Overdrive pedal question

Do you have a budget? I can think of good mild-to-medium overdrive pedals that range from about $30 used on ebay to well over $400.

There are some incredibly pricey mild overdrives out there. I've heard the Tim and the Klon, and both are very good at what they do... though I can't personally justify spending more on a pedal than on a vintage tube amp (and I've got several small old amps that cost me less than half of what I'd pay for a Klon).

Here are a few I'd recommend from experience:

There's a pedal made by Nobels (a German company) which is highly regarded as not-over-the-top overdrive. It's just called "Overdrive," and it's a really bright green and looks sort of like a Boss pedal. Unfortunately several people have caught on that it's well regarded, and the price has shot up on the used market. (The pedal isn't made any more.) If you have $100 or so you might look for one of those on ebay. If your budget is less you could give the newer Nobels Overdrive a shot: It's a silver pedal that looks a little more "modern."

I've only ever heard the green version, and it is terrific for taking the existing voice of your guitar and amp and just pushing them a little harder.

I have a soft spot for (and use) Frantone's Hep Cat, but depending on your set up, it can have too much treble. If you're not careful with Teles and Strats, you can get into ice-pick-in-the-ear territory. Of course it depends on the amp too. My pick of the litter probably won't be the same as yours because I play mostly Fender and Fender-like amps, but I do know Marshalls pretty well.

Frantone now makes a pedal called the Brooklyn Overdrive which is approximately the same circuit as the Hep Cat but with a tone control which solves a lot of folks' trouble getting the treble to sit right for their set-up. I haven't heard the Brooklyn (yet), but if that claim is true it should be a stellar overdrive that goes all the way from transparent with a little girth to pretty crunchy distortion, but distortion you can chord in.

(If you are interested I can send you a link to a song where you can hear a 4th position Strat playing through a Hep Cat into a Deluxe Reverb... Dunno how much that will help you though since a Tele and MG100 is a different beast. The thing I like most about the Hep Cat is that it's ridiculously responsive to your playing. You can set it up so it's clean when you play at normal volume but just distorts instantly when you dig the strings hard.)

Death By Audio's Interstellar Overdrive is amazing. One knob on the thing, and it goes from an almost clean boost to pretty searing distortion. They have a version now that also has a master volume knob so you can turn the overdrive knob all the way up and keep the volume down.

The yellow Boss OD-1 is still a righteous overdrive pedal if you can find one of the older ones made in Japan. The new ones are not horrible, but they're not the same. If you're not afraid of ebay, you can pick them up for like $35-$40. Might be worth trying since it would be an easy solution on the cheap if you like it and easy to re-sell if you don't. You could also do it the "old fashioned" way. Buy it, try it, return it.

Don't be afraid of the word "Distortion" when you're looking for overdrives either. There are a lot of pedals which are technically soft-clipping devices (overdrives) even though they are named "distortion." One famous example is the little mustard yellow box called the MXR Distortion+.

The Rat also exhibits qualities of an overdrive, especially at low settings. If you really want "a bit of a crunch," you might want to try a Rat with the distortion set very low. I would certainly characterize that sound as "crunchy," and in a very pleasant and musical way.

I wish I could give more and better recommendations... If you do have a budget, let us know what it is. That always helps. (As in, I wouldn't mention the Klon at all if you said you only had $100 to spend.)

Hope this helps.

Oh and xpost The distinctive sound of the Tubescreamer is actually a slight bump in the midrange. The Boss Overdrive is a similar circuit to the Tubescreamer, but it uses asymmetrical clipping which makes it a little more throaty and less smooth. Which is why I mentioned the Boss in your quest for a little crunch but not the Tubescreamer.

Budget - up to £100 UK, I guess, (Say $150. Less would be nice. I would buy thru e-bay, but would be looking to try something out in a shop ideally.

**you can get into ice-pick-in-the-ear territory.**

You can. Anything that boosts treble unduly is a unlikely to do the job. I tend to play with a fair bit of treble rolled off on the guitar as it is.

