Good tube overdrive pedals...

[Jimmy Purchase]

I used to use the Boss Blues Driver, but the sound just sounded to fake. So i started my search for a good sounding overdrive pedal....

i stumbled upon the Fulltone Full-Drive 2. This pedal is absoulty amazing! it is the perfect worship overdrive its crunchy but not to driving so you dont sound like your in a punk rock band. but its more of a overdrivin clean tone. And you get feedback from it so all you delay fans, this pedal is perfect for volume swells.

I think i'm going to buy the Ibanez Tube Screamer Ts-808 i've heard this is the pedal above all pedals....

what to you guys use or like?

[Wildwind]

The FullDrive 2 is a GREAT pedal. I will never sell mine unless it’s to get a newer/better version. The one I have is not the latest – like the second latest. It has the 3-position toggle switch between the knobs. This is a great value with its switchable boost feature, making it two pedals in one – and both sound excellent.

I’d like to try the Fulltone OCD, which is supposed to be incredible too.

I haven’t played a TS-808 and have heard mixed reviews.

Two pedals that are far cheaper that I can recommend – DigiTech Bad Monkey and Screamin’ Blues. Both run about $40 new and are built like tanks. The Monkey is great for crunch and blues tones, but isn’t very high-gain. The Blues pedal is a screamer, much higher gain. Both sound great. The hot setup is to run them side-by-side. It’s hard to imagine that pedals in this price range can sound so good.

An overlooked pedal is the Tech21 overdrive – Double Drive, which I think has been discontinued. The newer version, DD3X, takes this idea a bit further but runs about $180. The old DD was around $100 new. These permit you to dial in Class A or Class A/B power tube distortion in various amounts. I loved mine – sounded great and very versatile. Like an idiot I sold it. Tech 21 makes some nice stuff and it’s all analog.

Great post and a fun subject – can’t have too many overdrives, IMO.

Greg

[Steve Lowe]

I second the Bad Monkey, best dirt pedal for the money out there, IMO. Also consider the Visual Sound Jekyll and Hyde - and peruse some of the boutique shops as well. tonefactor.com is a good resource with active forums and lots of sound clips of various pedals on the market.

[Jimmy Purchase]

yeah i'm a huge boutique pedal fan. One of the guitar players on our worship teams plays the Jekyll and Hyde pedal and i like it alot, thats another 2 in 1 pedal that is really good

[Wildwind]

I didn't mean to leave out the Visual Sound pedals. I've never played one, but have heard them and like them very much. They also usually feature the second button, giving them great value for the dollar. I should check them out one of these days, but then I'd probably buy one - not good stewardship right now...

Greg

[twc_admin]

hey guys - yeah, one of the other sites, thetoneguru.com is a member here, and will likely jump in soon!

[JimBusch]

A few years ago I bought a floor model Ibanez Tube Screamer TS-9. They typically retail for about $150.00 I think, but I got it for about $100.00 because it was a display model.

Anyway, I have used it for about 5 years and love it. If you connect it to a transister amplifier it will make the amp sound like a tube amp, in my opinion. I use a Fender Strat with it.

[tony c]

I have to agree with Jim Busch, the Ibanez Tube Screamer is a great pedal, either in its latest form or the one from back in the 70's (I think).

I've heard great things about the Jekyll & Hyde pedal, although I've not personally used it.

[Klampert]

Tube screamer ....

Jekyl and hyde

Route 66

those three are the best sounding overdrives Ive heard

[lindsayward]

(First post, Hi folks!)
I went to the Hillsong Conference in 2005 and Nigel Hendroff did a guitar workshop where he talked through his gear. On his recommendation I got a Voodoo Lab Sparkle Drive (http://www.voodoolab.com/) and I like it a lot ($90USD used, $150AUD after all expenses).
It's got a clean blend knob that is a balance between the gain/OD sound and a nice clean boost. Modifying this gives a wide range of sounds.
I'm pretty sure Nigel (he's the guy with the dreadlocks if you've seen the videos) was using this and a Tube Screamer as well (plus a stack of other nice bits of kit).

