Tsakalis AudioWorks Room #40 Overdrive

I was looking for an alternate drive flavour to my Fulltone OCD and JAM Rattler (RAT-style distortion). I ordered the AT+, Angry Charlie, Friedman BE-OD, Bogner Ecstasy, and Catalinbread Dirty Little Secret to compare as well.

This pedal really fills a gap for me. It has more clarity and crispness than pedals like the OCD, Rattler, Angry Charlie, and AT+. They all have more "girth" (boominess/muddiness on certain settings).

The 19 and 22 modes switch between Plexi and JMP/JCM800, though I admit I don't have the experience to say how accurate the tones are. They both sound great in their own way. Frankly they sound better than the Marshall-mode on my Strymon Iridium.

I like the dual gain knobs. They behave differently in both modes and let you mix treble in with the signal (19 mode) or add low end richness (22 mode). It really shines at mid-drive to distortion — not quite high-gain metal, but plenty for hard rock.

The 3-band EQ offers good tone sculpting capabilities. Nothing extreme — they are very amp-like in behavior. The presence control can add a ton of high-end sizzle. I'm a little worried about these thin, tall knobs though.

The boost gives you a touch more growl/gain, but it's not a dramatic difference. Definitely not a lead boost.

The black and gold design is pretty, and immediately tells you what this pedal is supposed to sound like.

Overall an awesome pedal for Marshall-like tones in mid-gain territory.

It is a good pedal but you will have to spend some time to find a full and rich sound. This pedal requires that you set up the gain of the clean or dirty channel of your amp higher than usual. I have a H&K valve amp and i set the gain of the clean channel almost to the end in order to get a rich sound. It works perfect also in the dirty channel of the amp if not better than the clean one. It does not conflict with the gain of the dirty channel at all (like other pedals), it uses it and reshapes it. An alternative is to push it with an overdrive pedal, it really comes alive with it. In this sense it acts in a similar way to an amp. You have to do a lot of tweaking to find your sound but it can sound great both on rhythm and lead. Very good note/string separation/definition, more "organic" sound than other marshal type pedals but it doesn't have much gain or "body" on its own. Its more of a gain "restructuring" pedal than a actual high gain pedal. I have also the BE-OD and they both target a similar flavor of sound but they have different operation and approach. The BE-OD has a lot of gain but it can sound "fizzy" , the room #40 has not much gain/body but the sound is more defined. I don't use the boost feature, it gets a bit muddy with that. In conclusion, a really good and (I think) unique pedal but not an excellent one.