With the power of social networks, it’s absolutely great to ask a question, and to receive so many opinions. This week, I thought I’d ask the question “What’s the best distortion / overdrive pedal available today?”. Again, I’m asking this question with predictions of what people will probably say, so it’s fun to see pedals either a) I wasn’t expecting or especially b) pedals I’m not familiar with. Today was no exception.
I asked this question via Twitter as well as on the Facebook page. Here are the results, but please continue the conversation here by commenting below. We all want to hear your opinions. Is there pedal not mentioned? Do you agree with others? Do you disagree?
via Twitter
jnewton @effectsbay the fulltone OCD!
jtsimeone @effectsbay sansamp rocks
disandroid @effectsbay i use IbanezTubescreamer TS9DX. great warm tone, good sustain. for overdrive i use the MXR Distortion+, great boost and clean.
LeeChavez @effectsbay keely boss od’s. Those kick a..
beeflin @effectsbay For many years until I got a good Marshall I used an Ibanez Mostortion pedal. Good enough to go straight into a PA.
thejessalexa @effectsbay i think the best distortion pedal out now is the electro-harmonix metal muff. great for heavy riffs and it sounds amazing 😛 xx
AustinRemington @effectsbay in my opinion, the VOX Satchurator is the best distortion pedal on the market.
FatToneGuitars @effectsbay Lots of good ones. I like the MJM London Fuzz and the Earthquaker Devices Tone Reaper
KJFAN1 @effectsbay http://bit.ly/2fOqsY the Boss os-2
seanmbrage @effectsbay barber direct drive, any of the Jetter gain stage units, fulltone MOSFET drive.
The_Original_1 @effectsbay Imo, the best dist. pedal is the Boss Metalcore.
BooDooPerson @effectsbay I’m all about the Keeley TS-9+ mod. The stock Ibanez isn’t great, but I love what he does with it.
3naturalsixes @effectsbay I love my rat/zvex machine combination.it’s total dirt
TyJbbvx @effectsbay I just heard some Boss Pedal Demos at Youtube and I had interest in DS-2… also a DN-2 is a unique thing 🙂
jeremynwood @effectsbay ac booster by xotic effects! Amazing!
Falcon_Charles @effectsbay BOSS OS 2
urbanwilliams @effectsbay Butler Tubedriver. Hands down.
rcannonp @effectsbay I don’t know if it’s the best or not, but I like my Barber Direct Drive.
patrickloggins @effectsbay DS-1. Tried and true. Or the Z-vex fuzz factory.
GeeHalen @effectsbay I think the ‘Satchurator’ created quite a buzz. I’d separate the question to tube-driven and solid-state ones.
via Facebook
Justin Vigeant I have a Home Brew Electronics (HBE) Power Screamer OD that I absolutely love. To be fair, it is a TS808 clone, so my vote has to go respectfully to the original TS-808
Lucas H̦lbling Line-6 Dr. DistortioРamazing powerful distortion with lots of functions
As you can see there were some interesting pedals mentioned. I was surprised to see the Boss OS-2 mentioned a couple of times. I’ll definitely need to take a closer look at that pedal. I was expecting to see the ZVex Fuzz Factory, and was glad to see that mentioned. I was curious about the AC Booster (heard great things about that in the past) and the Butler Tube Driver. Anyway, hope others find this as interesting as I did!
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13 years ago
Sure the Satchurator and DS1 are great. Digitech Hot Head is surprisingly great as well, but my all time favorite od/ds category pedal is my friend’s mod chipped TS9DX. Does it need to be modded? probably not. Is it the sexiest piece of guitar equipment iv ever stepped on? Heck yes.
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13 years ago
I’m torn between saying the Cusack Screamer or the G2D Custom Overdrive for the best OD pedal I’ve used. For distortion I’m a big fan of the AMT Fatal Tube 8)
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.-= Owen Vickers´s last blog ..NZGuitars.com Auckland Gearfest – October 2009 =-. -
13 years ago
For straight overdrive, you can’t go wrong with the Keeley-modded Blues Driver, although the Catalinbread Silver Kiss deserves honorable mention as well.
For distortion, go with something more interesting than your standard Boss fare: a Devi Ever fuzz (pick any one to suit your taste), or an LAL 88.
For even more interesting: a bitcrush/sample-rate-reduction device like the Alesis Bitrman (even if it does suck tone in bypass), or Frostwave Sonic Alienator. And new pedals like the WMD Geiger Counter can go completely unhinged.
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13 years ago
There is no BEST overdrive or distortion pedal. As long as there are different ears around, with different musical and anlytical abilitys and different musical backround and style there CANNOT be a best one.
