Seriously, what is the best overdrive pedal today?

jrockbridge said:
Yes. You are part of a group of players who all lost their street cred by having the audacity to use tube screamers, including...

SRV, Jack Johnson, Eric Johnson, James Hetfield, John Mayer, Brad Paisley, Joe Bonamassa, John Frusciante, Trey Anastasio, Kirk Hammet, Mike McCreedy, Adrian Smith, Buddy Guy, The Edge, Billy Joe Armstrong, etc.

You've obviously jumped the shark. Such a shame.
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Yeah, but all these folks use it the right way and do cool things with it. I use it the wrong way and do lame things with it.
 
Monson said:
Yeah, but all these folks use it the right way and do cool things with it. I use it the wrong way and do lame things with it.
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Jonny Buckland uses a TS9 to play guitar in Coldplay. It’s arguably one of the most wrong and lame uses of a tube screamer. So, you’re going to have to work a lot harder to reach the top of wrong and lame.

Who’s wrong and lame use rules are you following? There is only one rule: There are no rules!
 
jrockbridge said:
Jonny Buckland uses a TS9 to play guitar in Coldplay. It’s arguably one of the most wrong and lame uses of a tube screamer. So, you’re going to have to work a lot harder to reach the top of wrong and lame.

Who’s wrong and lame use rules are you following? There is only one rule: There are no rules!
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Most people who know what they're doing prefer using a TS-style pedal to push a driven amp and benefit from the mid-focus the pedal provides and place their tone exactly where they want it in the mix while keeping more of the amp's natural tone. More amp, less pedal.

I've discovered I dig it set with the gain quite low and into a clean amp. It works for certain things, I guess.
 
Monson said:
Most people who know what they're doing prefer using a TS-style pedal to push a driven amp and benefit from the mid-focus the pedal provides and place their tone exactly where they want it in the mix while keeping more of the amp's natural tone. More amp, less pedal.

I've discovered I dig it set with the gain quite low and into a clean amp. It works for certain things, I guess.
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You are basically using your TS9 as a boost. And, it may also be adding some light compression. Nothing wrong with it.

I don’t like a Boss BD2 Blues Driver style circuit as an overdrive. But, if I turn the gain down, there are times I like it as a boost, even into a clean amp. With the gain down, it does not add as much compression, so it does not kill the transients like it does with the gain up.
 
Now that is a personal question!!!

Seriously for me, I bounce between a few: Fuchs Plush Drive, Hermida Zendrive, Danelectro Roebeck, Xotic SL, MXR Distortion, Way Huge Camel Toe.

All depends on the application!!!
 
I’m convinced there has actually only ever been one overdrive pedal, but it comes in myriad different metal boxes with different paint, knobs, etc..
 
If I ever get around to buying another dirt pedal it'll be either the Mojo Hand Rook/Royale or the Blackout Effectors Mantra. Still need to get my DOD FX-55b fixed. . . it doesn't work with every guitar, but plays extremely well with my old Guyatone/Kent/Tokyo thing :cool:
 
smurfco said:
my two favorites are the Earthquaker Devices Special Cranker and the ThorpyFX Peacekeeper.
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I got a Special Cranker when they released it and used it for a while. Overall it's a pretty good pedal but IMO its weakness is a loose bottom end, it gets a little too flabby for me. At least on the germanium diode setting which I prefer. It's tighter on the silicon side but I dont like that sound as much otherwise. It's tighter into the DSL Marshalls clean channel. It gets more flubby the more you crank it, which is kinda the point I guess. But Im not really a "crank my amp till it sounds like it's gonna blow" kind of player. Im more a "just a little gain and tweak the eq" kinda guy so I usually wind up with 2-3 gain pedals barely on.
I havnt crossed the pond to try any of the Thorpy stuff.
 
Pine Apple Slim said:
Instead of getting a TS9 or 808 I just ordered a EHX East River for about half the price.
It's a sickness.
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Ok I got the EHX East River Drive and had a go with it this morning.