[Klampert]

wow...thanks for the tip that pedal sounds great on the site...the funk mp3 sample is killer

[walkerjerry]

Man it really depends on your exact setup and tonal preference, but I'll be honest, I really don't care for the Fulltone, Jekyl & Hyde, or the Bad Monkey. (And I hate the Blues Driver). I am a BIG fan of the Maxon line of tubescreamers. I especially like the OD808. It is true bypass for one, and very transparent (if you like that). But in general I think that all the tubescreamers are pretty good overall (even the Ibanez ones), and I also like the Boss SD1 (and its cheap).

[bbrothers224]

Robert Keely (http://www.robertkeeley.com/) makes some great pedals, as do the folks over at Swell Pedals (http://www.swellpedals.com/). What do I use?? I'm just getting back into the electric side of things after a dozen years or more of just playing acoustic. I had sold my early 80s Kramer and all of my Boss pedals way back then, so when rejoined the electric crowd, I went the all in one route by getting a Line6 floor POD. That's enough for me at this time. By the way...another good place to find pedals is over at Pedal Geek (http://www.pedalgeek.com).

In Hymn,
Billy

[Jimmy Purchase]

i really want to get the keeley blues driver, their mod looks and sounds amazing, not to mention thats what john mayer uses for his great tone. and man, thanks for that pedal geek site, i've never heard of it before.

[WideAwake]

Another vote for the Bad Monkey. $40 bucks, and it lets your guitar tone shine through.

[Phillip_H]

The Bad Monkey is a decent enough pedal for $40, but if you're willing to shell out a little more, you should check out some alternatives.

Barber (http://www.barberelectronics.com/products.html) makes great pedals. The LTD pedals cover the low-medium gain range, and the Small Fry and Direct Drive cover the higher gain stuff. I just got a Small Fry and it is fantastic.

The Catalinbread (http://www.catalinbread.com/pedals.html)Silver Kiss is pretty nice, too.

The Lovepedal Eternity (http://www.google.com/url?q=http://www.lovepedal.com/eternitysquare.htm&sa=X&oi=smap&resnum=1&ct=result&cd=1&usg=AFQjCNG32yaNkYC5FJQVTtzo6VUAgMfMWw) get a lot of praise, but it's pricey.

[dan_tone]

I've been thinking about eventually picking up a Blackstone Mosfet Overdrive (http://www.blackstoneappliances.com/) myself, but I've got heal up my funds a little bit first.

Another way I might go instead is the MI Audio Tube Zone Overdrive. (http://www.miaudio.com/TZ1.htm)

[maydavidj]

I used a Boss Blues Driver through a vintage Ampeg tube amp for one of my recordings. It sounded huge! I use my music minister's pedal board for worship now, and he has an Ibanez TS5 tube screamer pedal- It's OK. I'm getting ready to buy a Floor-pod XT though.

[Wildwind]

Dan, the MI Audio stuff is awesome. I've only played the Crunch Box, though - which I do plan to acquire and set aside my FullDrive 2. But as I'm addicted to overdrives, I'd grab a Tube Zone if I had the chance.

Greg

[collintowne]

On the side, I work for Dan Torres at Torres Engineering here in San Mateo, CA so I play through all hand made, point to point, tube amps. I've been working with him for 4 years now, and have learned tons about amps, and I have also experimented with a lot of pedal and rack gear. check out my link. Anyways, there are many options, and in the end, if the player is happy with the tone and it inspires you to play your best, then it works. When I look for pedals, I look for true bypass pedals only. I have used buffers made by probably the 2 most highly sought after makers in the world. Skrydstrup R&D and Axess Electronics. Currently my buffer is the BS2 from Axess. My true bypass pedals come before the BS2 and the pedals I have gravitated towards are Fulltone, Analog Man TS9, Z-vex. I have the following Fulltone pedals. FD2, FD2 anniversary, OCD, Fat Boost, Fat Boost 2, '69, Supa-Trem, Distortion Pro, and have played through the GT-500 and new designed FD2. You can't go wrong with a Fulltone. Considering they are all hand made one at a time, have fantastic workmanship, and use top quality parts. Every pedal will respond differently depending on what guitar you use and your amp. Anyways, that's what I have found to work the best for me to get the tone that I am after.

collintowne

[Wildwind]

Great post, Collin! Working for Dan would be a blast! I respect his work very much. He provided some of the parts and most of the "brain work" for an extensive set of mods to a friend's Peavey Classic 30 (truly now an example of the way they should all be...) and my Mesa Studio .22+ (vastly superior to the factory version).

