Seriously, what is the best overdrive pedal today?

This
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With this is very good but not with every guitar I have. Treble turned all the way up is piercing. Individually both can sound the same but not at the same settings.
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Both sides of this on…

Another super blow out because I wanted to try this type of 6 year waiting list pedal. I see why the waiting list pedals get sold all the time because you don’t need it because you more than likely already have it.
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…sound like both of these on.
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DoubleBarrel This is a Morning Glory (Kinda Blues Breaker) on the left and a Moonshine (kinda tubscreamer) on the right. To me the Morning glory sounds more like a tubescreamer than the Moonshine does.

Right toggle more and less of something. I mean you can hear something change but it’s meh. Center toggle controls which side gets signal first. Left toggle is another level of drive. I got it because they blew them out and I was more curious about the Morning glory than anything. It’s meh. Now that I have it and tried it I didn’t need it. It really doesn’t produce anything I didn’t already have the ability to do. The clean pot is an oddity giving you the ability to dial in some weird driven clean before turning into plinks.. They are not bad sound qualities just things I wasn’t searching for. I don’t find that it stacks well with overdrive pedals outside it’s own box.
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This is a Rat in disguise. My first one. It’s more overdrive than overdrive and less distortion than the real chuggie distortion stuff I love. However, if I lay down a heavy riff from like HellYeah and Black Sabbath this cuts though and it is heard very nice where as a Klon CLONE AND STACKED screamer sounds super thin and disappear. I like the classic setting. By itself big sustaining chords. IMO the hype Rats get is backed up. This is what I wanted a DS1 and SD1 to produce way back when.
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Yellow arrived today. Another JHS blowout $79 for their DOD 250 #75. My first DOD 250 type pedal. So far I have a SSS strat and a HSS that likes it. This with the Horseman/NotaKlon after it is really nice slide overdrive.
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For amp users, have you noticed a distinct (or any) difference in how the pedals work with tube amps vs. solid state amps?

I finally plugged in my old Blues DeVille 2x12, but it's wonky and only does piercingly loud at this time...not sure the volume controls are even working. I need to get it looked at (or at least start the utoob rabbit hole), but it's not really usable at this time. So, I'm thinking about getting a 1x12 SS amp in the 30-60 watt range.
 
Dogsinplastic said:
For amp users, have you noticed a distinct (or any) difference in how the pedals work with tube amps vs. solid state amps?

I finally plugged in my old Blues DeVille 2x12, but it's wonky and only does piercingly loud at this time...not sure the volume controls are even working. I need to get it looked at (or at least start the utoob rabbit hole), but it's not really usable at this time. So, I'm thinking about getting a 1x12 SS amp in the 30-60 watt range.
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I own multiple tube amps as well as SS amps. I can slam the front end of my tube amps hard with an OD and get some great sounds. My SS amps are tricky with OD and slamming the front end with lots of level from an OD can result in unpleasant sound. Ultimately, I have had to adjust an OD differently with SS vs tube to get a good feel and sound. My OD EQ settings end up very different SS vs tube. Bottom line, the feel and sound of an OD pedal is very different through SS vs a tube amp.

I prefer using OD pedals in front of my tube amps. The tube amps seem to have more headroom and allow OD pedals a wider range of usability for good feel and sound. With my SS amps, the sweet spots of the OD become different and more narrow.
 
Dogsinplastic said:
For amp users, have you noticed a distinct (or any) difference in how the pedals work with tube amps vs. solid state amps?

I finally plugged in my old Blues DeVille 2x12, but it's wonky and only does piercingly loud at this time...not sure the volume controls are even working. I need to get it looked at (or at least start the utoob rabbit hole), but it's not really usable at this time. So, I'm thinking about getting a 1x12 SS amp in the 30-60 watt range.
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Spray some Deoxit into the pots if the Deville. They are known to be incredibly loud amps. The volume sounds either anemic or ear drum bursting.

You can buy a Dr Watson Lion Tamer on ETSY for about $30 + shipping for your Blues Deville. It plugs right into the effects loop. It’s like adding a master volume to your amp. Works great with a Deville!


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Here’s my SS amps
JHS PreAmp Overdrive yellow only.
Then
Yellow +2 Kings left side
Yellow+ Morning Glory
Yellow + Moonshine
Yellow + NotaKlon
Yellow + Amazon Screamer
Yellow+ Nux Horseman
Yellow+ Magus Pro (Rat)
Yellow+ JHS Screamer



Clean/reverb



Clean, reverb, delay
 
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The difference in those OD pedals with the 250 is very subtle. In my experience stacking multiple ODs in a live setting as a base tone doesn’t always work and even when it does it doesn’t add that much.

The studio is different though. The last time I was in a studio I double tracked everything and then used a stacked OD/fuzz for the triple track. It sounds great on the recordings but that sound in a live setting would disappear.
 
Dew Knot Humps said:
The difference in those OD pedals with the 250 is very subtle. In my experience stacking multiple ODs in a live setting as a base tone doesn’t always work and even when it does it doesn’t add that much.

The studio is different though. The last time I was in a studio I double tracked everything and then used a stacked OD/fuzz for the triple track. It sounds great on the recordings but that sound in a live setting would disappear.
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The 250 was first on the board and dominated everything. Even without it the overdrives have very little difference unless you put that in. I threw the Magus in and you instantly hear the drive and sustain that's levels above. Had to stop myself because I just wanted to run with that lol. The eq is set to sound good from where I'm sitting and that's spread out.

I've found it difficult to break out of any Fuzz, lead wise, when fuzz is the rhythm. The Magus (Rat tones) is what I started using this week. I don't like a lot of notes per bar when playing leads over fuzz either. Green type pedals especially do just disappear or they sound so thin, any bass tones used to thicken them up alone vanishes. Distortion pedals I use to chug that are huge alone and have gobs of sustain also disappear. It's quite the dance.
 
