I'm looking for a new overdrive pedal. I have the Boss DS-1 and lately it's just too much fuzz. I want something that keeps my original tone but gives me a boost, maybe a little sustain, and, of course, some edge.

I'm looking at:

Boss Blues Drive
Ibanez TS808
Maxon OD808

What's your favorite? Any others?

If you want something that keeps your original tone then you have to preferably go for a preamplifier instead of a typical distortion pedal (there are preamplifier type of distortion pedals available as well, but you could first experiment even with looping the preamplifiers on a typical mixer to give you some idea). Maybe they won't give you the "edge" you're looking for, but usually the ones with edge colour the tone considerably anyway (i.e. ProCo Rat, Big Muffs etc.).

There are way too many products out there to be able to recommend anything directly. Some sound like garbage with some amplifier set-ups, some work with others. Then there's a whole bunch of those that just really don't work with anything.

To partly quote my own post from a while back:



I admit, I'm addicted to buying distortion pedals. So far I've owned (and later sold):
- Boss DS-1 (3)
- Boss DS-2
- Boss BD
- Boss Fuzz
- Dunlop Hendrix fuzz
- Dallas Arbiter Fuzz Face
- Ibanez TS-10
- Ibanez TS-9 reissue
- Ibanez tubescreamer soundtank
- Ibanez fuzz wah

And now, finally, I've got a ProCo Rat. Just like anyone from Scofield and Frisell to Jeff Beck, Jeff Golub and Dave Gilmour. No loss of lows, no weird mods necessary, built like a tank, true bypass and capable of a zillion sounds from warm crunch to screaming maniac. I love it!
The Rat really is the ultimate od/dist pedal for me. If you know how to tweak it (it's got a filter rather than your average tone knob) it will travel with you through all your tonal obsessions from dirty fuzz to subtle tubelike overdrive. It's not expensive and one battery lasts for ages. There really is no contest.

The RAT definitely colours the sound, though. And it doesn't really do "overdrive" like a preamplifier does. There exists also a whole bunch of people who strongly dislike the pedal, as much as there are those who love it.

Well, if i turn down the distortion knob on a Rat, I hear something very much like my clean tone. Whereas on a Tubescreamer, my lows are gone immediately and my mids are boosted. Turn up the distortion and I agree, it's a different sound.
A good trick if you want to stay close to your original tone is to use a compressor for sustain (say a nice MXR dynacomp) and just add a little bit of distortion/overdrive for that edge. If you have a nice tube amp, maybe a compresoor is all you need, since it will provide the boost that will make the tubes work harder.

EuroCinema said:

I'll look into the compressor option

I always thought the rat was huge distortion, but you're saying you can dial it way down, too? I can't do that with the Boss DS-1.

I've heard the tubescreamers are big on midrange.

How did you like the Bues Driver?
[Edited 3/27/07 11:31am]

novabrkr said:

I've thought about the pre-amp option, this would probably be good for recording in quiet environments, too.

im partial to the rat

NDRU said:

Yeah, it goes down further than the DS-1

I definitely liked the Blues Driver, it would probably be my second fav. Try them both!

I'm going to recommend the Danelectro Fab Distortion pedal, as it's easily the best value for money pedal that I've bought (only £19 brand new!). For that price, you can't go wrong.

Last night I went to a guitar shop, and of course they didn't have the ones I really wanted to try. But they're kind of a boutique shop and had some nice alternatives.

I tried out Voodoo Lab's Sparkle Drive. It's a nice overdrive, but it has one really cool extra feature. There's a knob that blends the clean signal in with the dirty, so it's like using two amps at once. All clean and it's simply a signal boost. All dirty and it's just a traditional overdrive. But blending them creates the sparkle, a unique "clean dirty" or a "dirty clean" which I could probably get used to & leave it on all night--not necessarily a good thing..

I also tried the Route 66 which combines an overdrive and a compressor. It also sounded great. It's a very traditional sound, but less subtle. More of an obvious stomp on the pedal--nothing wrong with that, though.

