Your Favorite Low/Mid Gain Overdrive?

PFDarkside

PFDarkside

of the Forum
So I was jamming last night, dialed in an awesome fat clean tone with the strat neck, the bridge was biting yet not harsh, and I was even digging the quack positions. ;) I found myself wanting a light overdrive tone, that type that grits when you dig in, yet all but disappears when you lay back. I hate to use the overused cliché 'bluesy', but I'm almost thinking of something like what SRV might do on Little Wing or his other instrumentals. Something refined and behaved, yet also sensitive to playing dynamics.

Anyway, I've been browsing different manufacturers and MAN are there a lot to choose from! ;) I remember having my eye on a Liquid Sunshine a while ago, I've never played a Fulldrive, but those seem quite popular for this type of usage, amongst many, MANY others.

Most of my tone preferences are quite different than many here (love those fuzzes, muffs, high gain amps :)) but I think this is right up the alley of a lot of guys here...
What's your favorite low/mid gain OD box for layering on a nice clean tube amp, with a little less compression and mid spike than a TS, but still in that OD ballpark? More importantly, why?
 
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Re: Your Favorite Low/Mid Gain Overdrive?

my barber ltd. great overdrive with volume, tone, gain but also has presence and bass controls inside the box so you can taylor the tone to match your guitar/amp combo. the real trick is to run it at higher voltage, i run mine at 18v with either a power supply or two 9v batterys in series. it gives the pedal more headroom and a more transparent sound. blindfolded i bet you wouldnt be able to tell if i stepped on the pedal or turned the amp up two notches
 
Re: Your Favorite Low/Mid Gain Overdrive?

PFDarkside said:
I remember having my eye on a Liquid Sunshine a while ago
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Yes. Absolutely the right choice - best I've tried for that only-just-dirty sound (and it'll do mid crunch too). Why? Because unlike most ODs it doesn't do that papery futzy noise as the signal fades out.
 
Re: Your Favorite Low/Mid Gain Overdrive?

Representing the lower budget crowd, I'm liking the sounds of my Digitech Screamin' Blues. The secret is to turn the treble control down, as this is a rather bright pedal, and keep the gain at moderate levels. Great Stevie Ray "ping".

I also like my Route 66. A very nice smooth overdrive that cuts through a mix well.

I recently had the pleasure of playing through a friend's BBE Green Screamer. Meant to be an obvious alternative to a Tube Screamer, it was very satisfying. Even at the highest gain levels, the voice of the guitar itself could be heard clearly through the grit.

For those who prefer to get this tone from an amp, my Fender Supersonic does a fine job with the clean channels Bassman voicing.

And maybe the best I've heard yet is the Mesa Boogie Lonestar's gritty, greasy, but warm and tubey tones.
 
Re: Your Favorite Low/Mid Gain Overdrive?

Monkey baby! Absolutely love this pedal. For $40, you get a TS-style with 2 band eq.
 
Re: Your Favorite Low/Mid Gain Overdrive?

Zendrive for tone, but the Bad Monkey is the winner for best value.
 
Re: Your Favorite Low/Mid Gain Overdrive?

There is nothing out there that I have tried that can even come close to my King of Tone V4 for low to mid gain sounds...nothing!
 
Re: Your Favorite Low/Mid Gain Overdrive?

**** you Christian!!! I was just thinking about how awesome my SunLion is then wondering if TGWIF was going to come by and mention the KOT... lol

EDIT - Wow, the star thing makes it look worse than it is! Could be an F bomb! (Substitute what beavers build...)
 
Re: Your Favorite Low/Mid Gain Overdrive?

PFDarkside said:
**** you Christian!!! I was just thinking about how awesome my SunLion is then wondering if TGWIF was going to come by and mention the KOT... lol
EDIT - Wow, the star thing makes it look worse than it is! Could be an F bomb! (Substitute what beavers build...)
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The KoT is an amzing pedal...the killer part is that v4 can be set up in all kinds of different ways...it's OD is better than any TS/SD/Fulldrive style pedal EVER the distortion setting is very natural sounding and very touch sensitive and the clean side will out clean boost a Klon IMHO!
 
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Re: Your Favorite Low/Mid Gain Overdrive?

I like a few different ones. The old Boss SD-2 has 2 different modes with different distortion tones and separate tone controls. The first mode is probably the smoothest overdrive I own.
 
Re: Your Favorite Low/Mid Gain Overdrive?

I really like the HBE Power Screamer for low/mid gain stuff or the G2D Custom Overdrive for slighter higher gain stuff.
 
Re: Your Favorite Low/Mid Gain Overdrive?

My fave is my MIJ Boss DS-1. Same pedal used by Joe Satriani for so long.
 
Re: Your Favorite Low/Mid Gain Overdrive?

Trilogy said:
What that one 'holy grail' (aside from the KOT) OD? It had a picture of the Centaur or Minotaur or whatever that half man half horse mythological character was??



I'd really love to hear those two again, both are just amazing ...



EDIT, aww I just read it, it was the KLON (I think).
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You are thinking of the Klon Centaur. Never tried it but read about it.

What about the Mesa Boogie V Twin? I tried one in a guitar shop many years ago. The blue channel is, well, blue!! Smoky, cryin', not very sustainy, but with that smooth break up.

Lew, I don't think the DS-1 does low/mid gain overdrive, does it? My MIT DS-1 sure doesn't.
 
Re: Your Favorite Low/Mid Gain Overdrive?

I've been diggin' my Blue Tube pedal from Tubeworks . I put an old Telefunken tube in it, and it does the play softer-get less drive/play harder-get more thing nicely. Has a three band EQ and since it was designed for bass, not a lot of drive, even with the drive full up.

I play it into my Bassman, and it sounds fine indeed. I've got some samples in the soundclick tracks in my sig.

Blue_Tube_web.jpg
 
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