Plus I also love Fulltone pedals, though I've only owned FullDrives. I am wanting an OCD, wish I could find one to try. I'll probably just buy one. I know I could sell it easily enough.

I am in the process of buying a Mesa V-Twin - which as I'm sure you know is an all-tube overdrive/preamp, since that is the essence of this thread. I had one some years back and foolishly sold it. Now they're out of production and more pricey than ever - used ones go for the price of the last of the new ones routinely. But I'm buying one anyway. I haven't heard one in years and don't remember much. My use of it back then was very different than now.

I plan to try various tubes and get it dialed in with my other gear - and also use it up- or down-stream of my POD X3 (my main worship amplification - we have to run direct). The V-Twin could also be used purely direct, though it would need some help (other pedals, so it won't be as simple as the POD setup). But if it sounds great, it will be worth it.

Mesa made another tube OD - the Bottle Rocket - which I owned but returned to the dealer inside of a month. I was very disappointed in it - it was flat sounding and didn't add the power to my tone as well as any number of transistor boxes (Screamers, etc.) I had in my quiver. Frankly I think Mesa kind of messed that one up. They did sell another tube OD for a very short time that was designed independently by an employee. They only sold them from the Hollywood store. I played the prototype and my friend bought the next one he built. It used a pair of 12AX7s and was a pure OD, not a pre. It sounded amazing. But this guy left Mesa shortly thereafter, tried to sell them on his own, and fell off the planet. I can't even remember his name - John something. JMD (his initials I presume) might have been the company name.

But it's interesting that tube ODs have never really caught on. Most of the sounds we love are tube amps slammed by transistor boxes. Other than pricey boutique pieces (and most of those companies don't make tube stuff, like Fulltone), you can about count on one hand the number of true tube ODs.

Again, thanks for a great post - do it a LOT more. I'd really like to see this board catch fire.

Greg

[collintowne]

Have you ever played through a Triaxis. Those are great preamps! The V-twin looks just as good, but with fewer features. I bet you'll really like the V-twin.

I think a lot of pedal companies don't use tubes cause the pedals would get thrown around so much that the tubes would go bad pretty quick. And on top of that, FETs sound VERY much like tubes. They work the same way, and get very similar tones. Hence, the Fulltone FD2 and BassDrive has a Mosfet and the GT-500 and Fat Boost 2 uses JFETs.

Have you ever looked into using an Attenuator on your amp! I would try that. Sounds like you got your .22+ modded from Dan. If that's the case and you really like your tone from that, just use an attenuator and have your amp cranked for awesome tube tone, but on really low volume for really low stage volume. I would get the Bad Cat one. here's a link: www.musictoyz.com/guitar/amps/attn.php

Do you have drums on stage?

[Wildwind]

No experience with TriAxis. I've seen them around here and there and I'm sure I've heard them on recordings - Petrucci, etc., but not enough to know what I'm hearing. I suspect they are capable of some seriously great tones.

I have owned Mesa Studio and Formula pres, though. I should have kept the Formula, but I just didn't have a use for it. I always meant to pair it up with a 20/20 or something, but never did. One of the very best "amps" I ever played was just that, running into a Boogie single 12" Thiele cab (not sure of the speaker - Celestion 90 I think) - I still remember how playing that setup made me feel. The detail and tonality were mind blowing and the package was tiny overall. Not cheap by any means, though, but the good stuff never is.

My Mesa Studio .22+ has had some caps replaced (and maybe other stuff too - I don't speak electronics), altering the tone and making it easier to balance the channels with great tones from each (not possible on the stock amp), a Class A mod, and one or two other things. The Class A mod is switchable (back panel, looks like it was there from the start but it wasn't). Speaker was replaced (mercifully) with a Celestion Century V30 (Vintage 30 soundalike), taking the amp's weight down to 32 pounds. It's a killer little package. It wasn't a packaged mod - just ideas from Dan and some parts. But I know Dan would approve of the results. I dearly love these amps - I think they are killers and largely unknown. I much prefer them to a Fender Deluxe tonally and package-wise - and they're cheaper. I have no more than $500 into mine as it sits - $350 for amp used in great condition, plus the speaker and a handful of parts.