The Hep sounds good. I'm not sure how much use that link would be, I think I'd better try one if I can, although no tone control scares me. I think the Brooklyn might be better.

Boss OD-1, yeah that's on the list as they're everywhere.

The tubescreamer sounds interesting too, I think I tried one years ago although with different guitar + amp. May be worth another look. (BTW I can get a perfect 'The Edge' sound on my OD2 channel with mild gain + a ton of digital delay. It's actually scarily close. Not that I *need* to sound like The Edge...)

If you already have trouble with too much treble, I'd steer clear of the Hep Cat unless you use an EQ as well. I play a Strat about 80% of the time, and I still occasionally run into settings where I can kill people with treble if I'm not careful using the bridge pickup. It's just I love the sound of the pedal so much that I'm willing to risk it.

The Subdecay Liquid Sunshine pedal is another nice overdrive that is definitely a little 70s sounding. (The Hep Cat actually tries to be rockabilly overdrive, hence the name.) There are (accurate) sound samples at subdecay.com, and you can buy them online reasonably and within your budget. I don't know that there are any brick-and-mortar dealers outside the states though... Subdecay is a pretty new little company.

You know the Danelectro Daddy-O is actually a pretty impressive overdrive given how little it costs. I didn't think of it before cause I haven't used mine in a while, but it is terrific on the cheap. It actually has separate controls for high low and mid, so you can definitely tweak the EQ on it however you need. If you're only gonna use it for mild crunch and not full-on stuff, I'd recommend it. I think it gets a little cheap-sounding up a the top end of its overdrive, but the bottom is nice once you get it tweaked right for your amp.

I am not a big fan of the Tubescreamer and its brothers, but I recognize why there are thousands of players who swear by it. The reissue Maxon TS8s and TS9s are actually very well made, and you can probably pick one up at a store and return it if it's not your bag. It's worth mentioning that the TS is kinda famous for "not working" unless it's really pushing the front of an already-starting-to-overdrive tube amp.

You could also try the Bixonic Expandora. It's a weird little pedal with different settings for "crunch," "od," and "distortion." Originals are fetching more on ebay now, but there is a newer version available too which I've heard equally good things about. You can't switch the settings easily on the fly (they are little switches and they're even inside the pedal on the older version), but you'd at least be able to try multiple modes on a well built and nice sounding pedal to find exactly what you want.

I use this one through a Twin Reverb and a Les Paul. It was made to replicate the sound of an overdriven blackface Fender. It does not do the roar thing so it would likely be perfect as an "OD1" pedal. Cost was about $100, true bypass, and it's built like a tank.

I've been very pleased with the pedal: chords are clean and crunchy-- no mud. And it appears that they are available in the UK.

http://www.asapeurope.com/distribution/toadworks/#dealers

Of course, since you are playing a tele through a Marshall, YMMV. But definitely try it out.

Heheheh. I usually just say "pedal junkie."

Martin - what does the mr.squishy DO? Sort of a compressor? It sounds intersting. Sounds like the Lil'Leo, the John Bull and the Mr. Ed might be worth a demo. What is the 'brown sound' that is referred to in the Mr. Ed blurb?

I might also try the Blues Driver along with some other Boss pedals.

Mr Squishy is a compressor. It's really transparent and doesn't color your tone really at all, which is odd. You almost can't tell it's on sometimes, but it does provide quite a bit of compression. I use it near the end of my signal chain as a kind of limiter. It will also work as a clean boost if you turn the "Squish" knob all the way down and use the gain to set the amount of boost.

I used Toadworks Meat pedal for a while when I was looking for a good boost pedal. That might be an option for you also, as the "fat" boost on that pedal can drive an amp into warm sounding natural overdrive pretty well.

I really want to try the John Bull, actually.

However, just because I tinkered with it for five minutes doesn't mean you not going to love it. Try it out and good luck.

