ABBY NORMAL - Dual Drive

The Timmy front end section (Red Channel) has a light compressed breakup characteristic, which pleasantly sounds like plugging direct into an amp, due to its cascaded clipping. It goes from clean boost to mid-gain; a natural amp-like crunch with a warm top-end. Besides its Bass and Treble tone controls, it has two 3-way toggles to dial into a desired mid range frequency, to better coordinate with the characteristics of your amp. You can keep both toggles center/flat, or emphasize a 1.2kHz or 2.2kHz band, as well as a 2.8kHz or 8.8kHz band.

The rear end is a Screamer (Green Channel), with Gain, Tone and Volume controls. Further, it has an option to adjust the frequency range via the Mid Trimmer. This is ideal for those who do not like traditional screamers due to a big mid hump, which doesn’t sit well with some darker toned amps. Turning the knob left passes frequencies above 2.8kHz, and this gives you a tighter modern tone with less mid emphasis. Conversely, turning it right allows all midrange frequencies to pass, and this produces a more vintage or fuller tone. Finally, this channel incorporates a Stack level control, when combining both channels.

Switching channels via the footswitch is demonstrated in the video demo, but selecting channel combinations is done via the channel toggle switch. When switched to the top, you can select either the Red or Green channel, respectively. Placing the toggle switch in the middle allows you to use the Screamer on its own or the Screamer/Timmy stacked. And placing the toggle in the bottom position allows you to use the Timmy on its own or the Screamer/Timmy stacked.

A number of things impressed me about Abby Normal. First, the clarity and cleanliness of the Timmy with Drive down is an impressive clean boost, and about as clean as you can get. It provided enough drive for some classic rock, and definitely pushes higher-gain amps to the next level. The Screamer sounds full and thick, and its growl increases as you turn up its Gain. It sounds natural, but being able to control the mid hump via the Trimmer takes it to a different level. With clean amps, or those with some crunch, I prefer setting it mid-way to all the way right (full mid frequency). Conversely, with higher-gain amps, I prefer setting the Trimmer all the way left for a tighter and less muddy/boxy result.

Now, what gives Abby Normal such a natural sounding output is in part due to its internally boosting the input from 9V to 18V, and this produces high headroom, which preserves the original characteristics of the signal and allows notes to blossom and sound full. This pedal also boasts a high input impedance and low output impedance, which prevents affecting what gear is in front or behind Abby Normal. Furthermore, to minimize colorization of the tone from the pedal’s internal components, electro-mechanical relays are used instead of the more usual FET or analogue switch components. Consequently, you get true bypass while preserving the original signal in both bypass and via the internal signal flow more effectively.

Abby Normal uses a typical 9VDC (center negative) power supply (120mA current draw), and is available as a full pedal ($149 USD) and as a module ($98) for a Liberatoe Pedal System. I reviewed previously other dual channel drive collaborations by Vogart Audio and Liberatoe, being Keepit Lemon (Blues Breaker + Hotcake) and Grit-n-Grime (1981 DRV + OCD), and to select which of the three is best is impossible. All three have different qualities and responses with gear, and if you’re at least familiar with how each element sounds, whether speaking of a Timmy, Screamer, Blues Breaker, OCD, etc., then your choice narrows. What’s cool is that you can purchase one pedal Shell to house any of the three modules, and switch/exchange as your needs change. In other words, get one full pedal for $149, then the other two as modules and swap them in/out for a completely different playing and sounding experience on your pedalboard.

source:

https://en.audiofanzine.com/overdrive-pedal/liberatoe/abby-normal/user_reviews/r.135072.html