The Top 10 Blues-approved Overdrive/distortion Pedals Options

[Mertay]

http://www.guitarworld.com/la-grunge-top-1...pedals?page=0,0

They keep doing these "fun" lists at guitar world but probably the first time they some-what nailed it. Actually, take it as a list of safe blues friendly overdrive pedals if you're considering to extend your tonal options.

I still consider myself a shredder and when playing blues scales its probably very obvious that I don't carry a tradition in style. Still its really fun, there are just some nuances distortion(even lower gain distortion) can mask but an overdrive can make it sing.

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[bleez]

I was going to get the boss blues driver recently. I opted instead for a tone city 'sweet cream' and 'bad horse' instead, they are pretty cool. I like them.
a 2 year waiting list for the 'king of tone' are they really that good?

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[Mertay]

a 2 year waiting list for the 'king of tone' are they really that good?

I only know it from youtube does sound clean though.

I hang around a Turkish forum where the average age is high and almost everyone is a blues player, there are some very experienced players there and some has good technical knowledge of guitar/amp/pedal... electronics (helped me a lot at the time).

With pedals, seems all of them are going for the cleanest possible tone that doesn't change the guitars clean tone as much as possible. Like, almost none of them use tubescreamer and the 1-2 of them bought that super expensive 808 recently.

Its either a super clean overdrive like a timmy, analogman etc. or a high-end klon clone. Things like boss bluesdriver or soul food are the very beginning for them. Though it must be kept in mind the amp has huge importance in that fashion compared to rock.

I wouldn't wait 2 years but there are nice options, to really nail it though a high-end klon clone from what I observed seems the safest.

One of them did have a klon ktr (The most expensive pedal I know of-discontinued) and wrote a review against a good (custom) clone. From what I understand its only less sweeter sounding than the original but if not compared directly the slight difference isn't noticed.

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This post has been edited by Mertay: Jun 29 2015, 10:58 PM

[Chris S.]

I was going to get the boss blues driver recently. I opted instead for a tone city 'sweet cream' and 'bad horse' instead, they are pretty cool. I like them.
a 2 year waiting list for the 'king of tone' are they really that good?

If you're crafty with a soldering iron the Keeley mod for te Blues driver makes that puppy sing!

It made a huge difference - I ended up selling it purely for lack of true bypass.

Bit of a TB fan boy - I do regret selling it though.

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[Mertay]

If you're crafty with a soldering iron the Keeley mod for te Blues driver makes that puppy sing!

It made a huge difference - I ended up selling it purely for lack of true bypass.

Bit of a TB fan boy - I do regret selling it though.

TS9's for some reason are hard to find here, I had to reserve and wait 2 months to get one

Incase a problem occurred during that wait, I had the boss bd2 or od3 in mind. Never tested them as I got the ts9 but while researching the OD3 had more of my interest, felt it would perform better alone in a mix. Its one of those massively undeerrated pedals, there are some mod.s for it but seems people usually like it as it is.

Nowadays I have my eyes on a brand called earthquaker pedals, their overdrive range is pretty good and somehow tonally feels more acceptable to my "rocker blues" non heritage

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This post has been edited by Mertay: Jun 30 2015, 01:35 AM

[Todd Simpson]

Can you get the PROTONE pedals where you are? I know they are a bit obscure. How about the AMP TWEAKER pedals? They make a AMP TWEAKER overdrive that I liked WAAAAAAY BETTER than the Amp Tweaker Metal pedal I demoed I liked it so much In fact I asked the builder to send me one so I can make a demo review.

I like the TIGHT METAL PRO for sure, it was brutal. BRUUUUUTAL. But it's a bit of a one trick pony. When I went to try to use it as a boost pedal, it didn't sound right to me and was too aggressive. I could not tame the pedal no matter what I did. The tight drive on the other hand can be nearly clean pure boost all the way to crunchy marshall sounding like reall tubes and the way it pushes any amp to crazy gain is amazing. SO it has more range.

Here are the guys at andertons going crazy with it

TS9's for some reason are hard to find here, I had to reserve and wait 2 months to get one

Incase a problem occurred during that wait, I had the boss bd2 or od3 in mind. Never tested them as I got the ts9 but while researching the OD3 had more of my interest, felt it would perform better alone in a mix. Its one of those massively undeerrated pedals, there are some mod.s for it but seems people usually like it as it is.

