Help with picking a transparent guitar Overdrive pedal!

JohnDavisNYC · Post by **JohnDavisNYC** » Fri Jul 20, 2007 5:50 am

i love when guitarists want 'clean' overdrive... there is no such thing! overdrive IS distortion. boost is a whole 'nother animal.

but, all contradictions aside, the Klon is amazing... one of the guys in my band has an old one and it does rule. for clean boost, the Zvex super hard on is amazing... for boost with the ability to drive a bit, you can't go wrong with the Superduper 2 in 1... a boost into another boost with a master volume on the second boost, so you can clip the second stage without blowing out your ears.

if you want something like a ts808 (totally NOT clean...) www.buildyourownclone.com has a great tubescreamer clone that my partner just built with a few mods that sounds awesome. they have a bunch of great kits.

john

Randy · Post by **Randy** » Fri Jul 20, 2007 6:54 am

Another one chiming in for the Voodoo Labs Sparkle Drive. If you turn "clean" all the way to the right, you have no distortion, only boost. It has that TS808 mid bump also. Plus, it has true bypass and is built like a tank.

Michael.E · Post by **Michael.E** » Fri Jul 20, 2007 7:24 am

Maybe you guys are right, I'm a walking paradox!

But you have to admit, this can stuff can get overwhelming, I mean there are SOOO
many damn pedals!!! So far I'm leaning towards the Voodoo Lab Sparkle Drive, but
maybe I should go for a KLON!? I really just want a KLON clone! BUT Haha, I've
heard rumours about the actual circuitry in the KLON is covered in some kind of
"BLACK GOOP!" That way the paranoid designer keeps it hard to replicate!

Anyone hear about this?! I feel totally indecisive and torn over this, any advice?

kayagum · Post by **kayagum** » Fri Jul 20, 2007 7:35 am

Have you actually TRIED the Klon?

Michael.E · Post by **Michael.E** » Fri Jul 20, 2007 7:37 am

Yeah, my old band-mate had one of the earlier models.
it's definitely along the lines of what I'm looking to get..

mjau · Post by **mjau** » Fri Jul 20, 2007 7:38 am

kayagum wrote:Have you actually TRIED the Klon?

Yep, that's key - pedals are totally personal, so you've gotta testdrive some and see what works for you. One of my favorite pedals ever is a cheapy ehx doctor q, which cost 1/5 of what other pedals on my board did.
If you can try a klon, go for it. If not, buy one, and you'll probably be able to resell it at the same cost if you end up not liking it.

Huntlabs · Post by **Huntlabs** » Fri Jul 20, 2007 8:24 am

DOD makes a pre-amp pedal, Ywang Malmsteen brand. I does exactly what you are talking about, boost only. It does add a bit of high end but that can be changed. Just ignore the Ywang brand name.

I have 3 of them and that is why I have them. For under $40 you cant go wrong.

SureShot · Post by **SureShot** » Fri Jul 20, 2007 8:42 am

Hiya,

for clean boost i really like my Carl Martin Boost-kick, it's a boost pedal with a 3 band eq on it. When turned on without any boost or cut your guitar just sounds "better". It has a very large range of boost and it is perfect for getting subtle overdrive to nice crunch from my fender twin. Also does a mean treble boost impersonation. The pedal is totally audiophile when looking at the components and didn't cost that much.

greetings,

Thomas

TV Lenny · Post by **TV Lenny** » Fri Jul 20, 2007 9:28 am

You stated you wanted to boost the signal and let your power tubes do the clipping...

For my Hotrod Deville, I use a Boss Compressor in the effects loop. I crank up the output of the amp to cook the power tubes but turn down the output of the compressor so I don't blow off my ears. You can obviously fiddle with your preamp gain (if available) and adjust everything to taste. This may be nothing like what your looking for but it's still fun. My amp is too loud to use at home if I want to turn it up and get the tubes to start to saturate so, I started doing this. It works really well.

(Please Note:I started looking around for a smaller 10 or 15 watt tube amp but ended buying a 100 watt Twin from a gentleman here on TOMB...so what the heck to do I know)

tom

Knights Who Say Neve · Post by **Knights Who Say Neve** » Fri Jul 20, 2007 11:36 am

If you're looking for something inexpensive, check out the Digitech Bad Monkey pedal. Yeah, I know- Digitech, stupid name, 40 bucks at banjo mart- but it's pretty kick ass and it doesn't cut your bass like a ts9 circuit does.

