What's your fav over drive stomp box?

64Firebird

64Firebird

New member
I've used so many of these things over the years and I'm still not completely happy. Most of the ones I've used or tried out in the stores sound too harsh for my tastes.

Anyway, I'm using an old TS-10 Tube Screamer made in the late 80s. Another one that I think is pretty okay is the Danelectro Daddy-O.
 
Has anybody used the TS-5 Tube Screamer? I just bought one off ebay. $31.00 + shipping.

i-1.JPG
 
I own a Boss BD-2 Blues Driver, SD-1 SuperOverdrive, and a Tech21 Double Drive. The Double Drive is my favorite out of those, but more for distortion or a Marshall stack-type sound. It does a great "clean boost" for my silverface Fender Champ amp. It's a hell of a pedal...very natural sounding.

The Boss Blues Driver stays smooth if you don't use much gain.....just using it for subtle overdrive. If you turn up the gain too much it sounds artificial.
 
My fav is my Tube Works "Real Tube" With a 12AU7 instead of the 12ax7.

I like to set it so Humbucker full open gives a nice rock edge, and neck single coil is a nice blues lead sound.

I like to play actively with the volume control as a tone shaper.
 
Wide Awake said:
I own a Boss BD-2 Blues Driver, SD-1 SuperOverdrive, and a Tech21 Double Drive. The Double Drive is my favorite out of those, but more for distortion or a Marshall stack-type sound. It does a great "clean boost" for my silverface Fender Champ amp. It's a hell of a pedal...very natural sounding.

The Boss Blues Driver stays smooth if you don't use much gain.....just using it for subtle overdrive. If you turn up the gain too much it sounds artificial.
Click to expand...


...I used to have one of the original rat boxes and it was okay...after awhile I began to use the natural tube overdrive of my marshalls by using the rhythm pickup for rhythms with the volume pot rolled off to an acceptable level, and when it was solo time a quick flick of the selector switch to the lead pup and instant solo boost!!...also no ridiculous dance back behind the mic ...
 
My all time fave is my Cry baby wha wha.It was modified by
a bud of mine,and now sports a sweepable mid-range switch
on the side.I find this mod to be very helpful when it comes to dialing it in to a particular amp and the amps different settings.
I use three different amps,(fender twin,hot rod deville,blues deville)and each amp reacts differently to the cry baby,so it is real nice to be able to tweak it.
As far as distortion and over drive go,there is not to much out there that I dig as far as my personal sound goes.I like the over drives on my amps.I would'nt mind having a pod to keep around the studio for the people that want that sort of sound in thier music.
 
I use a mesa boogie V-Twin in front of my marshall. It's more of a preamp than a distortion pedal. lt's like adding 3 more channels.

In front of my roland jc120, I use either a sansamp original, or a sansamp tri-ac. Or if I'm feeling lazy, I just leave the amp at home and use the tri-ac.

I really want to try the visual sound route 66.
 
The last overdrive stomp box I owned was an MXR distortion+... a classic...

Now I use multi effect processors...
Boss VF-1 and PODXT and ART SGX 2000EX...
 
I've tried the Boss SD-1 Super-Overdrive and the BD-2 Blues Driver as well. Between the two, I prefer the Blues Driver. But, when I compared the sound of the Blues Driver to my old TS-10, I liked the TS-10 better.

A lot of you guys said you like the sound of your amp's overdrive. I like the sound of mine too, but my only amp is very old and it doesn't have a master volume. Getting it to crunch means playing at or above concert levels. I like a clean sound most of the time, I just want something to give the sound a little more edge and some gain boost when it's time for me to take a ride.
 
I use a TS9 these days. It's a modern one. It's pretty smooth. Prior to that I had a Boss DX1, which isn't bad, but has more distortion. I used to use a Big Muff back in the day, but again that has "fuzz".

I also had something called a Screaming Bird once upon a time. It was a treble booster, I believe made by Electro-Harmonix, which plugged directly into the amp. It had a nice top-end over-drive effect. As I recall, it had maybe one switch and one knob, if that. It wasn't too convenient if you wanted to turn it on or off in the middle of a song, though. No foot-switch.

I'd like to check out a "vintage" TS9 and compare it to the modern one. I like the one I've got, but I'm always looking to hone the tone.
 
i have two distortion/overdrive pedals (not countin my zoom something-or-other with lots of little things to muck with):

boss metal zone, which is very hard sounding, and requires a bit of tweaking to get the tone just right (i typically use it with my musicmaster amp with my cheapie alesis microeq-gives two stages of para eq on the mids, and full para eq on the spectrum. this usually does the trick.

marshall guv'nor, from before they discontinued them some time ago (i believe they brought them back)-damned thing is night indestructible. not especially a standout in general, in my opinion, but pair it with a fender, and it sounds SWEET! like magically turning a bassman head into a JCM800, at least at first listen. it is great for that application, not sure about many others.

i don't think i'm going to be looking for another distortion anytime soon, unless i learn to build my own, because i prefer the regular distortion in a 2-or-more gain stage amp typically. there's something very organic about it. of course, it helps to have channel switching so as to have at least a couple of options, but for recording, it doesn't really matter.
 
I'm using the Yngwie Malmsteen Signature overdrive
pedal from DOD which was closely modeled after the
old grey DOD 250 that Hendrix used. I use it with
a Strat with Hs3's and a Tube Marshall amp. This
is the Best for me.

Also liked the Ts9 but I think the DOD's are edgier
and Ballsier.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top