A "Transparent" Overdrive I Actually LOVE - Greer Lightspeed | Secret Weapons Demo & Review

[@FickleJade]

Thank you for making a demo that isn't 99% soloing! Great job of explaining what this pedal does and playing actual riffs, arpeggios and chords for us mostly rhythm players of the world. Very useful for evaluating this pedal!

[@tankermanjake]

It’s one of the best pedals ever made and should be on everyone’s board

[@davidcarlson8571]

Superb. The lightspeed will work with any genre. Incredibly versatile.

[@tehadam]

That intro riff is straight fire

[@markjohnstonofficial]

It’s 2006 somewhere

[@gentlewolf1279]

Its been a staple on my ambient board... one of my favourites

[@jonwaldstein]

Yes dude, I own 2 lightspeeds because they're so good. It always makes your tone sit perfectly in the mix of a song, even for cleans. Particularly shines in front of a real tube amp and can help mitigate a really loud one with it's subtle compression. Highly recommend trying it last in your drive chain instead of first and listen how it can just mix with the character of other drives & fuzzes without losing the tone you started with.

[@lavalizard1]

Testify. I’m a believer... got one on my gig board and another on my big board in the studio. It’s killer. No arguments here.. 🤘

[@seandavidharris]

Man love how you manage to make pedals without a ton of gain still sound edgy and heavy

[@markjohnstonofficial]

Sometimes you just have an idea in your head and need to find a way to see it out.

[@SS-gx7tg]

woa, Markkkkkk! It's mushroom guy here from Portland OR and I'm catching this vid on another 5am blastoff to Pluto! I'm only just finishing the intro but had to comment, that intro is insaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaane! You're beyond talented! Absolutely love the songwriting talent you have! Also I love the Lightspeed.. I wish Nick would make a duo (king of tone) version of it, it's the definitive magic sauce always-on pedal. Special Cranker from EQD is another one to check out imo, another magic always on pedal (for me at least). Lightspeed and Special Cranker are the only 2 pedals I own that have never been removed from my board, safe to say I'm a huge fan of both. Hope you are doing well, and thanks again for the unreal Volante journey last year, still one of my fav trip moments, finally made me realize the appeal of full stereo output, honestly had my brain swirling, shimmering and stretching. Take care!

[@markjohnstonofficial]

My guy. You make me wish I was still streaming haha

[@alexfletcher9915]

That intro track is insanely good!

[@sassulusmagnus]

It would be interesting to hear Mark's thoughts on the similarities/differences between the Greer Lightspeed and another pedal he has reviewed, the Fairfield Circuitry Barbershop. I like how they both differ from TS style pedals in that they sound more full spectrum rather than attenuating the lows and accentuating the mids.

[@TylerFoleyAudio]

Loved the intro song, loved the lightspeed, but holy cow, that jennings bass has my heart!

[@gw948]

Intro was 🔥

[@neve4020]

Beast of an intro riff! ❤

[@hekakain4108]

Just ordered a second hand mint condition one off of Reverb (finally)...looking forward to its arrival next week...If you haven't bought the second iteration of the Limelight overdrive/boost pedal go check it out and see if you fancy it, extremely versatile pedal...

[@orryfishburne5326]

I love low gain drives so much! Havent tried the light speed yet, but definitely going to.

[@isaacandhismusic1153]

Man that benson preamp and Lightspeed combo is perfection

[@miguelgateira4070]

3 minutes after the second 27 made me subscribe

[@tinkercitymusic]

What a killer track... for the Lightspeed no less man. Great job!

[@ediththeband]

LOVE this intro song. Reminds me of a lot of the stuff I listen to and some of the stuff my band does!

[@nickolasecker9596]

Lightspeed into Bluesbreaker might be the goat overdrive stack. Waiting on this and the jhs morning glory to make it in, also can’t wait to try the benson boost with the lightspeed

[@BobbyDoesMusic]

Man your tones always sounds so juicy and thick without getting wooly or flubby.

[@markjohnstonofficial]

See; my video on dialing drives for direct rigs. Flubiness is absolute death for direct rigs and it’s crucial to solve for that first.

[@BobbyDoesMusic]

@@markjohnstonofficial I caught that video, and I'm in a hybrid spot, but definitely gonna try applying some of the wisdom from that vid. I'm running a Synergy rig (tube preamps) into a Torpedo live for power amp sim and cab sim, so not **completely** digital, but still direct. Love your videos and songs, man! Always look forward to the next one. :)

[@michaelfowler3187]

Sounds like the sno job pedal "underdrive" and also sounds like the OD11 amp 11 thing, which I have always assumed was Timmy ish. The Westwood by eqd also seems to have that organic clipping. Been playing a lot of overdrives lately that have a harsher onset of clipping and this fixes that problem without losing the bite and aggressive of those harsher clipping sounds. The notion of "all at noon" was not a level I expected mark to stoop to but hey nice work man:)

[@BISHAMONT3N]

That intro track is amazing.

[@pj_day]

certainly one of the all-time great drives. please also track down a Lounsberry Nigel and see what you think of that.

