F@&king Overdrives ARGH (Sorted!)

jonnygreentrees · February 2017

Another vote for the Timmy. The Satellite doesn't have the clipping toggle, the middle, least compressed, setting is where the Timmy shines IMHO

Teetonetal · February 2017

Jonathanthomas83 said:

Teetonetal said:

In some ways I wish I'd never spent more than £100 on a pedal - I hate to think how much money I've wasted chasing stuff that Boss - MXR etc do perfect well.

Indeed, if you find the tone you're after. If you're still searching and have exhausted all sub-£100 options, then it may be time to save a few more pennies and possibly up the budget.

The sad fact is, sometimes it costs money to find your tone. I'm a firm believer in "you get what you pay for".

That is different to "that circuit could be built for half the price". That applies to a lot of things. Sometimes we pay a premium for a name.

Taking my Piod WYW2 as an example, I'm yet to find any Boss pedal that gets the sheer wall of distortion that pedal gives me. I'd be over the moon to be proven wrong on that one.

Sadly with boutique pedals I think that is very often not true.... you are often getting something less well made and robust than the boss equivalent - that said there are certainly some cracking pedals out there and if you have the cash to try them out then why not

it is after all lots of fun!

gusman2x · February 2017

In a similar position, but with different needs. My TS9 doesn't give me quite enough crunch, and a RAT gives a little too much, or sounds too much like the distortion it is.

Tonight I will be trying out my new Smallsound/Bigsound Mini F**k overdrive. Played around at home, and it's super tweakable. My only worry is that it might be a bit too "fuzzy"

I shall report back tomorrow.

Heartfeltdawn · February 2017

colourofsound said:

Everytime I think I might have found the one I need, it's not right. In some way.

I'm looking for an overdrive to stack with my Snouse Bluesbreaker clone.

The EQD Dunes was so close - but there was either too much bass or not enough.

a TS is (predictably) almost perfect - but too much mid-hump.

I now have a DOD Looking Glass which fucking ace but sounds really glassy and mid scooped to me.

i don't want to stack for solos - i want a MOAR pedal for chorus sections. Heavier, dynamic chords. But not like super-heavy. Like At the Drive in or Mars Volta at their heaviest.

I want the clipping options of the Dunes

the EQ of the looking Glass

the smoothness of a TS.

Does such a pedal exist? Am I doomed to failure?

Are you putting this stacking overdrive before or after the Snouse? I'm assuming afterwards as original BBs don't exactly have much headroom for big things coming before them.

I would recommend the Tim as it has the EQ control to overcome the mid and bass problems of other overdrives you mention and it has a serious amount of headroom. Smooth? Yes. Also consider the Menatone Red Snapper.

colourofsound · February 2017

@Heartfeltdawn Before, actually. It's the BB Overdrive 2 which is designed to be driven by it's own internal boost as well as by anything else. I do try both ways around though; for example the Looking Glass seems much happier after, but Tubescreamers seem happier before.

BBBlues · February 2017

Tim won't be under £100. Also nothing like a TS type pedal. I'd say from what you've been saying a Rockett Blue Note is worth a look. Can go from a flat-ish EQ response through to quite mid pushed. Decent stacker, and not fussed where it goes in the chain.

ThePrettyDamned · February 2017

Do you 'need' clipping options? It sounds like you want it to do one thing, well. Clipping options will only complicate things and convince you it's not any cop.

In any case, it sounds like a Boss SD-1 may work, as it has a little more rasp up the top end compared to a tubescreamer and a slightly looser, fuzzier character that sounds about right. If the tubescreamer was about perfect but a bit too middy, you're still probably looking for a middy overdrive rather than a flat boost or a scooped one, so I'd start there.

Cheap to try!

colourofsound · February 2017

@ThePrettyDamned No I suppose I don't. Just really like them on the Dunes

Yes i think you're right about the middy overdrive, I just need it to be less pronounced/more controllable.

Cirrus · February 2017

gusman2x said:

In a similar position, but with different needs. My TS9 doesn't give me quite enough crunch, and a RAT gives a little too much, or sounds too much like the distortion it is.
Tonight I will be trying out my new Smallsound/Bigsound Mini F**k overdrive. Played around at home, and it's super tweakable. My only worry is that it might be a bit too "fuzzy"

The Mini Fuck Overdrive is one of those pedals that I wish I'd never sold, though I admit I slightly preferred the bigger one (which I also wish I'd never sold. Go figure) which was just down to personal preference/ all in my head. It does have a slighty fuzzy hair to it but use it in a band context - that just equates to a thicker tone, I found.

