The Best Overdrives?

Hey guys, I'm gathering opinions for a youtube vid on the best overdrives.

My faves are...

eqd: palisades/dunes rockbox: boiling point Ibanez: ts9 Ibanez: ts808 Klon: Centaur (All models) EHX: Bass Soul Food Boss: Blues Driver Analog Man: King Of Tone Vox: Ice 9 Fulltone:OCD Fulltone: Fulldrive (All models) Fulltone:Plimsoul Boss: SD1

if you want to sound like a big loud amp but only have a fender DRRI, the catalinbread foundation series are pretty good, particularly the DLS which is the best tuned brown sound in a box I've ever heard.... the mk2 and later really get close to my old superlead if that's your thing

I was quite partial to the zvex distortron and box of rock for a while. Pretty nice sounding circuit. I actually like the cheaper distortron better, the box of rock has that extra boost I never used and no low end tailoring, whereas with the cheap red version its 1 simple button and a switch to change the input cap spec so that it passes more or less lows to the 1st mosfet allowing you to really match the bass response of your amp's coupling caps.... this ting sounds better with a marshall or fender than a vox to me, but it works well with voxes, sure, just didn't produce 'my sound', though its apples and apples and maybe only I could hear it. Also, this particular pedal sounds great in front of cheap solid state amps in a pinch. I used to loan her to the singer of my bar band in MD to tube up the sound from her pitiful fender SS amp. If you set it really low you can simulate a nice 'rock n roll clean' tone with a smidge of grit and ten stick a dumb boss pedal out front for distortion like this singer used to (though she also wound up borrowing more of my stuff as I pretty much would just run right into an ac30 or this great little Gibson tweed deluxe type amp I had at the time and just work my volume knobs or kick on a fat clean booster... dude her gear sounded like ass, but her playing was so bad it was really polishing a turd to fix up her sound)

In the TS808/9 and SD1 camp I really like the MXR Custom Badass OD with the 100hz knob, just enough extra options to make that whole softclip circuit work well in front of ANY amp

you still can't go wrong with a fullton ocd or that EHX OD glove that's also based on the old voodoo lab OD, pretty solid all 'rounder

I have always and will always love pedals based on craig anderton's tube sound fuzz circuit, particularly the red llama

and last but not least? any Klon Centaur knockoff....I got rid of my EHX soul food in a big trade, but I would get another one or just build my own PTP klon clone.... I might play around with the abss tailoring options, maybe put the Ge diodes to the opamps bias potential instead of to ground like an OCD to get the klone even more dynamic in the clip department.... and also play around with the IC.... the stock stuff has an amp like slew rate when you start overloading the actual opamps, however its not exactly low noise or hifi.... there might be some burr brown stuff that sounds better, now that the klon circuit is out there we all know it ain't 'J Rockett" science... sorry about the pun

and then of course the stuff with actual tubes! I really dig on a good tube driver sometimes to add boost and grunt ito an amp on the edge.... and then there's the fyette EF86-based stuff that sounds pretty nice and very full/huge.... if I am going for overdrive I seem tog ravitate to adding more tubes

honorable mention to the sweet honey OD by BJFE/Mad Professor.... my buddy got one early on and swears by it and I must admit I rather like it for some stuff, but tis not a solid all-arounder

right now I purged all my ODs as I tend to just turn my amps up, but in the future I want to pick up a pigtronix fat drive to try out and maybe the new DOD gunslinger and that MXRFET driver jawn

I also get a kick out of the old colorsound overdriver/owerboost, but its almost more of a clean boost OR a fuzz/distortion with 2 band EQ and its very rough sounding in that distortion role, not for the timid

I stll like getting a good fuzz face or tonebender with 2 transistors and just dialing my guitar volume back to produce a nice crunch with a bunch of boost to whack the 1st stage.... but fuzz is not OD even if it can be used that way so I guess that's not a fair answer to your question.... except of course for the aforementioned plimsoul and of course the notorious skreddy screwdriver (I should buy one of those).

