Advice on an overdrive pedal?

notonlybutalso

Hi people, I need an overdrive pedal and i have decided to harness the mighty power of the forum to help me whittle down the frankly staggering amount of choice there is out there. 

So let me tell you what i am looking for vaguely: I am using an Orange TH30 head and matching cab so the tone is quite bassy already with no mid control to speak of, i already have a fuzz so i have my wild high gain tone covered so i need something low to mid gain range with a nice open dynamic response. It would be handy to have a couple of tonal options (i used to have an OCD and i liked the idea of a voicing switch just to give me more bang for my buck)

I am leaning towards the mark III liquid sunshine at the minute just to give you an idea of the area both tone and price-wise i am looking at. but i wouldn't mind some other suggestions from people, maybe there are a few out there i haven't even considered!

not_the_dj

notonlybutalso said:

 help me whittle down the frankly staggering amount of choice there is out there. 

Wait a while and this thread will soon be a list of each forum members favorite OD pedal, which in itself will be frankly staggering.

(I vote for the Timmy, or the Liquid Sunshine)

capo4th

You will need at least 4 overdrive pedals and 2 of those must have a hump toggle

Beexter

Maybe a bit left-field but I'd suggest a Colorsound Overdriver clone. I reckon the best one out at the moment is the Buffalo FX Power Booster.  Can add a ton of options tonally and can do nice low gain right up to loony-toon. Works great as a stand-alone or also as a tone shaping boost for other pedals as it has separate bass and treble controls The Throbak Overdrive Boost is also good but a lot more spendy.

Check out the You Tube Videos and thank me later.

dogload

Boss SD-1. 

Job done!

therose789

Walrus audio - Voyager or JHS - Superbolt 

mike_l

Boss SD-1

Bad monkey

MXR Distortion3

All are good, but all have different flavours. I recommend you try them all. By all I mean every single one, not just those listed above. Also different OD's work better with some amps than others.

ThePrettyDamned

I'm with Mike. They're so personal, go into a shop and try all if them out and see what you like.

My money would be on a bad monkey - it'll tighten up your amp, but equally can do nice od sounds by itself.

notonlybutalso

I agree, testing pedals out in the shop would be the ideal way of picking one, but unfortunately most places around here predominantly stock Boss and MXR, maybe with one or two other pedals from the like of TC Electronic. Not that i have anything against those companies but i like to go a little off the beaten track and try something different if i can. Also the other problem of not having my rig to try the pedals through as you say it's so personal and you can never really know in store exactly how they will work through your own personal setup.  

therose789 said:

Walrus audio - Voyager or JHS - Superbolt 

I hadn't considered the Voyager but listening to it i am very impressed, i had already been looking at JHS pedals namely the Moonshine but the Superbolt sounds damn good too, and they are all the same price, how the hell am i supposed to pick!?

RaymondLin

Some kind of 808 circuit<?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" />

 

A Timmy

 

Throw in a Klone of sorts

 

If you want a Superbolt, The Signal Rocks has a 25% off at the moment on all their JHS pedals.  Email the Stephan direct who is the owner and he'll send you an invoice for the pedal that you want.

 

 

ThePrettyDamned

Plenty of good UK buildery folk about - they'll build you something lovely, maybe even with a custom paint job

We have a couple on here, too - check the made in UK section.

Dave_Mc

Make sure you try it with your amp. As mike_l said, different ods work better with different amps.

ChrisMusic

It seems to me that it is fairly standard procedure round these parts to buy second hand from the classifieds, try them out and then sell on the ones which don't quite work for you.

If you buy and sell at the right price, and the O/D, or whatever, is popular enough, then you should be able to check them out with your gear at home for as long as you want, probably just for the cost of postage.

You probably want a fund to cover maybe 3 or 4 pedals, so you can compare and the keep some and sell the rest, and just keep the GAS going from there on.

Hope that helps,  it's just my perspective on this   

Fazer

fairfield circuitry barbershop
ss/bs mini

notonlybutalso

ChrisMusic said:

It seems to me that it is fairly standard procedure round these parts to buy second hand from the classifieds, try them out and then sell on the ones which don't quite work for you.

If you buy and sell at the right price, and the O/D, or whatever, is popular enough, then you should be able to check them out with your gear at home for as long as you want, probably just for the cost of postage.

I have done that many a time already and i still do, there is just nothing in the classifieds that i want at the moment, plus the site i order from usually, guitarfxdirect.com has a 7 day return policy so i can basically rent their pedals for a week for the cost of the return postage!

ICBM

Dave_Mc said:

Make sure you try it with your amp. As mike_l said, different ods work better with different amps.

