Your favorite amp-like OD Pedal???

[spidey]

I've heard great sounding clips on yt of the giggety pedal, though not in the flesh.
Would love to try one.

 

[JDPS150]

:rofl :biggrin: Love that description.

If I need more drive I have a Fulltone OCD which can sound great but can get a little too 'gainy' for me. Maybe it's cos I only ever use a 1 X P90 guitar? Anyone know if these sound better with buckers?

I found that the OCD sounds completely different amp to amp.
Have a V1, sound good w/ my WoodCross amps. Ok with a Hot Rod Deluxe. Not good at all w/ a Custom Vibrolux. And on the bad side w/ a Sansamp.

 

[Axis29]

My favorite drive pedal... that truly behaves like an amp is, believe it or not, a fuzz. MY Keeley Fuzz Head doesn't overly color the tone and cleans up so nicely with a little twist of the guitar's volume knob.

The other constant for a number of years, that emulate an amp is my Zvex Distortron (which is half of the Box of Rock).

I've also really enjoyed my Danelectro Transparent Overdrive, but I am impatiently waiting delivery of a Tim pedal. The transparent drive has always worked with my Fender amps to make them sound like they're turned up without adding more volume.

 

[Zemaitis]

I wasn't much of a pedal user, liked an amp with a master volume. Then I tried one of these:

http://www.g2d.co.nz/

Now I set the amp clean and use the pedal for overdrive and solo boost.
I have the Custom Overdrive and the Cream Tone.

 

[Don]

My favorite drive pedal... that truly behaves like an amp is, believe it or not, a fuzz. MY Keeley Fuzz Head doesn't overly color the tone and cleans up so nicely with a little twist of the guitar's volume knob.

I have a Fuzz Head as well and find it to be pretty amp-like. My Fulltone '69 Pedal cleans up from the guitar even better though I don't consider it to be "amp-like".

 

[Axis29]

I have a Fuzz Head as well and find it to be pretty amp-like. My Fulltone '69 Pedal cleans up from the guitar even better though I don't consider it to be "amp-like".

I also have a Plum Crazy Effect Fuzzy Lady... Which cleans up like the FH and the '69. I wouldn't call it amp like either. It's just straight up fuzz-like! eace2

 

[Patrick Ginnaty]

I use a Fulltone Fulldrive. Sometimes I use it for straight od, and sometimes I turn it on and control it with my guitar volume for a meatier rhythm sound that still sounds fairly natural. That IS what the question was in the beginning, about od pedals that clean up with the guitar volume?

 

[ch willie]

I've been using a Digitech Bad Monkey, but I don't like it anymore. So I've ordered a Tonebone Hot British tube pedal. We'll see if it does the job.

 

[goldtop0]

I wasn't much of a pedal user, liked an amp with a master volume. Then I tried one of these:

http://www.g2d.co.nz/

Now I set the amp clean and use the pedal for overdrive and solo boost.
I have the Custom Overdrive and the Cream Tone.

Hi Zemaitis, was going to email you about this but that doesn't happen with your setup here.
I use the Custom od and while I find it is a good enough pedal(had it modded a little to give me a cleaner and smoother od around the dial) it does drop off
a certain amount of the amps bottom end when engaged.
Do you find that with yours?

 

[tjsmith76]

I am loving my wampler paisley drive! It's killer!

 

[sgtJoe]

BOSS SD-1 with the Fromel mod.

 

[Cogswell]

I have two TS-9s, one original & one RI. I recently took the RI & switched out the 75558 chip for a 4558 chip. I actually put in a socket so I can switch out different chips if I want to. The upshot is that I'm using the RI TS-9 now because it sounds so good.

 

[Sol]

Another mention for the Maxon OD820 with the drive set to minimum you get a clean signal, so there is your clean boost, and as you bring the drive up, a little of the clean seems to stay with you until around 11 o'clock or so. Maxon developed the pedal to be the last word in tubescreamers, and I think they did it.

