My quest for the perfect overdrive has lead me to through the following path:

Boss SD-1 Super Overdrive
Mail-in Analog Man SD-1/808 modification
Analog Man TS-9/808 Silver
Robert Keeley TS-9/808 Plus
Maxon OD-9 Overdrive reissue
Analog Man SD-1/808 Brown
Guyatone OD-2 Overdrive

And yes, I am still dissatisfied. Like the others, the OD-2 is lacking in the full-bodied tone I crave. It does do a better job than the other pedals I've owned, but at the cost of brightness...its lack of a tone knob allows more of the guitar's wood and pickups to come through, but it also places too much emphasis on my amp's EQ. As it turns out, I really do want an overdrive with a tone control of some sort.

Here's the thing: I use overdrive as a clean or lightly driven boost or for medium gain. The boosting is fine, but the medium gain sounds are eluding me...all the pedals I've owned sound brittle when turned up. Could this me because I play in front of a clean amp at bedroom volumes? I need something that emulates a cranked amp because I don't have the ability to do so. Right now I'm looking into a Maxon OD808. Any suggestions?

you could try the boss blues driver or the keeley mod of the blues driver.

also have a look at the voodoo lab sparkle drive. the clean blend brings back some of the lows/highs that the drive side loses.

i've got an SD-1, a sparkle and a keeley BD-2. the keeley is by far the best thing i've played in ages. the SD-1 sounds mush in comparison. and the clean blend of the sparkle drive is what saves that pedal.

the blues driver is very transparent compared to the others.

again, vox valvetone
it's the best od i've ever tried... have you ever tried a fulldrive? you might like it...
if you have lots of money to spend you can try a budda pedal or a klon, but those are really high end pedals, pretty expensive...
anyway, the maxon 808 seems to be really good, just lovely. you'll probably like it a lot too!
sorre

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Lose is more than hesitate.

wat about ibanez ts9?

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Maton Mastersound MS503 *new!*
Ibanez Electric/Accoustic
Squier Strat Affinity
Fender Frontman 15G Amp
Ibanez DE7 Delay Echo
Proco Rat II
Boss CE-2 Chorus
Yamaha RBX170
Drive 10watt Amp

how about the ts9-dx? the 'dx' makes all the difference in the world, the turbo mode is nothing like the original mode. its very very bassy (thick) and quite warm. also the tone knob is more usable IMO. four modes, each very different, but all sharing the tubey warmth in true ts-9 style. if you found your ts-9 to be 'almost there' but lacking depth and bass, then the dx will probably do it for you. my 2c

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Fender Strat
Fender Blacktop Tele
TB FX Loop/Channel Switcher > (in loop) > Mojo Hand Analog Filter > EQD Dream Crusher Fuzz > Subdecay Liquid Sunshine > Frazz Dazzler > Line 6 M9 > EHX Memory Toy > (end of loop)
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Rig Thread

The Budda Phatman would be a waste of your time. It's not a cool pedal IMO. I had one and it only lasted about a week. The Klon is a great pedal, but it's way overpriced for what it is...which is basically a boost pedal.


Some of the best I've tried are the Fulltone Fulldrive II, Fulltone Fat Boost (a volume boost, but overdrives your amp nicely and has a gain knob to add a little more "oomph"), the Crowther Hotcake and the Frantone HepCat. I currently own the Fat Boost, Hotcake and HepCat. I like all three really well and I think I've tried about everything...in fact, I'm getting kinda tired of playing the damn things. LOL. I've previously owned two FUlldrives and they're equally as great as the others. The Hotcake and HepCat have a little more gain on tap. The Fat Boost sounds...well, the fattest and the Fulltone has a good in-between gain and has an extra gain boost switch for a little more when soloing or something. I am, regrettably, selling the HepCat if you're interested. It's a pretty high dollar pedal (about $189 new I think) and does the overdrive thing very well. It also looks really cool because it's surf green and has these killer, retro-looking aluminum knobs. I'm selling it for $95 shipped. If you don't go with the HepCat, try some of the others. I'm not sure how much gain you're going for, but I'll list them in order from the most to the least gain:

-Hotcake
-HepCat
-Fulldrive
-Fat Boost

Some others to check out:

-Barber Direct Drive
-Barber Tone Pump (expensive)
-Maxon OD808 (I trade mine for the HelpCat. Both are very cool. The Maxon is a little smoother, but the Hep Cat has more gain and character)
-Matchless Hotbox (amazing pedal, but very expensive)
-VooDoo Lab Sparkle Drive

Isn´t the Maxon OD-9 the same thing in a 9 series box?

