Hate fizz, fuzz and mud

[Reg]

So which overdrive would be best for me?
I have a Blade "strat" with a humbucker in the bridge.
My amp is a Koch Twintone which has a great clean channel but I'm not keen on either of the overdrive channels (bit too fizzy).

I want an overdrive unit that doesn't make chords sound like mud or mush and where you can hear individual notes.
Not into metal or anything with tons of gain, just a nice sort of rock sound would do.

Any ideas please?

 

[CoG]

Try a Barber Direct Drive. Highly tweakable with the internal pots and really well-priced compared to a lot of boutique ODs. It sounds to me like it's aimed at more classic-type tones though there's a lot of drive available if you have a quiet guitar.

 

[Reg]

Thanks CoG.
That was on my list of pedals to check out. I'd also thought about the Blackstone and BB preamp but it is diffcult to actually try these things locally.

 

[RoadstarII]

MXR Distortion + best pedal ever made.

 

[123thefirst]

The BB Preamp is wonderful too. But I've never thought about tweaking it to get a distorted sound. It gives a great tone/gain boost without sounding overly grungy. With it it's easy to get that hyped EVH brown sound, for instance.

The only thing I don't always like about it is that compression is an inbuilt part of it. It gives you a great tone and feel and the compression is nicely done, but sometimes I prefer natural dynamics.

 

[jab]

I like Xotic AC+. With Xotic from least to most gain it goes RC, AC, then BB. There's plenty of gain in AC and I found it colored my tone the least out of the dozen pedals I tried.

 

[Ercek]

Blackstone doesn't mask your guitar sounds. Very natural. Seems to maintain the organic sound of your guitar, but still give you that edge. Cleans up nicely as turn guitar Volume down. Has the ability to tweak for humbucks or Single coils via the Red or Brown drive settings
Also, Xotic AC or RC depending how much edge is enough for you. JMTC

 

[gonzo]

much love for my Barber Direct Drive SS pedal....

and i hate fizz too.