Best drive pedals for under £40

stonevibe

I picked up a Guv'nor MK2 last year for a tenner and did the little mod where you clip the C22 and it really turned it into a useful drive pedal for me.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X3NV8risaTw&feature=player_embedded

ThePrettyDamned

I really like me Duncan Powergrid.  

It's really thick, quite tricky to dial in and doesn't like really old strings (most drives don't in my experience).  

It has TONS of volume and, even though it's not designed for boosting an amp, it can do this.  The gain sound on low settings are SHITE but work great into a gain channel.

But I prefer it as a preamp type pedal - it's fucking massive, thick, Zakk Wylde esque in a box drive.  At just under half gain! Beyond that, it's ridiculous.  

I take some bass out because it has an almost fuzz like quality to it - the bass end compresses a lot when you hit the strings hard, and it gets a bit loose and saggy sounding.  But, take these 'quirks' to the side and it's got a whole voice of it's own that has usurped the drive channel on my Bandit, which I also quite like. 

It's like a Marshall with a bit of fuzzyness.  And it likes being boosted with a tubescreamer to make it punchier and brighter for solos.  

That's EXACTLY what it sounds like in the room into a clean amp.  My clean channel is set quite scooped - bass max, treble at 7/10 and mids at 2-3/10, and powergrid is set with bass a wee bit below half, mids at 6/10 and treble at about 7/10.  

Edit: I wish every pedal demo had this format.

xSkarloey

Lucky me. The courier delivering my Amazon order works Bank Holidays so I get my pedal order a day earlier than expected.

So I am now a very happy owner of a Digitech Bad Monkey and a Screamin Blues.

Both superb at the price. I was going to get a Boss Blues Driver, but I understand the SB is nigh on the same. Very happy with it with the gain maxed out, which makes it sound to me like a tad smoother DS-1 type tone.

That said I suspect the BM will get more use over time just because I can imagine all sorts of uses for it.

Dave_Mc

^ Yeah I think the SB is a blues driver with a bass control. I've heard some mutterings that the digitech one is slightly harsher or that the boss one is slightly sweeter on the high end, but I haven't tried the two head to head. For between half and a third of the price, though, and with the extra handy bass control...

It's handy that it has a pretty decent range of drive on it, but I normally just use it as a transparentish boost as it has a fair bit of boost available on tap. I prefer my cheapo danelectro timmy clone, but the SB is close.

xSkarloey

It may be a little different but I never get chance to get to guitar shops to compare, so I took a punt on it for £23 online.

My two main drives before were the Daphon Sd-1 clone we've talked about before, and an old Boss Heavy Metal. The maxed out SB sits just about in the middle on the drive spectrum which was what I was after.

I was only going to buy that one but thought for the price I'd kick myself not getting a BM as well. What sealed it for me was finding out Gary Moore no less used one...

steamabacus

Try stacking the two - Bad Monkey > Screamin' Blues.

I have a Screamin' Blues on my portable pedalboard set light and crunchy and then have an MXR GT-OD (TS type) to boost and drive more for lead tones. The combination work really well together .

xSkarloey

Thanks for the idea.

Dave_Mc

Skarloey said:

It may be a little different but I never get chance to get to guitar shops to compare, so I took a punt on it for £23 online.

My two main drives before were the Daphon Sd-1 clone we've talked about before, and an old Boss Heavy Metal. The maxed out SB sits just about in the middle on the drive spectrum which was what I was after.

I was only going to buy that one but thought for the price I'd kick myself not getting a BM as well. What sealed it for me was finding out Gary Moore no less used one...

Yeah the daphon one is great ) I paid like £13 IIRC for mine (new) and it's one of my favourite ODs )

I ended up getting the digitech ones as I had a musicstore credit note and figured I'd better get something just in case they went bust or something in the current economic climate... Didn't (and still don't ) ) really need them, but I was kind of itching to try them too since they're talked about quite a bit as being good bang for the buck (and they are IMO).

Funnily enough, from my limited trying, I didn't think the screamin blues liked being boosted. It was fine the other way round, though (i.e. SB into the bad monkey or daphon).

Oh and yeah the SB gets a fair amount of gain when the gain is turned up but gets a decent cleanish/transparentish boost as well. Quite nice in that respect, can cover a fair amount of stuff.

stonevibe

I just ordered a Screamin' Blues as they are £23 on Amazon, so worth a punt.

ThePrettyDamned

stonevibe said:

I just ordered a Screamin' Blues as they are £23 on Amazon, so worth a punt.

Silly cheap, for something that's probably as well built as a boss - it'd do for a backup if nothing else!

I like the bad monkey, if you dressed it up and gave it a mechanical switch, you could sell it as a boutique circuit.

samzadgan

I just bought a second hand DOD Classic Tube for under 40, and that is a really nice Drive pedal

GuyBoden

Axe_meister said:

Or build your own.
Just built the pedal parts zendrive clone.
Oh what a sound.

Yes I agree, I built a Zendrive clone for £16, it's a great sounding pedal.
DIY ZENDRIVE

GuyBoden

GuyBoden

GuyBoden

stonevibe

Necro thread.

But have to just say I am still loving my Caline Orange Burst!

Awesome drive / boost for about £20.

DesVegas

My Eno OCD clone has a great sound and a small footprint for about £25

Voxman

ThePrettyDamned;122189" said:

Okay, I'll be slaughtered for this

But behringer. Seriously, they have every flavour of drive for about 20-40 quid. They're probably not that reliable, but for 20 quid, it's more about 'sound seeking' than it is 'performance quality' and I think that justifies their inclusion.

Not by me you won't. I've had my Behringer TO800 Vintage Tube Overdrive on my board for around 5 yrs now. It uses the same diodes as the Ibanez TS808 is quiet, has been totally reliable and sounds superb. I've run it side by side with a Bad Monkey and to my ears it sounds better. Side by side with a stock TS808 and you'd struggle to hear the difference.

Cost around £20 new and mine came with a free adapter for the side mains connector for easy pedalboard connection, courtessy of EBay store seller.

I also have the Behringer EQ700 bought 6+ years ago and its performed perfectly and sounds exactly like my Boss GE7.

meltedbuzzbox

@stonevibe have you tried a Nobels ODR-1 ?

stonevibe

meltedbuzzbox said:

@stonevibe have you tried a Nobels ODR-1 ?

No