"Best" is perhaps as overused as "built like a tank" but for this pedal I am not sure they are adequate. You could not give me a virgin Klon for this nor any other overdrive out there. This is new engineering in overdrive circuit by Paul Rivera the amp guru. Super quality components. I imagine in time, when I can afford it, I will have two of them on my board, one set clean like the Klon and one dirty. If there is such a thing as the "best drive" I am looking at it.

Sound
Just let me say I have long searched for "the drive" and trust me this is a drive of mythical pretense. I swear at low gain settings it is so Klon like as to freak you out, it ranges from what I would classify as clean boost territory, to light drive being very transparent, very tonal. Gains up twisting the drive up with the best of them, while retaining a musical quality and morphing ability into other effects and a gained amp channel with a range of usefulness that you need to experience to appreciate. Just far beyond typical tubescreamer clones and mods this is a unique drive, pretty much what I had hoped for and much more.

Features
I am not a huge fan of the 3 knobby ODs, pretty sick of them really. This unit surprised me as the tone range is really wide spectrum and retains the quality and tone of your guitar without coloring it. Flip up into "stack" and you get a really nice low end boost, not muddy or flubby but really thickens a Strat as… read more to be perfect. Sounds great on "combo" EQ mode, but being able to flip up into "stack" moves you beyond the basic 3 knob and offers a new spectrum of tone range using the knob and the low end enhance of the "stack" mode. I was expecting the pedal to be much larger, it is quite small but the tone that this puppy projects will floor you.

Ease of Use
So easy to use there is no manual offered. You will not get a bad tone it is just a matter of dialing in what suits your present desire of gain drive and color.

Quality
Not a typical die cast metal box but thick folded sheet metal. Color and pictures are decal not paint and may with time come off or lift. So what, I would like just to have a silver metal box and make people wonder what the hell it is. It is a great looking pedal and I expect no problems as I take care of my board. Battery access is not easy having to remove 4 screws but I could care as I do not put batteries in my pedals and it does not come with one. If you are going to spend nearly $300 on a great drive and need to use batteries or worry about the access ease then seriously maybe you should stay with the low budget boxes.

Value
$300 seems like a lot for drive, I was used to spending around $140-160, so it was a bit of a push for me to handle the price. But now that I have played it and see the difference, believe me it is twice the drive for twice the money. I would not hesitate to actually have 3 of them as this drive is exactly what I like over the double shaman drive which gets really gainy on the LA channel.

Manufacturer Support
No idea, I do not expect to need to speak to them other than to tell them what killer pedals they have developed.

The Wow Factor
I chose this drive over looking at perhaps 10 at the same price range. It was a good guess and believe me the tones are way better than anything you are going to hear on youtube or other demos.

Musical Background:
35+ yrs playing

Musical Style:
heavy fusion, m, b, r read less