Product Review - Timmy by Paul Cochrane

Yes, it has a ridiculous name. But it also has ridiculously good tone. I’ve been through more dirt than Caterpillar in my quest for the ultimate distorted tone and after a few months of heavy usage, the Timmy has now been super glued to my pedal board. It’s not coming off anytime soon.

So what does Timmy offer that the others don’t?

First, let’s qualify what the Timmy is – and is not. The Timmy is an incredibly transparent overdrive pedal that provides mild to mid-level crunch. It can deliver a decent amount of drive, but it is not your Marshall stack in a box (like the Fulltone OCD or Keeley modified Boss DS-1) or any of the heavy metal-focused boxes. If that’s what you want, look elsewhere. However, if you are seeking a more restrained and very organic, creamy tube-like overdrive (think classic rock) then the Timmy might just be one of the best pedals of the genre.

Designed and built by hand in limited numbers by Paul Cochrane, the simple controls take a little getting used to because the bass and treble controls are “cut” style – they work in reverse of what we are all used to. Flat (wide open with no cutting of the frequencies) is at about 7 o’clock and as you turn the knobs clockwise you take out (roll off) the bass and treble frequencies, not increase them as with most pedals. Unity gain is about 1 o’clock on the volume so besides overdriving your signal you can also use the Timmy as a clean boost. Nice.

In the notes you get with the pedal, Mr. Cochrane explains these controls in more detail and better than I ever could. I’ve never read a good explanation of the thinking behind the pedal’s design so I am going to quote him directly:

“The bass control is pre-distortion. Most pedals roll off the low end before you distort the signal to keep things tight and clear. A lot of low-end distortion can get real muddy real quick. But what this means is you don’t have the low end when you need it for cleaner settings. The bass control will allow you to keep the low end for the cleaner settings, and dial it out for the good crunchy stuff.”

And here’s what he says about the treble side of the house:

“The treble control is post distortion. Like the bass circuit most pedals will have a preset hi end roll off to keep the pedal from being fizzy and noisy when distorting, but you’ll lose the hi freqs for the cleaner settings . . . Being able to control the pre and post EQ gives you the ability to kill the evil mid bump a lot of pedals have preset into them.”

I’m not a big fan of mid-range-centric Tubescreamer-type pedals so for me, this make a lot of sense. Sounds good in theory, but how does it really sound?

In my opinion, this is one of the most transparent dirt boxes I have come across and it works well with both single coil pickups and humbuckers. It also stacks very well with other overdrive and/or distortion pedals. Because it is true bypass, when not engaged there is no tone sucking at all. Even better, with the Timmy on, your exact guitar tone, and every subtle nuance of it, is still there – just with more volume, bass, treble or gain, depending on your settings. It can get pretty crunchy with the gain cranked – although not enough to make it a good choice for metal – and playing with the controls provides a wide variety of very useable tones for classic rock, blues and fusion. As a convenient bonus, it takes a standard Boss 9vdc power supply.

The only downside to this pedal is that they are hard to come by as demand has been fueled by many positive comments in online forums. Mr. Cochrane is not a high volume manufacturer so you will have to wait approximately six months after you place your order before you can plug in. Alternatively, you can buy one used at a premium on eBay or guitar-focused web communities . . . but I don’t think many owners are selling.

The bottom line: the Timmy sounds like a boutique, high-end pedal and I am sure Mr. Cochrane could charge much more than the $129 he does so it represents great tone for your dollar. Other high quality overdrive units worthy of consideration around this price point include the LTD or Direct Drive from Barber Electronics (http://www.barberelectronics.com).

And about that name. It’s nothing to do with the infamous Timmy character from South Park, but is instead based on Tim the Enchanter from the “Monty Python and the Holy Grail” movie. The Tim was the first pedal and has more bells and whistles; the Timmy is the smaller boxed version of just the main section of Tim.

Here is a decent product demo on YouTube:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AViMnHAV-lw

You won’t find much info on the web about ordering so it's best to contact Paul Cochrane directly at 615-896-8555. Just be prepared to wait a while.