overdrive pedal for my drive channel

[B.Cross]

I am using a peavey classic 30 with a 10 band eq in front for extra gain on the drive channel. I really dig the drive channel on this thing for rythym but for lead guitar it lacks a smooth tone and is kinda harsh and of course being a 1x12 doesn't help but do use an extension cab with a g12h30. We play cover tunes in the midwest so the venue is classic rock from the stones to zeppelin to queensryche to godsmack.
I have tried
TS DX-9
Boss OD-1
Way Huge green rhino
Digitech Hardwire CM-2 overdrive
OCD fulltone overdrive
Fulltone GT-500

And didn't really dig any of those stacked on the drive channel except the green rhino but wasn't completely satisfied.
Any other suggestions would be appreciated
Trying to keep it inexpensive and buying used
Thanks

 

[AlexR]

Re: overdrive pedal for my drive channel

Thats some list of nice pedals that you're not satisfied with:eek1:

What didn't they do that you were most after????

The MXR Zakk Wylde OD is designed specifically to drive a dirty amp further. I've not seen many reviews that actually test this, but it is supposed to be quite nice.
It leaves some of your dry signal untouched, so the output is part clean, part boosted. This seems to give extra body to the tone, as its not all clipped into the amp.

Another option is the MI audio tube-zone. In a clean boost setting it adds a lot of character to the drive channel. It also has multiple tone knobs to tweak the character of the drive.

 

[B.Cross]

Re: overdrive pedal for my drive channel

Thats some list of nice pedals that you're not satisfied with:eek1:

What didn't they do that you were most after????

The MXR Zakk Wylde OD is designed specifically to drive a dirty amp further. I've not seen many reviews that actually test this, but it is supposed to be quite nice.
It leaves some of your dry signal untouched, so the output is part clean, part boosted. This seems to give extra body to the tone, as its not all clipped into the amp.

Another option is the MI audio tube-zone. In a clean boost setting it adds a lot of character to the drive channel. It also has multiple tone knobs to tweak the character of the drive.

Haven't tried the zakk wylde as of yet, but the OCD and the fulltones sounded well too bassy or like there was a blanket over the speaker of course I eq'ed the amp and the pedals but could not get rid of the blanket and tried a couple of guitars with it. I read that there is an internal switch for the zakk wylde pedal is that true? And what is it for?

What do you think of the way huge angry troll
and the zvex super hard on

 

[GLJazz]

Re: overdrive pedal for my drive channel

The SHO might get you where you want if you've got blanket syndrome. It isn't a drive pedal on its own, but it boosts your signal hard in to the amp and should retain the transparency and clarity you want.

The Fulltone Fulldrive 2 is another that is considered by some to be the be all end all drive pedal. It's a TS derivative but with a boost and a whole lot more clarity. Should color (blanket, to your ears) your sound a lot less than the GT or OCD.

GL : popworm:

 

[B.Cross]

Re: overdrive pedal for my drive channel

The SHO might get you where you want if you've got blanket syndrome. It isn't a drive pedal on its own, but it boosts your signal hard in to the amp and should retain the transparency and clarity you want.

The Fulltone Fulldrive 2 is another that is considered by some to be the be all end all drive pedal. It's a TS derivative but with a boost and a whole lot more clarity. Should color (blanket, to your ears) your sound a lot less than the GT or OCD.

GL : popworm:

For some reason the TS tone sounds like it has too much compression and don't like it all that much.

 

[Chickenwings]

Re: overdrive pedal for my drive channel

i have used nearly all of the pedals you have mentioned. They all are good products. They all work great into a dirty amp. Some work great into a clean amp as well.
You are using a classic 30 (with the stock speaker?) and you blame the pedals?
All of them?
The classic 30 is a good working players amp...but it has limitations....one major one is that its el84 based....they have a great sound, but youll never get fat and smooth from that kind of amp - extension speakers or not.
I think you woulkd definitely benefit from looking around and playing a few different amps....perhaps 6v6 based....they are good for lower volue tube saturation, and will give you generally more headroom (and therefore more bass) so you can get a fatter, smoother tone. MOst od pedals will compress your tone - which of course is the point of them....but the "too much" compresion you have mentioned may well be due to the way the yinteract with the tubes in your amp.
Remember that any pedal is going to work differently with a diferent amp, so you may have to reevaluate your opinions on them all if you do upgrade you amp. Pedals that sound too bassy in your classic 30 may be because those little el 84 bottles saturate so easily and the bass flabs out.