That said, I wasn't a huge fan of the "Plexi" channel on the Toadworks Death Rattle, and even though Toadworks is careful to say that the John Bull is not just a standalone half-of-the-Death Rattle pedal, I suspect their approach to it is similar. I'm not a huge huge fan of the Marshall sound anyway, but I like trying out the new stuff.

Have you considered getting a rat modded for a little less RAWR? I'm sure it could be done easily.

The Rat was a loaner and was dying out anyway. I decided I wanted a different sound so I tried some pedals out. I liked the Toadworks because it gave me the the sound I wanted for the right price.

...from the proper distance.

the blackfinger re-issue is a must-buy for me. hearing the sound that comes through a joemeek optical compressor mic-ing a tube amp is enough to convince me that i must have this kind of sag in my effects chain and it's all there from ehx. wkd.

next is that eq fuzz thing they've got which is good for both independent eq and fuzz and apparently pretty hot for those iconic shoegazer tones if tweaked right. yum.

then it's a bud-wah up front in the chain, and maybs a jam-man or rx20 towards the back end for some loop fuckery.

but while i save up for my marshall 1974x, can mr martin tell me what pedal will best make my lil blues jr sound like a plexi?

You might want to try the Toadworks Death Rattle. It does Plexi and "Tweed" in the same Box. Like I said before though, it didn't blow me away.

Both Keeley and Analogman do DS-1 mods that make the DS-1 sound a lot more like a Marshall-in-a-Box, although neither of them are really Plexi. They're both more modern.

Jacques makes a Plexi-aping pedal which is pretty slick, but his Mercerbox is actually designed to sound like a Plexi and a Fuzz pedal together, not just a Plexi.

Um, There's the Emma ReezaFRATzitz which is reasonably priced, but I've not tried it.

If I think of more I'll let you know. Like I said, I'm not as interested in the Marshall sound for myself, so pedals that sound like Plexis is definitely not my forte.

It is going to be hit and miss finding a pedal that will get what you want with a solid state amp. Somekind of high end overdrive or distortion pedal might sound good, but it just as likely might sound pretty bad as what it is made to do is get the distortion from overdriving preamp tubes. Some solid state amps do not have that much headroom on the input, so if you drive it up, it is just going to clip and usually sound really harsh and nasty, but not in a good way. I'd take your amp to the store with your guitar and try some different things out to see what works.

"lil blues jr sound like a plexi?"

I think it is hard to get that 4x12 cab sound out of a 1x12, but the Fulltone 69 fuzz pedal sounds can get a nice thick, end of the 60s sound with a Blues Jr.

If I could trouble the resident experts once again, what I want is mild overdrive/crunch but with plenty of sustain. I need something that introduces sustain but without undue distortion at the same time. Do any of the pedals that have been recommended so far fit the bill for this more than others? What about a compressor/sustainer type thing? Any ideas?

The Tech21 DoubleDrive is also capable but to my mind not as sweet sounding.

eq's too. if you can get your band all with eq pedals you can do some nutty sectional stuff in gigs like a simultaneous bass freq drop out - KERTHWUNGA! back in again :)

Doc how are you using it? sort of always on or for extra crunch/boost - where are you with it?

Oh and by the way... Since I finally got a copy of the second ILX comp I realized that the song I was talking about to which I could send you a link is actually the song I put on the comp. So, the lead guitar in my song on the comp is 4th position Strat->Hep Cat->Deluxe Reverb. It's all one take too, so the clean and the dirty are just from playing gently and really digging at the strings.

