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OD/Distortion pedal recommandations


gatogordo

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Personally I have used the SD-1 then worked my way over to the TS9. I have yet to experiment with the OCD. For the price of the SD-1, IMO it is a good place to start if you don't know exactly what you want.
A friend of mine loves his VS J&H plus you kind of get two pedals for the price of one.

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I'd go for a full-drive 2. Fulltone makes great effects, and the full-drive works really well in front of whatever you put it in front of. Lots of other good suggestions here too. I usually end up with 4-5 different boosts/OD/distortion/fuzz pedals on my board for different flavors.

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The Digitech Bad Monkey does it for me most of the time...I like that it has Level, Low, High and Gain controls, giving it good flexibility...and it works well with a lot of pick-up and amp combinations. Duke Robillard has used one for years, preferring it over the
screamers. Another versatile pedal is the BOSS FDR-1, based on the Fender '65 Deluxe Reverb. While probably not on many dirt pedal lists, it sometimes out-grinds The B. Monkey on some amps...I bought one at a great discount about a year after they first came out.

It really is all about your guitar, your set-up, and your hands and your ears...what you want to hear, compared to what you're hearing. While it sounds obvious, some amps require a bunch of knob turning to find the sound.

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Barber Direct Drive. This pedal matches very well with the voicing of the DRRI and sounds killer. I had the Fulltone OCD and preferred the Direct Drive to the OCD with the DRRI.

If you want your DRRI to take on more of a Marshally distorted voice, don't bother with tube screamers or their derivatives - not gonna get you there. And don't even get me started on how horrible every Boss distortion or overdrive I've ever played is...

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At the moment I use Mad Professor Sweet Honey Overdrive and MXR Custom Badass '78 Distortion on my pedal board. Reaaaallllly like these both and I think they are going to stay on my board for a longer while now. What comes to fuzz, I use the Big Muff ?, but I'm dreaming of Fuzz Factory. That just has to wait now, 'cause I'm getting a new amp and the FF is really a pricey little precious box.

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Quote Originally Posted by scott944 View Post
I've owned this pedal for about a year and a half and still LOVE it. Cleans up super well with picking dynamics and volume control. First channel can be used as a clean boost, or OD, which has a very wide range. Second channel is very gainy, though just a bit darker than the first. The ISF control, which I wrote off as a marketing trick before buying mine, is actually very useful for quick fine tuning. It's a little spendy at $250'ish new, but they do pop up used - got mine from the GC used site for $180.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J9j8Gd6TBVw
I had one for a couple months. Didn't really bond with it. Sold it at a slight profit.
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Quote Originally Posted by BydoEmpire View Post
Fulltone Fulldrive 2. Amazing pedal - it's been on my board for almost ten years now.
another vote for the Full Drive 2 - great sounding and versatile. (2 separate distortion levels, plus a clean setting for a great sounding boost)
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Back in either the late 80's or very early 90's I picked up a Maxon PDS1 for (if I recall) ten dollars used and have never stopped toying with it. I was after the dry out feature as I run two sets of pedals into two separate amps for a layered sound but was instantly taken in by the versatility of the thing. Again going by memory but I seem to recall it having five or so of the OG tube screamer chips inside of it.

2vabeq1.jpg

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Quote Originally Posted by honeyiscool

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I have to say, though, that the only OD pedal that I've really LOVED throughout the years is the Boss OD-3, which is sorta like a Blues Driver but better. It's simply the smoothest, most pleasing overdrive I've ever heard. It's also rarely talked about but ask anyone who has ever used an OD-3. It's everything an overdrive pedal needs to be. It works great as its own overdrive into a clean amp, it also works as a gritty boost into a drive channel (how I prefer to use it), and it's clean enough that you can use other pedals in conjunction with it.

 

Another vote for the Boss OD-3. I've tried lots of pedals over the years and this is the one I still use, along with an SD-1.
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I'm a dual overdrive enthusiast that uses an HD500 too. For cheap I think the T-Rex Yellow Drive for $125 at GC is a very good overdrive / distortion combo because it has a Tubescreamer / Rat vibe to it and sounds reall good live whether you use it with humbuckers or single coils. I also like the Wilson Dual Lotus 2, the Fulltone Fulldrive (very good too), the TC Electronics Nova Drive, and the Foxrox Zim. Sometimes you can pickup the Nova Drive on sale for cheap; very versatile plus the overdrive can blend in part of the clean signal like the Sparkle Drive which I like.

BTW - I mainly play live where less is more and old man Munson Fletcher and I have had our bouts...smile.gif

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