Overdrive Pedals.. Not to beat a dead horse

[virge0110]

Hey guys, I know everyone has a favorite overdrive so I want to hear what some of yours are. I'd like to keep this pretty open. I myself am always looking for pedals under $100, either mainstream, diy, clones, or whatever.

So, with that said lets start with some of the ones I'm curious about. I would like an array of options in clipping, but I don't really dig tubecreamers. Mainly because mids are so heavy.

Here are the pedals I want to know about:
-Fulltone OCD- I know there are some clones out there and the Dano Cool Cat is one of them, but I am wondering who's is the best, because honestly Fulltone charges an arm and a leg

-Marshall Blues Breaker 1- The real one costs too much. Best clone? GGG, BYOC, Mars, Gravity, Morning Glory, etc. Also, how different is this guy from the OCD?

-Vox Ice 9- Seems cool. Has a "more" button, when you need more.

-Vox Big Ben Overdrive

-Dano Cool Cats v1 and v2

-Barber LTD

-King of Tone

-Digitech Hardwire Tube Drive

-VooDoo Labs Sparkle Drive- a clone would be legit.

-Fulltone Fulldrive Mosfet- a clone would be legit as well.

-Pretty much any other low-mid gain OD you guys can mention.

Are most of these pedals that different from eachother? I need to go to school!

Excited to see where this goes!

[uriah1]

-Are you looking to purchase or research project
-The KOT is over $300 alone...not sure if any clones exist
-Are you in a tone search ? What tone ?

[virge0110]

Originally Posted by uriah1

-Are you looking to purchase or research project
-The KOT is over $300 alone...not sure if any clones exist
-Are you in a tone search ? What tone ?

Me and you and everyone is always on a tone quest I'd say.

I like the more transparent ODs. I really want to know how these pedals compare to one another.

I want to get into building my own, but I am a little intimidated by it.

I like what I've heard from the Ice 9, BB, and OCD the most. But I am looking for cheaper alternatives that are the same thing more or less.. also, how they compare to one another.

[Chiogtr4x]

Well I can comment on the ones I either own or have played:

For Low/medium Gain OD with good tonal control- you cannot go wrong with a Barber LTD or the Dano TOD V.1 (not a fan of the V.2 and have owned both). The Dano is capable of a more useable Gain range, but the the LTD just imparts a great low-gain breakup

Affordable OCD clones/approximations are indeed the Dano Drive V.1 (basically a 'composite' of various OCD versions- said to be closest to an OCD V.1 in HP mode)- I wish I had my old one back, but sold it-dummy!.... and the Joyo Ulimate Drive

[bigmuff113]

A Used OCD,Big Muff, Joyo Ultimate Drive, Big Muff, Zvex Box of Rock, Big Muff, Zvex Distortron, Big Muff,E-H Germanium OD, Germanium Big Muff

[Teleglide]

All of the ones you mention (that I've tried) are nice OD's depending on what flavor you want.

Vox Big Ben is a very nice and underrated low-med gain OD with a very natural sound. The downside is it's large and it eats batteries.

I tried to like to KOT, but never could bond with it. It has a nice small footprint, but the knobs are pretty close together which made it kind of a pain to use. I also liked the boost sound, but didn't care for the more overdriven sounds in this unit.

I love the Barber Custom Cool - I like this one better than the LTD. It also has lots of knobs, but I like the sound better than the KOT.

I really like the Nobels ODR-1, but the build quality can be dicey. I've been through about five of these. The Stampede SOV-2 is another nice one, but not cheap.

The Marshall Bluesbreaker is nice, as is the Reverend Drivetrain, which sounds similar to me. I liked the tone a lot, but they both had more gain than I wanted.

I also love the JHS Klon clone, which is more of a clean-ish boost

I'd love to try an OCD - never played through one (yet).

[tele_pathic]

Well, since you mention you like transparent overdrive, the Dano Transparent OD v.1 is hard to beat at any price.

I have the Dano Drive v.1 pedal, which is freakin' awesome. I also have a Visual Sound Double Trouble, which is two TS808's in one pedal. It freakin' rocks too.

Then I have a Dano Fuzz v.1 pedal, which is a great fuzz pedal but not much octave effect, which is how I like my fuzz.

[uriah1]

Originally Posted by tele_pathic

Well, since you mention you like transparent overdrive, the Dano Transparent OD v.1 is hard to beat at any price.

I have the Dano Drive v.1 pedal, which is freakin' awesome. I also have a Visual Sound Double Trouble, which is two TS808's in one pedal. It freakin' rocks too.

Then I have a Dano Fuzz v.1 pedal, which is a great fuzz pedal but not much octave effect, which is how I like my fuzz.

+1 yea....it is up there with my red snapper..

THe reason you have heard about OCD the most, is since it is sold
the most. Does not mean it is loved by the most, even if math dicates
that.

[Glen 1981]

I love the Visualsound Open Road.

[MatthewDickin]

I like the Lovepedal Amp 11 for a really transparent od

[chrisgblues]

So you want:
- Transparent(ish)
- Under $100

Therefore I would recommend one of the following:

Joyo Ultimate Drive (an OCD clone which is more transparent than a tubescreamer but not completely transparent, and sells for about $45 on average)

Dano Cool Cat Transparent Overdrive (V1 is supposed to be a Timmy clone but is out of production, V2 is probably still fairly transparent and sells for about $60 on average)

VS Garagetone Drivetrain - although it does have a mid-hump it's not that bad, and if you crank up the separate bass/treble controls and roll back the volume it reduces the effect of the mids...and it goes for about $60 on average.