I haven't had a lot of time today to fiddle with it, but basically so far I'm using it with attack pretty high, say 4 o'clock and sustain full-on. I'm really happy with what it's doing with the crunch sound on the clean/crunch channel of the Marshall. It's actually exactly what I had in mind - it sort of smooths the overdrive sound without losing any of the overdrive, if you see what I mean. Also each string seems to ring clearer *within* the chord. Also it sort of indefinably sounds *better* in a way that I can't describe. If I play thru a few songs for 10 mins or so and then turn it off, the whole sound is flat and a bit lifeless. You can see what the attack control is doing better when you have it on clean and do a bit of picking - there's a 'pop' as every note leaps out. There's not much call for clean work in our band, but if I do use it, I think I'll have the attack on about 1 or 2 o'clock. One thing on the clean channel that sounded great with the CS-3 was when I ran thru 'I'm In Love with A German Filmstar' with a bit of chorus and delay on it too.

As I said upthread what I was after was a smoother crunch for a variety of sounds from 60's Who/Creation (yeah I'd love a vintage AC30, but....) to a sort of Jam/pub rock/Pistols medium overdrive. I can switch between them using guitar volume/treble/pickup settings. I am really happy with the heavy overdrive (OD2) sound of the Tele/Marshall combination, and that's probably 60% of my base sound. I really can't recommend the OD2 sound on the MG100 highly enough - insane amounts of sustain and a lot of grit.

I think I'll be using the CS3 all of the time on crunch, and I might use it also with OD2 sometimes - I had a brief crack at this yesterday and it was good for ultra-sustainy chords. I'm not sure that the attack is much use here though.

ILX comp2 - ha! I'm on this too with my current band (and on ILX comp 1 with an old band) but I don't have a copy - I'll have to hassle Jel for one.

I said I'd write more on the CS3 when I'd had time to fiddle with it - so here goes. I think I've found the sweet spot for using it with a crunch/mild overdrive sound - you want the attack and sustain at around 2 o'clock each for a nice smooth sound on chord work. For a clean sound the same setting is fine, although 3 o'clock on each is probably better. Clean picking sounds amazing at this setting and chords are really full and clear with and without a touch of chorus. I won't be using it much with full-on overdrive as it accentuates some of the minor harmonics etc too much and muddies the sound.

I was also using the CS-3 with it - to boost volume for choruses and the like. The CS-3 seems to throw in a pleasing amount of controllable feedback too with the BD-2.

I am going to have a fiddle with the BD-2 tonight and see what else I can get out of it.

I got my Keeley DS-1 yesterday and my ears are really ringing. Yowza this pedal is sweet. I've played quite a few hours both last night and today with it on my Fender Deluxe Reverb reissue. It definitely can bring a Marshall kind of sound to a Fender amp, which is one reason I searched it out.

The BM is for boost/slight extra gain to push either of the others for solos. BD-2 is my staple sound, gain at about 1 o'clock. The OS-2 is for punk/Stooges type extra spank, usually with gain at 2 o'clock and colour about the same.

I really like the OS-2 although there doesn't seem to be much love for it anywhere. The combination od/dist sounds are really great.

I expect to be using the CS-3 more when I get my new Jazzmaster up and gigging.

Careful with that axe, Eugene. Having received a thorough bitch-slapping myself a few months back, I have to warn you that encomiums for Keeley mods are not approved of around here.

The DS-1 is holding up quite nice. I've got it on my bass rig, where it works really well for getting a fat fuzzy bass sound. One thing I like is that it is pretty touch sensitive, if you have it on an play soft, the OD drops back, so you can get a good amount of dynamics with just your hands on the instrument. It is a whole lot more quiet than my Turbo Rat which I used for a good portion of the 90s with my bass. That thing was hiss city, but hey it could survive flying off a roof of a car at 40 miles an hour.

Not really why I bounced this thread, but I have found a pretty cool boost pedal that is quite nice for the cash.

It is a BBE Boosta Grande. Sounds pretty sharp, I don't think it is completely transparent, as it seems to boost some hi mids, but it sounds really giid in my guitar setup. Cool thing is the thing comes with the 9volt adapter and it is true bypass for the cost of about your usual Boss pedal. Seems pretty well built and I also dig the fact that it has one button.