What is your favorite Overdrive pedal?

[Robert]

Ibanez TS9, Barber Direct Drive, Fulldrive 2, Cool Cat Drive, etc?

My pick is Duhvoodooman's Zonkin' Yellow Screamer. :AOK:

It's the yellow babe here below.

 

[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.

 

[tunghaichuan]

My favorite:

 

[schenkadere]

Digitech Hardwire Tube Overdrive...this was a great find. I also like the EPB SRB 808 Plus.

 

[sumitomo]

I have just a few pedals but this pickup booster is great for OD.Sumi

 

[ZMAN]

Fulldrive II, and OCD. I use then separately and in tandem. It depends on what I am looking for. NO noise and true bypass, built like a tank.

 

[markb]

(Currently) my favourites are the Cool Cat Drive (I've sold the TOD) and a stock Boss SD-1. They stack really well using the CC first in front of a cleanish amp as a "tweedifier" and the SD-1 to add midrange and gain for the now legendary screaming solos .

 

[Kazz]

Well I am new to this bus.....so it has to be the Bad Monkey.....but I have serious ambitions for one of those DVM ZYS pedals....

 

[Spudman]

I go back and forth between TOD and Bad Monkey. If I gig with the TOD I'll probably be able to make up my mind then but I haven't yet.

 

[Tone2TheBone]

Hands down it's the Zonkin' Yellow Screamer. It's a TS-808 blessed by the gods and given more power and lucious tone.

 

[Suhnton]

Seeing as I only have 1 overdrive pedal it would be THAT one. It's a TS-808 clone that I modded to Bob Keeley specs and added a red LED clipping circuit as well. If I had known earlier, I probably would have done a Landgraff mod on it, they sound really sweet. I haven't actually used it in about 6 months, I wonder if it still works

 

[R.B. Huckleberry]

Fulltone OCD covers my overdrive and distortion needs nicely.

 

[duhvoodooman]

....I haven't actually used it in about 6 months, I wonder if it still works

Hmmm, I would think that would be an automatic disqualification from "favorite OD pedal" status!

Just a comment on the much ballyhooed Landgraff mod: This overhyped mod, based on an incredibly overpriced "boo-teek" pedal, is quite simple and really does just two things--adds switchable asymmetric silicon/LED clipping and punches the available maximum gain up by a factor of about 8.5. The rest of the component changes basically just compensate for the gain boost circuit changes, so that you don't lose all your bass and the low-gain end of the drive control. Seriously, you could take an off-the-shelf TS-9 and about $7 worth of parts and do this mod yourself, if you know what to change. How anybody can sell such a modestly modified TS clone for $400--handmade or not--is just astonishing to me. No argument from me that the pedal sounds good and is of excellent build quality; I just find the pricing ridiculous. But if people are willing to pay that, I guess you can't blame them for pricing it that high. :thwap:

I have two favorite overdrives: the aforementioned ZYS (though the new BYOC Overdrive 2 gives you exactly the same circuit & tone, minus a couple of the switchable options I include on the ZYS), and the Boss Blues Driver BD2 with the Allums "H2O Plus" mod. The former is the best & most flexible TS-type OD I've heard, and the latter is the best "transparent" OD I've played through. I've never played through a Fulltone OCD, but have heard uniformly positive things about them.

 

[Disraeli]

Fulltone OCD or Ibanez Tubescreamer TS9. Both are just fantastic.

 

[sunvalleylaw]

Were there any clips ever posted of the BYOC OD 2 posted, built like Dreadman asked (TS808 specs)? I tried to keep an eye out, but did not see any.

 

[duhvoodooman]

Were there any clips ever posted of the BYOC OD 2 posted, built like Dreadman asked (TS808 specs)? I tried to keep an eye out, but did not see any.

Not that I've seen. I've only built one of those, and Mudcat has it... oke:

 

[Jimi75]

FULLTONE OCD

I have tested so many od pedals and I was looking for that uncoloured sound that is perfectly controlable with the guitars volume poti. No pedal came close to my idea until I found the OCD was perfect.

The OCD is such a versatile pedal, it delivers transparent overdrive, it gives your cleans that little extra to make them sound great, the OCD also delivers great distortion sounds, not modern metal sounds, but very very creamy classic sounds, plus you have two modes among which you can chose, which is a great feature.

I always wished to have "total control" with the guitar's volume poti and the OCD offered that to me better than any other pedal I have ever played.

:AOK:

 

[Gutmann]

Paul Crowther's Double Hot Cake - the best overdrive i've ever heard.

I set pedal A to a smooth singin' overdrive, B is set to a sparkling, slightly driven cleansound and A into B gives a cutting leadsound.

I like the OCD but prefer it for more distorted sounds à la Foo Fighters.

 

[pes_laul]

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?)

 

[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! :AOK :AOK

 

[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 :french

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