5redlights · February 2017

The digitech Bad Monkey is superb as a tube overdrive/boost, but doesn't sound like that's what you're looking for (try one though, it's awesome) and is fairly close to the TS.

Fender Matt raved about the Rowin distortion pedal -

http://www.dawsons.co.uk/rowin-lef-301b-distortion-b-guitar-effects-pedal?gclid=CPWHhqGylNICFW637QodrFEGdg

You can get then super cheap direct from china on ebay. Same for the Eno Myomorphia rat clones. I just picked one up and you'd have a hard time justifying the extra cash for a proper Rat.

Cirrus · February 2017

@colourofsound you said in your OP something about "heavier, dynamic chords".

And I immediately thought "You want amp overdrive then".

Which might seem harsh on pedals. And let me be clear, I like pedals. But, Because of the nature of the signal chain and the various tone shaping stages of a guitar amp, it's not always easy to get a dynamic overdriven chord signal into the front end of an amp and have those qualities make it through to the speakers - usually the amp fucks it up somewhere along the line with some combination of IM distortion, harmonics on harmonics, and compression.

So you have a couple of choices as I see it. Either get an amp with lots of clean headroom at all stages and a pedal that gives you dynamic overdrive with some girth (which of course has knock on effects on all your other sounds), so something like an amp-in a box; One of the Bogner.Mesa/ Tech21 type pedals, maybe something like the Zvex Distortron which I found quite thick and dynamic...

...or you search for that magic pairing of a pedal that somehow delivers a signal to the front of your amp (that you otherwise like the sound of) that your amp somehow mangles into a tone you perceive as dynamic/ heavier. This involves trial and error and in my experience is almost impossible to predict in advance - because it's harder to know in advance which random assortment of clipping diodes and IC chips is going to mangle your tone in a particular way that means the way you play guitar comes out of your amp of choice sounding the way you want it to.

It might be a Bognor Red. Or it might be a Danelectro Daddy-O. I'm not kidding about that last one - I found at one stage with an amp I had (Vox Nighttrain) that the Daddy-O, all £20 of it, beat a whole host of much better regarded and more expensive pedals from OD-3s to OCDs with that particular amp. But with my AC30, the Daddy-O sounded like fried jobbies.

I don't know exactly what my point is or how helpful I'm being. I suppose my suggestion is, try all kinds of random stuff and eventually something will click for your playing, taste and rig.

colourofsound · February 2017

@Cirrus Yeah, I hear you. That's the plan. I guess it's just quite a frustrating process. Also sometimes my rig will sound different from day to day haha, so many things effect how it sounds, including what you've been listening to and how loud, whether you have a head cold and so on.

I'm learning very quickly that Youtube video mean absolutely jack shit too. Why even bother watching demos? Even demoing pedals in the shop is useless - I demo'd a Looking Glass at PMT in Manchester, with a Tele and the amp I have at home - sounded ace. At home, it still sounds ace, but I'm picking up parts of the sound I don't like.

There's a pedal rental company in the US that mails you pedals and you have a subscription. Wish we had that over here!

One thing I have learnt is that FET based drives are definitely not what I'm after. They have a very glassy top end which I'm not a huge fan of. The only FET drive i've not experienced this on is the MOSFET clipping selection on the Dunes.

FET makes lowend quite fizzy as well. The Looking Glass is a bit like that. People say FET drives are very amp like; but they don't sound like any amp I've ever heard!

Heartfeltdawn · February 2017

BBBlues said:

Tim won't be under £100. Also nothing like a TS type pedal. I'd say from what you've been saying a Rockett Blue Note is worth a look. Can go from a flat-ish EQ response through to quite mid pushed. Decent stacker, and not fussed where it goes in the chain.

Nope, not under £100 but the OP requested something with the smoothness of a TS pedal, not specifically a TS pedal.

timhulio · February 2017

If you've not tried an SD-1, I recommend that too.

A bit off the beaten track, but I love a Harmonic Percolator dailled-back as an overdrive. A bit more grit and character than a Klon(e) or TS.

colourofsound · February 2017

Mojohand Rook looks worth a look. Would also like to try a proper Mad Professor Little Green Wonder; I had a clone and it was far too dark.

robinbowes · February 2017

Perhaps a Liquid Sunshine? Or a Klon(e) of some flavour - Tumnus is good.

builttospill · February 2017

Just had a blast of my now fixed old Rat 2 and the OD settings are bloody glorious! totally convinced that this and the Hotcake is all I need... for now!