Heres what i would recommend as a magic recipe to cover what you have mentioned in a small giggable package...
Fender Deluxe Reverb. Fulltone fulldrive and an ocd.
Killer cleans that will let you dial in some compression with you guitars volume knob.
Rich crunch tones with the ocd set low.
Smooth fat leads with the fulldrive.
Screaming sustaining leads with the fulldrive driving the ocd.
If a deluxe reverb does not have enough headroom for you, then look at one of the 6l6 based fenders - more headroom again, but still plenty of clarity and warmth....perhaps even go as big as a twin reverb....you cannot get a better amp for making the most of pedals - and it has 2 big beefy speakers that let you go from mellow and smooth to roaring - and the really great thing about these amps is the heavy jointed pine cabinets that makes the most out of your amp and speaker selection.

 

[B.Cross]

Re: overdrive pedal for my drive channel

i have used nearly all of the pedals you have mentioned. They all are good products. They all work great into a dirty amp. Some work great into a clean amp as well.
You are using a classic 30 (with the stock speaker?) and you blame the pedals?
All of them?
The classic 30 is a good working players amp...but it has limitations....one major one is that its el84 based....they have a great sound, but youll never get fat and smooth from that kind of amp - extension speakers or not.
I think you woulkd definitely benefit from looking around and playing a few different amps....perhaps 6v6 based....they are good for lower volue tube saturation, and will give you generally more headroom (and therefore more bass) so you can get a fatter, smoother tone. MOst od pedals will compress your tone - which of course is the point of them....but the "too much" compresion you have mentioned may well be due to the way the yinteract with the tubes in your amp.
Remember that any pedal is going to work differently with a diferent amp, so you may have to reevaluate your opinions on them all if you do upgrade you amp. Pedals that sound too bassy in your classic 30 may be because those little el 84 bottles saturate so easily and the bass flabs out.

Heres what i would recommend as a magic recipe to cover what you have mentioned in a small giggable package...
Fender Deluxe Reverb. Fulltone fulldrive and an ocd.
Killer cleans that will let you dial in some compression with you guitars volume knob.
Rich crunch tones with the ocd set low.
Smooth fat leads with the fulldrive.
Screaming sustaining leads with the fulldrive driving the ocd.
If a deluxe reverb does not have enough headroom for you, then look at one of the 6l6 based fenders - more headroom again, but still plenty of clarity and warmth....perhaps even go as big as a twin reverb....you cannot get a better amp for making the most of pedals - and it has 2 big beefy speakers that let you go from mellow and smooth to roaring - and the really great thing about these amps is the heavy jointed pine cabinets that makes the most out of your amp and speaker selection.

I have a deluxe sitting in one of my closets, and have to say I prefer the peavey over it. And the drive pedals that I mentioned do the same thing on my deluxe. As far as the power section of the amps I don't think it really makes any difference whatsoever. I think it is a matter of choosing the right pedal for your amp. As I am not looking to use the clean channel for my drive nor do I wish to. The reason I am using the peavey is for the drive channel I don't use the clean channel unless it's required for a tune we do and there are only two songs I use the clean for and it does the job just fine. Never cared for fender amps all that much anyway. The only good thing about my deluxe is the reverb, the rest of it I have covered. Do not care for fat bassy leads from the fulltone as I described I did not care for the tone that it was producing. We play rock and hard rock and the pedals that I mentioned don't really produce some of the tone I am after. Now of course the Barber dirty bomb is a pedal that I haven't tried as of yet but looks promising.

 

[devastone]

Re: overdrive pedal for my drive channel

How's this for cheap: http://www.guitarcenter.com/Danelectro-D-2-Fab-Overdrive-103368957-i1124582.gc

And yeah, they are good!

Or, maybe a Boss DS-1 or a Rat with the drive set low, that might be more to your taste.

 

[jeremy]

Re: overdrive pedal for my drive channel

its not cheap but the timmy pedal is the best lead boost ive used on an overdriven amp. its a transparent overdrive that works very well to give you more of what you already have. it has treble and bass eq knobs as well as gain and volume, so you can taylor your lead tone to be very smooth if you want. very musical and feels like an amp


as a side note, fender hasnt used solid pine cabs on most amps for a LONG time. baltic birch plywood is used on the twin ri amps

 

[devastone]

Re: overdrive pedal for my drive channel

There ya go, the extreme opposite ends of the spectrum in 2 posts...

 

[jeremy]

Re: overdrive pedal for my drive channel

well its not klon expensive lol

 

[Aceman]

Re: overdrive pedal for my drive channel

Or, maybe a Boss DS-1 or a Rat with the drive set low, that might be more to your taste.

I'm gonna throw out Bad Monkey - just because of the general love, and no one else has.

But I was thinking exactly the same thing. Maybe what you need to do is abandon OD land and step it up to a distortion pedal....

 

[B.Cross]

Re: overdrive pedal for my drive channel

I'm gonna throw out Bad Monkey - just because of the general love, and no one else has.

