What is your favorite Overdrive pedal?

[tunghaichuan***]

I've got a couple DOD FX50B Overdrive Plus pedals, and I like them quite a bit. They are kind of noisy for an OD pedal, so that disqualifies them as my favorite.

FWIW, the DOD FX51 Juice Box is the earlier version of the Bad Monkey.

tung

I used to have a DOD something overdrive that was pretty much the balls but it's not with us today :s but now I really like the bad monkey or maybe a big muff (does that count?)

[marnold***]

I've been pretty happy with my Behringer TO800. It's been compared pretty favorably to a stock TS-808 by others--not that a Tube Screamer is rocket surgery or anything.

[sunvalleylaw]

So far, my Bad Monkey. Such great bang for the buck. But DVM's Rabid Rodent, which is really a distortion pedal, also has a very nice overdrive in it. More transparent, and hotter than the Bad Monkey. Some day, I would like to compare the V.2 overdrive kit DVM is building to the tube screamer specs like Dreadman got. But for now, the Monkey is king.

The Monkey has been dethroned. It still has a place, but my ZYS Mk.II is the new king by far. It is so nice. Worth every penny!

[FrankenFretter***]

I've owned a Bad Monkey, and still own a TS10. I really liked the Monkey, but it didn't seem logical to have two pedals that sounded so much alike. My Tube Screamer was making a funny noise for a while, then I sent it to DVM who did the TS808 mod, and the Asym/Sym + gain mod. It sounded good before, but now it sounds great. Still my favorite, and probably always will be.

[sunvalleylaw]

Yeah, I still really love the Monkey, and for the tiny money I paid for it, it is amazing. It goes now on my second board along with my DS-1. They work great together. The ZYS is another level though.

[Matt]

I had a Bad Monkey for ages but then started to get annoyed with the mid-hump sound it tries to emulate and so stopped using it for a while except as a boost to a Big Muff I used to use to overcome the Muff's huge mid scoop. I'm fairly happy with my Tech 21 Double Drive again now as it's so versitile and can alter the sonic character of you amp- it can make it sound like an AC30 to a cranked Marshall and everywhere in between.

Also +1 on the BYOC Might Mouse kit, the overdrive half of it is very good

[tunghaichuan***]

I'm fairly happy with my Tech 21 Double Drive again now as it's so versitile and can alter the sonic character of you amp- it can make it sound like an AC30 to a cranked Marshall and everywhere in between.

The Double Drive is a cool pedal. I had one for a while. I could get a great Mesa Boogie Mark series tone out of it through my homebrew 5E3 amp.

[deeaa*]

Marshall Jackhammer (od mode) is my fave for many years now. Truly the jcm 800 sound in a box, quiet, real and well built. retains clarity like no otjer and no fuzz fizz but real od.

These are always taste issues, but I can say I have owned or tested about two dozen ods and jack always wins. might use some other for a while, always get bacm to jackhammer.

With an ss amp hlwever, I had thks dod tubefx100 or something pedal, which was downright incfedible with roland cube for instance. just superb...but didnt work with tube amps.

[nickydiaz]

I agree with Sunvalleylaw. I've played a few overdrive pedals including the Boss Bluesdriver, Digitech preamp overdrive from the 70's (can't remember the model number), Ibanez TubeScreamer plus others. I would love to try the fulltone OCD. So far, I love my Bad Monkey's flexibility and transparency, even though I mostly use a BBE Boosta Grande clean boost to push my EVJ 1/2 stack over the top. Great amp, btw.

[Commodore 64***]

Whats the difference between OD and Distortion pedal?

I have a BYOC Blues Breaker and a Boss BD-2 with the Allum Blues stack mod. I like the Allum modded pedal better.

[deeaa*]

Whats the difference between OD and Distortion pedal?

I have a BYOC Blues Breaker and a Boss BD-2 with the Allum Blues stack mod. I like the Allum modded pedal better.

Often, not much...OD is supposed to give you a range of boost that doesn't entirely change the amps nature, is not fuzzy, just some extra drive and harmonics boost to send an already driven or almost driven amp over the edge, while ds will add a clear square wave sawtooth quality to the sound even at low volumes, i.e. make a clean amp seem like 2 channels.

But the line is often hazy. Seems to me the main variety of od is the TubeScreamer one, which is what most ods sound like. I have had both ts9 and 10 and half a dozen boutique and other ts clones and they all have somewhat the same mid_boost slightly, hm, 'dusty' sound to them, the main difference being akin to taste of coffee, so to say. have more or less mocca or acidity to them

Some, like the dano transparent od, give too much of low end rumble, and some concentrate on a sort of top boost - which really is another variety of od.

