Tour Series Archer Overdrive and Boost Guitar Effects Pedal

Love this pedal! On it's own it's a very full sounding low to mid gain OD pedal that just has a really smooth sound and feels great to play thru. Nice rich drive, good sustain and compression. Very tweakable controls. You can also use it to boost other drive pedals in your chain that are after The Dude and it works great. I ran The Dude into my Suhr Eclipse over drive pedal set to a medium gain crunch and I got one of the best lead tones I've ever heard from any rig I've ever had. You can also use it as a totally clean boost since it has a TON of clean headroom. I'm setting the volume knob somewhere between 9 and 10 o'clock. Crazy amount of headroom.I'm totally diggin' this pedal and I was reaching for the velcro within 1/2 hour after opening the box. I recently bought 3 pedals and The Dude was the only keeper. I sent back 2 pedals (J Rockett Archer Ikon and Wampler's Tumnus Deluxe). Those pedals also get very high ratings from most players, but they didn't do the trick for me. The Dude is killer! Great pedal.

The sound is great, solid replacement for my new amp’s lack of a spring tank.

This is a really versatile pedal, it actually can do more than I had originally thought, after some experimentation I found this pedal can do a few things.It can do overdrive, like I'd say getting into the zone of crunch territory is about where it taps out before getting way to much output going on. It has a unique voice, I'd say it's kind of "hard", not harsh, but just a very strong and blunt kind of overdrive. I don't know how else to describe it, to me, this is probably the weakest link in the pedal as it has a tendency to get kind of dark and harder to distinguish the notes the more the overdrive is turned up, but still 100% usable.The highlight I think this pedal serves is as a "clean boost", it has a very slight mid-hump, and gives some "girth" to clean notes, it sounds excellent doing this, my favorite setting. It can also be used to push another pedal into some "output" driven overdrive, which is a very clean sounding tone, I like that as-well.That about sums up what the uses are of the pedal, I think it serves really well as an "enhanced" clean tone, and even getting into some unique overdrive territories, but I remain that it serves best as a clean boost. For the price though, I'm a happy camper and I think this is a keeper.Final Notes: This buffer will thin out your tone and add presence when it's off, I ended up returning it because my amp already is a bright amp and it just didn't sit well with my setup. The sound was fantastic, but it made my clean signal to harsh when off.

Do you own an Orange amp? If so you should try this. This seems to really smooth out the Rockerverb like no other pedal does that I own. It seems to do the same on the TH-30. It does something, not sure what, that the Tumnus (aka one of my all time favorite pedals), Tube Screamer (all makes, models and brands) don't do. Its just very pleasing to my ears and seems to capture the right frequencies. That being said I don't use it much on any other amps cause it don't seem to have the same magic on them like others do. It however has no problem slamming the font end of any amp and you are going to get good tone if you dial it in correctly.Tone is such a subjective topic because what is good to me maybe nails on the chalkboard to you, so you don't need to take my word for it. The build quality is great, it has a rolled over metal box with knobs that have set screws and a smooth switch with a low noise floor. The reason 4 stars was given is because of price and this kinda being a one trick pony for ME.

I never owned or played a Klon Centaur, but was intrigued by this pedal after viewing a Tone for Tache Guitarist video. I decided to order one after receiving a EHX SoulFood. The Archer has a wide array of tones and its controls have very subtle adjustments. It plays from a totally clear boost, to a bit of edge to a lovely OD'ed sound; and the tone control is very effective at dialling in the exact amount of treble/bass you need. The Archer also works great in combination with a stacked OD/distortion/fuzz pedal (I use an FullTone OCD and/or a MXR Mini-Fuzz Face). With gain turned down, The Archer will definitely emphasise the sound of the said dirt pedals w/o the mushiness you sometimes experience. Compared to the SoulFood, it has less overall gain when turned to the max, BUT definitely has a better sounding, more organic and more natural sound. That justifies the price difference IMHO. Well done, J Rockett!

This pedal strength is not for providing gain, other pedal should be used for this purpose.I use it, as many others do, as a sound shaping pedal, first in my chain, before the gain pedal(s).I do not boost with it.I set the gain to 09:00 and the volume to unity.When used before an EQD Gray Channel set to no/low gain, in its "no clipping mode", I get a divine clean sound. Absolutely stunning to my ears.You initially feel the Archer is not doing much and cannot really identify its sound shaping and its impact but when used before other pedals and when you then disengage the Archer and turn it back on, it really leverages the sound to a new level.Built quality is excellent.Highly recommended.It is recommended to place this pedal first in the signal path, before other tone shaping pedals, since it is Germanium clipping that "likes" being after the pickups. Also, when using several GE clipping pedals in series, the sound can get muddy so you should explore.

excelente

As a professional level guitarist of 45+ years, I have used a multitude of different pedals. The Archer is a fantastic stand-alone pedal for low to medium overdrive crunch (blues, country, classic rock), or paired with another overdrive, like an OCD, it opens a whole other realm of possibilities with smooth, thick, controlled sustain. It is now my 2nd favorite overdrive (replacing my Ibanez TS808 Tube Screamer), and running a close second to my KLON Centaur, whose price has gone out of reach for the average musician. The ARCHER at $200 is worth every penny and a absolute gem of an overdrive!