Also in the cheapo realm is the MXR micro amp which is a totally neutral boost for at least 3/4 of its gain range. I used to use it a lot.

For more money the zvex super hard on or super duper is pretty cool, but it adds a sparkle that I personally didn't care for- it was like msg for my guitar tone. Most people seem to like that though. The "box of rock" pedal has that same boost circuit without the sparkle-ness, and a distortion circuit along with it.

The Voodoo labs sparkle drive didn't impress me at all. Good concept, but the boost circuit in it is your typical ts9 clone thing. (I'm not a fan of the ts9 sound. The 808 reissue isn't bad, though).

If this post strikes you as a bunch of subjective rambling, it should. Pedals are a matter of taste, try a bunch of them, and be not swayed by the boutique hype. The klon isn't that special in my not so humble opinion, but if it's got the mojo for you...

A-Barr · Post by **A-Barr** » Fri Jul 20, 2007 11:56 am

I went through lots and lots of pedals looking for the right tone, I eventually decided the best pedal was no pedal at all, just a great old-fashioned, no master volume tube amp. But then you get into the whole volume issues, power scaling, etc, etc, but ya know, if you have a group of guys you play with regularly, it's not hard to just find an amp with the right volume, maybe keep a bigger amp on the side if you end up playing larger gigs.

With overdrive pedals getting into the range of hundreds of dollars, you are approaching what you could spend on an awesome tube amp kit from someone like Ted Weber, Brownnote, Ceriatone, etc.. If you want a more overdriven sound, maybe check out some of those guys' 18 watt Marshally kits, they are unbelievable.

So anyway, you want a clean boost to push your amp into distortion, I used to have a '73 Super, doesn't it overdrive when you turn it up to 6 or 7? Are you not getting enough distortion? Or do you want distortion at a lower volume? If you get a clean boost and turn that up while keeping the volume low on the amp, you are only overdriving the preamp stage in the amp and not the power tubes, but it still sounds good. The only way to get power tube distortion is to turn that thing up LOUD.

One option may be to take your amp to a good tech and ask him about reconfiguring it for 6V6's instead of 6L6's, that should bring your volume down a bit and give you a nice thick tone. Blackface amps are not for me when it comes to distortion, the mids are just too scooped and there's no creamy thick compression, but it worked out ok for ol' what's-his-face from Texas, I guess...

craigb156 · Post by **craigb156** » Fri Jul 20, 2007 12:39 pm

For just a straight clean boost, the Zinky Master Blaster is good, has a tone knob, and is filled with tasty silicone. Not as far-out at full bore as the SHO, but very nice.

Craig

inverseroom · Post by **inverseroom** » Fri Jul 20, 2007 1:39 pm

Oh man, the SHO is hard to beat for overdriving your tubes. It's great on other instruments too.

mjau · Post by **mjau** » Fri Jul 20, 2007 1:42 pm

Yup, he ain't lyin'. SHO kills when I want a plucky, picked bass sound. I set it to unity gain so it's not boosting any extra signal into my solid state SWR, and it gives just enough presence to the string attack.

Michael.E · Post by **Michael.E** » Fri Jul 20, 2007 2:54 pm

A-Barr wrote: So anyway, you want a clean boost to push your amp into distortion, I used to have a '73 Super, doesn't it overdrive when you turn it up to 6 or 7? Are you not getting enough distortion? Or do you want distortion at a lower volume? If you get a clean boost and turn that up while keeping the volume low on the amp, you are only overdriving the preamp stage in the amp and not the power tubes, but it still sounds good. The only way to get power tube distortion is to turn that thing up LOUD.

One option may be to take your amp to a good tech and ask him about reconfiguring it for 6V6's instead of 6L6's, that should bring your volume down a bit and give you a nice thick tone. Blackface amps are not for me when it comes to distortion, the mids are just too scooped and there's no creamy thick compression, but it worked out ok for ol' what's-his-face from Texas, I guess...

Yeah I love the tone of my amp, but it's loud as hell!!! I believe the previous owner put groove tubes in the amp, which are pretty crappy... I think your solution might be a good way to go as well

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Help with picking a transparent guitar Overdrive pedal!

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