But I was thinking exactly the same thing. Maybe what you need to do is abandon OD land and step it up to a distortion pedal....

You may well be right about that but I would just be using it for the boost as I want the amp drive channel to provide most of the saturation, as I want it to be a smoother tone not harsh. The classic 30 reminds me of a laney I used to have on the drive channel and it's very good, thinking about swapping some preamp tubes and see what I get there. But still need the extra drive to shred ya know where it's as easy as a higher gain SS amp might be to shred on.

 

[AlexR]

Re: overdrive pedal for my drive channel

We're not saying to use it any differently than you are doing now, but the grittier nature of distortion as opposed to OD may well 'lift the blanket off'. OD is a full, mids + bass tone which sounds like its too much for your playing tone/style.

 

[B.Cross]

Re: overdrive pedal for my drive channel

We're not saying to use it any differently than you are doing now, but the grittier nature of distortion as opposed to OD may well 'lift the blanket off'. OD is a full, mids + bass tone which sounds like its too much for your playing tone/style.

So what do you recommend, I have been eyeballing the hardwire sc-2 the barber dirty bomb and the biyang metal end so far

 

[fws]

Re: overdrive pedal for my drive channel

Try Danelectro Cool Cat Transparent Overdrive V2, with V2 being important. I havent tried real Timmy, but the V1 was its copy, and while it was certainly good, the V2 is better when it comes just to boosting and adding some gain. The thing is that V2 is the only overdrive I would call transparent (V1 really wasnt). It doesnt add any noticable treble, mid or anything like that.

Here is the demo of V2 where it is used to boost some already high gain sounds.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aqfz0-k3osE

Here is comparision between V1 and V2 by Gearmandude.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xe3WadF77Ig

As for FAB series, I dont know about Overdrive, but Ive got FAB Fuzz and bypass cuts a lot of tone. Also it requires change of knobs to be of any use in stage situations, cause you cant feel their position or see them.

 

[Davidandrew]

Re: overdrive pedal for my drive channel

Heres what i would recommend as a magic recipe to cover what you have mentioned in a small giggable package...
Fender Deluxe Reverb. Fulltone fulldrive and an ocd.
Killer cleans that will let you dial in some compression with you guitars volume knob.
Rich crunch tones with the ocd set low.
Smooth fat leads with the fulldrive.
Screaming sustaining leads with the fulldrive driving the ocd.
If a deluxe reverb does not have enough headroom for you, then look at one of the 6l6 based fenders - more headroom again, but still plenty of clarity and warmth....perhaps even go as big as a twin reverb....you cannot get a better amp for making the most of pedals - and it has 2 big beefy speakers that let you go from mellow and smooth to roaring - and the really great thing about these amps is the heavy jointed pine cabinets that makes the most out of your amp and speaker selection.

+1 he speaks the truth and like he said if the deluxe doesnt have enough head room you can go through the amps all the way down to the Twin Reverb.

 

[AlexR]

Re: overdrive pedal for my drive channel

So what do you recommend, I have been eyeballing the hardwire sc-2 the barber dirty bomb and the biyang metal end so far

There are a lot of distortion pedals around.....and choosing which one is right will be tough, as it sounds like your needs are pretty specific. The keeley modified Boss DS1 has a couple of modes, which might make it a bit more flexible for tuning in a sound. This pedal sounds pretty 80's metal as stock into a clean amp (its what Metallica used for Kill 'em all), so adding a bit of this to your amp's tone to get some solo cut and extra drive may well work.

I'm not too up on distortion pedals, but the tortuga Yeti Fuzztorition might also be good. It has 3 mids settings for tone shaping

 

[B.Cross]

Re: overdrive pedal for my drive channel

+1 he speaks the truth and like he said if the deluxe doesnt have enough head room you can go through the amps all the way down to the Twin Reverb.

Well like I said don't really dig the fenders at all. That is why I am using a peavey as the matter of fact I believe that I have the deluxe sold. Anyway there is plenty of headroom on this little 30 watt amp. I am not unhappy with it at all. And I really hated the fulltone sound and have tried it on the deluxe as well as my b-52 {great sounding amp but built cheap}. I think I will give the rat another go around and the zakk wylde pedal if I can find one at the store.

 

[richard parker]

Re: overdrive pedal for my drive channel

Take one of your pedals and run it into the clean channel with the amp on about half volume. Set the gain on the pedal to zero but keep turning the pedal volume up until it's slamming the input of the amp. Then start turning the gain up until you have a great crunch rhythm sound. Then run one of your other pedals through the first one. The first pedal will boost the volume of the second one to whatever solo level you need and you can have as much gain as you want. Give it a try, you've got nothing to lose.