Can anyone recommend a non tubescreamer like od?

hugbot · October 2013

I'm looking for a new drive pedal, something

* Mass available, I dont want a fancy pants boutique thing

* Non tubescreamer like

Essentially I want something I can put into a clean amp and have it sound like its being driven to the edge of breakup. TS are great, but they only really sound good into amps that are already kind of pushed IMO.

stickyfiddle · October 2013

Crowther Hotcake

Fulltone OCD

Subdecay Liquid Sunshine

All different flavours of OD that work differently well into different amps. Hotcake is particularly lovely into EL84s and the OCD is better into Fendery amps I've found. The LS is just plain great into everything

Drew_TNBD · October 2013

Fulltone OCD?

dindude · October 2013

Second the Liquid Sunshine, great for this sort of thing (I may even have one for sale shortly)

EricTheWeary · October 2013

Budget?
What amp ? Some od's have better reps with UK vs USA style amps for example.
Any other requirements?

Paul_C · October 2013

Joyo AC Tone ?

not_the_dj · October 2013

You want a Lovepedal OD11, hey look, there's one for sale (link in my sig) ;-)

Seriously though they are very good, I'm only selling it as I've recently got a Timmy back on my board

Sporky · October 2013

Another Liquid Sunshine vote.

Or a Zoom Power Drive, if you can find one.

hugbot · October 2013

EricTheWeary said:

Budget?
What amp ? Some od's have better reps with UK vs USA style amps for example.
Any other requirements?

Blackstar HT40, the clean channel is quite limited so I just want something where I can run the amp clean and use the pedal for a bit of grit.

Paul_C · October 2013

I had an HT-20 and its inability to give that just breaking up sound was why I sold it and bought an AC15C1 - which did just that.

monquixote · October 2013

OCDs work exceptionally well into blackstar amps as do Liquid Sunshines (which are significantly lower in gain)

steamabacus · October 2013

I use an HT-5 at home and I use an Award-Session JD10 into the clean channel for exactly the purpose you describe. I'm a huge fan of them and have used them for many years for various od/pre-amp/speaker sim tasks. They're not made anymore but there's one for sale in the classifieds. It's a mk2, with is voiced slightly darker than the mk1 I use, I believe.

Dave_Mc · October 2013

on the cheap (I'm assuming that's what you mean from your post)

digitech bad monkey
mooer blues crab
joyo sweet baby
danelectro transparent overdrive

there are probably more than that, that's just off the top of my head and what i've tried.

mike_l · October 2013

mxr dist3- more od than dist.
bad monkey - best for boosting a dirty amp.
boss sd2- the crunch setting would, i think, be what you want.

ICBM · October 2013

Rat - possibly the You Dirty Rat rather than the more 'vintage' ones, but if not that then the RAT II.

ThePrettyDamned · October 2013

Boss dyna drive. Incredibly underrated.

hugbot · October 2013

Thanks for the suggestions, I tried a boss combo drive in the shop today and I think thats probably what I want.

kelvinburn · October 2013

Death by audio interstellar overdrive or eh double muff?
Fwiw I have an ht60 which I use clean and get my od from a visual sound jeckyl and hyde. I used to use an old Marshall guvnor which was also very good too

swlabr · October 2013

Interesting read here

swlabr · October 2013

Interesting read here

ThePrettyDamned · October 2013

Not the double muff. Got one here, it's an average sounding drive and an average fuzz.

I borrowed it thinking it would be awesome. It's not.

Jaded · October 2013

The double muff can be awesome, just don't power it with the full voltage. All sorts of saggy 60's fuzz tones available there.

I'd suggest looking at the new EHX Hot Tubes Nano. I got one the other week and it's as TS as a potato. The only thing it reminds me of is a Distortion+ but with more "girth" and maybe a little fuzzier. Plus it's pretty cheap. Other than that I'd say find a Boss OD-2, mode 1 is TS-ish but without the honky mids and mode 2 sounds far more ragged and "amp like" I guess.

ICBM · October 2013

swlabr said:

Interesting read here

While I would be the first to say that there are a lot of very over-hyped overdrives that are only tweaked Tube Screamers, there are a lot on that list that are significantly different even if they're essentially the same circuit, so don't necessarily lump them all in together.

eg -

Boss OD-1 - unfair to call it a TS-like anyway as it came *first*, but it doesn't have a tone stage. This is quite a big difference and not just the same as putting the tone control halfway.

Bad Monkey - the separate bass and treble controls make it a lot more flexible.

Sparkle Drive - the clean blend can make it sound completely different. (I hate it personally, but I know some people love it.)

Many of the boutique ones miss out the TS buffers too, although some include them even if they're true bypass. This changes the tone quite a lot and makes it more sensitive to the other parts of the chain.

Jaded said:
The double muff can be awesome, just don't power it with the full voltage. All sorts of saggy 60's fuzz tones available there.

It's also extremely sensitive to impedances, both on the input and output. It's an extremely crude and poorly-designed pedal really, although with the right combination of guitar and amp (but no other pedals, that I found anyway) it does sound great... I just couldn't deal with anything that fussy.

dindude · October 2013

^ regardless of their circuit similarities, I've had, or tried, a fair few of those pedals and they all have had their own tone signature, to the point where some of them I've loved, and some I've hated, whilst all still sounding rougly like a Tube Screamer. Maybe I'm just a cork sniffer after all!