Personally I would go for the Joyo Ultimate drive because of the price point, ease of use, and great reviews.

JMHO.

[JoeNeri]

FYI, OP - this forum has a really good search engine. Lots of hashed and rehashed pedal info. Easy to use. You should try it sometime.

[czech-one-2]

Originally Posted by chrisgblues

So you want:
- Transparent(ish)
- Under $100

Therefore I would recommend one of the following:

Joyo Ultimate Drive (an OCD clone which is more transparent than a tubescreamer but not completely transparent, and sells for about $45 on average)

Dano Cool Cat Transparent Overdrive (V1 is supposed to be a Timmy clone but is out of production, V2 is probably still fairly transparent and sells for about $60 on average)

VS Garagetone Drivetrain - although it does have a mid-hump it's not that bad, and if you crank up the separate bass/treble controls and roll back the volume it reduces the effect of the mids...and it goes for about $60 on average.

Personally I would go for the Joyo Ultimate drive because of the price point, ease of use, and great reviews.

JMHO.

I just got a VS Drivetrain, and find it a little gainy as I wanted to use it as a dirty clean kind of overdrive. Any mods out there for the VS Drivetrain? I havn't cracked it open so I dont know if its SMD or not?

[Chiogtr4x]

Originally Posted by JoeNeri

FYI, OP - this forum has a really good search engine. Lots of hashed and rehashed pedal info. Easy to use. You should try it sometime.


Attachment 130693

No! Let's bring up every OD pedal ever invented, again! Joe N has a point here

[virge0110]

Originally Posted by Chiogtr4x

No! Let's bring up every OD pedal ever invented, again! Joe N has a point here

Sorry man. Maybe I should have been much more specific.

I do use the search a lot. Between here and Strat-Talk I find more info than I will ever need.

I just want to know where the gold is. Let me lay it down like this..

My amp has a super clean channel (Blackstar Ht-20), which I like. It only breaks up when the channel volume is dimed. The OD channel doesn't really back down to that "clean, but not really clean sound.

I've heard the Bluesbreaker is great for just giving almost a "clean boost" sound without necessarily raising the volume a whole bunch like a regular clean boost would.

I would like that tone (and I don't mean I want a pedal that sounds like a Vox amp simulation. This is just an example) of when you crank a Vox Ac-15. Not max everything out and try to get the most gain, but that point where it just parely starts to clip. Really just adds a tiny bit of spank and harmonics.

I would like to get that. Just the lightest of gain. From there. I would like something that could push that tone if needed. Something still transparent but with a bit more gain (OCD comes to mind).

I am not set on any particular pedal and would like to know what would be best suited for my needs.

So far, there have been some great suggestions. Keep it coming.

[Enaitz]

I had a Bluesbreaker I for some time, a transparent OD which sounded great with single coils, but it was very difficult to deal with the knobs and was little to no versatile.

I tried it against a modern Bluesbreaker II, which is a completely different OD, a velvety, warm and pretty one which colours your sound a bit, has more gain to play with (if you want to) and includes a great boost option. After playing both for some days, I sold the Bluesbreaker I for 130 € and I kept the Bluesbreaker II (goes new for abut 53 €), and is still my favourite overdrive by far.

[soundchaser59]

CmatMods Brownie
Fulltone Fulldrive 2 Mosfet
Subdecay SuperNova
CmatMods Super Signa Drive
Analogman TS9DX
KOT

[tele_pathic]

Again, I love my visual sounds pedal. 2 TS-808s in one box. The old tubescreamers are known for the mid-range hump, which equals not transparent. But I don't hear that with these. In fact, there's a tone knob on each "pedal" which I set so that when engaged you hear no difference in tone. From there, you can set one side to clean boost with just the slightest amount of clip, like what you're talking about; you can set the other side to the same setting or a little dirtier or a lot dirtier, or whatever your want; you can also engage both sides at the same time. So look at it like this: 1. gain set to barely any audible grit, engage it by itself. 2. gain set to some clipping, more dirt than 1, engage it by itself. 3. both 1 & 2 on at the same time. It's a very versatile pedal. I got mine off ebay for $65.

[imsilly]

You can put something together for cheap, but if you don't want to do that I'd always advise grabbing a Timmy.

I've always thought bang for you buck and versatility wise the Timmy is the best out there.

Sure there are super expensive tube jobbies or klons, but if you can't get what you want from a Timmy then I'd be surprised.

[Chiogtr4x]

Originally Posted by virge0110

Sorry man. Maybe I should have been much more specific.

I do use the search a lot. Between here and Strat-Talk I find more info than I will ever need.

I just want to know where the gold is. Let me lay it down like this..

My amp has a super clean channel (Blackstar Ht-20), which I like. It only breaks up when the channel volume is dimed. The OD channel doesn't really back down to that "clean, but not really clean sound.

I've heard the Bluesbreaker is great for just giving almost a "clean boost" sound without necessarily raising the volume a whole bunch like a regular clean boost would.

I would like that tone (and I don't mean I want a pedal that sounds like a Vox amp simulation. This is just an example) of when you crank a Vox Ac-15. Not max everything out and try to get the most gain, but that point where it just parely starts to clip. Really just adds a tiny bit of spank and harmonics.

I would like to get that. Just the lightest of gain. From there. I would like something that could push that tone if needed. Something still transparent but with a bit more gain (OCD comes to mind).

I am not set on any particular pedal and would like to know what would be best suited for my needs.

So far, there have been some great suggestions. Keep it coming.

Sorry to be a 'Forum douche' yesterday- was in a grumpy mood...