[@michael_caz_nyc]

Lambertone Crema's = niiiiice. My favorite Humbuckers. I will eventually purchase a Lightspeed. I have alot of versatility with my (3) drive pedals: Barber Gain Changer SR, Fulltone OCD & Thorpy Fallout Cloud. Great tones, guitar-playing. Enjoyed your demo. oNe LovE from NYC

[@mykytaperfiliev]

marvelous sound

[@mrmeeks85]

I use a Dream 65 and the Lightspeed is my always on "more better" pedal

[@SS-gx7tg]

Dream65 is awesome. imo, Lightspeed w/ UA Golden Reverberator (spring reverb mode) is the best 2-pedal combination I know of, those 2 pedal alone can send me on a 6 hour guitar time warp without even realizing it

[@tusleplopp1]

So tight sounding! I find myself waiting for every new video, i love how your driven guitar sounds. A little beside the point, but the EAE longsword and limelight really spoke to me. The greer is more transparent, and doesn't hit as close to home for me, but it doesn't make it less impressive.

[@deadinside0586]

Your clean tone sounds amazing. Which IRs did u use?

[@GuitarBailey]

Greer lightspeed vs barbershop v2 which do you prefer?

[@paulodantas1492]

Mark, I would like to see a review from you for the Bondi Sick As. So far you only posted once on your Instagram a short video talking about how it boosted your clean tone, and that you liked with the gain maxed too, so a more comprehensive review would be totally welcome!

[@markjohnstonofficial]

Would love to properly cover the sick as / sick as high shredroom eventually on here. For now I’ll say this, when I do get around to it it’ll just be a 30+ minute version of this; “the sick as is phenomenal. It’s my favorite take on the klon. Everyone should have one. It’s so fucking good.”

[@paulodantas1492]

@@markjohnstonofficial I will be waiting for that haha....thanks for the answer!

[@jakollee]

Nice intro track! Question - if you use this (or another pedal, e.g., Timmy) as an "Always On" pedal, where should it go in the chain, relative to other, higher gain overdrives? Before them, after them?

[@Becomelesser]

Depends on how you’re using the pedals. Are you using your always on as a low gain or high gain option? Is it a more gain or more volume pedal? Do you want it pushing something else that’s doing tone sculpting, or do you want doing the tone sculpting? All of these can affect your use case, and there is no wrong answer. If it sounds good, it is good.

[@waytogotimbo]

Did you experiment any with the benson preamp before the Lightspeed? I use the benson as my always on tone shaper but want a new lower-gain drive to replace a Superbolt which just ended up being more grit than I need.

[@GavinPang]

This is my favourite Lightspeed demo. I love your base tone! I can't afford cremas. What would you say is the major component that makes your guitar sound like that? Is it the pickups or the amp?

[@jamesgrant6086]

How do you rate this vs Fairfield barbershop? Think they’d stack well?

[@billwilkie6211]

Always calls to me, but I can't imagine it would add to or exceed my Kingsley Page and Harlot.

[@emmcc3442]

What kind of patch cables are you using?

[@robertmulrennan4974]

Great vid. Do you still use the Walrus Audio Canvas at the end of your signal chain into your DAW?

[@jerrymckenzie1858]

The Lightspeed would be my desert island drive pedal.

[@thiswontstop1]

Would this be fairly comparable to the JHS Morning Glory?

[@mrhelpnow]

It sounds like it in my opinion

[@tacdoc8736]

It’s good, but I prefer the original circuit that the Lightspeed is based on, the Timmy. It’s just a more versatile pedal in any regard. The Tim (regardless of version) is the ultimate tone shaper.

[@markjohnstonofficial]

Hm. I’ve played the Timmy a couple times and I’ve never really found it that compelling

[@tacdoc8736]

@@markjohnstonofficial I strongly recommend you give the Tim V3 a try. I run it as my first gain stage & my other pedals don’t sound “right” when it’s off.

[@ajlsrv5490]

Hmm. I tried a few Timmys over the years. I don’t think my Lightspeed sounds like them.

[@ephramtherabbit]

I had both the lightspeed and Timmy at one point. Too much overlap in sound to keep both. After much AB’ing I kept the lightspeed and sold the Timmy

[@smelltheglove2038]

@@tacdoc8736 I’m all about the V2. I stack it into a JRockett archer ikon. Works magic in the front of my ‘64 black face Princeton, or in my “crappy” little blues Jr. The Princeton sounds amazing by itself but throw that Timmy in the mix and it’s something else. I live that pedal. Easily my favorite drive pedal. Edit to add: I’m playing a strat through that setup. If I’m playing my 335 or other humbuckers i like the prince of tone, while I’m waiting for my king of tone to come in the mail at some point in the future hopefully.

[@danielallen2510]

I haven’t even watched. I’m sure it’s a quality demo. I’m just here to say “duh”. It’s killer. A keeper. Always on. And on every board.

[@sons7429]

It’s the best

[@markjohnstonofficial]

It may very well be

[@oaeoeaoRust]

Strong Boss OD-3 vibes here…

[@WillVRam]

6:19

[@christophertrimmer625]

Took you long enough! 😂

[@markjohnstonofficial]

Dude I know right

[@ld7726]

Sounds great but way to expensive :/

[@cesteacy]

what i would give for a "no talking" version of this demo

[@markjohnstonofficial]

youre welcome to commission one

[@Paul_Lenard_Ewing]

It is NOT a special OD. It is a Timmy rip-off. The bass knob on the Timmy is a 50k pot and they replaced it with a 12k cap so the bass is fixed in one spot. They changed a second cap for more gain. They also painted over parts and covered the board with hot glue to hide their rip-off!!! WTF.

[@maykolllopez1585]

Have proof? Can’t make claims without proof. I’m not saying I don’t believe you, in fact I’m curious and would actually like to see what your findings are.