I like ts type pedals a lot but they always give that mid hump I dislike. My sound preference is closest to AC DC most any era, i.e. early Marshall 2203-4 to JCM800 type sounds. I have owned three different actual amps of those, 2203, 2204, 2210, JMP-1 andd some I forget, and IMo the Jackhammer comes very close to that Marshall cranked sound Without any murkiness. My 36w early marshall bluesbreaker copy turns into exactly like a jcm with it, only even better :-)

[hubberjub***]

My Lovepedal Eternity has treated me well for the last two years or so. It has a very natural, Voxy tone.

[Tarin]

Don't know if this counts:
I have a multi-efect pedal (Vox Tonelab ST), and even though it has lots of amps, cabs and stuff... mainly, i use it for the pedal section: no amp, no cab, no effects... just a pedal directly to my Blackheart LG or a Vox 15R.

One of the pedals it emulates is a Klon Centaur overdrive pedal, and that's the one i prefer... and this was before i found out that the original Klon pedals cost around 600 buckaroos.

The Tonelab ST distortions are:
Ibanez Tube Screamer (named Tube OD)
Klon Centaur (named Boutique)
Boss DS-1 (named Orange Dist)
Boss HM-1 (named Metal Dist)
Dallas Fuzz Face (named Fuzz)

So, i never heard before of this Klon pedals and ever since i got the ST, that was the one that stood out for me... i don't have the slightest idea how it compares to the original, and at 600 dollars, maybe i'll never know.

[Kestrel]

The Boss OD-3 OverDrive has been working out just fine for me so far.

[red]

Best for what? For lead work, when the guitar sound needs to cut through the mix, nothing beats a good old Ibanez TS 808 type overdrive pedal. There's a reason why that circuit is a classic. I've tried the TS9 version but I could not stomach it. It's got to be 808 specs.

Having said that, I tend to prefer "singer-songwriter" moments of just someone's voice and the guitar, and I find the TS overdrives inappropriate for that application (or for rythm guitar work, generally). So if I'd have to pick only one circuit and be forced to choose to play just one way, the clear winner would be the Way Huge Red Llama circuit. It doesn't boost the mids, it overdrives the full signal (going into fuzz territory), and it's the best solid-state simulation of an overdriven 5F1/5E3 (think Fender Champ / Deluxe) tube amp I've ever heard from a pedal, bar none. So that's "my best".

Unfortunately Way Huge went bust a while ago. The brand name has been bought by Dunlop I think, and they chose to reissue some of the Way Huge pedals, but not the Red Llama, and so the world being what it is you can only get an original WHRL for a handful of hundred dollar bills. BUT, there's still hope, because there are Tonefactor Mule / Mojo Hand Mule pedals still around (also out of production, but still to be found on eBay), the Greedtone boutique OD pedal is apparently based on the Red Llama circuit, there's a also a guy named Steve Liberty that makes a clone called Llama Roja, and for the tecnically inclined there's a dirt-cheap kit available from General Guitar Gadgets.

[duhvoodooman***]

Unfortunately Way Huge went bust a while ago. The brand name has been bought by Dunlop I think, and they chose to reissue some of the Way Huge pedals, but not the Red Llama, and so the world being what it is you can only get an original WHRL for a handful of hundred dollar bills. BUT, there's still hope, because there are Tonefactor Mule / Mojo Hand Mule pedals still around (also out of production, but still to be found on eBay), the Greedtone boutique OD pedal is apparently based on the Red Llama circuit, there's a also a guy named Steve Liberty that makes a clone called Llama Roja, and for the tecnically inclined there's a dirt-cheap kit available from General Guitar Gadgets.

To that last point....

http://www.thefret.net/showthread.php?t=13160

[red]

To that last point....

http://www.thefret.net/showthread.php?t=13160

Nice build, I'm glad you like the pedal!
Speaking of tweedy overdrives, I'm thinking maybe I'll build a Professor Tweed sometime soon, ever tried one of those?

http://www.olcircuits.com/olc_professortweed.html

[marnold***]

Unfortunately Way Huge went bust a while ago. The brand name has been bought by Dunlop I think, and they chose to reissue some of the Way Huge pedals, but not the Red Llama, and so the world being what it is you can only get an original WHRL for a handful of hundred dollar bills.

With Jeorge Tripps back, maybe they will reissue it. They reissued the Aqua Puss after all.

[red]

With Jeorge Tripps back, maybe they will reissue it. They reissued the Aqua Puss after all.

Fingers crossed! I'll be the first in line to buy a couple of 'em.
Here's how the name Red Llama came about: "The Red Llama came from Monty Python’s Holy Grail. Terry Gilliam and Terry Jones shared a directing credit with 6 Venezuelan Red Llamas, and I thought it was funny." (source: http://www.premierguitar.com/Magazin..._Way_Huge.aspx).