Nerd content alert: What's your favourite JFET overdrive?

stylesforfree · July 26

I love JFET overdrives, the crunchy munchy, chewy, juicy, loosey amp in a box raunchy stomping overdrives.

Over the past 2 years I seem to gravitate to the sounds of JFET overdrives. I didn't realise they were what I preferred until I realised that I have 8 on my board, they're all the type of pedals that utilise JFET's to emulate tubes/valves.

I've gone through a fair few pedals that use different types of components to make up the circuit and I have (unknowingly) shied away from diode and IC based overdrives.

I've previously gone through tube screamers, klon clones, 250's, Timmy's etc...none of them lasted very long.

I think Lumpy's tone shop and Chase bliss brothers are my favourites, both incredible pedals. Lumpy's tone shop does the old Supro/Valco thing, small blown out combo vintage amp. Brothers has a nice tweedy overdrive setting that gets cruncy and raunchy, plus it can be stacked using the IC side.

So what JFET overdrives are you digging?

GoFish · July 26

Benson Preamp for me. Liquid Sunshine is no slouch either.

Sporky · July 26

I loved my Liquid Sunshine.

Revolutions · July 26

A while back I did some digging as to what a JFET pedal is. Came across this which has different MOSFET & JFET pedals. Still don’t really know if I’m expecting a different sonic signature for one group over the other, as it were.

https://www.thegearpage.net/board/index.php?threads/jfet-mosfet-pedals-list.2156292/

I’m a big fan of the 29 pedals aesthetic

stickyfiddle · July 26

GoFish said:

Benson Preamp for me. Liquid Sunshine is no slouch either.

I didn't know it had JFETs in it but the Benson is ace. LS also ace.

I really like the Fulltone GT500 I had for a while too. I wouldn't want to give him any more money at this point but that one's only available used so have at it

Blackstone Mosfet OD is obviously not JFET, but is a brilliant little box. As is the DOD Looking Glass, which is also Mosfet based iirc

monquixote · July 26

Another vote for the Liquid Sunshine!

dangriffiths · July 26

Smallsound/Bigsound Mini

stylesforfree · July 26

dangriffiths said:

Smallsound/Bigsound Mini

Missed the boat on this one.

GoFish said:

Benson Preamp for me. Liquid Sunshine is no slouch either.

Eagerly waiting for a cheap benson to pop up! It's been on my radar for about 6 months.

One pedal I forgot to mention that I have been using quite a lot recently is the MK1 Walrus 385, it's based on a bell and howell projector amp, quite an interesting pedal with plenty of sag at higher gain and works equally as well to add sparkle and bloom at medium gain.

GoFish · July 26

stickyfiddle said:

GoFish said:

Benson Preamp for me. Liquid Sunshine is no slouch either.

I didn't know it had JFETs in it but the Benson is ace. LS also ace.

I really like the Fulltone GT500 I had for a while too. I wouldn't want to give him any more money at this point but that one's only available used so have at it

Blackstone Mosfet OD is obviously not JFET, but is a brilliant little box. As is the DOD Looking Glass, which is also Mosfet based iirc

I do like the Zvex Distortron which is also Mosfet, I think. Adds a JTM-esque flavour to any amp.

I'm keen to try the Looking Glass or, better still, the Shoe Saviour Machine and Spiral Electric Red when I can.

I also missed the boat on the Mini but console myself with the thought that it has been caught up by the ones listed above.

I'll add the Mk1 385 to my list. I've not tried any Walrus yet and this seems like a good place to start.

Has ayone tried the EHXtortion?

Keefy · July 26

Origin Effects RevivalDrive

Alex2678 · July 26

I’ve not found one I liked, I’ve always found the decay crackly

monquixote · July 26

GoFish said:

stickyfiddle said:

GoFish said:

Benson Preamp for me. Liquid Sunshine is no slouch either.

I didn't know it had JFETs in it but the Benson is ace. LS also ace.

I really like the Fulltone GT500 I had for a while too. I wouldn't want to give him any more money at this point but that one's only available used so have at it

Blackstone Mosfet OD is obviously not JFET, but is a brilliant little box. As is the DOD Looking Glass, which is also Mosfet based iirc

I do like the Zvex Distortron which is also Mosfet, I think. Adds a JTM-esque flavour to any amp.

I'm keen to try the Looking Glass or, better still, the Shoe Saviour Machine and Spiral Electric Red when I can.

I also missed the boat on the Mini but console myself with the thought that it has been caught up by the ones listed above.

I'll add the Mk1 385 to my list. I've not tried any Walrus yet and this seems like a good place to start.

Has ayone tried the EHXtortion?

I did in a shop and didn't like it much.

stylesforfree · July 26

Alex2678 said:

I’ve not found one I liked, I’ve always found the decay crackly

Get back in the corner and be quiet!

In all seriousness though, I can understand that some JFET overdrives have some weird overtones in the decay, I found that the Supro overdrive was the worst culprit for this depending on my amp and guitar.

Most of the bearfoot overdrives are pretty smooth with the decaying overdriven tone. I find that pedals that accept 18V are less prone to that crackly fizzling fuzz too.

UnclePsychosis · 11:55AM

I genuinely don't know which drives are MOSFET, which are JFET, or which are BOBAFET. Would be interesting to see where my tastes lie.

Anyone got a list? I imagine some nerd somewhere has made one.

GoFish · 1:11PM

I think there's a link to aa Gear Page list further up this post.

Alex2678 · 1:15PM

stylesforfree said:

Alex2678 said:

I’ve not found one I liked, I’ve always found the decay crackly

Get back in the corner and be quiet!

In all seriousness though, I can understand that some JFET overdrives have some weird overtones in the decay, I found that the Supro overdrive was the worst culprit for this depending on my amp and guitar.

Most of the bearfoot overdrives are pretty smooth with the decaying overdriven tone. I find that pedals that accept 18V are less prone to that crackly fizzling fuzz too.

That twin twelve clone of yours is my favourite I’ve tried, and that had a charge pump.

Howdy, Stranger!

Categories

In this Discussion

Become a Subscriber!

Nerd content alert: What's your favourite JFET overdrive?

Comments