Bare Knuckle Pickups Forum
Forum Ringside => Guitars, Amps and Effects => Topic started by: Slartibartfarst42 on April 05, 2012, 01:27:01 AM
-
As some may know, much as I love my Holydiver, there are times when I'd like it to be a a bit 'bigger', 'fuller' and have much more saturation and to that end I've been looking into getting an A-Pig. However, to get that level of saturation, I'm increasingly thinking that an overdrive pedal will do this for me and I really want to thank Eric for his help on this so far. At the moment I'm looking at a variety of options and this is mostly on Ebay to keep the cost down but my only experience of overdrives so far is the Bad Monkey so I'd really appreciate some help and advice from those with more extensive knowledge/experience. At the moment I'm watching these:
Ibanez TS9DX
Ibanez TS9DX with 808 mod (no idea what this means)
MXR Zakk Wylde
Blackstar HT-Drive
Joyo Vintage overdrive
Joyo Ultimate Drive
-
I'd stay away from the HT-drive, not really what you're after here I'm guessing. Those Joyo units, as well as the Biyang ones, seem to be extremely good buys for a mass produced unit. Personally, I'd be knocking on Juan Solo, Marauder or Toe-knee's door if I wasn't into building them myself. There's also a new MXR unit with a bazillion switches on it I saw a bit ago for not too much.... might be worth a look as well. I know it has a bass knob and that's where the money is on ODs, well for me anyways.
I had a Bad Monkey for a bit.... it's initials are BM. Yup. Not horrible, but I also played with a Biyang that smoked it for the same price. A few brands actually rebrand Biyangs. GFS and Akai are the two I know off the top of my head.
-
So many good overdrivepedals on the market. I'm totally happy with my Emma Reezafratzitz (handmade in Denmark). It's like having a good tubetone under your fingertips. Quite dynamic, good tones on low gain, has quite some drive though. And it has a biasknob to blend from Class AB to Class A-tones.
Further: Barber Direct Drive, Xotic BB, Maxon VOP9, Suhr Shiba Drive, Brunetti Taxidrive etc etc.
-
A very quick google search suggests the Biyang units aren't as easy to get hold of as the Joyo ones but you're right, those Joyo ones do seem to be remarkable value. If anyone's used them before, which one would be best suited to my needs; the Vintage Overdrive or Ultimate Overdrive?
Another on I came across is the Jekyll and Hyde, though I suspect that might be more than I need.
The pedals you suggested above are all great but a bit expensive for me. I'll happily buy used but I ideally want to stay to £50 and certainly no more than £75
-
Depends on what your needs are. I'm assuming you'd want a modern sound, so whichever of the two passes on the least amount of bass(Vintage OD reviews would have me point at it). This is key to clarity. Using the more boutique-sounding or smoothed out Screamer pedals with a high-gain channel is equivalent to smashing your bottom end with a lemon wrapped around a large gold brick.
Sans reference- It's louder, but mushy.
-
The Barber Drive SS is another option. It has allot of tweakablitly, and you can control your low-end. What kind of amp are you blasting, and what kind of cab?
-
I'd suggest a Digitech Bad Monkey or, if you want a more up-market version, the Hardwire CM-2. They both have treble and bass pots.
Some overdrives tighten up the sound too much and then you have a very hard-hitting metal sound, but not a bigger sound. With both a treble and bass pot I think you'll not run into that problem so much. Plus the Bad Monkey is really cheap.
-
I've had a Bad Monkey before and it was astonishingly good for the price but the Hardwire is also a great shout as every Hardwire pedal I've used before has been superb in every way. I really want to stop looking at alternatives now and focus more on which is best for what I want so at the moment I have it down to:
Jekyl and Hyde
MXR Zak Wylde
TS9DX with 808 mod
TS9DX
Hardwire CM-2
My gut tells me that the Jekyll and Hyde is more than I need. The MXR and the TS9DX pedals both sound really good but my experience of Hardwire pedals is so good that at the moment I'm drawn mostly to that.
-
I'm selling my Crunchbox if that's any use is one with internal pots to tweak sound on top of normal controls
-
remember that if you're going tubescreamer (which by the way is a rock staple) it's going to have a big mid hump that's not to everyones tastes. I have a modded 808 which i got for a good price on the bay but those seem to be not so common these days..
The 808 mod refers to modding to original 808 specs but i guess keeping the various controls of the DX
From what you're looking for a would have said the zack wild but i think you'd be happier with a plain old MXR distortion. I hear great things about the Bad monkey, but if you're going to go the tube screamer route i would seriously consider a visual sound route 808.
For what you're looking for i can tell you one pedal that would do it perfectly, but it's a bit pricier than what you want to spend.. A Sobbat DB-1
also, if you're in the uk, check out these guys.
http://www.pedalmods.com/
what you do is select the pedal you will sound right after being modded, buy a cheap second hand working boss of the appropriate type off the bay and send it to them to mod. I hear nothing but good things about them.
