Post by LenBumI've never had what I consider a really good overdrive box. I just want
to see what everyone else is using and what amps they have. The box will
be mostly used with a couple of Fender tube amps. I have a silverface
Twin from 1970 and a re-issued Deluxe Reverb. It will also get some play
on my Marshall JMP 2203. I mainly use 2 Fender Strats, one 1986 with
original pups and one 1997 with Lawrence 280's. Music varies from blues
to heavier rock. I have 2 pedals right now. A Reverend Drivetrain and a
Boss OS-2 . This pedal really leans too far on the edgy side. Great for
Heavy Metal but not my thing...................
I also have silverface Twins, and a 2204. But I haven't been plugging
into those when I want an overdrive tone (see closing comments).
FWIW, I have:
- an early TS9 modified to true 808 specs with JRC4558D opamp. I'm sure
you're familiar with that tone. I go easy on the drive and harder on
the output level. It cuts the lows, and I cut the highs to taste. Some
guys can't get over the cut in the lows, but the net mids boost pushes a
better tube amp distortion. Works good into my Super Reverb.
- a rackmount Chander Tube Driver that lacks convenience, but has plenty
of control over tone and sounds good (at least with my tube choice).
Yeah, the rack format is inconvenient, but it has jacks for latching
type footswitches. It gives you the bias control that was an optional
mod on the stompbox (and more in and out options). If I had to grab a
Twin and one option for OD, this might be the combination.
- a Line 6 DM4, that has a few interesting choices in the OD area, as
well as more aggressive distortions. I disfavor digital effects, but
they did a decent job with this one and convenience factor is very high.
There are things I don't like about it (like an annoying boost that
hits you every time you move away from a preset), but I've held onto it.
- a DOD 250 gray circuit that I built into a reissue yellow case. I did
NOT like the tone of the yellow reissue -- it's not the same circuit,
and uses a different chip. So I decided to build the early gray
version. The problem is that the pinouts on the opamp don't match up,
so I had to toss the board and rebuild on perf board. High hassle factor.
Even as modified, the gray 250 can get fuzzy in front of the Fenders
when played clean, but sounds good in front of the 2204 as a boost to
the Marshall distortion.
When I use the 250, gain is usually modest. High gain levels = square
wave. Hardly the typical overdrive! But that actually can work to put
extra edge back into your 2203 (more of a distortion device than an OD.
Or you can use it more or less as a clean boost with modest clipping
into the Fenders at higher volumes, causing more tube distortion.
No doubt I'm forgetting a few! And I've owned and parted with others,
including the Bad Monkey (which shouldn't be overlooked if a guy is
seeking out a CHEAP option -- often $25 range used) and the inexpensive
Danelectro Daddy-O (which reputably copies the early Marshall overdrives).
These days I usually find the overdrive tone in my amps. I just
purchased a 2 ohm THD Hot Plate to use with my Super Reverb, and I also
like the true Class A distortion that I can get from my THD Univalve
(also has built in attenuator for tolerable volume). So my current
answer is real tube overdrive with an attenuator for reasonable volume
levels. Standard "tranny toaster" warning for all readers: You can
EASILY abuse a tube amp in this mode. Never forget that you're riding
it HARD, even though you aren't hearing all of the output. Expect short
output tube life, beware of possible overheated output transformers
(vintage Marshalls don't get along well unless you're careful).