Nobels ODR-1X | They just made the world’s best overdrive pedal even better?! In-depth Review & Demo

This is the Nobels ODR-1X – the new flagship of the iconic ODR-1 overdrive pedal family!

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Nobels pedals at Thomann (EU): https://thmn.to/thocf/1emj1eaamp
Nobels pedals at Sweetwater (USA): https://sweetwater.sjv.io/k0LDZN
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And get the full lowdown at the Nobels site: https://nobels.de/produkte/?lang=en

The Nobels ODR-1 is a legendary overdrive. Once the secret weapon of the Nashville session pros for its transparent tones and its crispy Telecaster twang enhancements, the ODR-1 is now a staple on pedalboards across the globe and in every conceivable genre of music.

And, now, the ODR-1X marks the latest – and possibly greatest – iteration of the Nobels overdrive stable. The ODR-1X looks very similar to previous ODR-1 pedals with its beefy slime green enclosure and its chunky Boss-esque footswitch, but look closer and you’ll see that it offers you more features than any of its predecessors.

Most significantly, it has two awesome extra control features – a variable Bass Cut knob (which lets you gradually wind out any unwanted low end flubbiness in your signal and tighten up your tone), and a Gain Boost switch, which can add up to a whopping 29 dB of gain to your signal!

Together with the ODR-1X’s Drive, Level, and Spectrum (tone) controls, you should really be able to get all sorts of sounds out of this pedal.

Then there’s the other extras: the ODR-1X can also be switched between true and buffered bypass, it takes 9-18v power supplies (so more headroom if you need it) and you can use up to a two-button footswitch with it to remotely control the Gain Boost and turn the pedal on or off. Finally, it comes with a set of Nobels’ cool Mounty-P mounting plates, to help you attach it to your pedalboard.

As of November 2024, the ODR-1X is about €150 in Europe, so we can expect it to be around the $150 mark in the USA too – which I think is extremely reasonable, considering all the pedal offers.

But how good is it really? That’s what we’re about to find out! In this video, I put the ODR-1X through its paces in as many different musical styles as I can, from country, folk and indie, to pop, rock, punk, metal, and more. I also try out all of the different features, plus there’s single coil tones – courtesy of my Fender Telecaster – and humbucker sounds from my Epiphone Les Paul.

Let me know your thoughts on the ODR-1X in the comments!

And don’t forget to check out my video where I compare the entire Nobels ODR family, including the ODR-1X, the brand new ODR-mini 2, the ODR-1 30th Anniversary Edition, and ODR-1 BC, and the original ODR-mini:    • Introducing the Nobels ODR-1X and ODR...  

Here are some links to the various parts of the video:

00:00 Hello!
00:20 Introduction to the ODR-1X
01:27 Pedal controls and features
03:07 Today’s rig and plan

04:16 Clean tone reference chords and turning on the ODR-1X
05:06 Pushed clean tones
06:50 Indie/alternative rock tones
09:00 Classic rock tones
10:42 Hard rock tones
12:26 Punk rock tones
13:33 Progressive rock tones
14:40 Metal tones

16:17 ODR-1X as a boost into an overdriven amp
17:04 Bass Cut knob roll off test
18:33 True Bypass vs Buffered Bypass test

20:06 Fender Telecaster indie rock loop
25:10 Epiphone Les Paul classic rock loop and ODR-1 BC comparison (feat. TC Spark Booster)

29:30 My thoughts
29:51 Things I like: sounds and versatility
31:03 Gain Boost and Bass Cut controls
31:47 Build quality, looks, bypass options
32:26 I love that Nobels is listening to guitar players
32:46 What don’t I like?
33:09 The price is decent
33:17 The ODR-mini 2 and should you upgrade your ODR-1?
34:05 My conclusions on the ODR-1X and why you should buy it

My setup was as follows: I ran the ODR-1X straight into my Hughes & Kettner Black Spirit 200 head. That went from the amp’s Red Box DI straight into my Focusrite Scarlett 2i4, which went into Logic Pro X. That's it. No post-processing on the sounds was done. Oh, and I used my Boss RC-10R to play the loops.

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Get all this gear at Thomann: https://thmn.to/thocf/jkhog8l06m
Get all this gear at Sweetwater: https://sweetwater.sjv.io/LXqdE0
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Enjoy!

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Backing music from the YouTube Audio Library: Duck In The Alley – TrackTribe.

#NobelsOfficial #NobelsODR1 #NobelsODR1X #NobelsODRMini #OverdrivePedal #TransparentOverdrive #RichWordsMusic

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