Interesting overdrive recommendations?

kelvinburn

Not after a tubescreamer or any of that transparent nonsense.

Current faves are Zinky True Grit, EHX Double Muff and DBA Interstellar Overdriver.

The only thing I have on the audition list so far is the Minifooger. Anyone have any suggestions for a gritty, slightly fuzzy overdrive for some alt rock goodness?

Cheers

Kelvin

ThePrettyDamned

The germanium 4 muff is pretty nifty, the overdrive is fairly clean with low output pickups but can push an amp as most other boosts would. PGS have a demo

Or this http://thefretboard.co.uk/discussion/16595/first-expensive-tubescreamer-that-justifies-cost/p1 it's a tubescreamer, but not as you know it

kelvinburn

I'd forgotten about the Palisades. Is there a UK release for it yet? I'm resigned to having to get a HoofReaper at some point.

ICBM

Frantone Brooklyn if you can find one.

The Double Muff is good but doesn't play nice with other pedals - definitely can't have anything in front of it.

Fazer

http://www.joespedals.com/acatalog/smallsound_bigsound_Fuck_Overdrive.html
http://www.joespedals.com/acatalog/smallsound_bigsound_Mini.html

Johnnyseven

I really liked the Way Huge Red Llama clone I once had.

notonlybutalso

bigfoot engineering king fuzz, thunderpup or if you want something super wild the octo-puss prime

stickyfiddle

"gritty, slightly fuzzy overdrive"

You've just described the Crowther Hotcake perfectly

monquixote

Liquid Sunshine?

The Hot Cake gets progressively nastier and weirder as you turn the gain up.

citizen68

Skreddy Screwdriver - can get fuzzy with higher settings on the gain & input gain - loosely based on fuzz face I believe..

monquixote

kelvinburn said:

I'd forgotten about the Palisades. Is there a UK release for it yet? I'm resigned to having to get a HoofReaper at some point.

But the Palisades is a Tubescreamer with lots of options which is what you said you didn't want.

TimmyO

Plimsoul

OD-3

BD-2

MattG

fuzzy overdrive, sounds like a rat is in order!

kelvinburn

Thanks for the recommendations chaps. I've not tried any of these. A night of ebay trawling awaits.
Kelvin

ThePrettyDamned

Ooo boss os-2.

Or the newer boss od1-x or ds1-x?

mark_jwedge

For fuzzy, gritty overdrive definitely check out the moonphase moon driver

ICBM

ThePrettyDamned said:

Ooo boss os-2.

Nah, that's overdrive/distortion - not fuzzy or gritty.

I have an odd story about those. Years ago I bought one from the bargain bin at a large shop for a tenner - it looked like it had been run over by a tank and the switch didn't work, but I guessed it would be fixable. It was… I used it for a couple of years and it always sounded great - very full and open-sounding, quite amplike. It was actually the pedal which made me realise I prefered 'distortion' to 'overdrive' since my favourite sounds were all to the Dist side of the dial.

Then I got a valve amp with an overdrive channel, and thought I didn't need the pedal, so I sold it. But soon I missed it, so I went and bought another one - new, since I knew I liked it already. I never even tried it in the shop. Mistake… it didn't sound like my old one. Since then I've bought about three or four more, and they all sound the same, not like the old one - too smooth and boxy, or too hollow and buzzy, or both at the same time.

So was the first one an "early" version? They don't appear to have ever been different, there doesn't seem to have been a 'Made In Japan' version or anything (there was no label on the old one though, so I can't tell for sure). Or was it broken in some other way that I didn't realise? Or modded? I'll never know now...

ThePrettyDamned

Oh man, great story though!

It's an odd one, I quite like it. I put it full distortion then back it into OD a little bit until it's a bit clearer sounding. It is a little boxy sounding, but not like a tubescreamer can be.

The others I've not tried - but they sound really interesting. A digital drive pedal!

Kebabkid

Original Hermida Zendrive is pretty versatile and marries up well wih both higher and lower gain pedals..

In retrospect, I really liked the Way Huge Pork Loin for low gain stuff over and above the Liquid Sunshine V.3 and Xotic RC Boost - it does a nice fuzz approximation too and very pedal friendly. Why did I let it go? Because it was bigger than your average pedal.

ICBM

ThePrettyDamned said:

Oh man, great story though!

It's an odd one, I quite like it. I put it full distortion then back it into OD a little bit until it's a bit clearer sounding. It is a little boxy sounding, but not like a tubescreamer can be.

I used to set mine with all the knobs at half past one, so if yours doesn't sound like Neil Young like that then it's not like my old one .

ThePrettyDamned said:

The others I've not tried - but they sound really interesting. A digital drive pedal!

Hmmm… I like the idea of digital distortion that doesn't sound like analogue distortion, but I'm not convinced of the point otherwise. It's very rare to find any that sounds as good either. (Although I'll make an honourable exception for the 'Natural Overdrive' setting on the ME-50, which is close.)

ThePrettyDamned

ICBM said:

ThePrettyDamned said:

Oh man, great story though!

It's an odd one, I quite like it. I put it full distortion then back it into OD a little bit until it's a bit clearer sounding. It is a little boxy sounding, but not like a tubescreamer can be.

I used to set mine with all the knobs at half past one, so if yours doesn't sound like Neil Young like that then it's not like my old one .

ThePrettyDamned said:

The others I've not tried - but they sound really interesting. A digital drive pedal!

Hmmm… I like the idea of digital distortion that doesn't sound like analogue distortion, but I'm not convinced of the point otherwise. It's very rare to find any that sounds as good either. (Although I'll make an honourable exception for the 'Natural Overdrive' setting on the ME-50, which is close.)

Definitely not a Neil Young sound.  Actually, it's sort of... Tame in comparison (though most stuff is).  It's what I used to use for playing songs like Muscle Museum, where the chorus would have massive distorted bass, fuzzy guitar chords and clean arpeggios - a close approximation (of sorts) was the OS-2 and playing the arpeggios, OD enough for clarity, distorted enough for bigness and fuzziness.

The Boss Adaptive Distortion is interesting enough - and doesn't sound analog to me (or rather, doesn't need to).  Never used an ME-50 but I've used the boss Dyna Drive which I really liked, and is also digital (though it's probably based on the same tech in the Roland Cube which you're not a fan of). It's, as it states, very dynamic - gain up quite high can still be super clean or mega distorted, like an exaggeration of a valve amp.

Anyway, here is the adaptive distortion check the rhythm sound on the neck pickup after the big solo demo, it's pretty cool (to my ears).  And I know I have quite funny ideas of what sounds good and what doesn't...