빅, 오지 오스본… 다양한 레퍼토리를 연주했는데 동영상으로 남기진 않았습니다;;;

오우거에 대한 자세한 리뷰와 이야기들은 아무래도 기타 양산체제가 갖춰질 무렵에 맞춰서 해야할 것 같습니다. 오늘 여러모로 도움 주신 김상길 대표님과 이응수 이사님께 감사드립니다. 아… 그리고 집에 돌아오니, 제 눈앞에 이런 보석 상자가… 아… 물론 훔치거나 주은건 아닙니다~ ^^

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Ogre Thunderclap Review ~ Premier Guitar

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http://www.premierguitar.com/articles/21578-ogre-thunderclap-review

Ogre Thunderclap Review

Housed in a die-cast enclosure shaped like a four-horned skull, Thunderclap takes the notion of the stompbox as art to a remarkable level. What’s extraordinary is that Thunderclap sounds as monstrous as it looks. More awesome still is its versatility—this pedal can be more civilized, subdued, and downright musical than its ferocious visage suggests.

Horn-y Settings
Ogre was founded by Sangkil Kim, a Korea-based musician, studio engineer, and entrepreneur who also owns Hankuk Precision, a metal components company. Having direct access to the Hankuk facilities allows Ogre to manufacture pedals in such unusual custom enclosures.

Thunderclap’s cosmetics cleverly marry form and function (though the latter occasionally comes at the expense of the former). The skull’s four horns double as controls (level, bass, treble, and gain). The tongue is the on/off control. Once activated, the creature’s eyes light up a brilliant blue. Input and output jacks and the 9-volt adaptor reside on the top-corner panel above the horns.

It’s very dynamic with single-coil pickups, ranging from nearly clean to dirty depending on pick attack.

While Ogre’s aesthetics are a breath of fresh air (if that descriptor can be applied to a glowing skull of death), functionality suffers just a bit. First, if you look at the engaged pedal from directly above, the lights shine so brightly that it’s hard to distinguish much else. If you can see the horns through the glow, it’s still hard to discern where they’re set, especially since there are no position markers—just horn points to guide you.

My other gripe is that the top-corner section of the skull where the jacks are located is tightly packed and leaves little clearance for a power-adapter plug. If your power supply has a right-angle plug, you won’t be able to fit it into the jack between the 1/4″ cables without using a straight-plug converter for right-angle power connections—though Ogre does include one of these converters with the pedal.

Evil Ogre

The most obvious use of Thunderclap is as an over-the-top high-gain monster, so that’s where I started. Using a Gibson Les Paul Standard and a Fender Stratocaster—both played through a Mesa/Boogie Mark IV’s clean channel—I set Thunderclap’s gain all the way up and both EQ controls at noon. I half expected an out-of-control mess (something about a horned ogre shapes expectations in a certain way), but I got a wide-open sound with surprising clarity.

With so much gain roaring away, it took more than a simple flick of the guitar’s volume knob to clean things up. In fact, things stayed fairly dirty until I got all the way down to about 2 on my guitar’s volume control. At more conservative gain settings I got killer rhythm tones reminiscent of Van Halen’s “Unchained.” There are many controllable crunch colors for rhythm playing that also sustain impressively in solo sections.

No One-Trick Skull
Nothing about the Ogre’s looks suggests subtlety, but I was surprised by the richness of the pedal’s mid-gain sounds. With the gain control rolled back to 10 o’clock, the pedal’s character shifts from distortion to rich overdrive. It’s very dynamic with single-coil pickups, ranging from nearly clean to dirty depending on pick attack. With humbuckers, the overdrive is more pronounced. Turning the guitar’s volume knob to about 7 cleans things up noticeably, however, and you can move from clean to dirt via the volume knob as needed.

Thunderclap also works as a boost. There’s perceptible grit even with the gain fully lowered, so this might not be the best candidate for a pure clean boost. But it adds a nice verge-of-breakup quality that’s great for classic rock rhythm playing.

The Verdict
Thunderclap looks built to shock, but like a punk just kicked out of Oxford, it’s quite civilized under the horns and teeth. It’s a versatile pedal that provides boost, overdrive, and all-out distortion colors suitable for many genres. Are there other dirt boxes that cover the same sonic ground? Sure. But few look this badass. In that regard, Thunderclap slays the competition.

Ratings

Pros:
Many great overdrive and distortion sounds.

Cons:
Looks aren’t for everyone. Form sometimes comes at expense of function.

Tones:

Ease of Use:

Build/Design:

Value:

Street:
$220

Ogre Thunderclap
ogreusa.com

Joe-charupakorn

New York City native Joe Charupakorn is a guitarist, author, and editor. He has interviewed the world’s biggest guitar icons including Steve Vai, Joe Satriani, Yngwie Malmsteen, Carlos Santana, Neal Schon, and Dave Davies, among many others, for Premier Guitar. Additionally, he has written over 20 instructional books for Hal Leonard Corporation. His books are available worldwide and have been translated into many languages. Visit him on the web at joecharupakorn.com.

http://www.premierguitar.com/articles/21578-ogre-thunderclap-review

The November issue of Guitar Player featuring Ogre Pedals

The November issue of Guitar Player featuring Ogre Pedals

14 Pedals From 4 New Companies

Tested by Sam Haun, Max Lazarus, and Michael Molenda

It’s always a big treat at Guitar Player Central when we open the mail and find a bunch of cool pe… See More

The November issue of Guitar Player featuring Ogre Pedals

14 Pedals From 4 New Companies

Tested by Sam Haun, Max Lazarus, and Michael Molenda

It’s always a big treat at Guitar Player Central when we open the mail and find a bunch of cool pedals with which we might be able to offer some “scoops” to our reader community. For this month, we received an especially interesting group of pedal premieres. Each of the four companies was started by a musician who also has engineering smarts, and the fact that different countries touch some of their pedals is perhaps a statement on productive global collaboration.

