Boss SD-1 Super Overdrive Review

The following is a guest post review of the Boss SD-1 Super Overdrive by Andrew Elmore. If you are interested in guest posting, please contact me!

Few overdrive pedals have come as close to Tubescreamer popularity as the Boss SD-1 Super Overdrive pedal, and for good reason! This little guy is (circuitry wise) almost an exact replica of the Ibanez TS-808 Tubescreamer. Revered by many, this pedal will grant you the perfect range of smooth creamy sustain to the beautiful singing crunch of a plexitube amp.

This pedal has three easy knobs to help you nail your tone. Level (Controls the output volume of the effect) Tone (Controls color balance between bass and treble and offers wider range then TS-808) and Drive (Controls amount of distortion. The great thing about the SD-1 is that it provides an amazing, professional overdrive tone without blurring the tiniest nuances of your picking attack and technique, all for a budget price! The Boss SD-1 Super Overdrive (analog, buffered bypass) is available at most stores (like musiciansfriend.com) for $49.99!

Not only do greats like Jonny Greenwood (Radiohead) use this, but so do countless bedroom jammers and gigging musicians! I use this pedal when playing at my church almost every week, as it is the foundation of my tone! I usually leave the tone a bit more to the treble side, and leave the Level all the way up and the Drive all the way down to obtain a very subtle, slightly dirty sound. However, i can quickly fatten up my for a great lead boost by cranking the drive knob all the way up as well. However, with the tone a bit more towards the bass one can attain a great heavy overdriven bite, a la Tom Morello (Rage Against The Machine, Audioslave, Streetsweeper Social Club

In the end, the Boss Super Overdrive will hold up to all your road abuse, and provide you with an amazing tone or boost for an awesome price. If this were stolen or lost i would by another the very same day.

About the author:

I’m a christian guitarist with a bad bad case of “Pedal Acquisition Syndrome” 🙂 Iv been playing for about 6 years. My current set up is as follows:
Ibanez AX-S 42 > Dunlop Standard Crybaby GCB-95 > Boss AC-3 Acoustic Simulator > Boss SD-1 Super Overdrive > Digitech Hot Head Distortion > Danelectro Tuna Melt Tremolo > Digitech RP50 Processor (Piece of crap, only used as a tuner) > Boss DD-7 Digital Delay > Fender FM212R
You can follow Andrew on Twitter (@AndrewElmore)

The Boss SD-1 Super Overdrive can be purchased for $39.00 at Musician’s Friend.