Pedalworx 5 O'clock Charlie

[dosmun]

I have a 5 o'clock Charlie I am checking out and thought I would try to give a little idea of what it sounds like. I have been testing it with a LP into my Budda SD30II's clean channel but so far only at low volumes.

So far I have just compared it to an early 1st run Large Box Rat. The Charlie has a lot more low end than the Rat and is really fully sounding. The Rat seems to have more mids and has a touch more clarity but both sound very good. The Tone control is like the early Rats (turn CW to increase treble). The Charlie is warm without much high end until you get it to about 3:00 then the Treble starts to kick in. I think the Charlie would be great with a bright amp.I haven't been able to spend a bunch of time with it yet (kids etc) but so far it seems pretty cool. Hopefully more to come soon...........

[LarryR]

Originally Posted by dosmun

The Charlie has a lot more low end than the Rat and is really fully sounding. .........

have one here as well. The low end is what prompted the reviewers at PG to compare it to a Muff. I have played the Charlie at higher volumes and I have found that it truly shines at the 9-11 on the gain dial tones. Big and fat with just the right amount of grind.Listened to another player mess with it through a Goodsell 17 with a Nash tele and he was getting some cool higher gain sounds out of it. I have always run my Rats below noon though so I am not an expert on the fuzzier rat tones, but in the low gain region the Charlie sounds great.

[dosmun]

I also like the Rat best with the Gain at 50% or less.

[LarryR]

Hey Dosmun,
could you do a tone knob Rat vs Charlie a/b with it set up with gain around 10 oclock? I had a tone knob Rat and sold it a few years ago for $100.00. You can see my exact one over at TGP. It is in the buy and sell with pics marked at $600.00......nice profit if he gets that for it......

[dosmun]

Originally Posted by LarryR

Hey Dosmun,
could you do a tone knob Rat vs Charlie a/b with it set up with gain around 10 oclock? I had a tone knob Rat and sold it a few years ago for $100.00. You can see my exact one over at TGP. It is in the buy and sell with pics marked at $600.00......nice profit if he gets that for it......

That is pretty much how I had them set up for my testing. The Tone controls are in pretty different spots though. The Charlie Tone control is set at around 3:30 where the Rat is more around 1:00. They do sound quite a bit different. I really like the extended low end of the Charlie but miss the mids of the Rat. Something halfway between the two would be great.

I really need to find some time to work with it some more. I will get some of my other Rats out and compare them as well. These days it is hard for me to get more than 5 minutes at a time to mess with my gear.

[cubba]

Thx for the review D.
Being a Rat fan, I'm also intrigued by the 5-O-C Charlie
and how it can deliver a different take on the circuit.
From the way you're describing it, it almost seems like a Rat-meets-Fuzz Face kinda' sound?

[dosmun]

I don't think I would say it sounds like a Fuzz Face. It doesn't have the "feel" that I associate with a fuzz. I am terrible at describing tones so as always take my thoughts with a grain of salt.

[LarryR]

The Premier Guitar review described the Charlie as having Muff tones. I didn't get this while I had the pedal at home at condo approved volumes, but when I got it over where we could crank it up, the big low end and fuzz like nature was much more apparent.

[cubba]

Just got the 5-OC here to check out.
On the quick I'll say it's a LOT of fun to play with.
Only used it at home so far thru an old Ampeg combo, but the smoothness and fullness of tone was surprising and welcoming.
It has the textured grind of a Rat, but less of the 'rattyness.'
I plugged it in next to two older Rats and directly compared the three.
I was going the wrong direction by asking if it was fuzz-like.
Like the Rat, it's distinctly a distortion pedal, albeit it with a bit of fuzz smear when you totally max it out
(tho' it's pretty much 'tight like a tiger' most of the time).
The extended low-end kinda gave me chills on some power chords thru the Ampeg,
while the fatness also shone on leads where the notes had a nice 'thunk' to them.
Running the tone-knob around 3:00 sets the treble just so while still retaining all the lows.
Nice job Bob!

[LarryR]

I got a chance to crank it up over the weekend. With the gain set around 930-10 and a strat neck pickup, it had some really juicy fat width to the tone.......I am hoping to have some vid samples of it live soon.....I was also kicking on a Tejas after it and getting some great screaming rock tone. We were doing some T-Rex and Deep Purple and I was having lots of fun betwen the 2 peds.I keep the gain at 930/10, the tone at 1 and the level around 12-1