Favorite Overdrive/Distortion pedal

[Will]

What is your favorite overdrive/distortion pedal? And why?

Could be one you currently own, or that you've owned in the past.

Mine is a Rat that I picked up in the 90's.

 

[riggles]

It took me a while to find a pedal I like for any amount of time. Mostly because I prefer amp distortion. But eventually I tried a Klon style pedal and I think that works best. I have the Mythical Overdrive. Each amp responds differently to it, but I always like how it makes the amp sound. I use it as a boost - gain low and level up.

 

[stephen sawall]

Rat and Fulltone Fulldrive.

 

[Don]

Prince of Tone and Rat.

 

[Will]

I'm kind of amazed (but, then, in a way, not really) that both Don and Stephen share my feelings about the Rat, considering the slew of boutique/expensive pedals out there. But like many things in life, price is not always an accurate indicator. I found that out with the JHS AT (IMO) and returned it straight away. Philip McNight did a review (really an expose) on it on YouTube, showing how they use cheap parts. Certainly no hand-wiring either, for your 220 pictures of George Washington. For essentially the same price, I got a Boss Katana 50, which offers so much. Oh well, not really surprising: Boss = Roland = quality & value. And, the Katana has some very respectable higher gain tones in its own right.

 

[Don]

I'm kind of amazed (but, then, in a way, not really) that both Don and Stephen share my feelings about the Rat, considering the slew of boutique/expensive pedals out there.

I've always liked Rats and have had several, but last fall I bought a mid '80s blackface Rat that blew me away. I bought it, along with an old DOD FX90 analog delay, for $50!

It's got a nice Marshall like rock sound when used in front of a clean Fenderish amp (including Mesas). I sold a few pedals after finding this one.

 

[stephen sawall]

The RAT (Vintage Big Box) I'm using these days I bought new over twenty years ago. First time I used one was in 1981 with a JCM 800. I have always loved the RAT. Probably my favorite MESA to use with the RAT is my Heartbreaker. It just sounds amazement with this amp...EL34 or 6L6.

 

[Sixstringpsycho]

Awesome responses.

My two favorite are the DOD 250 overdrive preamp and the VOX ICE9 Overdrive. The DOD 250 gets close to fuzz when dimed but backing off the gain it gives a fantastic boost and some “wool” around the tone color.

The VOX ICE9 is just awesome. Overdrive with a switchable boost. The pedal does not color your amp much and is very dynamic. I personally like it better than my TS808DX.

 

[stephen sawall]

Still love the RAT and Fulltone pedals ....but now using for boosting a KHDK No.1, No.2 and Ghoul Screamer. The voice of these pedals works for me with my Tremoverb. The Ghoul Screamer with with all switches up TS808. My favorite probably being No.2 in the HI mode - adding saturation, compression and a midrange boost. It's not as midrange heavy as a Tube Screamer.

What noise gate is everyone using ?

 

[CoG]

Only OD/dist I use on my Mark is a Friedman BE-OD that I just use on top of the clean channel for a different crunch sound.

On my RA100 and my JCM800 I use a Metropolous Supa-Boost. Yeah, it's a little on the corksniffer end of things but it's really great if you are looking to hit the front end of a Marshall-y amp really hard. It's tight but not "narrow", if that makes sense. Even with a lot of gain it's still got a nice kinda granular growl with a full frequency range and is really playable, it doesn't turn into a stiff midrangey bark like Kerry King or a very smooth, super-focused, shreddy tone (I have a Mark for that!)

I had a RAT for a bit that sounded great on my Marshall as long as I wanted to play hair metal It sounded awesome, I just found it to be a really specific thing lol.

Favourite on Rectos is the OD808 or, weirdly, the Barber Direct Drive. Tried soooo many pedals in front of my buddy's Roadster and my Rectoverb II, and those two came out on top every time.

 

[Tiki295]

I’ll add my preference for a Rat when it comes to straight OD/Distortion pedal. I had found a mod for my Rat where one of the resistors was cut out, which gave it a little more gradual climb to complete saturation.

I now use a Nocturne Ubangi Stomp, which is a Rat circuit with internal switches for cutting out resistors and all those little tone mods. It’s a more flexible Rat

 

[plan-x]

It was right under my nose in this forum!

 

[woodbutcher65]

I don't like overdrive/distortion pedals. If the amp's own overdrive doesn't kick ***, it's not an amp that I want. I would never call myself a great guitarist but I follow the Ted Nugent school of effects chains: Nothing between the guitar and my amp but a straight cord and no noise toys to mess up the signal. I don't mind running a touch of time-based effects in the effects loop but an overdrive stompbox is useless to me.

 

[CoG]

Picked up a Maxon OD-808X a few weeks ago and I REALLY like it for my Tremoverb for high-gain stuff. Also sounds great on my JCM800. Not what you use to dirty up a clean channel though. Really good example vid here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gQ8zN2nf_9E

 

[schneider67]

i don't use a lot of overdrive pedals with my studio 22+ but the way huge supa lead is very versatile for slight drive and grit all the way up to medium distortion. very compact and pedalboard friendly too.