Which Overdrive pedal and Why

[Harker1440]

If you can only have One overdrive pedal in your signal chain which would you choose and why?
I ask because I don't generally use a drive pedal to dirty my amp I like the amp creating the dirt inhouse so to speak. Now I've owned a number of nice drives but basically they're window dressings. For those who use dirt pedals does it tonally make a difference?

 

[Rango]

OCD Baby!

OCD - I'm doing mostly Classic rock stuff and this is the one pedal that I can get a good workable tone out of any Amp and Guitar combo I've tried... :biggrin:

And I've mixed and matched a bunch! On the amp side everything from a 5 watt Champ 600 to a 100 Watt EVH 5150 III. On the guitar side - Tele, LP R9, P22, Gilmore Strat...and a bunch of others.

I play a two channel amp most of the time but I use it differently than most I'd guess... I EQ up each channel for A guitar - Say LP on one channel and Tele on the other and use the OD to go from clean "ish" to good classic rock tone. I'm rethinking this a bit now that the P22 is NUMBER ONE... :wink:

 

[sleary]

Tc Electronics Mojo...thing sings . Great tone and responds to pick attack like no other. Didn't break the bank either.

 

[Egads]

You guys are probably getting tired of me posting about the same pedal, but I love the Jetter Jet Drive. It's two ODs/boosts in one box. Both sound great and are independent. You can run either/or/both. With a single channel amp, I get clean, clean with boost, drive, and drive with boost. Te range is really impressive, too.

Also love the OCD.

 

[Mikegarveyblues]

My little GFS Greenie Classic Overdrive. Cheap TS clone but I love the tones I get from it Was supposed to tide me over until I could afford a genuine TS but I haven't felt the need to replace it.

 

[László]

Assuming a fuzz doesn't qualify as an OD, I would pick the Fulltone Robin Trower Overdrive. I love the way that thing sounds.

Edit: I forgot to mention why!

I prefer to get my OD from the amp, like Harker...but there are a few things I like to use an OD for, and one of them is after a modulation pedal like a Univibe. It's a different kind of thing than getting drive from the amp. I'll also admit that I love Robin Trower's "Bridge of Sighs," and he follows his Vibe with the RTO. Sounds good!

 

[justmund]

I'll admit I'm a multi fx guy at the moment, the convenience is just too appealing for now. If I were to look at a standalone drive pedal, I'd love to try a Timmy and maybe the new Mesa pedals. They sound pretty good to me on YouTube clips.

 

[gush]

I'll admit I'm a multi fx guy at the moment, the convenience is just too appealing for now. If I were to look at a standalone drive pedal, I'd love to try a Timmy and maybe the new Mesa pedals. They sound pretty good to me on YouTube clips.

My bass player has been trying to get me to buy an OD pedal.I just cant talk myself into it. I let 5150 do the talking. Im afraid that if I buy one I will grow tired of it quicklyand there it sits. I set my amp up with one channel clean and the other dirty. I have about 35 patches built to take care of my effects needs. My g-major has a nice lead boost feature that is controlled through expression pedal and it has a switching relay for channel switching that is added to each patch. I have 3 patches set at my lead leve lfor times that im too busy to use expression pedal. BTW. My bass player bought an OD for his rig because it got great reviews and sounded good online. He doesnt use it anymore. Hmmmmm.

 

[Twinfan]

I use a Klone on all the time as a slight boost as it adds some girth to my tone, and a touch more treble. I get the gain from the amp, using the pedal as a little push in front.

 

[CoreyT]

Check out TTK's page (The Tone King) on YouTube.
https://www.youtube.com/my_subscriptions?feature=mhee&s=3uXtfr_DTt-JU1RT6T3fJvRoO4IUXlImYP9JW8OtUnE

He is doing a 30 pedals in 30 days for the month of December.
Some of those pedals are distortion ones.

 

[John]

I've been very happy using a Maxon OD808 for years at this point.

 

[prsrocker1988]

I personally couldn't use just one but if I had to recommend only one, it'd be the Wampler Paisley Drive. Love that pedal.

I'm not an amp dirt guy so I have a handful of Boost/OD/Dist/Fuzz pedals to give me the grind I need and for the versatility.

 

[cosmic_ape]

Rockbox Boiling Point. I use it on the "clean boost" mode, crank up the gain and use my volume knob to shape it. Ridiculous tone and versatility. Also, much better for controlling your gain signal at reduced, smaller venue levels. The dirt from my amp just sounds too compressed if it's not cranked.

 

[László]

One thing I like to use ODs and to a greater degree, fuzzes, for is tone-shaping as opposed to simply overdrive. F'rinstance, using a vintage-style fuzz with the guitar volume rolled down will brighten a signal, compress it, and roll off some bottom end. An OD can boost mids, even with the distortion set low. Etc. These can be useful settings, especially coupled with use of the guitar's volume controls, to get variety of tone as needed on songs.

One can get some nice additional colors with pedals when they're used creatively, and go way beyond merely adding distortion.

 

[ljpukgtr]

For me it's the Digitech CM2 OD, lovely especially in front of a Marshall.

 

[mesa50w]

OCD - I'm doing mostly Classic rock stuff and this is the one pedal that I can get a good workable tone out of any Amp and Guitar combo I've tried... :biggrin:

And I've mixed and matched a bunch! On the amp side everything from a 5 watt Champ 600 to a 100 Watt EVH 5150 III. On the guitar side - Tele, LP R9, P22, Gilmore Strat...and a bunch of others.




I play a two channel amp most of the time but I use it differently than most I'd guess... I EQ up each channel for A guitar - Say LP on one channel and Tele on the other and use the OD to go from clean "ish" to good classic rock tone. I'm rethinking this a bit now that the P22 is NUMBER ONE... :wink:

Agree 100% I have a v3 OCD (alittle more bass, then a v4) It sounds great in any amp..no matter what. I mainly play pretty heavy stuff so its nice to get that classic marshall tone at a decent Vol for classic rock stuff. Suhr Riot is prob my fav sounding OD box but it can be picky about what amps it likes, but it really smokes!

 

[Aeetus]

Another Klone user here, works with all my amps and to date it is the only pedal to do so. It adds some body and presence to my sound whether the amp is at break up or already quite driven... love it!

 

[cosmic_ape]

One thing I like to use ODs and to a greater degree, fuzzes, for is tone-shaping as opposed to simply overdrive. F'rinstance, using a vintage-style fuzz with the guitar volume rolled down will brighten a signal, compress it, and roll off some bottom end. An OD can boost mids, even with the distortion set low. Etc. These can be useful settings, especially coupled with use of the guitar's volume controls, to get variety of tone as needed on songs.

One can get some nice additional colors with pedals when they're used creatively, and go way beyond merely adding distortion.

I just found a good fuzz pedal that sounds ridiculous when you do this. You can mix it with either your amp's dirt or a tube screamer. Glorious tone! You roll the volume back and it gets sooo clean...

 

[iahawk36]

If I could only have ONE, it would be the Klon KTR....just adds a lot without coloring. Makes you sound like a better you, IMHO. If I couldn't get my hands on one of those, it would be the Green Rhino by Way Huge. Absolutely my #1 pedal until the KTR came out.

 

[prscat33511]

I like my Wampler Brent Mason OD/Distortion
I can go from clean (no OD ) to sparkly/crunch to lead distortion and back again in one great sounding pedal
and those channels cascade and stack nicely
It's All I use lately
Works well with Single coil and Humbuckers, is clean, and is very versatile