TravisE seams to cover almost all bases, but i ´m gonna sugest another pedal: Calr Martin Hot Drive&Boost.

They have separete sides, Ts9/808 and a clean boost, both truly indpendent (unlike the fulldrive) and true bypass. There are 3 versions: The MK I (or just Hot Drive&Boost) where the drive mode is just like a Ts9/808, very middy; The MK II has more bass and maybe is what you´re looking for; the mk III is more tranparent or fullrange (at least is what they claim to).

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A few others to check out:

-Crowther Hotcake
-Voodoo Labs Sparkle Drive
-Boss BD-2 Blues Driver

Those are some great choices. I wanna own the Crowther soon

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FOR SALE:

Ernie Ball Jr. Volume pedal
TC Electronic Vintage Tremolo

i dont want to sound like a freak, but my marshall jackhammer is sounding awesome at the moment. i use to hate it but since i got my first tube amp it sounded 100 percent and it is versatile to. you may not like it but i think its good. i use it on the overdrive setting and use it for a mild crunch but it can do anything.
mick
ps - dont tease me

nah...you're right man....most pedals start to sound 70% better when they're put through a tube amp....

...i used to have a Guv 'Nor 2 and it sucked...but apparently it worked better through a tube amp....

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FOR SALE:

Ernie Ball Jr. Volume pedal
TC Electronic Vintage Tremolo

i agree.. i use a valvestate100 at home and a tube jcm900 in the studio i go to.. theres alot difference with the same pedal/settings.. maybe not a GREEEAAAT difference but its noticible enough to admire a tube amp

The Lovetone one?
The two Nobels (they are so cheap but they've got such a sound....)?

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telecaster, ibanez artcore afs75td, fender jaguar baritone custom, nobels odr-s, zoom 505II, behringer volume, ibanez de7, magic stomp, digidelay, pds20/20, fender fm210r, semi-broken korg ds8 (80s fm synth), novation ks rack
future purchases: zoom g2.1 (to replace the 505), some behringer stuff (eq, delays, phaser, reverb..), behringer v-tone gm110 or roland cube 30, behringer fca202 audio card, behringer mic200 (maybe), an analog synth (maybe a roland alpha juno) - too much stuff! f*cking GAS attacks!

Listen to my music: http://www.soundclick.com/bands/1/sturmunddrang.htm UPDATED (lotsa stuff to come!)

Not sure if it will help or not, man, but I was on a never ending quest for better distortion. Just when I thought I was going down the right path, I would just end up not satisfied again. Untill I got a Marshall Jcm 2000 TSL 100. Now I have two great distortions all out of my amp. The crunch channel is great for classic tones and the Lead channel is perfect for Boggie esq. tones and leads. When ever I need a gain boost I click on a Boss Super Overdrive with the gain ALL THE WAY down, the tone set to sparkle a little more and the level at a point where my volume does not change (Ala Zakk Wylde, sorry, lol, it's a great trick, like the guy or not). It really, really sounds good w/both my Paul and Strat. It's a easily usuable pallet of many distortions that I can do anything with. Maybe a something along those lines will help you out, man, good luck!






American Custom Strat w/ Hot Rail/79 Japanese Epiphone Paul w/Dimzio PAF Pro II and Dimarzio Super Distortion - Cry Baby - Boss ME 50 - Boss AC 2- Boss SD 1 - Marshall JCM 2000 TSL 100 - Marshall 1960a Slant Cab

Well, you see, I want middy, as I use a Strat and have single coils that I want to fatten up, but I also want to be able to turn up the overdrive and produce some drive tones that aren't going to be brittle and have flaky decay.

Kind of the same problem I had, I wanted my start to sound like a Strat but to also kick ass if I need it to, that was a big reason for me putting in ther Hot rail. I could use the 4th position for great strat tone and the 1st position (just the hot rail) for better drive.