Biyang OD8 Three Chip Tubescreamer Clone Overdrive Pedal

Very sturdy great for purpose

This is a superb product, particularly for the price.To be clear: this pedal is designed to emulate the sound of a mildly, naturally overdriven tube amplifier. It isn't a distortion pedal, so if Slayer is your thing, you'd be better looking elsewhere. If you're a Stevie Ray Vaughan fan, on the other hand, this will really juice you. The overdrive is sweet and warm, and much richer than the some what mid-rangey  Ibanez TS9 Tube Screamer , which is what I bought this as a replacement for.It is no mouse, on the other hand: I wasn't happy with the dirty channel on a Marshall JCM800 2205 I rented last Thursday, and my OD-8 was able to do the job instead, providing a richer and more focused drive than the amp - I have never relied on an overdrive pedal to do that before (usally I use them as a more gentle gain boost for less overdriven sounds).The Biyang OD-8 is, more or less, functionally the same as the celebrated  Ibanez TS-808 Tube Screamer  pedal (most famously used by one S. R. Vaughan), but with a couple of additional advantages. In order to get to those, and explain that it really is more or less the equivalent item. I need to descend into a level of spoddery that offends most people I know, and makes me feel decidedly off colour.Nevertheless: the "secret sauce" to the TS-808 is, so the purists say, the "operational amplifier", a 25c chip soldered onto the circuit board. The TS808 used a JRC4558 chip, and these have been discontinued, although they're still available. Later versions of the tube screamer (including the TS-9, which was on my board until it died) used a supposedly higher fidelity Toshiba Op Amp Chip, the TA75558, but common consent is that it didn't sound nearly as smooth or warm.Enough snobbery: with the Biyang X-Drive you get the choice (in the pack) of three different Op Amps, including an original 4558. So you can achieve the main aspects of the TS808 tone (there are some certain diodes which apparently make a difference, but I gather it is mainly down to the Op Amp). Somewhat excitingly, the chips can be removed and replaced by hand from an extra panel at the back (usually they're soldered in) in a matter of minutes. But BE CAREFUL - they're delicate little things and the legs are easily bent).The OD-8 really does sound cool, particularly through an open-backed Fender style guitar amplifier, and I would concur it is a marked improvement on my old TS9 (which I struggled to get the best out of). It also has three settings, "TS", "Bright" and "Warm", though I'm blowed if I could tell what the difference was, except that "Bright" seemed considerably louder than the other two.Other observations: the "drive" dial is very subtly graduated: at minimum it certainly is cleaner than at max, but unlike the TS9 or a Boss OD-2, a quarter turn doesn't make a marked difference.If I had a complaint it would be that the the green battery power light is unbelievably bright - it casts a sickly greenish glow and actually glares so much that, in low light, you can't make out the controls on the pedal!I will try to post a video review as well.Olly Buxton

For the price, this is an amazingly good overdrive pedal. The OD-8 suggested to me that it might be trying to be the old Ibanez "Overdrive", the OD-850, which was in essence a fuzz pedal. I own one of those, bought new way back when...It's not really a full-on fuzz though, more of a legitimate overdrive, which at first was a bit of a disappointment since I was hoping for some fairly "nasty" effected sounds. Then I started exploring the ranges of the controls and like it for what it actually is. There are plenty of Youtube reviews demonstrating the typical sounds from it, and "in the flesh" it's even better. The three chips that you can insert (very carefully) into a socket beneath the upper screw-retained cover on the base of the unit all sound quite subtly different, maybe a bit too subtly for some. I was certainly hard-pressed to spot differences between them, although they were there. In the end I used the one it comes fitted with (JRC) and I think I'll stick with it for reasons even I can't fathom out!One good touch on the controls is a three way toggle switch that moves between TS/Bright/Warm, and this really does pull different things out of different guitars. For example with a semi-acoustic such as my Ibanez AS-100 the bright setting really brought forward a whole new voice from the guitar (and it'd probably do the same for a Gibson/Epiphone 335, for example.Overall the Biyang OD8 looks like a budget pedal with its plain mirror-finish enclosure and chickenhead controls of yesteryear, but it punches far above its weight for a price far below what you'd pay for an equivalent featured pedal. While it can use a battery for power, I chose to use a Truetone 1-spot daisychain and this did the job just fine thanks to the pedal's standard polarity.I felt that I had to mark it down for versatility and sturdiness simply because the need to change the chips if you want some fundamental shift in sounds does introduce an element of risk in using the pedal to its fullest. I'd have preferred to see something like a DIP switch on the outside of the case (or even under that cover if necessary) with the chips wired into three circuits you can switch between. Better still, perhaps another 3-pole switch on the top cover for growl/bite/smooth!It has been around for a few years and perhaps Biyang will update it. Even if they don't, it's a really appealing pedal that the low price makes irresistable. It's not a boutique pedal by any means (and I have a few for comparison, hello Strymon, hello Empress) but it's all heart.