Guitar Gear Forum

Currently questing (in a half-assed, don't have any real gear $ atm sort of way) for an od that kicks ass both as a boost for a dirty amp and as a low/mid gain drive into a clean amp. I love the throaty, mid hump tone of ts style boosts with my Marshall, but those same traits make my ts style pedals not so good for stand-alone dirt into a clean amp.

I'm not looking for anything in the Klon price range ... Atm, I'm using a Bad Monkey for boosting! Very curious to try the Custom Badass Modified Od. What other ones should be on my radar?

Sd1 and mod it, there are plenty of good mods for them.

Also A standard SD-1 sounds great, mod it and you have a boutique sounding pedal.

Keeley ts9dx is what I have. I love it, 4 modes and many sweet sounds.

You want that on the cheap? Bad Monkey...

I used a Keeley SD1 for 10 or 15 years. It was great, until i decided to try a Green Rhino for the hell of it. Holy shit, that was my dream tone through my 2203. Badass OD is the exact same pedal FWIW.

Diocide wrote:You want that on the cheap? Bad Monkey...

I love mine as a boost, but I've had no luck getting the Monkey to double as a low/mid gain drive into a clean amp, though -- hence this thread ... :idk:

atrox wrote:I used a Keeley SD1 for 10 or 15 years. It was great, until i decided to try a Green Rhino for the hell of it. Holy shit, that was my dream tone through my 2203. Badass OD is the exact same pedal FWIW.

Cool! And it does well for both applications?

draelyc wrote:

atrox wrote:I used a Keeley SD1 for 10 or 15 years. It was great, until i decided to try a Green Rhino for the hell of it. Holy shit, that was my dream tone through my 2203. Badass OD is the exact same pedal FWIW.

Cool! And it does well for both applications?

Yes. i was driving a clean amp with it a few months back for a project. it's a very natural 808 tone with the ability to add low end and adjust the mid sweep slightly. Perfect IMO

You should try the Joyo Mojo Drive or the Danelectro Cool Cat OD v.1 as these are cheap OCD knockoffs. They also sound damn good. Neil is also on point on the SD-1.

EDIT: Should be Ultimate not Mojo

Cole

I've been stacking my Rat with a Keeley Time Machine Boost. The vintage side is pretty much his Java Boost. The modern side is a Katana. Really versatile. The modern side is a super clean, transparent boost. The vintage side is based on a Dallas Rangemaster. Amp needs to be loud for the full effect.

Also, don't let the Rat fool you. it can do boost, dirt or full on raging distortion.

Just my .02.

colejustesen wrote:You should try the Joyo Mojo Drive or the Danelectro Cool Cat OD v.1 as these are cheap OCD knockoffs. They also sound damn good. Neil is also on point on the SD-1.

Cole

I pretty sure its the Ultimate drive that is the OCD knockoff and while I think it sounded really good as a stand-alone drive pedal, I didn't care much for it as a boost. Plenty of guys seem to use it that way, but in the limited time I had with it I didn't find a setting that sounded good by itself and as a boost. YMMV.

ovid9 wrote:

colejustesen wrote:You should try the Joyo Mojo Drive or the Danelectro Cool Cat OD v.1 as these are cheap OCD knockoffs. They also sound damn good. Neil is also on point on the SD-1.

Cole

I pretty sure its the Ultimate drive that is the OCD knockoff and while I think it sounded really good as a stand-alone drive pedal, I didn't care much for it as a boost. Plenty of guys seem to use it that way, but in the limited time I had with it I didn't find a setting that sounded good by itself and as a boost. YMMV.

Haha... I meant Ultimate Drive... The Mojo Drive is another pedal... It is pretty bad ass!

Cole

colejustesen wrote:Haha... I meant Ultimate Drive... The Mojo Drive is another pedal... It is pretty bad ass!

Cole

I figured.

Try a Boss Blues Driver! It gets a lot of hate, but I personally love that pedal.

soundgardener75 wrote:Try a Boss Blues Driver! It gets a lot of hate, but I personally love that pedal.

Never played one of those ~ it's good for it's own gain and for boosting, too? Cool.

Doesn't Keeley have a mod for that one, too? Hmmm....

If you like the TS sound but are looking for the low-mid gain OD try this:

Buy an 808 or clone. Change the gain pot to 1 meg, add a switch to switch from the stock .047u cap to a .22u cap. It will change the frequency that the high pass filter acts on and give you a girthier sound. I did this to my clone and it sounds awesome.

I would try to dig up sound samples but I am in the process of moving all my shit.

Seriously. It is a awesome OD.

Steveijobzz wrote:If you like the TS sound but are looking for the low-mid gain OD try this:

Buy an 808 or clone. Change the gain pot to 1 meg, add a switch to switch from the stock .047u cap to a .22u cap. It will change the frequency that the high pass filter acts on and give you a girthier sound. I did this to my clone and it sounds awesome.

Trouble here is my lack of tech skills ... but I have a guy who would be able to handle all that, so if I come across a good deal on an 808, I'll have to look into these mods ~ thanks!

TS808 - Soldano Supercharger GTO - NMV amplifier.

soundgardener75 wrote:Try a Boss Blues Driver! It gets a lot of hate, but I personally love that pedal.

I want to get this pedal and do the Monte Allums H2O Plus mod on it. I liked the way the GT Mod sounds on the SD-1 that I have, so I can imagine that the H2O Plus mod would be good too.

Cole

The Hardwire SC-2 is great for boosting (as is their tube overdrive). I currently use an EP booster (on all the time) and an OLC Orange Peel to boost my other dirt (also used as a stand alone overdrive).

The bad monkey is okay, but go for a modded one if the bypass bothers you. The Joyo vintage overdrive is a tube screamer clone and sounds great, and is also very cheap.

soundgardener75 wrote:Try a Boss Blues Driver! It gets a lot of hate, but I personally love that pedal.

Word. The Bluesdriver is great. Especially with some easy mods. Ive had a few of them, and have modded a few for some friends of mine. I wish I had kept the least one I had.

The basic cap changes (for more bass) and a couple of diode changes can make the B2 sound better than high dollar booteek pedals. The diode changes really make it into a better pedal. (replace zeners with LEDS). You can also mess with a couple of resistors & alter the tone stack. I did mine up to mock the old school Marshall Superbass tone stack by lowering the slope resistor (and another I think. I'll have to find my mod book). Upped a few caps to alter the bass response as well. I think at one time, I had some Germanium diodes in place of a zener, or 2. Had small clear LEDs in place of other zeners. It helped with note separation & clarity. De-fizzed some stuff too.

Only thing, is the Blues driver is kind of a pain in the ass to work on. Can be done, but not as easy as working on a TS or a Boss Super Overdrive.

I love my WIIO for boosting, it can push a amp really nicely and I like dialing in just a hair of dirt with it and on the flip side you can put it in to a clean amp and it can provide a killer dirty tone.

100 Watt -- that's really cool info, mang...thanks! Makes me want to check out the Keeley version, since I remember my Keeley SD-1 kicking the hell outta the stock pedal.

Marc G wrote:I love my WIIO for boosting, it can push a amp really nicely and I like dialing in just a hair of dirt with it and on the flip side you can put it in to a clean amp and it can provide a killer dirty tone.

What's the WIIO? I don't know that one...

Joyo is amazing. Maybe not for both applications you desire (it does drive an already overdriven amp; but when I think of "boosting" I don't think it quite cuts the mustard for that); but as a standalone or as an addition to a slightly broke up clean tone, it sounds great. Especially for the price.