After recently purchasing OX Stomp - which is proving to be indispensable - I was very curious to try one of the 4 UAD Instrument Amps. I liked the sounds I heard in the demos, and Woodrow '55 - although perhaps not the most popular - had a particular appeal.
Doing some background reading, I was prepared to learn how to coax the best from this pedal. I wanted something that could produce an interesting range of overdrives and fuzz sounds, but also be a solid clean platform for my other pedals.
In the first few days of owning Woodrow, I spent mere minutes studying the manual, half an hour finding some go-to sounds, and hours (many hours) playing, recording and writing.
How it should be.
The clarity and warmth of the cleans is spectacular. This thing is alive, responsive, rewarding. I hear notes within chords chiming with separation and dimension. That opens up a lot of possibilities.
Running the unit into OX Stomp adds another dimension, although the stock cabinets are excellent.
With its dual gains - one a bit more aggressive than the other - and with the 3 flavours of boost, you can cover everything from arpeggiated jazz voicings, to blues, rock and beyond.
Woodrow *feels* great to play, monitoring through a decent studio system. It highlights the tonal differences between my guitars in a way that other systems don't. Even the best plugins, for instance, tend to make all my guitars sound more like the plugin itself; they imprint their sonic signature a…