# Favorite Canadian Made Overdrive/Boost



## KujaSE (Jul 30, 2006)

I've mentioned before that I've been trying to go all Canadian for my main rig and I've been pointed in a few directions but still searching.I play pop rock with a fair bit of crunch as well as some lower gain stuff as well. I currently use a Voodoo labs sparkle drive as my boost and an Xotic RC Booster as my main crunch pedal.What's your favorite from the Great White North and what would you recommend for me?Cheers,Mike


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## hardasmum (Apr 23, 2008)

I bought a Fairfield Circuitry Barbershop OD from a forum member on a whim and it's become my favourite pedal. It manages to retain the sound of your amp while also imparting its own unique flavour.


http://www.fairfieldcircuitry.com/B.html

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QbRm6EY5vMg&feature=youtube_gdata_player


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## Clean Channel (Apr 18, 2011)

That's an easy one for me: The Empress Effects Multidrive. I've had a long string of other ODs leading up to the Multidrive, and the it's my favorite by far! At first I used the 'overdrive' section the most, but nowadays I use the 'distortion' circuit very frequently when I want high gain or a Marshall-y tone (great for dialing in when covering classic tunes!).

Here's some info I wrote previously on it:

_Personally I have found that over time I bond extremely well with Empress effects. There's something about the way they design their pedals that really makes sense to me. Their designs are highly tweakable and versatile, yet very well thought out, making the (seemingly endless) options particularly intuitive and deliberate. _

_Re the Multidrive:_
_I'm really (REALLY!) loving the Multidrive! For quite some time now my main dirt has been the BE Twosome and some other overdrive pedal. I got the Multidrive to be my primary overdrive. _

_I've had some other drives that I thought sounded excellent, but found that they did one sound very well, but that was all. I hoped that the Multidrive would not only sound great, but sound great in many different ways._

_I think there has been some resistance to this pedal because it looks like it's supposed to be an all-in-one dirt replacement. The idea however is that you dial in the one or two sounds that you're looking for in any given situation, and stick with that until the next gig. Although it looks overly complicated, it's really quite easy to imagine the sound you want, and to then shape it into reality using the Multidrive._

_Also, the pedal is really quite small, and could be easily complimented with other dirt (hence my Twosome) for someone looking for a variety of sounds on the fly._

_I mainly use the overdrive section, which alone, is an absolutely top notch circuit. It goes from extremely light gain to just mid/high gain. It doesn't colour my tone, and stacks well with my Twosome._

_Second to that, I use the distortion most. As you may or may not know, the distortion actually has three switchable settings: Mild (a Marshall voiced light drive), Crunch (a Marshall voiced heavy drive), and Lead (a very high gain drive). _

_I use the fuzz only to blend in to the other two drives. I think it sounds great, but I already have an excellent dedicated fuzz pedal in the chain._

_Anyway, I could write so much more about the Multidrive, but this post is already too long for a pedalboard thread. Suffice it to say, the Multidrive is an incredibly tweakable and excellent sounding pedal!_


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## hummingway (Aug 4, 2011)

I use a Radial Tonebone Classic. Tubedrive, great sound and it's been reliable.


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## Guest (Oct 30, 2011)

+1 to the multidrive. An excellent pedal. 

I'll admit I've not tried many Canadian made overdrives though....


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## TWRC (Apr 22, 2011)

I have a Retro-Sonic Boost/Pre-Amp and that thing sounds amazing! For me, it's always on and really does push my amp a bit harder without having to pin the volume. I highly recommend it as there's so many tonal options out of it and on top of that, it's built like a tank.


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## Intrepid (Oct 9, 2008)

Another vote for the Barbershop OD.


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## mhammer (Nov 30, 2007)

Mine! (heh, heh, heh...)


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## hardasmum (Apr 23, 2008)

I haven't tried them personally but have seen some good demos, might be worth checking out MJM Phantom Overdrive and MJM Dallas Boost.

For what it's worth I own their Britbender fuzz and think it's solid.


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## Guest (Oct 31, 2011)

mhammer said:


> Mine! (heh, heh, heh...)


LOL 

But here's a serious question for you: if you had to pick just one overdrive out of the array of them you have on hand, which would you go with?


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## mhammer (Nov 30, 2007)

Presently, I have two go-to overdrive pedals. I really like the adapted Anderton Tube Sound Fuzz that I ended up calling the 49-er or CMOS Driver, depending on specific implementation. If I want to sound like Mike Campbell, that's what I use. There's just something about those lower-gain inverter-based pedals that I like. That family includes the original EHX Hot Tubes, the Way Huge Red Llama, the Snarling Dogs Blue Dog and Black Dog (both variants on the Hot Tubes), the Blackstone MosFet Overdrive, and a host of others. Laney amps also use a similar sort of "engine" in some of their amps. It may look like a chip, but inside it's just MOSFET transistors, like many of the high-priced boutique pedals use.