Since Ive been attending a jam session pretty regularly I've been trying to come up with a small pedalboard that works well with my little Crate Vintage Club 20. I started out with the Crush 35rt and running it on the dirty channel set on the cleaner side, and a clip on tuner.
That worked pretty good but I had trouble being heard across to the other side of the stage, I think due to its directional closed back cab. Plus the little SS Orange just sounded kinda thin.

So next time I switched to the VC2110R which is open back and a lot louder and fuller sounding. It's EL84s, one channel, MV & gain, a 10", and small reverb tank. It solved the volume and fullness problem but Id like to be able to get a bit dirtier just stepping on a pedal, not fiddling with the amps master vol and gain for some crunch. Plus Id prefer to have a tuner pedal/mute on the floor instead of the clip on.

But finding a gain pedal I like with the little Crate that equals the straight in tone is tricky. My usual suspects just dont seen to get me where I wanna be. So far Ive tried the Nobels, OD-3, NotaKlon, Ser3 OD, my old Dano Daddy-O, Karma Mostortion clone, and the Special Cranker. The S Cranker or OD-3 seems to work best but still don't sound as good as gettingt the gain/master dialed in just right going straight in. But then I loose the cleaner option as there's only one channel. I can dial the guitar vol back but then I loose vol and sustain.
If I set the amp loud and cleanish then a low gain OD just boosts it louder and doesn't add much gain, plus Im just not happy with the eq on any pedal so far.

I still need to try a distortion pedal, I have a Rat2 and a Pugilist, or maybe try some kinda amp in a box pedal.
Think I'll try the old Joyo AC Tone next. Seems like I remember that sounded pretty good with this amp but idk, it's been a long time.
 
OK I finally hit pay dirt!
What I needed was distortion, not overdrive.
First I tried the Rat and thought now Im getting somewhere, but it was a bit too trebly and thin without the filter way over to the right.
So I put on the Pugilist and there it was, my happy place. With the two gain stages theres a bit more compression under the fingers.
Then I put the SG down and plugged in the old Carvin and it was even better!
The Carvin's pickups are a good bit hotter than the 490s in the Gibson and pushed the amp a little harder. With the guitars vol rolled back to 6 or 7, amp MV on 4, gain on 5, Im getting a good edge of breakup cleanish tone and nice rock crunch at the stomp of a foot, at a vol that Im pretty sure Im gonna be heard. Crank the guitar vol to 10 and nothing changes, just louder. Threw on my old Dan Eco delay for some slap and Im in business!
So next week looks like Im gonna be rocking the 81' Carvin DC and a USA Crate from 1993.
I'll prob have the most vintage gear in the house, lol.
 
Further refinements:
The more I play around with this little amp the more I learn and the better it gets. Back years ago when this was my only amp I didn't play much electric and mostly just plugged straight into it. Since I built my studio, got the old Bassman head going, then got the Carr, and collected a buncha pedals, the little Crate has mostly sat in the closet other than the rare grab n go.

This morning I tried experimenting with the amp's eq. Id been running everything pretty much flat in an attemt to keep things "neutral" while trying pedals. But on a whim I scooped the mids pretty drastically and then engaged the fat switch. Whoh, now this thing is sounding way more Fendery. Really opened things up and got rid of any hint of honky boxiness.
I put the Rat2 back on the little board, added the Nobels after it, and swapped the old Dan Echo for a DM-2w. Lo and behold now I'm getting everything I need regardless of which guitar I use with just a few minor tweaks to the pedals. Now it's working and sounding pretty much like my big 6L6 amps and everything feels familiar like home.

Amazing what can happen when you twist the right knob!
 
The overdrive pedals that work best could depend on the guitar, pickups, amp and speaker(s). Most of my amps work well as pedal platforms, but one of them is more challenging. My VAC Hayseed 15 via 112 Celestion Blue speaker sounds great with any guitar and pickup, Strat, LP, Gretsch, SC, humbucker, P90, blacktops Filtertron. However, that amp is tricky with an OD pedal. I’ve come to the conclusion that the VAC, which is similar to a Vox AC15 circuit, simply sounds better with a bit less gain than my other amps. Too much gain from a pedal sounds lousy with that amp to me. The sweet spot is cleaner than my other amps.

My Fender Deville 410, VHT Fifty D through various speaker cabs, work great with most overdrive pedals as long as I pay attention to a few specifics with the guitars. For example, Gretsch guitars with blacktop Filtertron pickups work better with less gain. They just don’t sound good with a lot of gain IMO.

For me, a critical detail to get my OD’s to sound best with my amps is the guitar volume. An LP with humbuckers may not sound best with the guitar volume knob maxed. I’ve often got my LP volume rolled off to 7 or 8 to get the best sound from an OD pedal. With a typical SC Strat, I can set the gain much higher on an OD, but it often sounds better to back off som Strat volume and roll off some tone. As I already stated, with my Filtertron Gretsch guitars, I use less gain, and often prefer the guitar volume maxed.

Personally, I feel like I get along well with most OD’s. To me, asking what is the best OD is like asking what is the best flavor of ice cream. I like lots of different flavors. OD is my favorite type of effect pedal. Of course, I like amp gain as well.
 
lol, what goes around comes around.
I ditched the Rat and put on the old Blues Driver and Im back to my tried and true gain pedals for the last 10-15 yrs.
Tuner>BD2> ODR-1> DM2 and done.
Everything reacts and feels just like my big 6L6 amps now, so Im really back home with this little rig.
All it took was scooping a bit of mids to turn it from a Vox/Marshally thing into a Fender.
One 45 deg turn of one knob, lol.
 
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