Also – reality is, that music industry and their marketing departments telling us storys and technical nonsense since decades trying to make big money. Dont forget all that “Sound Priests” and self-appointed specialists & gurus which had the only competence to replicate stories, youtube clips etc from others to profile themselfs. They never had the chance to play with real vintage stuff to build up a strong groundwork for their mostly false and sometimes very funny sugestions.
To get in a position to give debitable statements and build up your own opgnion you have to invest lots of money to generate an environment, that allow you to compare in a identical situation (same amps, same cables, same levels, same guitars, same hearing geometry, blind test comparing etc) the different pedals. Every preamp section in our amps interacts different to the pedals, every cable has different capacitance and tone as well as the plugs, different tone capacitors in the guitars have a big influence on tone and so on…never ending story!
I am a “Tone” freak (no sound freak) and I’ve been there and spended much money and time to answer that question since many years now.
All I can say is -> at present time I have some favourite pedals which support different styles. A realy extraordinary and outstanding pedal that works with most amps, notwithstanding which type of PUs I use, is the “Rockett Afterburner” overdrive. Very versatile and with a nearly perfect tone voicing. For ClassicRock style there is the “MHP 72°” togehter with the “Catalinbread Dirty Little Secret” -> both are very close to THE universial and usable pedal and worth a sugestion. For a country rock, roots rock or americana style overdrive the old and cheap Nobels ODR-1 is unbeatable – tonewise. But it is cheap made and noisy too. Rockett started to make a clone these days but I haven’t got a chance to check it out yet. When I need some tones for AC30 TB association my favourite pedal is the “Menatone TOP-BOOST-IN-A-CAN” – very usable! For lead tones there is the “Hermida Zendrive” or alternative in conjunction with the amps gain channel the “Exotic BB Preamp”. For high gain lovers w/o a own Recitifier f.e. there is no way around the “OKKO Diablo”. Most the time I use a TAD RangeKing or a Exotic RC Booster in front of all those pedals just to get a little “dirt” or “balls” on my clean signal and to feed the following gain section with a more even and stronger signal with enhanced upper mids & highs. But like I said before – these are very personal sugestions and experiences with my gear. Very subjective…
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12 years ago
This was always unaffordable and never considered owning but a $300.00 Three Hundred Dollar Price Drop! on the
T-Rex SpinDoctor OverDrive (MSRP $799.00 then sold at
$$599.99 then minus $300.00 so its still a expensive propsition but at $299.99 ?? Made in Denmark
David Gilmour uses one (or two or more) 🙂 now they are potentally affordableDavid
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12 years ago
I have the Satchurator and the ICE 9 as well as a v4 OCD which about to retire for a cool Barber. If you like the JS-DS (Satchurator)then….
My newest love and THE BEST dist high gain EVER, is the real tube Ibanez Tube King red box TK999HT. High current stepped up voltage inside (be sure to use the provided wart, this is a 12v 400mA pedal!) I am getting the White overdrive TK999OD model as soon as I can. If it is half as sweet as the red box killer I will be delighted beyond ecstasy.
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12 years ago
T-rex is just soooo high priced. I got their Viper Vibe for just $150, they were selling for $250. I would have been blood mad if I paid that much for it. It is not a photo-cell vibe just a tuned phaser like the Lovepedal Pickle Vibe. Both sound OK but just not a real vibe. At any rate, T-Rex needs to come down on their pricing!
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12 years ago
@Reinhardt
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Completely agree with that assessment it’s almost utterly subjective. An element you didn’t mention was ear fatigue. I had good pedals that eventually I grew tired of hearing….cough, cough (Boss) cough… excuse me. I’ve gone through many pedals and which all have been mentioned here. If there was a Hall of Fame for pedals the TS-808 would be my nomination. The only pedal I’ve sold that I regret selling was the Suhr Riot Dis. I can’t believe Wampler wasn’t mentioned!
Any who, what i haven’t found is a pedal that can do both! edge of break up to scooped metal tone. Hasn’t been done *Right* IMO.
Personal opinion;
all pedals model tube dis. I’m not a “tone” freak but a Sound freak. All these pedals have the same “sound” except for one… The WMD Geiger Counter Distortion. Untouched by anything else mentioned! I ALMOST returned it but when i stopped trying to make it sound like the others i discovered what it is…indescribable. It’s a new tone color i call Nurple :o) BUT i don’t recommend it. You wanna know why? find me on utube I’m up loading the vids at the end of the month. -
12 years ago
I’m surprised noone mentioned any Blackstar pedal yet. I have an HT-DUAL that, to me, so far has been unbeatable. I lent it out to my guitar teacher and he got so psyched he bought one right away.
To boost the pedal for leads, I have a Biyang Mouse (Rat clone?) and *shudders* a Behringer TO-100. The Behringer sounds better than you’d like it to, BTW. 🙂
+1 for the Blackstar HT-DUAL, then. 🙂
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