Low Gain Pedal That Sounds Bold?

Informative:

 

Yeah... I think you've already fallen down some rabbit hole of unmet expectations. I'd be careful combining your punch with your balls though.

 

FWIW, I used an MXR Micro Amp+ to boost my single coil guitars (and add some bass... something you can’t do with a plain Micro Amp) so that they work with my amps that are setup for humbucker’ed guitars.

 

I’ve had good luck with a nocturne junior barnyard. You can add a little grit or a lot. I’ve used it with a Gretsch 6120, Les Paul, Tele, Strat and a few others. No loss of low end.

 

This pedal I'm going to recommend may be too mild for what the OP (and others), are looking for, but the Joyo Sweet Baby OD ( the Mad Professor Sweet Honey clone) is pretty dang good at providing a very natural mild overdrive and snarl to those of us that like playing into pretty clean ( say BF/SF Fenders ) amps.

It's hard to describe, but imagine taking the lower Gain setting on a Blues Driver ( a pedal I'm really familiar with) and just being able to expand that 1/3 of range, into a Gain knob that expands incrementally that to a full rotation ( so that the Gain you get of a BD-2 at 1/3, is Max on this pedal's Gain rotation) Am I making sense?

- just a great way to get nice breakup at a very low amp volume

Now add a 'Focus' ( Tone) knob that sounds more like a Presence control.

If you play a Strat ( just as an ex.) it reminds me of the cranked amp breakup Clapton got on the Layla and early solo albums (" After Midnight " "Let it Rain" " The Core", " I Shot The Sheriff" ) that stuff.

Or a cool Ronnie Earl, Anson Funderburgh, cranked Super Reverb blues tone.

If you like that, I do.

$35, and it's knocking me out!


Reminds me of the old Barber LTD SR, but better! ( sorry, David!)

 

Probably the easiest thing to do would be to mod the Bluesbreaker so that it's not cutting out the low end. That should only require changing one or two components. What I would personally avoid would be anything derived from a Bluesbreaker that adds different tone controls, because they will probably be boosting bass after the initial gain stage that sets most of the EQ characteristics that ultimately get clipped.

 

I love my JHS Morning Glory for what you are describing. But if volume isn't too much of an issue, you can get a EHX Soul Food or an Em Drive for pretty cheap. If they don't do the trick, put them on the pile for later, they will have other uses.

 

Love those pedals, but they cut bass big time.

 

Not hearing that with mine my tone is pretty much left alone

 

That's why they have a treble control instead of a tone control, and one of the reasons that I don't personally care for them, either. It's not as bad as a TS (stronger mid response at the expense of bass and especially treble), but it's still there.

I can spend all day trying to get the treble control on a klone to where I think is finally in the sweet spot, but still end up fighting to get nice complex grit in the breakup. Then when I adjust the gain up or down, I have to screw around with the treble control all over again.

 

The Euphoria does exactly what you’re asking on the “open“ setting.

 

I would honestly try an OD-3 with the gain probably between 8:30 - 10:00, and tone set to taste, really before messing around with most other OD pedals.

Full low end, with soft clipping that has some grit to it. No honky mids or muted high end.

 

I know this might be not what you would expect, but try combinations of pedals instead, this would be actually easier than finding that one and only overdrive. Me, for example, I'm enjoying a low gain sort of treble booster into a low gain fuzz, for a bold base tone with still cleanup and dynamics

 

well.... maybe I got the only Archer that doesn't sound muffled? because it's clean & crisp. I had a Tumnus and didn't like it

 

mmmmm..... well you know the Bluesbreaker is supposed to be emulating a Marshall Bluesbreaker amp and that amp is essentially a JTM45 in a combo.

So just to open your quest a little more, rather than concentrating on bluesbreaker pedal circuits, why not look into anything that's in that Marshall JTM ballpark soundwise.

.... The Zvex Box of Rock, or the JHS Charlie Brown would be my choices. (just based on what I've had/tried) but there's a lot out there.