ToneControl · October 2013

the Digital 6-knob Joyos I tried sounded a bit ropey (the modelling ones like the AC Tone) - if run one into a nice amp, it loses the amp's tone

BUT the analogue smaller Joyo pedals I tried and kept were excellent, For your purpose, the best for me were:
Sweet baby (honeydrive clone)

deluxe crunch (nice marshally tone)

US Dream (Suhr Riot)

Guide at: http://www.freestompboxes.org/viewtopic.php?t=16105

they have other clones. The compressor is very good too.

these sound just as good as my boutique pedals, but probably not as cool to display on your pedalboard, unless a budget vibe is intended

------

edited to be accurate after fellow citizens pointed out my faulty recollection

ThePrettyDamned · October 2013

ToneControl;54997" said:
the Digital Joyos I tried sounded a bit ropey (the modelling ones like the AC Tone) - if run one into a nice amp, it loses the amp's toneBUT the analogue Joyo pedals I tried and kept were excellent, For your purpose, the best for me were:

Sweet baby (honeydrive clone)deluxe crunch (nice marshally tone)US Dream (Suhr Riot)Guide at: http://www.freestompboxes.org/viewtopic.php?t=16105 they have other clones. The compressor is very good too.these sound just as good as my boutique pedals, but probably not as cool to display on your pedalboard, unless a budget vibe is intended

I love those joyos. Didn't think they were digital at all, just an analogue preamp. Might be wrong though! They're supposed to overcome to amp tone, though - they make a fender sound like an ac30, sorta, rather than a drive pedal into a fender amp.

I love the joyo pedals and, fingers crossed, will be acquiring one in a trade soon... The vintage phaser

the switches and jacks are probably lower quality, but they can be replaced.

mike_l · October 2013

ICBM said:
Boss OD-1 - unfair to call it a TS-like anyway as it came *first*, but it doesn't have a tone stage. This is quite a big difference and not just the same as putting the tone control halfway.

Bad Monkey - the separate bass and treble controls make it a lot more flexible.

2 of my favoured drive pedals, it's rare that I don't have an SD-1 when I go out to Jams, always useful for a lead boost/drive.

I prefer a Bad Monkey as a drive/boost into a valve (Ie Marshall) amp.
Either way 2 of the best (IMO)drive pedals available, and both relatively cheap.

ToneControl · October 2013

ThePrettyDamned said:

ToneControl;54997" said:
the Digital Joyos I tried sounded a bit ropey (the modelling ones like the AC Tone) - if run one into a nice amp, it loses the amp's toneBUT the analogue Joyo pedals I tried and kept were excellent, For your purpose, the best for me were:

Sweet baby (honeydrive clone)deluxe crunch (nice marshally tone)US Dream (Suhr Riot)Guide at: http://www.freestompboxes.org/viewtopic.php?t=16105 they have other clones. The compressor is very good too.these sound just as good as my boutique pedals, but probably not as cool to display on your pedalboard, unless a budget vibe is intended
I love those joyos. Didn't think they were digital at all, just an analogue preamp. Might be wrong though! They're supposed to overcome to amp tone, though - they make a fender sound like an ac30, sorta, rather than a drive pedal into a fender amp.

I love the joyo pedals and, fingers crossed, will be acquiring one in a trade soon... The vintage phaser the switches and jacks are probably lower quality, but they can be replaced.

the ones with 6 knobs are modelling fx, with digital chips in them. They are supposed to be Tech 21 clones. Although the ones I tried did add the tone of the target amps, on a nice amp they made the final sound less pleasant, rather than just adding character

the smaller analogue pedals sound much better, with all the amps I tried them with

I think they are reasonably well constructed, especially for the money

-----again edited to correct my mistake

ICBM · October 2013

ToneControl said:

the ones with 6 knobs are modelling fx, with digital chips in them. They are supposed to be Tech 21 clones.

Both things can't be true since the Tech21 pedals are analogue!

ThePrettyDamned · October 2013

ICBM;55109" said:
ToneControl said:

the ones with 6 knobs are modelling fx, with digital chips in them. They are supposed to be Tech 21 clones.

Both things can't be true since the Tech21 pedals are analogue!

Wee bit of freestompboxing suggests they're all analogue, and pretty much direct clones, albeit with poorer soldering and a few component differences.

Still sound the balls

didn't like the ac tone as much as the American one though.

swlabr · October 2013

ICBM said:

swlabr said:

Interesting read here

While I would be the first to say that there are a lot of very over-hyped overdrives that are only tweaked Tube Screamers, there are a lot on that list that are significantly different even if they're essentially the same circuit, so don't necessarily lump them all in together.

eg -

Boss OD-1 - unfair to call it a TS-like anyway as it came *first*, but it doesn't have a tone stage. This is quite a big difference and not just the same as putting the tone control halfway.

Bad Monkey - the separate bass and treble controls make it a lot more flexible.

Sparkle Drive - the clean blend can make it sound completely different. (I hate it personally, but I know some people love it.)

Many of the boutique ones miss out the TS buffers too, although some include them even if they're true bypass. This changes the tone quite a lot and makes it more sensitive to the other parts of the chain.

Sorry for the double post (thought I had not even posted it in the end due to computer problems).

Not my article BTW.

I also took for granted the SD1 was earlier than the TS and that Ibanez had decided to use a similar circuit but with symetrical clipping instead of assymetrical like the Boss. (or was it the other way round?)

I found the article interesting for it's non-TS recommendations, although I had always thought the KoT / PoT were TS based.

I too believe some TS variants become a class of their own. I particularly like the Mad Professor LGW (still don't get around to why I sold it).

Also loved the sound of the Joyo AC Tone. Pity it did not last me long.

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Can anyone recommend a non tubescreamer like od?

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