Bare Knuckle Pickups Forum

Forum Ringside => Guitars, Amps and Effects => Topic started by: adamj on September 26, 2010, 09:59:23 PM

Title: another OD Pedal thread
Post by: adamj on September 26, 2010, 09:59:23 PM
following on from one of my last posts which you guys helped out a lot regarding a pedalboard, i have been looking into the following pedals:

Tonerider OD
MXR Zakk Wylde
Bad Monkey

Unfortunately dangleberry being the only site i can find who sell the pedals are out of stock. Alternatively i have been looking at the zakk wylde OD because it seems to have all the Od you need plus that bit more if required, i kinda like the sounds iv heard from it. However this has proven to be the most expensive at £75. This leads onto the bad monkey, but although i can get it for £35 it doesnt seem to have the punch i need.

Is there an alternative in between? I dont fancy another Boss pedal, my last OD burnt out when plugged in and the tone is too trebly for my taste.
I tried searching the forum but obviously theres loads of similar discussion and i couldnt for the life of me find someone in the same position.

One last point i nearly forgot. I will be using the pedal to push my distorted sound for solo's, HOWEVER, it is a solid state amp, which will make a bit of difference, until i can afford a tube.
Title: Re: another OD Pedal thread
Post by: Elliot on September 26, 2010, 11:01:07 PM
The Danelectro Cool Cat Transparent Overdrive V2 (a Timmy clone) or the Drive V2 (an OCD clone) are both great cheapish drives.  The TO is probably more versatile as it can be used as clean boost, but the Drive has more rawk on tap. 

Title: Re: another OD Pedal thread
Post by: Denim n Leather on September 26, 2010, 11:44:24 PM
There are hundreds of options when selecting an OD pedal.

For your application, tho? I would say make the HAO RUST DRIVER your first serious stop.

Here are a couple of clips I cut with the Rust Driver:

http://soundcloud.com/ant01/rust-driver-modes

http://soundcloud.com/ant01/rust-driver-arpeggios

The only 'downside' is that the Rust Driver has a set distortion depth. For metal playing, however, this is the OD pedal to own!
Title: Re: another OD Pedal thread
Post by: adamj on September 26, 2010, 11:50:50 PM
just checking out a few videos, The danelectro is a contender, but i cant get over the design, i think its 'orrid!!

on a side note, it wont be metal i use the pedal for. I'll be playing mainly classic rock, but i love saturated lead tones for solo's, so the pedal should just increase the volume slightly and add a bit of awesome to my tone :)
Title: Re: another OD Pedal thread
Post by: Denim n Leather on September 27, 2010, 12:10:32 AM
Then you should def check out the Rust Driver!
Title: Re: another OD Pedal thread
Post by: Telerocker on September 27, 2010, 12:12:42 AM
What about a secondhand Maxon or Ibanez Tube Screamer? They do well in front of an already overdriven amp.
Title: Re: another OD Pedal thread
Post by: Alex on September 27, 2010, 12:45:27 AM
I do not know that Rust Driver.

For a standard transparent boost the Digitech Bad Monkey is very good. It boosts nicely and the full EQ does help a lot to get the tone you want. Oh, and it's a nice overdrive.
The Zakk Wylde is nastier in tone - and noisier. It does have a bit of a character to it. I'm just not sure I'd like it with a solid state amp, to be honest. It also does not boost a lot clean, you will need to add some of its gain as well.
If you want a gourmet overdrive with more options the Digitech Hardwire Overdrive makes many boutique pedals look very pale; it's also true bypass and adds some headroom nicely, eventhough it runs on 9V standard.

However, the Bad Monkey is really all you need, honestly. I have had all three of these overdrives and would not really buy the Zakk again - too expensive for what it does. MXR makes the GT-OD which is very nice, so if you don't want an Digitech (the name does not have the best rep) try that.
I also have a Boss SD-1... but the Bad Monkey is better.
Title: Re: another OD Pedal thread
Post by: tekbow on September 27, 2010, 05:50:55 AM
love pedal, kalamazoo? seems to be getting a lot people excited in a Klon centaur type way, but doesn't cost 350 quid