I'm also partial to Doug Hammond's "Highway 89" design, which I should rehouse and loan you at some point. A really nice "thick" sounding overdrive, entirely suitable for "British blues". Makes everything sound like a good LP pushing a good tube amp. I prefer it to any Tube Screamer variant I've built or modified, and also like it better than the King of Tone clone I made recently. Doug has good ears, great taste, and serious know-how when it comes to both pedals and amps.

I made a Rangemaster some years back, and foolishly sold it to Darwin from Retro-Town, who apparently kept it on his pedalboard for awhile (whihc I consider high praise, given what he had passing through his store). The transistor I used was salvaged from a 9-transistor Mitsubishi radio I bought with my 1965 summer earnings picking strawberries and currants on the Central Experimental Farm (in those days, they would advertise how many transistors the appliance used, as an indicator of circuit complexity, hence "quality"). Tried many times unsuccessfully to replicate it, with the same number transistor (2SB172); but to no avail. That little pedal was "instant Beano". But I'll leave it off the list since its provenance was British, and I haven't been able to replicate it.

For me, what differentiates a desirable overdrive pedal, from a nice-but-likely-to-be-neglected one is how much it makes me want to play a lot of open strings. Plenty of heavier-sounding pedals are fine for single note work, but for overdrive, it's gotta sound good when you strum all 6 strings of a Gmaj chord, and those open strings ring out without sounding muddy. I suppose the qualification that MUST be mentioned is that I rarely, if ever, get to test these things out at higher volume. So I'm always really listening to the sound of the pedal, and not the sound of the pedal pushing the amp. Under those circumstances, a Klon would likely lose. That doesn't mean it is misleading or the "wrong" context, but it does mean that some pedals that might shine brightly simply wouldn't appeal when the amp characteristics are not factored in. On the other hand, I have yet to hear a pedal tailored to sound respectable on my little 1W battery-powered amp and 6-1/2" speaker that sounds disappointing when plugged into a larger amp.


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## KujaSE (Jul 30, 2006)

I feel like you have a history mhammer, haha. Enlighten me?


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## mhammer (Nov 30, 2007)

No particular history. I'm just like the rest of you guys, except I started doing this in the mid-70's, when all we had was Craig Anderton, Robert Penfold, National Semiconductor applications books from Radio Shack, POLYPHONY magazine and PAiA projects, Popular Electronics and Radio Electronics, Electronics Today articles by Steve Rimmer, and Guitar Player mag. Everything else is just following the industry closely, like some sort of Asperger's individual, for 35 years. I've been good buddies with Visual Sound engineer RG Keen for 20 years now, since I first went online on alt.guitar, and probably have somewhere over 40,000 posts on both the former AMPAGE (Now Music Electronics Forum) and the DIYStompbox forum during that time. Many people who are actually EEs and designers for a living (I'm a psychologist by training), have been extremely generous with their knowledge on those fora. So when you have people like RG, Jack Orman, Zachary Vex, Ton Barmentloo (designer for EHX), Rick Turner (former Alembic cofounder and luthier), Jason Lollar, all those amp guys over at AMPAGE, in your corner, and when you build a lot of things, and amass a huge collection of schematics, you learn a lot. Apparently I'm considered knowledgeable and helpful too, since several people have said some very kind things about me recently. I had a design for an acoustic simulator pirated by Biyang pedals in China about 2 years ago. I am told that I'm cited in Analogman's Guide to Vintage Effects, and blushed when I was reading a recent interview with Marcus Ahlfs (Skreddy), who was extremely generous in his comments about me.

That's the history. Live long enough and you'll have one too, if you don't already.

Mark


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## Solaceguitars (May 3, 2010)

+1 Radial.
Exceptional sounding gear. I have a London Tonebone that always has a special place on my board.


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## mhammer (Nov 30, 2007)

Solaceguitars said:


> +1 Radial.
> Exceptional sounding gear. I have a London Tonebone that always has a special place on my board.


And why not? It's a "local" product, right? One of the former regulars at the DIY stompbox forum, Dave Smith, works for Radial these days.


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## LowWatt (Jun 27, 2007)

The Barbershop is awesome. A hugely underrated light OD/Overdrive/clean boost is the Solid Gold FX High Octane. Possibly my favourite boost/OD ever with Marshalls or Tweeds.