But the pedal that meets all your criteria, and will be far more versatile than the OD820 is the 'Blackstone Mosfet Overdrive'.

Its a true two channel pedal the size of an MXR and sounds amazing in front of a clean amp, it also cleans up from the guitar better than any other pedal Ive had. It has a huge range to the gain and is more amp like in its gain/ overdrive tone than many other pedals.

 

[jrr]

Another Maxon 820 fan here.For what it does (clean boost thing,or Marshall crunch boost)the transparency is excellent as is the tone.
To cover the ground that the Maxon 820 doesn't,i have an original first series Menatone Blue Collar on my board as well.The Blue Collar is a little *browner* sounding than the 820.And an early Red Snapper.These 3 pedals give me just the amp,except more of it.with excellent tone.
When i go without board and one pedal into my JTM 45(need to travel light! ) the 820 is it.

 

[dc007]

Went from OCD to Zvex Distortron....and love it. Very amp like when using guitar volume control. And the Bad Monkey mentioned earlier is the best cheap overdrive I have ever used.

 

[Sol]

I forgot to mention that if your into TS types you really should check out the Fulltone Fulldrive. I have the Fulldrive and the Maxon OD820 as the differences between the two make it worth while having them both, but if I were using them with a clean amp I would go with the Fulldrive as the harmonic overtones are more complex.

While the Blackstone is the most responsive to pick attack and cleaning up from the guitar, the Fulltone OCD runs it a close second in both departments, and is about the most versatile single channel drive pedal Ive come across.

Indie/alt blues/rock are all within easy reach of the OCD, so well worth checking one out.

BTW: When asking pedal questions it always helps to know your amp and guitar/s choice, as some pedals are picky and work better with some amps than others.

 

[gypsyseven]

BTW: When asking pedal questions it always helps to know your amp and guitar/s choice, as some pedals are picky and work better with some amps than others.

Gibson R8 into a "modded" Fender Blues Deluxe.

 

[Big Al]

I have two TS-9s, one original & one RI. I recently took the RI & switched out the 75558 chip for a 4558 chip. I actually put in a socket so I can switch out different chips if I want to. The upshot is that I'm using the RI TS-9 now because it sounds so good.

Cogs! isn't that the way it always goes? Never what you expect from the common accepted wisdom. I had two vintage TS9's awhile ago, before all this talk about chips and after careful listening I decided to keep the best one and sell the other. The best one was my fave and most of my buds agreed. When all the hoopla about 4558 chips started I opened the back to find I had the TA 75558 chip (THE BAD ONE) and it sounds great! My Japanese Reissue TS9 has the 4558 chip and too my ears sounds Identical or awful damn close to the vintage one. WTF!!:bigal WTF!!!! I am no electronics expert for sure, but I do have ears and TO ME, I don't hear any major difference in this case. I have not compared many others and as I have said, I came late to the whole chip thing anyway. So my experience is very limited.

Are older TA75558 chips and newer 4558 chips the same? That would account for my pair.

I know from what I've read that the TA75558 chip is supposed to be awful, yet I also read that that is the one that Eric Johnson prefers in his TS9? What I heard when comparing my vintage ones,(and I never knew what chips were in them so I don't even know what I was comparing), was that the one I kept had a more useful TONE control range. That was the big diff for me. The sonic dirt was very similar but on one I could easily get the tone effect I wanted from the pedal. The other one was harsher on the treble and muddier on the bass.

What I've never seen is a comparison that defines the difference or if there really is a difference, or if the chips themselves are different in the way that various 6l6 tubes can be quite different? Or is it within the circuits themselves?

What should I look for and what real info is there about this other than the Voodoo stuff that is hard to quantify?

 

[Mr. Papa]

I am loving my wampler paisley drive! It's killer!

I tried one of these out and liked it, too.

 

[57GoldTopAztec]

Vox Valvetone rules for OD. For distortion, Fulltone Plimsoul. Push either with a BB Preamp. You will be a happy boy.