Overdrive question

[Dadzmad]

I second both the joyo sweet baby and the caline pure sky for a transparent overdrive pedal. I have and like both of these pedals. I know they are knock offs but don't cost too much and are fine for at home use. Of the two the pure sky is brighter and the sweet baby is warmer.

[Jeff Scott]

There are billions and billions of (*****) pedals out there. I use a tc electronic MOJOMOJO, Tech 21 Sansamp GT2, or Cave Passive Pedals B-Drive Mk II for my overdrive needs.

[GCWaters]

The Dude by J Rockett...not cheap, but wonderful!

[GoPappy]

Originally Posted by J Patrick

. . . and don’t pay too much attention to videos….they’re all over the map in terms of what any pedal is capable of…

Amen to that. I was looking for a pedal to just add some edge-of-breakup grit to a clean amp. What frustrated me most often in the YouTube videos were two common practices in these videos:

1. They usually show the pedal going from clean to way too much drive (at least for my tastes). It was hard to find videos showing how the pedals performed right at the borderline between clean and dirty.

2. Many of the YouTube guys demo pedals using their some boutique high-end big $$$$ amp. And often, they would have the gain on the amp dialed up so that the amp by itself was more gritty than I want even without the pedal. Not informative for my particular needs.

[davidd]

Originally Posted by GoPappy

Amen to that. I was looking for a pedal to just add some edge-of-breakup grit to a clean amp. What frustrated me most often in the YouTube videos were two common practices in these videos:

1. They usually show the pedal going from clean to way too much drive (at least for my tastes). It was hard to find videos showing how the pedals performed right at the borderline between clean and dirty.

2. Many of the YouTube guys demo pedals using their some boutique high-end big $$$$ amp. And often, they would have the gain on the amp dialed up so that the amp by itself was more gritty than I want even without the pedal. Not informative for my particular needs.

Exactly! I wonder sometimes if I'm the only player who likes a clean tone.

[Brent Hutto]

Originally Posted by GoPappy

Amen to that. I was looking for a pedal to just add some edge-of-breakup grit to a clean amp. What frustrated me most often in the YouTube videos were two common practices in these videos:

1. They usually show the pedal going from clean to way too much drive (at least for my tastes). It was hard to find videos showing how the pedals performed right at the borderline between clean and dirty.

2. Many of the YouTube guys demo pedals using their some boutique high-end big $$$$ amp. And often, they would have the gain on the amp dialed up so that the amp by itself was more gritty than I want even without the pedal. Not informative for my particular needs.

I have pretty much the same take on 99% of those YouTube demos. Their typical "clean tone" is already starting to breakup very sweetly and their "overdrive" sound is pretty darned distorted or heavy sounding to me.

My situation is different in that I have a digital/solid-state Katana amp and I'm looking for all my grit from pedals (I hate the "crunch" and "lead" modes on Katana). So I'm not really starting from an already breaking up $2,000 tube amp like those YouTubers.

I sort of got suckered into buying an MXR Timmy as my first overdrive pedal (not really suckered, it just turned out to not be the right choice) based on YouTube demos and online reviews/discussions. I realize now that it's the kind of pedal that's designed to basically do as little as possible to an "almost dirty enough" tone from a tube amp. There are a BOATLOAD of that type pedal out there and some of them are insanely popular.

But IMO most of them are near useless in two common situations:

a) A clean solid state and/or digital amp.

b) A tube amp turned way, way down so it's not too loud, making it totally clean with gobs of headroom.

I got rid of Timmy and pivoted to sort of opposite extreme with an MXR Distortion+, an old-school rather crude circuit designed to just clip the heck out the signal and distort it. Then I feed that into my clean Katana and use the Distortion+ knobs and my guitar's volume knob to find that edge of breakup zone.

I'm not suggesting anyone else go that retro in their pedal odyssey but look for a "distortion" pedal, not a "transparent overdrive" or some such thing that's trendy now as a tone shaper for an amp that's already got a pleasing amount of breakup.

[David Eastwood]

I like this guy’s reviews. I was on the fence about the TC Zeus until I saw this one - I really felt like I was hearing the pedal, not the amp it was feeding.

I use it either into a Vox solid-state amp, or a Yamaha DG Stomp on a clean amp setting, so don’t have or need additional grit from the amp.

[KevWind]

This one while not cheap -- but is definitely one of the better Drives on the market IMO and has a great simple but flexible feature set.
Has onboard 3 frequency EQ with -Bass -Mid and Treble controls -- It has a Volume control so you can boost just clean level, has a Drive control so you can add some OD grit.. You can dial in any combination of drive and volume boost to your liking.
You have to purchase it direct from the mfg. who uses Reverb as it's store front outlet.

[fpuhan]

I'm a big fan of Robin Trower. Fulltone made a Custom Shop Robin Trower Overdrive (CS RTO) that I really like.



They also make the OCD, which is similar. But better (supposedly). Trower wrote Mike Fuller saying he liked the OCD even better than the original.

[1neeto]

Maybe what you need is a clean boost. Keeley Katana will give you that clean boost that can drive your amp to the edge of breakup.
This right here is the best thing I have on my pedal board. It retails now for $300 and worth every penny. It is essentially 5 pedals in one. It has a compressor, a clean boost, and 3 different overdrives. The middle button is a katana clean boost, or a 1962 overdrive that resembles a cranked up Marshall bluesbreaker. The last button is two versions of a modified tube screamer circuit.

[glaze3]

Originally Posted by fpuhan

I'm a big fan of Robin Trower. Fulltone made a Custom Shop Robin Trower Overdrive (CS RTO) that I really like.



They also make the OCD, which is similar. But better (supposedly). Trower wrote Mike Fuller saying he liked the OCD even better than the original.

Mike has shut down Fulltone.

If you like the OCD I would recommend a Barber Gain Changer

[bfm612]

It's $200 new, but I believe the hype around the JHS Morning Glory. It's tonally perfect for me as a transparent overdrive. It's popular for good reason. I know it's a matter of taste, but it's worth a try and just return it if you don't like it. It might save you time and money from trying out a bunch of other pedals.

[glaze3]

Originally Posted by bfm612

It's $200 new, but I believe the hype around the JHS Morning Glory. It's tonally perfect for me as a transparent overdrive. It's popular for good reason. I know it's a matter of taste, but it's worth a try and just return it if you don't like it. It might save you time and money from trying out a bunch of other pedals.

Great pedal!

[nostatic]

I've tried a lot of the ones mentioned so far. For edge of breakup and fairly transparent (ie not a mid hump like a tube screamer/clone), by far my favorite is the Wampler Belle. It is based on the Nobels ODR-1 which has been referred to as the "secret weapon" of Nashville guitar players.

[eyesore]

Originally Posted by GoPappy

Amen to that. I was looking for a pedal to just add some edge-of-breakup grit to a clean amp. What frustrated me most often in the YouTube videos were two common practices in these videos:

1. They usually show the pedal going from clean to way too much drive (at least for my tastes). It was hard to find videos showing how the pedals performed right at the borderline between clean and dirty.

2. Many of the YouTube guys demo pedals using their some boutique high-end big $$$$ amp. And often, they would have the gain on the amp dialed up so that the amp by itself was more gritty than I want even without the pedal. Not informative for my particular needs.

I agree! they sound like a real light electric guitar THEN it goes to WAY too much overdrive.This probably something I won't spend a lot on since it is mostly for home use.