I really liked both, but I'm leaning towards the Sparkle drive, as I tend to shy away from multi-effects.

Some more words to the wise (I love this subject!):
- if you can, test it with your own guitar and amp type. Especially if you're looking for subtle overdrive, the output level of your guitar is an important factor. The humbucker on my tele is so damn loud it drives many pedals past crunch into distortion even at zero gain settings.

- Also,don't be fooled by names.Just because a pedal has "tube" or "blues" in the name doesn't mean it sounds warm or tubelike. To my ears, a blues driver has a definite hard distortion edge to it, whereas some fuzz pedals like a classic fuzz face may actually sound pretty tubelike in some settings.Don't be afraid to use extremely low or high setting on knobs either. Scofield sets his rat to almost zero distortion and all highs filtered off. Trust your ears, not eyes.

- Whatever you get, make sure it's versatile. You KNOW you'll get into some other guitarist or style six months from now then what you're digging right now and your distortion pedal should at least be able to get you in the ballpark. Also, gigging with seperate distortions for different sounds is a nuisance. Travel light and tweak some knobs between songs, I say.

- Listen really good for loss of lows, painful jarring highs, exagerrated or scooped mids. How well does the EQ knob allow you to tailor your sound? Make sure the output level at low distortion settings is loud enough. You don't want to lose volume when you hit the switch (small differences in output get big and annoying at high volumes).

Okay, rant over.

Update. To refresh my memory, yesterday I compared a lot of the distortion/od effects in my swanky boss multi-effect. (I've a/b tested it with the stompboxes and the effects really sound the same.) I also compared them to amp modelling programs. My conclusions:
- Blues Driver - very, very nice sparkling sound but sounds more like great distortion than like a tube amp. A little bit of that transistor harshness giving a cool bite.
- MXR distortion + - Rough, harsh and lovely. Not for those seeking a warm blues tone primarily.
- Tube screamer - sweet, singing, a little nasal in the mids, annoying lack of lows. I don't know why people say it sounds like a tube amp, but it sure sounds nice with a tube amp (with a transistor amp this pedal doessn't really do it for me).
- Boss OD-1. If you want my opinion: like a TS but better. Less coloring, more balls. Slightly nasal but in a nicer way.
With my Rat pedal I was able to copy the exact sound of the Blues Driver (couldn't hear which was which) and get pretty friggin close to a lot of other tones, including the Fender twin emulation. It doesn't have that TS/OD midboost though.

- Check the virtual distortion grid at the boss site btw: http://www.bossus.com/int...e/vdg.html


Oh and these (from Boss/Fender) look cool but I haven't heard them yet. If they're based on Boss' COSM models of amps, they might very well be killer.

EuroCinema said:

I haven't seen these before - cool!

Has anyone tried the Klon Centaur? I've always wanted one but they're pretty pricey!

those boss/fender ones look really cool. But I thought the '65 didn't have gain?

I looked a bit more into the Sparkle Drive. Along with the unique clean mix option, they apparently use the same electronics as found in the original tube screamers, something I thought only Maxon had right now. Of course too much stock may be placed in that. Technology can improve.

The Rat is the way to go.....I've used them since 1985. They're built to last. I'm on my second one which was purchased in 1990.
[Edited 4/2/07 9:12am]

NDRU said:

Yeah, especially in the case of the ts. I mean: they sound pretty friggin'cool. But let's face it, the reason everyone's lusting after the exact circuitry of original tubescreamers is that Stevie Ray Vaughan got great tone with them. However, he also used fantastic guitars with great pickups, very heavy strings, wonderful amps (in the studio: tens of wonderful amps), recorded beautifully and last but not least, the guy was such a phenomenal player. I say it's time for a tubescreamer reality check.

EuroCinema said:

yeah since millions of people are after that tone and basically only John Mayer has achieved it, I'd say the tube screamer alone won't do it!

But I'm one of the millions. I think Stevie Ray had the best tone of anyone.