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Whats the Greatest Overdrive Pedal Ever!


burton4snow

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+1 for the Bad Monkey (it replaced a TS-9 on my 2 pedal boards).

However, I also like the Danelectro Daddy-O (replaced a DS-1). But since I use the Daddy-O for more distortion and this thread is about the best OVERDRIVE I'll have to give my vote to the Bad Monkey:p

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Want to hear a funny story?

More than a few years back, I owned a early 70's Silverface Twin with a Torres "Texas Special" mod. I didn't like the amp much, before or after the Torres mod, and ultimately ended up buying a Tonemaster with a 2x12 cab (w/ Celestion Lead 80 speakers). Man what an awesome amp! Too bad it doesn't have reverb. Oh well, I digress.....

Anyway, I was jamming with a friend who happened to be ampless at the time. "No problem," I say, "you can use my Twin!".... Well, he hooks up his nasty old Tele to the Twin with an Ibanez Tube Screamer. Not an original or reissue TS, but one of those nasty black plastic ones from the early '90s.

G**damnit if his tone wasnt dead on like what I was getting out of the dirty channel of my "boutique" Tonemaster's dirty channel!!! I mean, his tone was almost the same in terms of every quality you could use to describe an overdriven sound! You could tell the difference between the open and closed-back cabs, but the tone, feel and response of the two amps was nearly identical. Amazing!

Anyway, I learned two very valuable lessons that day. 1) Hooking up just about any distortion pedal in front of a clean Fender tube amp will get you a pretty darn good sound, and 2) "Boutique" does not necessarily mean "better". Keep yer ears open.

My favorite "overdrive/ditortion" pedals:


Good Luck!

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hmmmm.

I've had or have:
BOSS DS-1
Marshall BBII
Danelectro Daddy-O
Danelectro T-bone
BOSS ME 30
Keeley BOSS TS-9
Keeley BOSS BD-2
Keeley Java boost

I still own the last 3. they sound much much better, if you've got a decent tube amp. I think my fave as solo boost TS-9, fave as basic rock sound is BD-2 and Java is just nuts.

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I REALLY like the Boss BD-2. Lots of bottom end and a really full sound.

I use it with the gain at either 11 or 12 o'clock for a big healthy crunch, or around 3 o'clock for Live at Leeds mayhem. I was all set to buy a second one so that I could have both in the chain for live work without resetting, but I'm using the Bad Monkey for the lower-gain crunch now.

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Originally posted by Ace6550

Not an original or reissue TS, but one of those nasty black plastic ones from the early '90s.


G**damnit if his tone wasnt dead on like what I was getting out of the dirty channel of my "boutique" Tonemaster's dirty channel!!!

 

 

I was scared off of those myself because of the nasty plastic body, though if i found one for buttons these days I'd be tempted to see if i couldn't refit the guts into a nice metal box.... I do remember liking the sound of those. FWIW, I've heard a few folks over the years say they reckoned those were closer in sound to the originals than the TS9 reissue that was available at the same time.

 

Edited to add:

 

I love the Big Muffs - I own one of the very first reissues they did back in 94 - the military green "Sovtek/Electro-Hamonix" russian built one. Also hope to soon pick up one of the new Little Big Muffs. I'm even halfway tempted by the Behringer clone of the US BM, though I'd need to be finding one at about half price before I'd think it was worth it as opposed to just paying the extra for an original.... They've reviewed well here in the UK, the Behringers, though they did say that they're not quite a soundalike clone, more a decent fuzz pedal in their own right.

 

I have a Daphon OD pedal i got new for buttons on eBay, one of the last ones before they went to plastic rather than steel bodies. It's fantastic - compares very well to the Bad Monkey for sound and quality - and is apparently based on a very faithful reproduction of the TS9 (I think - might have been TS808) circuit. I've also been very impressed by the Marshall Bluesbreaker II that a friend bought - we went shopping for an OD pedal for her together a few years back ,and that was the one that turned out to be best at the time for sound and value - we compared it to the offerings from Boss (a fair bit cheaper, just as good as the Blues Driver), and Coloursound (not anywhere near as cool looking, but half the price and sounded the same).

 

On today's market, if I had to choose just one OD pedal that I would be happy relying on as my sole OD sound, it would have to be the Bad Monkey.

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