I can only compare it to the Plumes, but if they are both TS/808 circuits they are definitely way different.
The Plumes has tons of headroom, a low noise floor, and stacks well with most other drives when tweaked, overall it's very "refined".
The East River is nothing like it. Not a lot of headroom and has basically one character. Overall it has a "grimy" quality thats very true to its namesake. I dont mean dirty as in the gain necc, but more in the vibe of the thing. As a stand alone OD I like it much better than the Plumes. It has a singular tonal character and it def has the TS nose on it. The eq is darker overall than the Plumes and sounds good with the tone knob at noon or even 1-2 o'clock. The Plumes is a gentleman with refined taste that can fit into any social situation and not upset anyone. The East River is a some random street guy in 1970s NYC with a heavy accent looking for his heroin dealer, lol.

Overall I like it, especially as a stand alone drive for bluesy stuff.
As far as stacking it, IDK, the jury's still out.
 
Pine Apple Slim said:
Ok I got the EHX East River Drive and had a go with it this morning.

I can only compare it to the Plumes, but if they are both TS/808 circuits they are definitely way different.
The Plumes has tons of headroom, a low noise floor, and stacks well with most other drives when tweaked, overall it's very "refined".
The East River is nothing like it. Not a lot of headroom and has basically one character. Overall it has a "grimy" quality thats very true to its namesake. I dont mean dirty as in the gain necc, but more in the vibe of the thing. As a stand alone OD I like it much better than the Plumes. It has a singular tonal character and it def has the TS nose on it. The eq is darker overall than the Plumes and sounds good with the tone knob at noon or even 1-2 o'clock. The Plumes is a gentleman with refined taste that can fit into any social situation and not upset anyone. The East River is a some random street guy in 1970s NYC with a heavy accent looking for his heroin dealer, lol.

Overall I like it, especially as a stand alone drive for bluesy stuff.
As far as stacking it, IDK, the jury's still out.
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HNPD
 
Bob411 said:
HNPD
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You never know what's going to trigger me. Today it's a dirt pedal.



I just listened to this, haven't thought about it for years and now, the nightmare is back. Kevin never mentions if it's 157 East, West, North or South Riverside Avenue. Maybe it's one of those streets that doesn't even have N,S,E,W. If that's the case, I'd like to know. Does anybody, please, for the love of God, know the answer.
 
Bob411 said:
You never know what's going to trigger me. Today it's a dirt pedal.



I just listened to this, haven't thought about it for years and now, the nightmare is back. Kevin never mentions if it's 157 East, West, North or South Riverside Avenue. Maybe it's one of those streets that doesn't even have N,S,E,W. If that's the case, I'd like to know. Does anybody, please, for the love of God, know the answer.
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I don’t know if it’s N,S,E,W. But, I believe the guitar gear is Les Paul into Marshall. Likely it’s 1959 LP into Marshall JMP 50w head & 212 cab. If there is a pedal involved, it’s probably a TS.

That’s from the days when Marshall amps were cranked loud enough to sterilize. Most of the gain came from the cranked amp. TS were used to boost mids and tighten up the sound.

These days, we often set an amp clean. We use pedals for gain. Sure, it helps preserve hearing, but who’s taking care of the sterilization?
 
jrockbridge said:
I don’t know if it’s N,S,E,W. But, I believe the guitar gear is Les Paul into Marshall. Likely it’s 1959 LP into Marshall JMP 50w head & 212 cab. If there is a pedal involved, it’s probably a TS.

That’s from the days when Marshall amps were cranked loud enough to sterilize. Most of the gain came from the cranked amp. TS were used to boost mids and tighten up the sound.

These days, we often set an amp clean. We use pedals for gain. Sure, it helps preserve hearing, but who’s taking care of the sterilization?
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After the third kid, I went to a urologist. I hear it's less painful nowadays.
 
Tube Screamers. Back in the old days the only boost/od pedal options were pretty much a TS9 or a Boss Overdrive. When I was playing in country bands from 1992-2006 I had either a TS9, a TS10 or an original $35 Nobels ODR 1. The Tube Sreamers never totally did what I wanted. The volume knob didn’t have enough boost output but it still was a much used tool for me.

A few weeks ago I brought a board to band practice with Keeley Noble Screamer on it. I usually run a GE7 for a slight mid boost. I was alternating songs with the GE7 and using the TS9 mode of the Keeley to “stack” the drive of the pedal and amp.

Both sound good, once the band starts cooking you can’t really tell the difference. I do prefer the GE7 though, more control if you need or want it.
 
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