Re: Need a higher gain overdrive pedal (MXR sized)
I will check it out, thanks!
Oh yeah, you won't be disappointed with the Waza Craft SD-1W. It has a real appealing flavor and just the way it way it interacts with your amp and signal chain, and it has a natural touch response. It's not a lot more gain than the BB, but a little bit more. Here's the deal though...
There is a mini toggle switch that sets it in classic mode and in modded mode. I've been through so many BOSS pedals, owned all the Waza Craft and love them all, but the SD-1W is my favorite. I was fawning over my Waza BD-1W for the past year. Then finally took the SD-1W for a spin and was an easy decision to replace the BD-1W. Not that it's better, I just like it overall and it either has a tad bit more gain or feels like it does. It's just a really friendly pedal. It doesn't sound fuzzy, and it doesn't have a muddy asymmetrical clipping like some boutique pedals.
You can stack it with a real clean, transparent boost. What that does is let you use a clean, single channel amp more flexibly. Just leave the transparent clean boost on all the time so when you're playing clean, it's got more balls and cuts through and can match the level of your drive volume. Then when you click the SD-1W on, it adds a little more gain to the SD-W, so you basically switch on and off the SD-1W like you're clicking between a clean and dirty channel. So far, I've really liked my Klon KTR, Fulltone Fulldrive, Keeley Java Boost. and Maxon OD820 for pure clean boosts to to with the SD-1W (and yeah, the OD820 has an amazing clean boost built in. You just leave the gain at 0).
Two more positive things I can tell you about it. I hate pedals that don't blend too well with your amp gain. I really love the BB and BB+, but sometimes it takes a little work to get it mixing in my signal the way I like my distortion to sound. When the blend the left and right side of the BB+ at higher gain settings, it's a little tricky to get the right mix. What I hate is when you can hear kind of a transparent signal riding your distortion. I like it to be mixed all in so it sounds like it's saturating the signal. The SD-1W mixes so well. It's no problem to work with.
Lastly, there are some BOSS pedals I just hate like the DS-1 and the Metal Zone. Some of the BOSS pedals have a sucky bypass. I bought one of those cool looking anniversary editions of the DS-1 and the bypass was poor. You could hear it and it feel it even with the pedal bypassed. It has a cruddy bright edge. Some of the BOSS pedals are pretty good overall, like the Blues Driver. However, the Waza Craft Blues Driver is so much better. When I had mine, I never used it in standard mode. When it comes to the SD-1W, it's actually really good both ways. It has a greater bypass than any of the other BOSS pedals I've owned for whatever reason.
Like I said, if you're looking for a tad more gain, the SD-1W will do it. If you're looking for more gain than that and don't have room for the BB+, then get a JHS Moonshine. I can fawn over that pedal all day too because it's amazing and the gain is significantly more, but it's not a distortion. You can get them used for a great price or new for around $190-200.