Just one year old, Australia’s MC Systems was formed by electronics specialist and musician Warren McAlister. McAlister does his R&D at “The Lab” in the Blue Mountains of Australia, manufacturers his pedals in Guangzhou, China, and markets his products via a firm in Hong Kong.

Ogre was started by another musician/engineer in Korea’s Kim Sangkil—who also happens to own a company that makes metal components for other manufacturers. Sounds like a nice situation for developing some truly unique pedal casings. Which is what he did, and Ogre pedals are so uniquely designed that GP ran a “box opening” feature in the September 2014 issue, before we actually tested the pedals.

Vauxflores marks another collaboration between different countries, as these extremely experimental fuzz boxes are designed in San José, Costa Rica, and then hand-built in Baltimore, Maryland. The fact that Vauxflores pedals are so sonically idiosyncratic is due to owner/designer Travis Johns—a sound artist, technologist, and electronic musician who creates works that “blur the lines between performance, composition, and installation, often using the environment and biological processes as inspiration.” So there’s that.

Zaim Audio is the playground of Mark Zaim, who looks kind of like a surfer dude, but who has worked at some top-drawer audio companies as an electronic engineer for more than 16 years. This guy has even done e-Briefs for Audio Engineering Society conventions. Zaim is also a musician, which got him into designing his own pedals when he couldn’t find models that met his self-described “outrageously tone obsessed demands.”

So with a bunch of effects pedals designed by musicians and produced by new companies just establishing themselves with the world’s guitarists, Sam, Max, and I were pretty jazzed to see what might unfold. Fasten your seatbelts, gang… —Michael Molenda

Ogre

I’ve been at Guitar Player since 1998, and the Ogre pedals are the most fun, whimsically designed, and stunning stompboxes I’ve ever seen in all my years here. It was rather shocking—in a good way—to open the boxes when we first got them and have these crazy “heads” staring up at us in somewhat menacing ways. The “cockpit” covers that protect the knobs on the Kronomaster Delay and Tubeholic Overdrive are especially brilliant, and we knew we had to share our experience with readers as soon as possible—which is why the Ogres ended up in a box-opening feature in the September 2014 issue. Kudos to Ogre owner Kim Sangkil for taking pedal design to stratospheric levels of awesomeness.

All of the Ogres are true-bypass and claim to be handmade—quite a feat, given the design elements. Circuits are constructed on a single PCB board, and chassis are die-cast aluminum. Power options are a 9-volt battery or optional 9-volt power supply. A handy battery cover allows easy and rapid battery changes.

Of course, looks are one thing, and tone is another, and few serious guitarists typically sacrifice good sound for beauty. It was time to see what these monsters have to offer…

Kronomaster Delay

The Kronomaster ($219 street) utilizes the PT2399 chip as its engine and offers from approximately 50ms up to 550ms of delay time. Controls were kept to the essential basics—Time, Repeat, and Mix—to allow fast and easy tweaks. The delay sounds are beefy and solid, and the Mix control lets you get real subtle with near-psychoacoustic delay trails following your notes, or get all The Edge-like with very pronounced repeats.

The Kronomaster’s facile controls, cockpit cover (which, when closed, makes it virtually impossible to mess with knob settings during performances or travel), and tough casing make it a fantastic delay for gigging. There’s a lot to love about the punchy delay tone, but, on the other hand, it’s an excellent sound that is also available on some less expensive delay pedals. So there’s a little bit of buying into the design concept here. This is not a bad thing, and as the Kronomaster comes in four colors—vintage gray, vintage red, vintage gold, and vintage green—it makes a pretty spectacular addition to a pedalboard. Just be ready to handle all the gear geeks who will seek you out after your show to ask, “What the heck kinda pedal is that?”

Thunderclap Distortion

The devilish Thunderclap ($219) also offers the same four color options as the Kronomaster, although this horned beast (those horns are actually the pedal’s Level, Bass, Treble, and Gain control knobs) does not have the cockpit cover. The distortion tone is mean and bright enough to soar over any band mix, but it doesn’t get annoyingly brittle at any time. Articulation is excellent, so your notes will be heard through the roar even if you are playing fast or fingering arpeggios. I really dug the aggressively silky sustain that occurs when the Gain knob is dimed. This is a very good distortion with enough tweak-ability to see action in a number of different musical scenarios.

Tubeholic Overdrive

Ogre’s little alien head ($219) offers the slick cockpit cover, four colors (vintage gray, vintage red, vintage gold, and vintage green), and basic controls (Level, Tone, and Gain). Tone-wise, it’s somewhat of an overdrive/distortion—gotta love the dual-purpose thing—that uncorks a really exciting and ferocious roar. Articulation is as good as the Thunderclap, although you get a little bit of a broader raunch factor here, as the Tubeholic can go from just a tad edgy to crunchy to blistering, depending on where you set the Gain knob. As a result, your attack and performance gestures are tracked somewhat more dynamically. This is a very versatile rumble machine.

Bottom Line

One might be tempted to think the Ogres are a slick gimmick. They aren’t. The industrial design is awesome, of course, but the pedals do sound very good, and they can absolutely hold their own against some other delay, distortion, and overdrive boxes. As mentioned earlier, the only consideration is pricing. You can get good sounds for a bit less elsewhere, but you can only get these beautiful, artwork-quality casings from Ogre. And, hey, style has always been a big part of rock and roll, and I think it’s pretty brilliant that Ogre made some good-sounding pedals and then dressed them up like rock stars. —Michael Molenda (4 photos)

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