Best drive pedals for under £40

longi · January 2014

ICBM;126943" said:
You cannot replace a chip with diodes. (Or not and expect the pedal to work, as Dave_Mc said!) Where did this particular bit of internet wisdom come from?

The chip does make a small difference, but ironically (since the people who tend to care about these things tend to be the ones who want to use their overdrive pedals as a "clean boost"), normally only when the gain is up high. "Better" chips also sound "worse" generally - the reason the JRC4558D sounds good is because it has poor frequency response and rolls off the top-end a bit.

Hah! I just made myself look an ass!!

I guess that'll be why Daphon use the 4558 chip then? I didn't see the chip in the SD-1 when it was apart and just assumed!.... Shoulda' know better!

ICBM · January 2014

Ha, sorry, that came across as a bit rude - but you know how it is with some of these internet wisdoms…

As far as I know all versions of the SD-1 use the 4558. There are some other Boss pedals which don't use the standard 'square' 8-pin Dual In Line IC though, in particular the DS-1 which uses a Single In Line type… for what reason I'm not sure.

These definitely make a difference too - I recently replaced a blown one with the wrong type as an experiment since I didn't have the right one to hand and I couldn't be bothered ordering one… it was pin-compatible, but sounded completely different, much more fuzzy and screechy - in an interesting way, so I left it! I had been given the pedal so it didn't really matter - DS-1s are so cheap that the original owner just went and bought another one. I gave it to a friend, he really likes it.

Travisthedog · January 2014

http://www.donnerdeal.com/the-newest-2013-nux-drive-force-effect-pedal-black.html?gclid=CLyvi4nf8bsCFeLHtAodukYA1Q

Nux drive force

£38 and every drive model known to man

Branshen · January 2014

I don't think of myself as a gear snob, and I don't mind digital effects. But drive is the one thing that I want to keep analog. Is anyone going to school me on digital drive?

Travisthedog · January 2014

The brief didn't say it couldn't be digital!!

Dave_Mc · January 2014

ICBM said:
The chip does make a small difference, but ironically (since the people who tend to care about these things tend to be the ones who want to use their overdrive pedals as a "clean boost"), normally only when the gain is up high. "Better" chips also sound "worse" generally - the reason the JRC4558D sounds good is because it has poor frequency response and rolls off the top-end a bit.

Yeah before my Biyang OD died I swapped chips in it (it had a socket and was a glorified tubescreamer, far as i'm aware) and they did make a bit of difference- definitely noticeable, but they didn't change it into a different pedal, either.

Most guitar stuff seems to be like that (the things which sound best are actually technically worse)

)

ICBM said:

Ha, sorry, that came across as a bit rude - but you know how it is with some of these internet wisdoms…

As far as I know all versions of the SD-1 use the 4558. There are some other Boss pedals which don't use the standard 'square' 8-pin Dual In Line IC though, in particular the DS-1 which uses a Single In Line type… for what reason I'm not sure.

Yeah same here, I didn't mean to be rude, I just thought it was funny.

That's a good point about the SD1, now you mention it I remember seeing on the schematic that it used a 4558 too. Woops

)

stonevibe · April 2014

Just got me a Caline 'Orange Burst' which cost me £20 new from Ebay.

Sounds pretty sweet and is very useable for the money.

xSkarloey · April 2014

Has anyone else got any of the Caline drives? The Blue Sky is meant to be a Timmy clone and there's the Cacti pedal which seems based on the Fulldrive.

Dave_Mc · April 2014

^ Nope. I actually noticed the cacti the other day when i was fiddling about online giving myself GAS

)

I wonder if the blue sky is actually a timmy clone- by that I mean, has anyone actually reverse-engineered it or are they just going by the knobs? I only ask because the orange burst stonevibe mentioned is (far as I'm aware) an xotic BB clone, so that being the case the blue sky could easily be an RC or AC boost clone rather than a timmy clone, as the knobs are the same- and if my mooer pure boost (RC clone) and dano timmy clones are anything to go by, they sound very close indeed to each other, you could easily confuse one for the other if you hadn't reversed the circuit to know for sure.

Obviously if someone has actually reversed it and found it to be a timmy clone that's different- just a lot of the time you see things being claimed to be clones with little actual evidence behind the claims and they often turn out to be clones of something else instead.