Mate, thanks for the really detailed answer, how much do you reckon Klons were going for when they were first released.

Mate, thanks for the really detailed answer, how much do you reckon Klons were going for when they were first released.

sure, I just edited my post with more info

if I recall they were a little under 300 USD direct order through the adds in guitar player and guitarist when I was a kid and I first started hearing older guys snipe about the Klon secret sauce.... god I wish I had bought a few back in the 90s, but every time I raised the scratch I would get cold feet.... plus they were always notoriously backordered which pissed me off... it seemed so ridiculous at a time when boutique amps were this new, unattainable thing (vintage was literally cheaper back then, in the '00s I only paid a little over a grand for my '62 ac30, sure its a bit of a players piece, but its mostly original) and I got one of my superlleads for a scant $600 at the end of the 90s (I sold that amp for so much and it wasn't even super desireable). I think I paid less than 500 for every JCM marshall I ever owned. $400 for my '63 fender electrical branded showman.... so you get the picture about the Klon pricing at the time. Insane.

You might want to chase after some die hard, big pedalboard guys on here like my buddy Nickgrooves, I'll bet he will be more knowledgeable than me because I have always been pretty old school about getting drive textures, I remember being a kid and just turning my Princeton rever up and saying "welp, that's overdrive, killer' and then buying a cheap sekova fuzz box and later a Russian big muff and going, 'there's fuzz'.... too bad it all pisses mom and dad's neighbors so bad, but somewhere in there I ahd borrowed a orely wah with built in distortion for a funky tune in school jazzband and was getting into that hard clipped MXR distortion+ tone and then my dad got me a ts5 entry level tubescreamer so I would turn it down when I played in my bedroom and I really fell in love with that and/or an Ibanez chorus for the longest time as my only pedals. I am really kinda back into the Ibanez modulation again, LOL, then in the mid to alte 90s I ahd my only real 'pedalbaord' featuring drive, distortion, fuzz, chporus, flange, phase and wah.... way over the top, it didn't last long before I got down to nothing but a clean boost or dirty boost.... then there was my treble booster and a tape echo period, nuttin' else needed! gid I was loud back then, around 2004 I think... then the many iterations of the touring rig with a showman for clean and a superlead for dirty hot plated down 2 or 3 dB, then came the blue box and the flanger, then out went both of those and in came a couple different tonebenders.... then the matchless came in for rhythm sounds and the superlead went on a loadbox (sometimes) through rack processors and an old 70s 300 watt power amp being driven by a fuzz face whenever I played my strat, which was a lot back then as I had gotten rid of my 80s LP standard because of the excessive weight and generic tone but was getting tired of my LP special going out of tune midset....plus I played pretty much all the leads on that record on my strat through an 18 watt or 1 of 2 different superleads I think, so I wanted my lead tone and approach to match that since I ahd really changed up my rhythm tone... anyway, I think I was using the old Yami SPX90 for effects back then, I did an about face and instead of putting effects into the front end of my clean/rhythm tone I was putting effects after my dirty ass lead sound ala van halen, but without sounding like van halen at all....

oh hey man, I forgot to ask you if you'd tried this out?

http://cdn.mos.musicradar.com/images/artist-news/queen/may-vault/brian-vox-630-80.jpg

still my fave overdrive, but its kinda loud and cumbersome

The Vox, or the rangemaster?

I think my faves are the boiling point, and the keeley oxblood. The boiling point is very versatile, but still sounds unique, and the oxblood has two very helpful switches (I believe phat/fat, and clipping) which do quite nice things. Do you know of a pedal that can get middy, overdriven eighties Clapton tones? Also nice new profile pic! Stuff Trump, you Americans should vote in an AC30HW (It is more competent, and probably makes better decisions).

Sidenote: Sorry if you're not allowed to post political content on here, moderators.

