Overdrive pedal

EmiAba

EmiAba

Active member
Hi
I want to add a OD pedal to my gear. My guitars are all Les Pauls played through a micro dark head coupled with an orange cab. Only a boss chorus and a vox wah in between. I play mainly metal stuff and I like so much the zakk wylde tone. Have you advices? A guy is offering at $130 a fulltone gt 500. What do you think about it?
 
Re: Overdrive pedal

I had a GT500 for a while and ended up selling - the distortion side is interesting (particularly with the mid-sweep) but didn't do it for me. The Boost was average. From Fulltone's line, I'd recommend the OCD and Plimsoul before the GT500.


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Re: Overdrive pedal

Yes, I was gonna mention the MXR Wylde Overdrive. If you go for the older ones (Wylde Overdrive rather than Berzerker Overdrive), they have an internal switch which can turn them into a MXR GT-OD, so it's almost like you get two pedals in one.

Either that or an MXR Classic Overdrive. Same circuit as the Wylde OD and the GT-OD, only in a cheaper (but still solid) enclosure.

Or the Boss SD-1, which is what the Wylde OD is based off. Quite honestly, I like my Boss SD-1 better than my Classic Overdrive these days.
 
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Re: Overdrive pedal

I'd like to get your impressions on this. I've tried the Micro Dark through two different cabs (Orange 1x12 and a Peavey 4x12) and the onboard distortion definitely sits in the fuzzy/sludgy side of things.
I'm interested in finding out if an OD pedal tightens things up a bit or not. It sounds great but I'd like having the choice of a tighter rhythm sound as well as those crazy loose sounds.

I like the idea of a Micro Dark but IMO as it is, my Egnater Tweaker kills it tonewise so I'm not sure yet.
 
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Re: Overdrive pedal

Diego said:
I'd like to get your impressions on this. I've tried the Micro Dark through two different cabs (Orange 1x12 and a Peavey 4x12) and the onboard distortion definitely sits in the fuzzy/sludgy side of things.
I'm interested in finding out if an OD pedal tightens things up a bit or not. It sounds great but I'd like having the choice of a tighter rhythm sound as well as those crazy loose sounds.

I like the idea of a Micro Dark but IMO as it is, my Egnater Tweaker kills it tonewise so I'm not sure yet.
Click to expand...

Thanks to all for replies. I guess it's unfair to compare the micro dark with all the other amp heads. it's a little hybrid amp and it has defects, it's not a tone machine, no way on this. But it's easy to use, easy to move and you can have a lot of fun with few bucks. You know exactly what's expected of it and it gets the job done. To go back to the subject of the thread, I need the overdrive to add texture/character to the sound and to give a little boost to the clean. My guitars are equipped with seymour duncan custom 8 and 59 alnico 4 and they are almost perfect. Just a little brick seems missing. MXR classic overdrive is like zw44? really?
 
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Re: Overdrive pedal

EmiAba -
Hello, I love the J.Rockett Archer for a real full boost and treble and grit too. But after I bought a J.Rockett "The Dude" pedal - which is supposed to be very similar to a Dumble like sound, "The Dude" is now my favorite boost of all. You can get anything out of it, plus if needed, it can tear your head off with just a transparent boost. Also it can sound like SRV. Or Leslie West, or Jeff Beck, or Hendrix. I will always have the Archer to boost big and fill a room, but the Dude is so versatile to me, it is my desert island pedal now.
I must say, I still use a Sparkle Drive from Voodoo Lab to get an always on grit kind of rhythm sound, but when I need a huge solo boost I now go to the Dude. I cannot say enough about it. The Archer is great at transparent boost with grit, and I use it live, but the Dude has character like I've never heard. I say and swear, on this day in February, the Dude is now my favorite transparent OR really full GRIT pedal of all time. I am 64 years old next month and my first pedal was an original germanium Fuzz Face Dallas Arbiter in 1967 when I was 15 or so. It was the first Fuzz Face to come to Seattle/Tacoma, it got stolen, and the only replacement had silicon based components. I have been through so many great pedals and bad, trying to achieve that first sound - volume on 10, fuzz on 1 or 2 - using that Fuzz Face as a transparent boost without knowing it, I have finally, in the last 2 years, found *for me* the best pedals I have used to get the sound I hear in my head.
Also Seymour Duncan pickups with magnet swaps here and there to get me where I am going also.
Thanks for reading, if you did (I am somewhat of a blabber mouth at times),
Steve Buffington
 
