Overdrive Pedals - plea from a non-Techie

[andy_prs]

Hi there,

As per my only other post, I have never had the good luck to come across a Dumble to play through in the UK. I have played through the Bogner Ecstacy and Shiva recently and they were great - beautiful, harmonic overdrive and plenty of it. Price is way out of my range though.

In terms of pedals, I've heard the Zen Drive referred to a lot. My own research has also pointed me to the Blackstone Overdrive (http://blackstoneappliances.com/)

Has anyone tried these or have others they would recommend? I'm looking for quality overdrive from just breaking up right up to the limits of the bogner ecstacy.... I would either be using them through the clean channel of my Marshall TSL or Roland Bolt.

I'd also love any other suggestions of what amps/mods I could use. I'm handy with a soldering iron and open to a challenge...but have no knowledge to design anything or mountains of £££$$$.....

Finally, one basic (read stupid) question. I often see people talking about using Tube Screamer type pedals to push a valve amp into overdrive. How would that work? I have a Seymour Duncan pickup booster and although I use it as a clean boost, surely that would be expected to push my valve amps into overdrive? It never does..... as I say, apologies, I have no tech background in this field.

Thanks for your time.
Andy

[sliberty]

Andy,

I can't coment on the other pedals you mentioned, but with regard to the Tube Screamer, here is what i can say.

If you keep the level knob turned down somewhat, the only "drive" this pedal will produce is from the pedal itself. In order to drive your amp into crunchy territory, you need to push the level up considerably. This would also be true of clean boosts and many other pedals. if the level is fairly equivalent to the bypassed level, you are not pushing your amp at all.

I prefer clean boosts for this purpose. The Tube Screamer (whcn stock) has a noticeable mid boost and bass roll-off that I don't always like too much. I modded mine to restore the bass response, and it is better, but I still tend to gravitate towards my SHO clone or my LPB1 clone or my Red Llama clone. I generally set the amp just on the verge of the breakup level I want for lead, and that way when the pedal kicks in , it pushes the crunch level over that edge.

Hope this helps.
Steve

[David Root]

Don't forget the KLON either, it has a high reputation too.

[El_Martin]

Hi Andy!

I don't know, how the TSL reacts on pedals in front...
Most of the lower gain tube amps will work fine with these pedals.
Lately I bought a little EQ pedal. Works nice for different purposes, guitars and amps. Can use it to push the mids, a treble boost or just an overall boost.
There's a German site called dietside...(do a search)
He has tested and commented on lots of low gain distortion boxes. Use babelfish or whatever tool to translate. One of the best boxes out there is the OKKO DIABLO overdrive.

Ciao
Martin

[andy_prs]

Thanks for the replies..... It's really important to me to also find a pedal that can deal with the higher gain sounds....any recommendations for those?

Thanks,
Andy

[gearhead]

If you want to get higher gain and lower gain/boost in one pedal, be prepared to twiddle knobs between the two. Or find one with a boost function.

For one that can cover both, I'd highly recommend the MI Audio Tube Zone (6 knob version).

I have a Zen Drive, and it is the closest amp-like pedal I've played, but it doesn't do high gain. Besides, the going rate is twice the Tube Zone.

[rockford]

Andy, a good amp like pedal is the TIM. No kidding, also heard raves about the fetto (swedish). High gain tones.

[oldhousescott]

Another good amp-like pedal is the Emma ReezaFratzits. I wouldn't call it high-gain, more like a lightly to heavily overdriven amp tone. Very unique sounding, not at all like a TS.

For higher gain sounds, maybe something like the Subdecay Blackstar would suit.