# Finding the right OD



## sivs (Aug 5, 2009)

I've been on a bit of a quest lately to find the right overdrive and distortion for my rig. I was wondering what people here would suggest (besides just cranking the amp... which I would love to do, but isn't really practical in most of my playing situations).

I'm playing an Anderson Atom (and a few other things) through a vox AC15H1TV through the EF86 side. The pedals that I've got and like are the Fairfield Barbershop and the subdecay Liquid Sunshine. I've been through the tonebone trimode, a modded tubescreamer, the Jetter gain stage black, Lovepedal eternity e6 and balance and I just got a fulltone robin trower. Some of them (like the eternity and trower) I've found have a bit too much compression - I really like the breakup of the amp and a more open sound and I feel like it's being squashed more than I want (though it's fun playing screaming leads with that sound). Others I've found colour my tone in a way I didn't love, others were too harsh in the top end.

The pedals I want to try are:
Lovekraft Chupacabra (and I've got one on the way...) - I've heard good things about Rats or rat clones and AC15's
something by Menatone - Top Boost in a Can or Shut up and Drive maybe?
Diamond J-Drive - I'm not sure if this'll sound good, but I've always loved Diamond stuff
Jetter Jetdrive

Any other ideas? Lethbridge doesn't have any shops that carry anything beyond boss and MXR pedals, so it makes things challenging. I'm hoping the Chupacabra will make a good three with the liquid sunshine and barbershop, but we'll see...


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## Stratin2traynor (Sep 27, 2006)

What sounds are you looking for?

I found that the Hermida Zendrive sounds GREAT through the EF86 Channel of my Trinity TC15. For Distortion I've used the Radial Tonebone Hot British which sounds pretty good. My favorite balls out distortion was a Keeley Rat. Sold mine a while back because someone offered me stupid money for it.


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## flashPUNK (Feb 16, 2006)

I went through a huge tone quest in the last year - trying almost every OD pedal I could find.

Zendrive, CARB, KOT, Eternity, Cusack Screamer, TIM, Timmy, etc etc.

Zendrive - was a fantastic TS clone
CARB - was the best low gain OD for my needs
Eternity (was a special edition, silver case) - Was great, but too gainy for me
Cusack - was good, but not as good as the Zendrive
Timmy - great pedal, liked the TIM better though
TIM - Had this on my board for a year, and thought it was the pedal for me, until.....
Analogman King of Tone - hands down, best OD i've ever used.

If I've learned one thing from trying so many pedals recently - you get what you pay for (in most cases). Don't expect to get the sounds of a $400 KOT pedal out of a $100 danelectro pastrami with cheese sauce pedal. Save yourself some time, and money, and use your money on quality pedals. I wish I had done that from the beginning.


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## Stevo (Apr 3, 2008)

Finding the right OD for Vox's I found to be more challenging than say a Fender. A lot of guys swear by the Crowther Hotcake but I found the sound to be too fizzy. With my AC30, I've had good luck with a Timmy, Fulltone Fulldrive 2 and a Boss OS2. Fuzzes are nice too.


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## hollowbody (Jan 15, 2008)

Stevo said:


> Finding the right OD for Vox's I found to be more challenging than say a Fender. *A lot of guys swear by the Crowther Hotcake but I found the sound to be too fizzy*. With my AC30, I've had good luck with a Timmy, Fulltone Fulldrive 2 and a Boss OS2. Fuzzes are nice too.


Really?? I found the opposite with my Crowther. I thought it was too dark and muddy.

I've gone through a ton of OD/dirt as well. My all-time-greatest-hits list includes:

Small-box Rat - great versatility, can go from low/mid drive to face-melting
OCD v3 - my current go-to. great tones, great sensitivity to playing style, cleans up nicely and rocks right the f*** out.
Fulldrive 2 - Drive channel was brilliant, like a _really_ good tubescreamer, but boost channel was a bit pointless and the pedal was too big.
Boss SD-1 - dirt-friggin'-cheap and sounds pretty darned good right out of the box
Box of Rock - absolutely awesome pedal, I regret trading this one away. Absolutely nails the Marshall sound and the independent boost is one of the most useful features ever

Stuff that I didn't really like:
Hotcake - too muddy in the midrange, no articulation
Tonefactor Mule - no tone control! bright as hell!
Timmy - seemed lifeless to me, I guess I like my dirt pedals to have character, not be transparent
Boss OD-1 - one trick pony and not that great a trick. sounds dated.
Boss BD-2 - fizzy and tinny sounding. no warmth
Big Muff NYC reissue - bleh
Russian Green Big Muff - much better than the NYC, but still a boring sound
Fuzz Factory - too finicky


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## keto (May 23, 2006)

For the Menatone, I would recommend to you a Red Snapper. Very very transparent and it's best sounds are low gain - it will get fairly squishy if you open up the gain past noon or 1 o'clock. Otherwise, it's very 'amp only more so' type of drive, has lots of volume boost available if desired. Doesn't mess with the bottom end or add a mid hump (I hate tubescreamers for that reason).

The Dano CoolCat Transparent OD v.1 might be up your alley - I like mine all right, does what you describe, has more usable gain than the Menatone, is cheap and sounds great. There are lots still in the L&M's, at least here in Edmonton.


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## sivs (Aug 5, 2009)

Some good suggestions, thanks guys!

It's funny... I tried the RTO tonight on a blues Jr and it sounded great. I'll have to fire up the vox tomorrow and take another stab at it. I'm excited to try the Chupa though... and have yet to venture into the fuzz world, though I'm sure I'll get there some day...

As for the sound I'm going for, I don't really know. It's in my heard - I love some of the U2 stuff and play more that style, but I also have a great respect for a wide variety of tones - and I love a lot of Mayer's stuff. I think I just need to keep experimenting! 

But seriously, the liquid sunshine is a GREAT low/medium gain OD. I easily like it more than the jetter and lovepedal stuff I've tried, and you can find them used for a great price.


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