Most of my stomp box effects are distortion devices of one sort or another and I've owned a lot of them over the years, including an original TS-808, but one stands out among the herd for capturing a refined version of that mid-forward, smooth, singing voice: the Lovepedal Eternity Kanji. The PGS demo sold a lot of folks on this pedal but no YouTube vid can do it justice.
The ad copy at the Lovepedal site really turns me off considering the Kanji is really just an 808 clone with some tweaks and 'upgrades' here and there. Nonetheless, this iteration of the Eternity OD really does sound good and can really transform a Strat-style guitar into the proverbial 300 pound violin. The Kanji is a a bit 'too much' for my taste to use with hum-buckers but with single coil transducers the Kanji will escort you to tonal Nirvana.
Lovepedal has recently fallen out of favor with pedal geeks for a supposed lack of transparency when it comes to the origins of some of their circuits, e.g., the Amp Eleven, as the rumor goes, has incorporated (i.e., "ripped off") Paul Cochrane's "Timmy" circuit. I don't know enough about the specifics of these circuits to comment and we can ponder the murky world of 'boutique' and 'fauxtique' business ethics another time but, yeah, there's nothing really original here but, sonically, the Kanji is an actual improvement over the original TS with one caveat: at very high gain settings my Kanji picks up Radio China out of Hong Kong. Personally, I felt lucky to have such a cool effect available but I seriously doubt most guitar guys would feel the same way.
What beats the Kanji? I'd buy a Sparkle Drive Mod over this any day and a Fulltone Full Drive II is way more flexible with the same core tonal vibe available with the flip of one toggle switch.
The ad copy at the Lovepedal site really turns me off considering the Kanji is really just an 808 clone with some tweaks and 'upgrades' here and there. Nonetheless, this iteration of the Eternity OD really does sound good and can really transform a Strat-style guitar into the proverbial 300 pound violin. The Kanji is a a bit 'too much' for my taste to use with hum-buckers but with single coil transducers the Kanji will escort you to tonal Nirvana.
Lovepedal has recently fallen out of favor with pedal geeks for a supposed lack of transparency when it comes to the origins of some of their circuits, e.g., the Amp Eleven, as the rumor goes, has incorporated (i.e., "ripped off") Paul Cochrane's "Timmy" circuit. I don't know enough about the specifics of these circuits to comment and we can ponder the murky world of 'boutique' and 'fauxtique' business ethics another time but, yeah, there's nothing really original here but, sonically, the Kanji is an actual improvement over the original TS with one caveat: at very high gain settings my Kanji picks up Radio China out of Hong Kong. Personally, I felt lucky to have such a cool effect available but I seriously doubt most guitar guys would feel the same way.
What beats the Kanji? I'd buy a Sparkle Drive Mod over this any day and a Fulltone Full Drive II is way more flexible with the same core tonal vibe available with the flip of one toggle switch.