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ywyhz9i2bw0

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YYS2WXRgHHw&feature=channel
Title: Re: another OD Pedal thread
Post by: Transcend on September 27, 2010, 06:25:49 AM
The bad monkey is an ok pedal but it does seem to make your tone sound very dry from my past experience i wouldnt really say its transparent at all but the full EQ is handy for shaping your tone.
Title: Re: another OD Pedal thread
Post by: Elliot on September 27, 2010, 09:14:13 AM
The Bad Monkey is not transparent at all, like the Tubescreamer the mid range is pronounced - and its buffer even colours your sound when you are not using it.  That said it is capable of some nice OD tones
Title: Re: another OD Pedal thread
Post by: tomjackson on September 27, 2010, 09:51:32 AM

For the budget end the Marshall pedals are also worth a look or BYOC f you are hand with a soldering iron....
Title: Re: another OD Pedal thread
Post by: _tom_ on September 27, 2010, 10:24:33 AM
BYOC Tubescreamer is the best overdrive pedal I've used so long as its got the JRC chip in it. That includes the HBE Power Screamer which I didn't like at all for boosting a distorted amp.
Title: Re: another OD Pedal thread
Post by: adamj on September 27, 2010, 10:50:00 AM
the bad monkey does have a lot of great reviews. One of my mates ha a marshall jackhammer which is a great distortion pedal, so i was thinking maybe a Guvnor? which would you recommend out of these two? iv found the guvnor for around £45
Title: Re: another OD Pedal thread
Post by: Ian Price on September 27, 2010, 12:47:25 PM
I have a Bad Monkey (that I am selling). I'm selling as I can get all the drive sounds I want straight from my amp with a few tweaks of the volume knob on the guitar. It's a great pedal for the price - just not used by me at the moment.

PM me if you're interested in the Bad Monkey. I'm looking for £30.00 plus P+P.
Title: Re: another OD Pedal thread
Post by: dave_mc on September 27, 2010, 05:04:00 PM
The Danelectro Cool Cat Transparent Overdrive V2 (a Timmy clone) or the Drive V2 (an OCD clone) are both great cheapish drives.  The TO is probably more versatile as it can be used as clean boost, but the Drive has more rawk on tap. 



Just to point out, I think it's the v1s which are the clones- the v2s were brought out when danelectro realised the v1s were clones... :lol:
Title: Re: another OD Pedal thread
Post by: Elliot on September 27, 2010, 06:11:57 PM
and, ironically, Danelectro made the V2's nearer to the pedal they were cloned from - i.e. the V2s are actual nearer to the Timmy or OCD (and the Frantone Peach Fuzz in the case) than the V1's were.

e.g.
On the Transparent OD - adding the red diode switch matches one on the Timmy that is not on the V1 pedal.  The 12db boost with the gain at 0 is also a Timmy feature missing from the V1
On the Drive - the added 'Lo Fi' dip switch is the HP/LP switch on the OCD

The two Danos are among my favourite OD pedals - despite the horrid design they smoke anything I have costing three times the price (i.e. an OCD, the HBE Big D or Powerscreamer, etc).
Title: Re: another OD Pedal thread
Post by: dave_mc on September 27, 2010, 09:30:32 PM
i thought they changed the circuits, though? I know they added the extra dip switches etc., which as you said made them closer to the things they were cloning ( :lol: ), but I thought they'd changed the circuits... could be wrong, though. :)

what do you mean by "horrid design", out of interest?
Title: Re: another OD Pedal thread
Post by: viking on September 28, 2010, 12:55:05 AM
Quote
what do you mean by "horrid design", out of interest?
   Their look (shape etc.) :lol:, i guess !I have the drive and,on a clean or semi-clean channel (tube amp),it sounds good.But always with much gain.No middle ground...
Title: Re: another OD Pedal thread
Post by: dave_mc on September 28, 2010, 01:21:44 AM
yeah, to my ears the drive is kinda halfway between an od and a distortion.
Title: Re: another OD Pedal thread
Post by: BigB on September 28, 2010, 12:52:09 PM
Quote
what do you mean by "horrid design", out of interest?
   Their look (shape etc.) :lol:, i guess !I have the drive and,on a clean or semi-clean channel (tube amp),it sounds good.But always with much gain.No middle ground...

The CTO-1 works well for me with low gain (canonical "dirt boost" setting) on the HRDx drive channel (amp gain about 11 o'clock). It adds a bit more hair and cut to this somehow dark amp while retaining most of the guitar and amp's tone. I never use dirt boxes on the clean channel (unless I push it into the poweramp crunch zone but that's way too loud).
Title: Re: another OD Pedal thread
Post by: Telerocker on September 30, 2010, 12:30:49 AM
Look for a used Maxon OD820. Amazing pedal.