I did check out that attenuator - looks very cool - but expensive! I know they all are, though. My deal is that I have to run direct - and we are using V-Drums, so they're direct too - and we monitor via an Aviom system. We're going to be building in the next year or two. I'm pushing for an isolation room so we can use amps again. But as we've been direct for many years, it's forced me to get really good at programming my modelers, and I'm pretty pleased with what I'm getting. Still - nothing like a real amp for good fun and great tone.

Your comments on OD pedals is interesting - and I'm sure you're right. They lead a tough life, getting tossed around and stepped on all the time. I can get lost in OD Land - so many variations and too much fun trying stuff. There must be a thousand good ODs on the market now from $40 to $500. I figure any good setup needs at least two great ones (one being a dual-switch OD like an FDII or GT500).

I have a question on the OCD. My main interest in this pedal is my infatuation with the singing tone I get when I really juice my Mesa. It's that tone that "feeds back" on itself. The Fulltone OCD demonstrates it to a minor degree, but the playing isn't very good and I find the demo unconvincing. I have no dealers anywhere with one in stock - OCDs don't sit on the shelf for long, and the nearest Fulltone dealer is 100 miles away. So I'll have to buy online or something, which gives me pause.

Anyway, the question - is the OCD the pedal for this tone? Or is there another? Certainly I'll try the V-Twin when it arrives late next week (just closed that deal) and hope it delivers. My 22+ gets it great - but at shockingly loud levels (need that attenuator, don't I?). But I need this in church. Fortunately the POD X3 takes pedals well, unlike some other modelers I've owned. Your opinion would be most valuable to me.

Any thoughts in MI Audio pedals? I played a Crunch Box a year or two ago and was way impressed. But I'm not sure they're for me tonally - I favor Mesa over Marshall for high-gain tones. But CB sure does Marshall well, I'll give it that, and the price is right.

Thanks bro - this has been most enjoyable. I hope others will join in too.

Greg

[Johnny B.]

I'm looking into buying a Browntone hand wired overdrive pedal. This guy is getting pretty popular among the secular pro musicians. He's on Myspace under "Browntone electronics" I believe. I currently use an electro Harmonix small clone stereo pedal and Ibanez delay... I love the E.H pedals but would like to switch my delay pedal soon.

Blessings guys.. Johnny B.

[Wildwind]

Interesting - I'll check those out.

What kind of delay are you looking to get?

I'm not making a recommendation, as I usually just use the delays in my POD X3. But I do really like my Line6 DL-4. It's great fun to play with, sounds cool, and gives you three presets plus tap tempo in one package for about $250 new. Used they aren't much cheaper usually unless beat up badly.

I've also heard great things about the new Eventide pedal, but I have no details.

Greg

[Johnny B.]

Thanks,I'll be checking those out before I buy anything as I really havent settled on a delay yet. On another note I am waiting for a set of hand wound pickups for my strat and if they are as good as they sound on the video clips/peoples reports then its going to be a good thing. They are called sheptone pickups(he's on my space) and they are from a guy I havent met as of yet but I found out he is a worship leader at his church not far away from me..an hour or so ... I'll have to leave a report when they arrive. Soooo many things to try for that perfect celestial tone!! :)
This is a great forum... Its my second day and its already very helpful..
Blessings... Johnny B.

[Wildwind]

Glad you're with us! I haven't been here long myself - couple of months maybe.

Keep us posted on the pickups - always good to know of brethren making great stuff. My main guitar was made by a great brother in Christ - Gerard Melancon (www.melanconguitars.com). Amazing guitar that gets better with age.

In my Melancon, I'm running the new DiMarzio Area 58s neck and middle. Our sanctuary has some major noise issues and you can't use single coils there. These sound vintage and are very quiet. (Bridge has a DiMarzio Virtual PAF, also a great pickup for Strat). Prior to that I was using strictly Bill Lawrences with great results, but I do prefer these new Areas - newer generation technology I think.

Greg

[stephen_can_man]

I just ordered a Carl Martin AC Tone from Ebay and I hope to get that Voxy type sound. Anyone else have any experience with this pedal or the Carl Martin line of pedals? I know that it is not a true bypass, but it is a three in one overdrive unit, which is what turned me on to it. I will update everyone once I give it a whirl.

[Wildwind]

I've been curious about these myself, but haven't even seen one. I'm very interested to hear what you think.

Greg