Nowadays I have my eyes on a brand called earthquaker pedals, their overdrive range is pretty good and somehow tonally feels more acceptable to my "rocker blues" non heritage

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[Mertay]

I found out about amptweaker from your posts when watching demo' of their products I also thought the tight drive seemed to be the most useful while tightmetal would serve more like a dist. pedal for my approach. No protone here

I have the tightdrive in mind as an upgrade from ts9 but at least not soon. Also the ibanez bb9 as a distortion booster works wonders for me so the overdrive usage is purely for bluesy tone stuff.

Nowadays I have this in mind but haven't demoed in a store yet (skip to 5.10);


Its something that works best after an OD pedal, breakup is very amp-like to my ears. Set subtle and end of chain (right before soundcard) always on, I believe I can nail analog vibe even better with it together with my other pedals.

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This post has been edited by Mertay: Jul 9 2015, 10:12 AM

[Chris S.]

I found out about amptweaker from your posts when watching demo' of their products I also thought the tight drive seemed to be the most useful while tightmetal would serve more like a dist. pedal for my approach. No protone here

I have the tightdrive in mind as an upgrade from ts9 but at least not soon. Also the ibanez bb9 as a distortion booster works wonders for me so the overdrive usage is purely for bluesy tone stuff.

Nowadays I have this in mind but haven't demoed in a store yet (skip to 5.10);


Its something that works best after an OD pedal, breakup is very amp-like to my ears. Set subtle and end of chain (right before soundcard) always on, I believe I can nail analog vibe even better with it together with my other pedals.

It has a chicken knob on it - in the pedal world that means it HAS to be good!!

I just picked up a used tube screamer and I dig it - although sometimes it can be a bit too "mid-y".

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[Mertay]

It has a chicken knob on it - in the pedal world that means it HAS to be good!!

I just picked up a used tube screamer and I dig it - although sometimes it can be a bit too "mid-y".

Yeah, I set the tone to 9 o'clock and increase the output accordingly. Its still feels middy but a bit more tamed. The ts 808 alone to me sound better than a ts9 but when mixing ts9 drive with something else (amp drive channel) that mid bump really works nice in a mix.

By the way, I currently don't use an amp software (only cab. sim.) but use this right after the ts9 (first in plug-in chain) and like the smoothness; http://www.voxengo.com/product/tubeamp/

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This post has been edited by Mertay: Jul 10 2015, 12:15 AM

[Todd Simpson]

I like it! It gives speaker breakup without coloring the sound too much. The Tight Drive is another option as well since it's the smaller version of the pro. The pro just adss more tonal options. I''m STOKED to have a TIGHT DRIVE PRO on the way from AMPTWEAKER and I promise to make a nice review Here is the inventor of the explaining some of the tone bits in detail.

It has a chicken knob on it - in the pedal world that means it HAS to be good!!

I just picked up a used tube screamer and I dig it - although sometimes it can be a bit too "mid-y".

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This post has been edited by Todd Simpson: Jul 11 2015, 12:48 AM

[Mertay]

[quote name='Todd Simpson' date='Jul 10 2015, 11:47 PM' post='714969']
I''m STOKED to have a TIGHT DRIVE PRO on the way from AMPTWEAKER and I promise to make a nice review

Excellent could you also check (if there will be enough time) how it can be used as an dist. shaper too? there aren't many video's on youtube on overdrive+dist. pedal chains and what the possibility are, might be very educative for some players.

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[Todd Simpson]

Sure I love putting drive pedals together. Did you see this one where I put a tube screamer type pedal ahead of a dual channel distortion? It responded much like a Mesa on steroids

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[Mertay]

Seems I've missed that, nice!

And yeah with the right cab. (ir in my case) they do sound amp-like, shred tones are forgiving in no amp situations as they always have to cut through the mix. But with an amp (like your MYASNIKOV) it sound much sweeter

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[Todd Simpson]

Thanks I really like to stack OD/Dist pedals to shape the gain. I"m building my pedal board again to experiment with this very idea I find that if you start with a light overdrive, then reduce the amount of gain on the dist pedal, you can keep the clarity and articulation that I'm so fond of

Seems I've missed that, nice!

And yeah with the right cab. (ir in my case) they do sound amp-like, shred tones are forgiving in no amp situations as they always have to cut through the mix. But with an amp (like your MYASNIKOV) it sound much sweeter

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This post has been edited by Todd Simpson: Jul 13 2015, 07:07 AM