Overdrives

[schenr]

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.

[monkey8911]

I´d look at the OCD, Tone Freak Severe and Catalinbread DLS.
All great big sounding ODs.

[Slartibartfarst42]

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.

[monkey8911]

Oh, ok, keep us posted!

[Telerocker]

If you don't want to break the bank have a look at Tonerider-pedals.

[Slartibartfarst42]

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.

[monkey8911]

Sounds good man! Does it clean up well?

[richardjmorgan]

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.

[damnedyankee]

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...

[Mr. Air]

I'd stay away from cheap pedals though

Same here. I haven't had good experience with cheap pedals.

[Elliot]

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 .