The Vox, or the rangemaster?

umm, both obviously, though I like my silicon booster and 3 range fet booster a lot more than the RM these days just because of the lowered noise floor.... the fet booster is dead silent even at full output, though the circuit is very unrangemaster... its not a substitute for a classic treble boost because of tis less extreme HP filtering and high input impedance, but its still pretty badass.... I have a stock RM clone somewhere but I never feel like using it, its really skronky in a way that's better for Sabbath than Queen, but the noise is pretty annoying to me

I think my faves are the boiling point, and the keeley oxblood. The boiling point is very versatile, but still sounds unique, and the oxblood has two very helpful switches (I believe phat/fat, and clipping) which do quite nice things. Do you know of a pedal that can get middy, overdriven eighties Clapton tones?

I haven't tried a boilingpoint, but from what I can tell its YATS/SD1 with lots of clipping and filtering options accessible from the front.... it probably uses more hifi opamps, but I rather like the good 'ol jrc dealie in the 808 and frankly I don't hear a whole lotta difference between the opamps in boutique versions anyway, the circuit is so filtered that hifi doesn't enter into its equation... believe it or not I have never tried ANY keeley pedals other than my buddy's fuzz head which I do not like. It sounds like a fuzz for guys who play big amps at bedroom level, gets totally blown out with drums and bass. Great by itself though. For those 80s Clapton JCM800 and Soldano tones maybe check out wampler's stuff, like the pinnacle or ecstacy I think? I've only tried a handful of his pedals, theya re nice, but I kinda know Nick from CB so I am a catalinbread guy when it comes to those jfet/mosfet/cmos ampy overdrivs... not that I own a single drive pedal anymore, I just traded them all off to get my feiten-style 2x12 back from the guy I traded it to last year. Keep in mind that a big part of Clapton's sound since the 80s is the active midboost on his strats.... I knew a guy who installed that on all his strats and he could sound really claptony through pretty much ANYTHING... for 80s Clapton get any marshall flavored pedal and a strat with lace sensor golds or chrome domes and a midboost installed... I'm not sure why anyone would strive for that tone over EC's bluesbreakers and cream sounds, but hey, if you want to cover the soundtrack to Lethal Weapon 1 be my guest, someone has to keep the blues licks going while Obersturmfuhrer Mel von Gibson plays Russian roulette

Also nice new profile pic! Stuff Trump, you Americans should vote in an AC30HW (It is more competent, and probably makes better decisions).

Thanks, I found that vintage pin on ebay today, stole the pic and bought the pin for my leather jacket to put next to the Swedish chef and my old band's mk1 pin (I am so glad I saved the original picks, pins and such because I don't have the mk1 t-shirt we silkscreened in the bassist's mother's laundry room, there's plenty of mk2 and later merch around, but no one in our hometown still ahs any mk1 merch but me.... ahh memories). If dick denny (designer of the original AC amps) were still alive I would write him in at every election... speaking of which I need to drag my but out to the poling place and vote soon.... ugh, its not an important election year, but much as I hate the hassle I feel like a scab when I skip the odd number years

I've got a TS9 (made in Japan) and it's priceless to me because it combines with so many pedals, even with other distortions. In fact I constantly use it with a MXR III and results in a warm and creamy sound, but not so dirty like a muff. I like to use it with drive knob at 1 or 2, wich gives an almost clean tone but with the caracteristic warmth of ts9, perfect to make open chords and whack your guitar (specially if you have a strat or similar :) )

I ahd an original issue TS9 forever, used to keep that and an original SD1 handy all the time in the alte 90s and early oughts, then I got bored with the whole thing, gave my 9 to myfriend and former bassist for his birthday when he was digging in the whole TS thing (I think I gave him 2 TS5s and a BB preamp too), I sued to run my TS9 more overtly but really liked to use the SD1 and more recently the MXR custom badass OD (dumbest name ever) for that slightly dirty boost with the tone close to wide open. I dunno, the TS9 in that application adds this grind that I can only describe as rusty nail scraping vs the SD1 which is more open sounding even though tis still pretty mid boosty. I know its only a few components difference, but those few components gives the 2 pedals very different strong and weak applications.... although tis such an apple to apples comparison I doubt anyone in an audience will hear the difference between any diode clipping OD even when the circuits are even more different than the TS9 and SD1... hell sometimes I wonder if the audience would care if I ditched my ac30s for a JC120 and used the awful built in distortion LOL