)

DrJazzTap · April 2014

This is a great thread. Will keep an eye on it, looking for a small drive pedal (ideally xotic sl sized).

hugbot · April 2014

I plugged in my joyo crunch the other day and liked it so much I took it to the gig.

EdGrip · April 2014

I've got the green Joyo one, their Tubescreamer-without-the-buffer clone. Vintage Overdrive, I think?

I paid £16 for it on here, and worth every penny it was too. It sounds like a TubeScreamer, which is a cool thing sometimes. It doesn't sound as good as a Muff. Nothing sounds as good as a Muff.

Just buy a Muff.

d8m · April 2014

meltedbuzzbox · April 2014

monquixote said:

Exactly like that one and very good it is too.

I can't really justify it when I have a shredmaster.

I have both as well.

The shredmaster sits on a shelf now. It lacks the hooligan factor of the shredmaster.

I know it doesnt fit in with "new pedal under £40" but used they are £15, you cant go wrong

As documented the joyo ocd clone isnt bad at all for the price.

stonevibe · April 2014

I am currently trying out cheap drives

Recently (within the last 6 months) I've bought a Bad Monkey (2nd time I've owned one) a Joyo Ultimate Drive and the Caline Orange Burst.

All of them new cost me in the £20 region.

So got a lot of versatility for around £60 in total.

Still on the lookout for cool cheap drive pedals and so this thread is helping me with that.

MattG · April 2014

I'm going to throw in the little bear R.Attack RT2, metal casing, lm308 chip and does all 3 flavours of rat for under £20 brand new delivered from china!

only issues are its quite large, the battery clip is bloody stiff and to secure it to a pedalboard you have to remove the feet and battery compartment still ridiculous value for money

Annoyingly the nux delay pedals seem t have sky rocketed in price as mine cost me £17 and now they are between 40 and 80!

but if you aren't bothered about names you can get a klon,tube screamer,sweet honey,OCD and a rat for under £40 each these days putting together a cheap pedal board has never been easier or produced such high quality sounds

hugbot · April 2014

I never trusted the NUX just because with a digital chip I had such strong "you get what you pay for" suspicions, but most of the cheap pedals I've bought have turned out quite well, so I might give it a shot.

Exception: Behringer. I've owned two behringer pedals, both were so awful I gave them to friends, both friends seprately came back and said "wow this thing is a noisy POS huh?".

Joyos have a bit iffy casings but they dont sound cheap, behringers sound cheap.

57Deluxe · April 2014

JayGee said:

Danelectro Cool Cats.

There's a Transparent OD Mk 1 on my board (along with a Peach Fuzz and a Vibe) and I used to have a Distortion (the red one) on there which also makes a good drive if you keep the gain down and goes back on the board to substitute for the red channel of my Mesa 5:25 for "backline provided" gigs.

They're really good sounding pedals, not good for the price, just good sounding full stop.

I gather the other Drive (the silver one) isn't too shabby either but haven't tried one myself...

+1 - and get the silver DRIVE too for that squarer wave classic Marshall sound.. but the Transparent Drive is just delicious with all my amps...

Settings for Les Paul into a Super Reverb

http://i232.photobucket.com/albums/ee301/snotmale/Img_2852_zpsdf1b6844.jpg

Branshen · April 2014

The Dano TOD-1 is a great pedal. I got a v1 one from photek but moved it on because I was after something else. I wonder which member has it now..

smudge_lad · April 2014

TODV1 is a brilliant pedal, and even the V2 one is great for the price too!

I'm selling my V1 at the momemt though as I've got a Tim clone that I've been using more. I've A/B'd them and I can't hear any difference!

Guv'nor Mk2 is also a keeper, it can get VERY close to a lot of the channels on my JVM. Great pedal to have just in case I need to use a different amp at any time!

I've also got a Boss SD-2 Dual Overdrive - there's been a few listed on e-bay recently that have gone for arounf £40. These are great pedals, very versatile/compact

Joyo AC Tone - until I played the Wampler Ace Thirty, this was the best Vox In a Box I had tried! I think all the pedals from this range deserve a lot of praise, great tweakability as well as being able to connect them straight to a PA or a PC for direct recording (The Rocktonics range are exactly the same pedals too, I had both the AC versions and they were great!)

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Best drive pedals for under £40

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