My most important overdrive pedal. Excellent for giving body to single coils. I use it a lot to give a soft/sweet touch (INPUT FILTER), but it can do the opposite as well. It can be a boost, but I use it more as a slight overdrive. You didn't get his almost fuzz sounds! Note that the bass potentiometer adds bass before the drive. The treble adds after the drive. So try with both pots at maximum and humbuckers! 😉 Its only problem for me is the noise floor. Otherwise it was just perfect!
In a related way, a month or two ago, I saw a video demonstrating the effectiveness of putting the Line 6 Vital Boost in front of a driven Minotaur. Sounded quite good, and worth exploring.
The input filter functions more as a pre-gain tone-knob, while the cuts are post-gain eq. All the way clockwise is wide open, no cut, while counterclockwise is full cut. The high gain mode should pick up right where low gain leaves off.
Great pedal, I got one about a year ago off a friend. They take a bit of time to get used to, bass is pre-drive so you can tame the flub, treble post drive so you can tame highs. Works well with a variety of guitars and amps and for me was an improvement on the Boss BD-2. Yes it can be hissy, but by the time you have the rest of the band you’re not going to hear that. The filter control is great too, really helps when you’re using different pickup types
I bought one of these a few years ago for the same reason you did! Love Landau. Sounds good enough that I still own it, but it doesn’t have a spot on my board. It reminds me of the Greer Lightspeed in terms of gain and EQ, although I prefer the Lightspeed to it. Also has a clunky foot switch and a greater hiss/noise-floor than the Lightspeed, KOT or Keeley Nobel Screamer that currently occupy my board.
The Looking Glass is great in low gain mode to shape frequency/make everything sound better. I never use high gain mode. Only drawback is the LED is very temperamental.
I love mine. The range of sounds available from it make me want to get another one ... I think I discovered this one via Danish Pete ... as well as the Lightspeed 👍
If I remember correctly, this is and original design by Shoe. The savior drive is his other most popular design. The looking glass is My all time favorite Swiss Army knife pedal! Clean boost, EQ, low/medium/high gain over drive, sparkle machine, etc. such a great and versatile little box. On my pedal board, I generally use it as an always on EQ shaping tool. But it can do some great drive work too.
Hey John, you should try the Roger Mayer Voodoo 1 that's on Landau's board, I've had one for years and its the best overdrive/distortion I've ever had it's never coming off.
I kind of think this would be a good thing to have in your bag in the event you had to go place somewhere where there was back line and the amp was really not good, and you wanted to see if you could get some vibe out of it anyway
Very interesting. Im in a landau rabbit hole at the moment. I recently got a maxon sd9 based off some of your videos and am finding the inverse with it. I only like the sd9 when I have at least a low gain sound coming from a pedal after it in the chain. Doesn't play well with the amp gain of my hdrx20.
@friedrudibega6384 nice! Good to know I'm not the only one. I've got mine in front of a barber burn unit. With the gain low on the burn unit. It sounds huge and full. Really tames the harsh high end of the sd9.
We always said “Dee-oh-dee” over here, lad. 😊
I always call it Department of Distortion.
My most important overdrive pedal.
Excellent for giving body to single coils. I use it a lot to give a soft/sweet touch (INPUT FILTER), but it can do the opposite as well.
It can be a boost, but I use it more as a slight overdrive.
You didn't get his almost fuzz sounds!
Note that the bass potentiometer adds bass before the drive. The treble adds after the drive. So try with both pots at maximum and humbuckers! 😉
Its only problem for me is the noise floor. Otherwise it was just perfect!
Thanks for the heads-up. I'll be checking it out.
In a related way, a month or two ago, I saw a video demonstrating the effectiveness of putting the Line 6 Vital Boost in front of a driven Minotaur. Sounded quite good, and worth exploring.
The input filter functions more as a pre-gain tone-knob, while the cuts are post-gain eq. All the way clockwise is wide open, no cut, while counterclockwise is full cut. The high gain mode should pick up right where low gain leaves off.
I remember when this pedal came out, 5 stars in a bunch of magazines, everyone said it was great, then I never saw one again until now
Great pedal, I got one about a year ago off a friend. They take a bit of time to get used to, bass is pre-drive so you can tame the flub, treble post drive so you can tame highs. Works well with a variety of guitars and amps and for me was an improvement on the Boss BD-2. Yes it can be hissy, but by the time you have the rest of the band you’re not going to hear that. The filter control is great too, really helps when you’re using different pickup types
I bought one of these a few years ago for the same reason you did! Love Landau.
Sounds good enough that I still own it, but it doesn’t have a spot on my board. It reminds me of the Greer Lightspeed in terms of gain and EQ, although I prefer the Lightspeed to it. Also has a clunky foot switch and a greater hiss/noise-floor than the Lightspeed, KOT or Keeley Nobel Screamer that currently occupy my board.
I actually use this pedal to improve my clean tone. It does something really nice to single coils. Kind of like a Klon does, but in a different way.
The Looking Glass is great in low gain mode to shape frequency/make everything sound better. I never use high gain mode. Only drawback is the LED is very temperamental.
You can get all those tones, and more, just plugging a Pro2 Strat into any Fender amp. Been doing it for years now.
I love mine.
The range of sounds available from it make me want to get another one ...
I think I discovered this one via Danish Pete ... as well as the Lightspeed 👍
If I remember correctly, this is and original design by Shoe. The savior drive is his other most popular design.
The looking glass is My all time favorite Swiss Army knife pedal! Clean boost, EQ, low/medium/high gain over drive, sparkle machine, etc. such a great and versatile little box. On my pedal board, I generally use it as an always on EQ shaping tool. But it can do some great drive work too.
One of the best chorus pedals ever is the old DOD Ice Box Chorus pedal. The pre-mid 90s versions are best, but the 90s Reissue were not too bad.
Hey John, you should try the Roger Mayer Voodoo 1 that's on Landau's board, I've had one for years and its the best overdrive/distortion I've ever had it's never coming off.
I kind of think this would be a good thing to have in your bag in the event you had to go place somewhere where there was back line and the amp was really not good, and you wanted to see if you could get some vibe out of it anyway
I think the Looking glass is preceded by the Voodoo 1 and probably needs to be used in tandem.
Very interesting. Im in a landau rabbit hole at the moment. I recently got a maxon sd9 based off some of your videos and am finding the inverse with it. I only like the sd9 when I have at least a low gain sound coming from a pedal after it in the chain. Doesn't play well with the amp gain of my hdrx20.
Indeed. I run mine into a Wampler Pantheon into a Tiny Terror sounds fantastic. No drive from the amp.
@friedrudibega6384 nice! Good to know I'm not the only one. I've got mine in front of a barber burn unit. With the gain low on the burn unit. It sounds huge and full. Really tames the harsh high end of the sd9.
Hi
I think you should try Wampler Triumph Overdrive
Amazing value for money!
the bass is cut before the overdrive
What's that strap you're using?
It’s the tourniquet John used during his days in special ops. If you look closely, you can still see his teeth marks from use while on duty in Laos.
How's that different from just an EQ pedal? Wouldn't a GE-7 do the same thing?
What’s that? I couldn’t hear over the hiss of the pedal. You wouldn’t mind turning it off?
I abandoned mine.
😂 Thanks so much for saving me money.
Free to bad home.
This seems like a Timmy with some extra features.
Sounds like a dumble with a gunslinger enclosure.