This pedal pretty much demands respect from the start. You can tell because it comes with a nice velvet bag to put it in ;) The Hugh Hefner of pedals.
I'm never one to believe hype. But given Andy from PGS (who I've seen demo more pedals than I can shake a stick at) said this is the "Holy Grail" of overdrives. My interest was peaked. First lets look at the controls.
First, every single one of these is hand made by people in America. Winning. They are also put through vigerous quality control testing. Yes, these pedals are expensive, but in my opinion, this one is worth it.
Each one comes with it's own swirl pattern. No 2 are alike. There are a lot cooler looking ones than this on PGS, however I didn't know they sold them individually, so I picked the first one I saw cause they had it in stock :) It still looks bitchen.
Volume: Output volume.
Tone: Bass vs trebble.
Gain: Amount of grit
Yup... pretty standard stuff. The below controls differentiate from most other overdrives.
Toggle Left: Bass Boost
Toggle Right: Clipping Mode
Asymetrical Clipping
Clean Boost
Symetrical Clipping
A few other overdrives have had toggles as well. I love the concept. Being able to choose the type of clipping you want? Hell yes!
The clipping mode toggle definatley puts the pedal over the top. All modes sound absolutely beautiful. Even the clean boost section had something other pedals don't have. And that is SH$% loads of volume. Unity gain on this mode is barely pushing the volume knob. AND it has lots of grit in that mode as well, should you want it. Or you can have crystal clear volume boost.
Gain: This is more of a click knob, with stages rather than just turn the dial and see where you land. I like this concept. I haven't seen it executed on any other pedal. But the only reason it works here is due to the versatility of exactly how much gain they have on tap.You seriously have anything from clean boost up to metal.
Clarity - I've heard other transparent OD's. What sets this apart is that even at higher gain settings. Everything is clear. I can hear all notes. I can play chords. They sound like chords. I can pick, I can articulate. Even on my lower strings. It avoids muddyness more than any distortion pedal I've ever heard.
Bass Boost: This thickens up the bottom end for those using brighter style guitars (Tele's and Strat's)
As a previous review mentioned: "this thing was in a shootout with among the top Overdrives ever made, Landgraff, Klon, Fulltone, Lovepedal, Way Huge, Analog Man, and Paul Cochrane, the Boiling Point™ was consistently named the "Best of Class" by all the players who participated. "
The only other OD I've heard come close to this is the Wampler Ecstacy. And the only drawback of that pedal I could find is that the bass increase gets Muddy and you can't hear articulation on the lower strings.
I'm not dogging other OD's. They are all great. But in a sea of OD's this one stands out. Absolutely amazing. Con's? It's not cheap. Thats it.
Pro's
Hand built, numbered and signed by the builder
3 selectable positions: Plexi, Asymetric Overdrive, and Clean Boost
True bypass switching
Bass Contour switch for humbucker & single coil operation
Better input impedance matching
Improved tone section for more control
High Overdrive output while cleaning up nicely for the volume knob player
High visibility indicator Blue LED
Best quality 11-detent drive potentiometer
1% audiophile metal film resistors in most locations (with vintage carbon composition in signal path)
Switchcraft jacks
Panasonic audiophile capacitors
Socketed chip for tonal experimentation
9v to 18v operation
2-year manufacturer's warranty
Clarity
Sounds great with chords
Tight
Con's
Not cheap
