NUX NOD-3 | Morning Star Overdrive Pedal

I was really looking forward to playing the Morning Star but I'm afraid it's a bit of a mixed bag.If you want to get decent tones from it you need to push it loud.Let me explain the problem.I have a valve amp that gives me a beautiful clean sound with loads of headroom. I then run my pedals through the effects loop.When I switch a pedal I want the volume to stay the same or have a little boost (depending on the effect).I plugged the Morning Star in and started playing with the controls. I was disappointed to find that it sounded slightly muffled, even on full gain.It wasn't until I turned the level control up past 3 o'clock that it started to shine. At that point it sounded gorgeous - restrained, smooth, bluesy distortion that never dissolved into fuzz.Great! I thought. But then I switched it off and realised how hard I had to push it. My amp was so much quieter in comparison that I couldn't realistically switch between clean and dirty mid set (let alone mid-song).The only use for this pedal is as an 'always on' effect.If you want this to be your default sound that you can then build from, then go for it and remember to keep the level control very high.If you want a distortion effect that you can flick on and off, look elsewhere (unless you like your guitar to sound like there's a pillow over the speaker, of course).A real shame because it would have been a bargain otherwise.