Advice on an overdrive pedal?

Lixarto

not_the_dj said:

Wait a while and this thread will soon be a list of each forum members favorite OD pedal

It's funny because it's true. The Usual Suspects have already mentioned the usual suspects

Wazmeister

I'll add my penneth worth...

Barber Gain Changer, Fairfield Barbershop (really really really miss mine - anyone got one ??), OCD, Dr Scientist The Elements, Cornish CC-1, any PTD...

Bearfoot Model H 3 knob, any Kingsley, Wampler Euphoria, Timmy

These are my favourites into a clean amp

MattG

it wasnt my favourite but everybody else loved the sound of a rook with my TH30 although frankly ive had ALOT of overdrives with it and they all sounded phenomenal

my favourite as ever is the valve sporker but an EP style boost brings the amp to life in a way that nothing else can and a tubescreamer really makes the drive channel perfect for metal or classic rock of any kind.

Into the clean channel a dirty little secret sounds brilliant and can do just about any marshall type sound but of them all its the OCD and valve sporker that have stayed and getting rid of my rook royale is my biggest regret...

MattG

oh and the lovepedal amp eleven sounds so good that i am still on the lookout for one!

bazxkr

Here's my favourite.... cost me $50 in the USA new. Boost too. Different to the usual I know.

meltedbuzzbox

this is a great transparent pedal. I personally would buy this over everything else

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ep001Ok8b1I

notonlybutalso

I knew what i was getting into when i posted this thread, looks like i have a LOT of homework to do! 

Thanks so far guys 

monquixote

The Liquid Sunshine is my all time favorite (and I've had a LOT of pedals) so you can't go far wrong there. 

If you are buying new it's also worth mentioning that the Hardwire OD is currently £46 at Amazon which is about the price they were going for secondhand a while ago. 

My approach is to buy stuff SH on the classifieds and flip it if you don't like it. That way you get to try lots of stuff for the cost of postage.

noisepolluter

monquixote said:

The Liquid Sunshine is my all time favorite (and I've had a LOT of pedals) so you can't go far wrong there. 

Have you tried the T-Rex Mudhoney? I *will* get the twin channel version at some point. 

I wouldn't mind trying the Barber Half Gainer again, truth be told. 

Dave_Mc

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.

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   

Yeah, if you can't try it with your amp in a shop that'd make more sense than trying it in a shop with a different amp.

Even new you can do that too and send it back if you don't like it (and likewise just be out postage). It's maybe a bit dickish to order 5 pedals with the intention of only keeping one, but I think it's fine to order one pedal (which you've done research on and genuinely hope to like and keep) and send it back under distance-selling regulations (or whatever those new ones are called) if it just doesn't work with your amp. That's what they're for, after all.

ICBM said:

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.

I haven't tried the amp, that was just general advice. ) Good points (as usual), though, that are definitely worth bearing in mind.

meltedbuzzbox said:

this is a great transparent pedal. I personally would buy this over everything else

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ep001Ok8b1I

I dunno if I'd call the Nobels that transparent- to my ears it sort of falls between a tubescreamer and a transparent overdrive like a timmy or similar. Nice pedal, though, and fairly versatile. It possibly (just for me, others may well disagree) fits into my "That sounds awesome but what the heck would I use it for?" category of guitar gear, though. )

kelvinburn

The upcoming EQD Pallisades looks really versatile or theres the new 2 button tubescreamer

JohnPerry

ThePrettyDamned;288248" said:

JohnPerry said:
by 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.

The jouster is a high-gainer. Jester in position 3 will get there too.

They're not DI boxes though.

For what they are I don't think they're expensive really. The workmanship (see inside any of his pedals.... incredible stuff) is sublime and the key to the tone is that they just don't sound like a pedal at all

ThePrettyDamned

meltedbuzzbox said:

this is a great transparent pedal. I personally would buy this over everything else

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ep001Ok8b1I

Wow, that sounds really good - I'll have to check it out.

notonlybutalso

Thanks for all the suggestions so far guys i am slowly homing in on what i want, @Wazmeister mentioned the barber gain changer and after a quick look at it it looks pretty versatile with its 3 way EQ switch and 2 way gain switch, anybody got any experience of them? what are they like?

therose789

@notonlybutalso If you go to guitar guitar they stock both of thoes brands you could A/B them see what works best for you! Personally, i love the moonshine as i love a good tube screamer!  

the Walrus Audio is fantastic too! 

notonlybutalso

therose789 said:

@notonlybutalso If you go to guitar guitar they stock both of thoes brands you could A/B them see what works best for you! Personally, i love the moonshine as i love a good tube screamer!  

the Walrus Audio is fantastic too! 

funnily enough thats exactly my plan for friday 

Dave_Mc

ThePrettyDamned said:

meltedbuzzbox said:

this is a great transparent pedal. I personally would buy this over everything else

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ep001Ok8b1I

Wow, that sounds really good - I'll have to check it out.

It's around £50 on Thomann. there's a cheaper, 3-band eq version which has a different circuit (but I was told by someone on another forum who's into electronics that it should be able to be dialled in to sound fairly similar). I still went with the green one. )

basslooser

I use JHS Morning Glory and it is best OD I ever had, but I like soft drives

dogload

Dave_Mc said:

Wow, that sounds really good - I'll have to check it out.

It's around £50 on Thomann. there's a cheaper, 3-band eq version which has a different circuit (but I was told by someone on another forum who's into electronics that it should be able to be dialled in to sound fairly similar). I still went with the green one. )

Try this!

Dave_Mc

Isn't it like about £2.50 dearer on Thomann, and new with a 3-year warranty? (That's a rhetorical question ) )

Ok, I suppose to be fair your CC will rip you a few percent on the exchange rate, and if that's all you're buying Thomann will charge 10 euros postage... but still.