Re: Overdrive pedal

SJ318 said:
EmiAba -
Hello, I love the J.Rockett Archer for a real full boost and treble and grit too. But after I bought a J.Rockett "The Dude" pedal - which is supposed to be very similar to a Dumble like sound, "The Dude" is now my favorite boost of all. You can get anything out of it, plus if needed, it can tear your head off with just a transparent boost. Also it can sound like SRV. Or Leslie West, or Jeff Beck, or Hendrix. I will always have the Archer to boost big and fill a room, but the Dude is so versatile to me, it is my desert island pedal now.
I must say, I still use a Sparkle Drive from Voodoo Lab to get an always on grit kind of rhythm sound, but when I need a huge solo boost I now go to the Dude. I cannot say enough about it. The Archer is great at transparent boost with grit, and I use it live, but the Dude has character like I've never heard. I say and swear, on this day in February, the Dude is now my favorite transparent OR really full GRIT pedal of all time. I am 64 years old next month and my first pedal was an original germanium Fuzz Face Dallas Arbiter in 1967 when I was 15 or so. It was the first Fuzz Face to come to Seattle/Tacoma, it got stolen, and the only replacement had silicon based components. I have been through so many great pedals and bad, trying to achieve that first sound - volume on 10, fuzz on 1 or 2 - using that Fuzz Face as a transparent boost without knowing it, I have finally, in the last 2 years, found *for me* the best pedals I have used to get the sound I hear in my head.
Also Seymour Duncan pickups with magnet swaps here and there to get me where I am going also.
Thanks for reading, if you did (I am somewhat of a blabber mouth at times),
Steve Buffington
Click to expand...

Hi Steve
really appreciate your reply. And you are not a blabber mouth, only a passionate guy :) . Seymour Duncan forum is made on purpose to share info and knowledge, so always welcome someone like you. Never experienced with J.Rocket pedals and never heard about them. I'm going to search something on the internet, to have an idea on what you are talking about. And after I'll be back with impressions.
 
Re: Overdrive pedal

Are you looking to boost the overdrive in your amp or use it at a sole source of overdrive? If you are using it with your overdrive, I'd recommend our Forza, which is sort of a 'flat EQ' overdrive, with really good active EQ controls.
 
Re: Overdrive pedal

EmiAba,
Thanks for the kind words.
I would trust Mincer on all the Duncan recommended pedals, as he has been there and with them first hand. I think, after all
I said, that I would still check out "The Dude" pedal. It can do everything. Search "J. Rockett Audio Designs" on YouTube.
I don't care for Y.T. clips very much, but maybe you'll get lucky.
Steve
 
Re: Overdrive pedal

Mincer said:
Are you looking to boost the overdrive in your amp or use it at a sole source of overdrive? If you are using it with your overdrive, I'd recommend our Forza, which is sort of a 'flat EQ' overdrive, with really good active EQ controls.
Click to expand...

I need the OD to refine the sound. I like the tone of my les pauls and I they need just a little help to be perfect. and to boost the cleans too. I checked the Forza pedal on Seymour duncan website and I can admit that Forza is the right name: in italian (my native language) "forza" means strength and that's what the pedal add to the sound :)
still searching something on the dude pedal suggested by steve...
 
Re: Overdrive pedal

EmiAba said:
Ok. Now the question is: what is the difference between the classic overdrive and mxr gt-od?
Click to expand...

The GT-OD is the same as the Classic OD and Zakk Wylde. The Classic OD was a Guitar Center exclusive sold for $30, so I'd imagine those who paid more for the other two aren't happy.

They all have a hidden internal switch that makes it bold or slightly softer (ZW)

I think it's the best OD for that kind of money. It specializes in making a crunchy amp tight and highgain. If you're using it to get a lead tone on a clean amp, there's better pedals for that. And those more expensive pedals don't always do as good of a job beefing up a gainy amp like the Classic OD because they either have too much gain or they impart too much of their own tone.

I have a large collection of OD pedals, including both the green and the cream Classic OD. I have the cream one set on the Zakk setting, so the pedals don't sound the same. I love those pedals on Marshalls for making them as hot as a Bogner or Friedman.
 
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