Not only that, but which channel are you going to use it with? The two on that amp are so different they might as well be different amps, and will almost certainly work better with different types of pedal. (Although I haven't tried one with any.)

The clean channel is bassy and slightly scooped, so it will probably work best with a bass-cut, mid-boost overdrive - the classic Tube Screamer/Boss SD-1 family. The dirty channel is the opposite, middy, slightly muddy and over-compressed (in my opinion!) so it will probably work better with a more 'distortion' type pedal, possibly one with more than one EQ knob so you can compensate for the channel's lack of the same.

If you have to pick one which will work with both, I think I would have to go for a two-EQ overdrive with some control over the bass, like a Bad Monkey (cheap) or a Mesa Flux Drive (expensive), or anything in between.

notonlybutalso

ICBM said:

which channel are you going to use it with? The two on that amp are so different they might as well be different amps, and will almost certainly work better with different types of pedal. (Although I haven't tried one with any.)

The clean channel is bassy and slightly scooped, so it will probably work best with a bass-cut, mid-boost overdrive - the classic Tube Screamer/Boss SD-1 family. The dirty channel is the opposite, middy, slightly muddy and over-compressed (in my opinion!) so it will probably work better with a more 'distortion' type pedal, possibly one with more than one EQ knob so you can compensate for the channel's lack of the same.

If you have to pick one which will work with both, I think I would have to go for a two-EQ overdrive with some control over the bass, like a Bad Monkey (cheap) or a Mesa Flux Drive (expensive), or anything in between.

Agreed on all counts, i forgot to mention when i was listing off what i was looking for exactly, that this pedal will run exclusively into the clean channel, it wont be stacking through my drive channel or with any other drive pedals. You are bang on with your description of the clean channel, it is scooped but not overly so for me, but it is super bassy. Good for running a guitar with tight lows and slightly honky mids through which is exactly what i like anyway. The JHS Moonshine that i mentioned earlier is a modded tubescreamer and has the voicing switch which could make it ideal. On a different note can anyone tell me what "family" the liquid sunshine belongs to? tube screamer, plex, blues breaker etc etc etc etc.....etc

JohnPerry

This is all so subjective. With the caviat that all Kingsley overdrives are scientifically proven to be better than all other overdrives

Alnico

Don't overlook the TC Mojo Mojo. I have one and it is just stunning and full of sparkle and life. I also have the spark booster in the chain before it, set to be a transparent boost/overdrive, soul-foody type sound but if I run them together, it adds even more sparkle and gain to the Mojo and sounds glorious. Together they are among the best things I've ever bought for the guitar. £90 each but WELL worth it.

I also have a Boss Power Stack which is a different beast but is equally as impressive. It does everything from a Mild JMP, through the crunch of a JCM800 to full on high gain Mental-ness. Another £90 pedal but in it's own right, bloody amazing and again, to me it was well worth every penny.

It is a very personal thing but here's a suggestion. I know my Local PMT are excellent at letting you demo stuff and take all the time needed to make you feel comfortable with what you are looking at buying, NOT to just make a sale. I honestly can't see anyone at my local branch (Northampton) taking objection to me bringing my own amp down (Assuming they don't have the same amp on the shop floor, which PMT probably will anyway) and plugging the considered pedals in to try them out through your own amp / model.

Just my thoughts but i hope they help.

ThePrettyDamned

JohnPerry said:

This is all so subjective. With the caviat that all Kingsley overdrives are scientifically proven to be better than all other overdrives

I keep my eyes open because I would love to try one, he has a fairly high gain one if I understand correctly.

Do they work direct to desk/as a recording preamp?  

They might seem expensive, but it sounds like it's an amp front end in a box.  Very, very cool.

noisepolluter

notonlybutalso said:

Hi people, I need an overdrive pedal and i have decided to harness the mighty power of the forum to help me whittle down the frankly staggering amount of choice there is out there. 

So let me tell you what i am looking for vaguely: I am using an Orange TH30 head and matching cab so the tone is quite bassy already with no mid control to speak of, i already have a fuzz so i have my wild high gain tone covered so i need something low to mid gain range with a nice open dynamic response. It would be handy to have a couple of tonal options (i used to have an OCD and i liked the idea of a voicing switch just to give me more bang for my buck)

I am leaning towards the mark III liquid sunshine at the minute just to give you an idea of the area both tone and price-wise i am looking at. but i wouldn't mind some other suggestions from people, maybe there are a few out there i haven't even considered!

A further recommendation for Liquid Sunshine MKIII here - for fender amps I tend to have the presence boost switched off, but YMMV. In any case, it does a really pleasing mild-to-moderate crunch that has a nice balance of warmth and grit.