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## Petey D (Sep 8, 2011)

+ 1 for Radial here too. Love the Bones Series, particularly the London Bones for the British flavour OD & the Texas Bones for that sweet Billy Gibbons type crunch.


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## Robert1950 (Jan 21, 2006)

I haven't had the opportunity to try many. If I ever get any extra $$$, I wouldn't mind trying the Empress Multidrive. But right now I have the Radial Tonebone Hot British - yes!


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## david henman (Feb 3, 2006)

...i'm a huge fan of radial tonebone products. currently have the hot british and london bones on the board.

this one is really intriguing, however!



Clean Channel said:


> That's an easy one for me: The Empress Effects Multidrive. I've had a long string of other ODs leading up to the Multidrive, and the it's my favorite by far! At first I used the 'overdrive' section the most, but nowadays I use the 'distortion' circuit very frequently when I want high gain or a Marshall-y tone (great for dialing in when covering classic tunes!).
> 
> Here's some info I wrote previously on it:
> 
> ...


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## keto (May 23, 2006)

KujaSE said:


> I feel like you have a history mhammer, haha. Enlighten me?


Mark is being very modest, even with the accomplishments he's listed. He's a huge resource to the DIY pedal community, with a wealth and depth of knowledge that I can't begin to comprehend. He contributes freely and profusely, here and on multiple DIY pedal sites (primarily one, that I know of). Multiple manufacturers use him and others have approached him, to work on, fine tune, test and evaluate their builds. When Mark speaks about pedals, the world listens.


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## Guest (Nov 3, 2011)

keto said:


> Mark is being very modest, even with the accomplishments he's listed. He's a huge resource to the DIY pedal community, with a wealth and depth of knowledge that I can't begin to comprehend. He contributes freely and profusely, here and on multiple DIY pedal sites (primarily one, that I know of). Multiple manufacturers use him and others have approached him, to work on, fine tune, test and evaluate their builds. When Mark speaks about pedals, the world listens.


+1 - That's way closer to the truth, for sure.


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## mhammer (Nov 30, 2007)

That's very kind, guys. Much appreciated.

Now, if somebody at work had realized that on Monday, I could've raised more money for the United Way. Last year, I sold off - via silent auction - a BMF Liquid Sky Chorus I had built from a board Ian/iaresee had given me, for $100. I figured this year I'd be a little more generous, so I contributed a tricked out CE-2 clone and a similarly tricked out Univox Superfuzz clone. I had put easily 12-15hrs into each, considering the machining, board etching/drilling, finishing, wiring, fine tuning, etc., and the delay chip alone for the CE-2 will easily set you back $15 on the open market. I put an info sheet together explaining how each worked, all the extra features , etc., plus a suggested price range. How much did I raise? Five bucks each. 

In the middle of writing this note, somebody popped into my office, and when I noted my disappointment at the low yield, I learned that it wasn't the organization-wide silent auction I had donated them to, that had raised so much last year, but an _internal_ silent auction for our branch. Bah!!


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## Guest (Nov 3, 2011)

mhammer said:


> That's very kind, guys. Much appreciated.
> 
> Now, if somebody at work had realized that on Monday, I could've raised more money for the United Way. Last year, I sold off - via silent auction - a BMF Liquid Sky Chorus I had built from a board Ian/iaresee had given me, for $100. I figured this year I'd be a little more generous, so I contributed a tricked out CE-2 clone and a similarly tricked out Univox Superfuzz clone. I had put easily 12-15hrs into each, considering the machining, board etching/drilling, finishing, wiring, fine tuning, etc., and the delay chip alone for the CE-2 will easily set you back $15 on the open market. I put an info sheet together explaining how each worked, all the extra features , etc., plus a suggested price range. How much did I raise? Five bucks each.
> 
> In the middle of writing this note, somebody popped into my office, and when I noted my disappointment at the low yield, I learned that it wasn't the organization-wide silent auction I had donated them to, that had raised so much last year, but an _internal_ silent auction for our branch. Bah!!


Oh no! Tell me there was a reserve price on them? That's a terrible. I would have given you at least $10 for the CE-2.


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## TWRC (Apr 22, 2011)

Tricked out Univox Superfuzz???? You had me at Superfuzz!!!!!!!! I would have given way more than what you got.


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## keto (May 23, 2006)

Offer to buy them back for double lol. Owch.


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## mhammer (Nov 30, 2007)

Ask yourself, if YOU were able to buy one or the other for $5, how much would you be willing to sell it for? And let's say they were each willing to make $25 on the deal and I donated the pedals to the intended silent auction and somebody bought them for $20 each, would the objective be achieved?

Nah, I think this ship has sailed far enough that you can't get into a rowboat from shore and reach it now.


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