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Goliath FX D-05 Pedal Review – The Best Distortion Pedal you never heard off!
Introduction
We have another incredible review for you from the folks over at Goliath! Today, we will be looking at the Goliath FX D-05, a distortion/overdrive pedal. The D-05 is Goliath’s take on a classic preamp pedal. However, Goliath has added a few extra features and options to give you a wider array of sounds.
We recently reviewed their take on the classic ToneBender (which you can read here). When they sent their ToneBender over, they also sent their D-05 for us to try out. So before we delve into what we think about this pedal, let us first go over the pedal itself and explore controls, finish, and options.
Goliath FX D-05 Pedal
The Goliath FX D-05 is their take on the classic pre-amp distortion pedal. However, it comes with some extra features and looks a whole lot better! The D-05 comes in a super cool swirl design, definitely the first that I have seen of this design! With control knobs to match those colours. So what controls do you get on this pedal?
Looking at the front of the pedal there are only 4 controls, 3 knobs and a switch. Making for a very simple pedal but able to. Produce a whole heap of sounds. On the top right, we have the volume pedal. This controls the overall output of the pedal. To the right of that is your Gain control which controls how much distortion the pedal adds. At the bottom middle, we have the “Warp” control. What this knob does is allow you to wrap and change the drive control. You can use it to shape the flavour of the distortion. Going from Wide open and high headroom, to tight and compressed! A super useful feature.
More Features on the Goliath FX D-05
Below the 3 knobs, we have a switch. This allows control of the distortion and allows you to thicken up the distortion! Giving the sound more meat and low end! Or tighten it up and bring the sound in and more controlled. A super useful feature when playing on your own and having a huge deep sound, but being able to flick a switch and have your sound sit with a full band better.
The Goliath FX D-05 has all its controls top-mounted! Both the input and output and the power input are located on the top of the pedal. The pedal runs on your standard 9v power. Buying the pedal from the website (the version that I have here) will cost you £100. Goliath FX also has a dual version, Maybe we should get that on the site and compare the differences.
The Sounds
In the demo song, you will hear a lot of built guitars fitted with Humbuckers running into the Goliath FX D-05 and then into the front of my Revv D20. In some parts of the song, you will hear the guitar going into a Boss CE-2w and then into the D-05. All reverb and delay are added in the post.
After the demo song we run through the sounds you can get with both single coils (thanks to our LT Custom Strat) and Humbuckers. I run it into an amp on a clean and then a crunch setting so you can hear how it affects the sound for each. All sounds are recorded with the pedals going into the front of my Revv D20.
What are my thoughts?
Before we get into the face-melting sounds that this pedal produces, let us first talk about the design and looks! Because I think we can all agree that this pedal is a head-turner! I am a huge fan of Golaith’s pedal designs. Especially this one! I will mention that the finish isn’t perfect there are some flaws, but nothing major! But the design, look and effort that has gone into it is just amazing! Anyone who sees this pedal will definitely be asking about it!
Let’s talk about the sounds! Dam this pedal sounds good! It gives you thick distortion that simulates that high-gain amp sound. However is also able to dial it back and use it as a boost or light overdrive. Thanks to the switch you can dial the “thickness” back. As you would imagine the Goliath FX D-05 sounds incredible with Humbucker I was so surprised how amazing it sounds with single coils! It gave me those sweet 80-metal tones on the bridge pickup.
More Thoughts!
For a high-gain pedal, the noise floor is fairly low and the pedal is rather quiet! Of course, If you run a single coil through it at max gain and volume you will pick up some hum, but overall I would say this is a very, very quiet pedal. A few other minor points to make, I love that it is top loaded, great for board building and keeping cables neat! The LED is nice and bright but not too bright to be distracting! I always mention it but the knob feel is just incredible! Lovely resistance and the controls stay exactly where you put them!
Shall we talk about the price? At the time of this article, the Goliath FX D-05 distortion pedal retails for £100. Now, can you think of another high-end pedal brand that retails a distortion pedal at that price? Because I can’t! Before you say “Boss DS-1”. That is a mass-produced pedal that is made overseas. What we have here is a hand-built (to order) pedal, with a custom finish that is delivered to your door! I think that is incredible value and if you are after a distortion pedal that can also do low gain or pushed cleans as well then I think this should be on your radar!
Goliath FX D-05 Continued
Any downsides? Not really, I can’t really think of anything I don’t like about this pedal! Most distortion pedals have too much gain. However, this can be tamed and controlled very easily. If I had to be pushed, The only thing I can really think of is that the control “Labels” are a bit hard to see. I love the idea of them but under low lighting might be a bit hard to make out. This is only an issue till you have played the pedal for around 5 minutes and then you will be fine!
Conclusion
That is our review of the Goliath FX D-05 Distortion pedal. The ground this pedal covers is amazing, it is more than it is made to be and will be able to help you out in getting certain sounds! Thanks to that “Warp” knob you can easily get various different overdrive and distortion sounds out of the D-05. Make sure you check out our other Goliath FX review here. We reviewed their amazing Fuzz Pedal the “TomeBender”! I still Love it!
Now, I will say that Goliath FX did send this pedal to me to loan and try out, but I will be sending it back. However, this doesn’t affect my opinion, all thoughts and comments are my own and Goliath FX have no input in this review!
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