the biggest and most audible change you can make to your rig is speakers, period.... people don't understand this and they focus on effects and crap, but a change in speaker style, wattage, efficiency, cone design and magnet is a huge deal as is a change of enclosure.... all that stuff adds up to change your whole sound in dramatic ways that even some meathead megadeath fan hanging out at the bar trying to ignore your 'pussy ass rock band' could hear frm all the way across the room

and welcome to EB

I recently test drove a bogner ecstacy blue pedal and damn if I wasn't impressed with its voicing into just about every amp in the store. I wsa not personally into te high gain mode, but the sounds were solid, just not my bag.... the plexi mode was very convincing at copping those transitional plexi to JMP sounds of the 70s, sounded very close to one of my friend's superlead RIs crossed with the 1st year 50 watt 800 I used to own only at volumes that don't rearrange your chromosomes... definitely less creamy than the superlead I used to tour with though, but that one was a bit off from stock in the pre and had different plate voltages than the mid 90s RIs

anyway, this ecstacy blue will cover those Clapton midboost tones as it has a built in boost, a real soldano voicing in high gain mode AND some bass vicing switches to frther midrange it up, really cool pedal

I think effects should be a way to expand your sound, n2ot to mask your playing deficiencies.

Yeah, lack of technique with a muddy buzzsaw type tone became a virtue when i was a teen, probably as a reaction to all the vh1 inspired typewriter-shred player sin the pre gnr pop metal acts. Their style was too idiosyncratic for most people to master and their gear was totally unattainable for kids with rigs so complexvyou couldn't use them w/o bob bradshaw designing the interface and a tech to handle setup and breakdown... to sat nothing of floyd equipped poodle metal guitars. But i am losing my point here... No i lost it. What was I on about?

You know this is an eternal quest .... The best OD now I have 3 !,,, Soul food for a boost or transparent OD , CMATMODS Brownie & EHX Glove ,,, ALL OF THEM KICK ASS

there are so many now, its becoming annoying.... all of them sound good, none of them sound as big or complex as a distorting ac30

Can I request for permission to be paid £1 for every time Jimmy uses the term "AC30".

in another few thousand mentions you'll be able to buy one

Actually, I too have always been very old school in this regard. I have never had a huge board. I own a variety of pedals, but only use 2-3 at a time not counting the tuner. I have two other boxes on my board that look like pedals but are really switchers in order to remove non-engaged FX from my signal path.

Fave real tubes: Seymore Duncan Twin Tube Classic. Very versatile. CON: switching isn't silent.

Fave solid state: Brad Jeter Gold Standard

Fave mini: Ibanez Mini Tube Screamer. Tiny footprint, same circuit components as orig.

Finally, I must remind that overdrive ultimately comes from your amp. All of these pedals sound great [to me] when paired with a quality tube amp. I play Fenders a lot. In particular, my all-original 1960s Bandmaster or modded Hot Rod Deluxe w/ tube lag switch.

Very much a fan of Klons, and the BD-2 as a mid-gain distortion. often I find the DS-1 to be too aggressive, so I use a BD-2 instead and dingdingding! that's the sound, baby. I also really dig TS-9s, though i've never owned one. They sound absolutely killer when used as a mid boost, but I once met this guy who ran his just completely dimed (except tone, he kept that knob at like 12). Nutjob, that guy was, but it sounded good.

In particular, my all-original 1960s Bandmaster

+1 for bandmasters... that's the one fender I've ever sold that i really was sad about aprting with... 64 or 65 bandmaster with the mathcing cab and jensen C12PS ehavy duty speakers from that era, though non original to the cab.... I really didn't wanna sell that one evne though I'm not so much a 60s fender guy. Heads up, if you run into a Fender Concert that's literally a Bandmaster in a 4x10 combo, not a non-reverb super reverb. Its a pretty under the radar blackface.

I loved the one Bandmaster I tried.