-
The Zakk would make the sound harder and more focused in the mids. I wouldn't recommend it, I sold mine because I felt it was rather unruly and harsh.
I had the Jekyll & Hyde once. The tubescreamer side is good, but basically a tubescreamer. The Hyde side is a distortion effect. I wouldn't recommend it for waht the OP is looking for.
-
WEll, I've taken the plunge and bought a Hardwire CM-2. Every pedal by Hardwire I've owned before (Chorus, Delay, Metal Distortion) has been absolutely superb so I figured I might as well go with a brand I've been pleased with before.
-
an EQ pedal would've been a better solution - you can dial in the tone you want much easier and if you're boosting the frequencies, you're getting a bit extra gain too.
everyone should have an EQ pedal in their setup, I couldn't live without mine.
-
That will have to be next on my shopping list :D
-
the joyo vintage od is what you want if you're using it as a boost. it's a tubescreamer clone.
the ultimate drive is an OCD clone. it's also a nice drive but is better (imo) as a standalone overdrive over a clean tone rather than as a boost.
EDIT: ah right, too late :lol:
-
I've only used the mi audio tube zone and mxr custom badass overdrive. Both really nice overdrives for different reasons. The mxr gives more of its own signature sound no matter what settings, but it's what I use all the time. Some say it's like a tubescreamer when the bump is on and a Timmy when it's off, But I've never tried either of those with my setup so I couldn't comment on it... All I know is it sounds good in front of a cranked crunchbox and can go from creamy blues to saturated metal with a little tweak of the volume knob on my guitar.
The tubezone has more versatility and is definitely a nice od that can be cranked to a distortion very easily by itself.
Personally, I think I'm going to stick to the mxr, so that's my recommendation for ya. They're not too pricey either.
-
I´d look at the OCD, Tone Freak Severe and Catalinbread DLS.
All great big sounding ODs.
-
Sadly a bit late now as I've already ordered the Hardwire Tube Overdrive, which should be arriving tomorrow. I'll post details of how it affects the performance of the pickups.
-
Oh, ok, keep us posted!
-
If you don't want to break the bank have a look at Tonerider-pedals.
-
Well, the Hardwire Tube Overdrive pedal just arrived. It cost £50 from Ebay and the condition of it is just like new. It's a bit early in the morning to blast the neighbours and the nature of the Switchblade amp means I'll need to spend some time reprogramming the presets for our set but my first impressions are good and the pedal will do exactly what I want it to. Gain was never the issue with my amp but at anything other than ear splitting volumes, saturation was. I just couldn't get the Holydiver to give up the sounds I wanted on some songs but just 5 minutes with this pedal suggests this was a better route to take than installing a Warpig. Rhythm tones are difficult to describe. They seem more defined but retain the characteristic smoothness of the Holydiver while lead tones are beautifully saturated and pinched harmonics fly off the fretboard, which is something I was a little disappointed with before. I think the best pickup I've ever owned just got a bit better :D I'll post more details later when I've had time to play properly.
-
Sounds good man! Does it clean up well?
-
the joyo vintage od is what you want if you're using it as a boost. it's a tubescreamer clone.
the ultimate drive is an OCD clone. it's also a nice drive but is better (imo) as a standalone overdrive over a clean tone rather than as a boost.
EDIT: ah right, too late :lol:
Not having heard about them until this thread, decided to grab a Joyo Vintage OD and give it a bash. VERDICT: think I liked it a bit better in front of my 5150 than my Boss SD-1 (gain seemed a bit less "fizzy" and the VOD seemed to make the overall sound less trebley) so that's a plus. However, big minus: it broke last night, in the second practice I used it. So I think I'll be sticking with the SD-1 for now, as it's lasted me sixteen-odd years of being trodden on.
-
Those Joyo units, as well as the Biyang ones, seem to be extremely good buys for a mass produced unit.
Don't know about the Joyo but we bought in the Biyang OD, trem and delay to see if they were any good... the trem and delays ate batteries like nobody's business (they lasted around 1/2 an hour - so poor design there) and there was a very noticeable drop in signal level when the trem was engaged so that was not acceptable... both delay and the OD were noisy as hell so they weren't acceptable either...
I've since bought both Fulltone Fulldrive II and Plimsoul pedals and the Fulldrive is a bit tame and works better as a clean boost in 'CompCut' mode but the Plimsoul is pretty kick *ss as an overdrive... have also tried the new Mudhoney II from T-Rex and that's pretty cool too... I'd stay away from cheap pedals though...
-
I'd stay away from cheap pedals though
Same here. I haven't had good experience with cheap pedals.
-
Funny that, because I have had terrible luck with boo teek pedals - 2 HBEs have cr@pped out on me, a Protone and a Toadworks .