I need a guitar overdrive pedal....

lunarpollen · #1 05-27-2010, 03:23 PM

I have a Roland JC-120, which has a great, pristine clean sound, and an amazing, lush stereo chorus feature. But it is a solid state amplifier. There is a built-in "distortion" effect, but the sound it gives is not at all like a natural tube overdrive, it's a weird honky sound that has limited usability.

What I would like to find is a pedal that gives a truly tube-sounding overdrive, something very transparent that doesn't brighten, thin out, brittle-ize, or dump a bunch of white noise on the tone. Ideally it would only have one knob—for "drive"—which at minimum setting would sound the same, tonewise and volume-wise, as if switched off, and turning it up would act the same as turning up the drive on a nice tube combo (Fender, Vox, etc.). I want something that basically sounds like as if my solid-state JC-120 actually had real a real drive knob that would provide tube break-up. I guess someone out there must make a pedal, probably with a built-in vacuum tube, that does exactly what I want. No level control, no tone control, just DRIVE, with only the natural volume boost that would happen as the drive is turned up.

Does anyone know of such a beast? Or something close?

megadan · #2 05-27-2010, 03:33 PM

TBers have been loving the Polish Love OD (a red llama/tube sound fuzz clone) but it sounds just as good or better on guitar. It's the best true OD (touch sensative) I've ever used.

The original red Jekyl & Hyde is also excellent. Of course the classic ds-1, tubescreamer, and bad monkey are also good If you're on a budget.

mpdd · #3 05-27-2010, 04:15 PM

using a danelectro d-2 fab overdrive, maybe not real tube, but for 15 bucks i have convinced myself that it sounds just as good as my blue tube 903 tube works pedal which you can pick up on ebay for between 100 and 300 depending on how lucky you are (i may be deeply in denial though so take this recommendation with a grain of salt)

Floyd Eye · #4 05-27-2010, 06:17 PM

Get you an old ( Not a new reissue) Yellow MXR distortion. That thing rocks.

**TheMutt** · #5 05-27-2010, 06:25 PM

I'll definitely +1 the Bogdan Polish Love, as well as any other Red Llama clones.
The EHX LPB can do this as well.

JonPol · #6 05-27-2010, 06:27 PM

xotic bb preamp. it has bass and treble controls and a volume, but it acts like a tube amp and keeps your tone. That would be a could pedal to check out.

lunarpollen · #7 05-27-2010, 11:20 PM

Thanks for all the suggestions so far... Keep in mind that the JC-120 is often unforgiving to OD pedals; I've heard that it's not even worth it if it is not a real tube OD going into it...

jive1 · #8 05-27-2010, 11:31 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by lunarpollen

Thanks for all the suggestions so far... Keep in mind that the JC-120 is often unforgiving to OD pedals; I've heard that it's not even worth it if it is not a real tube OD going into it...

A big part of the natural overdrive sound comes from the speaker breaking up. The JC-120 isn't designed to break up like say, a Marshall.

Personally, I don't think there is a pedal out there that is gonna get you that sound from your JC-120 stock. I've heard modded Boss MT-2s that sounded decent, but that's a totally different sound. The closest I've heard is from a modeling unit like the POD, since it emulates the amplifier as well as the speaker. I played a gig with a guy who used a POD XT live going into a JC-120, and I was pleasantly surprised by how nice it sounded.

lunarpollen · #9 05-28-2010, 12:02 AM

I'm not looking for speaker OD, just tube OD. I can get great OD sounds from my tube amps even at low volume just by turning up the gain. Even my hybrid Vox Valvetronix modeling amp has some great tube overdrive sounds because it has a single tube in it just for that purpose.

jive1 · #10 05-28-2010, 12:54 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by lunarpollen

I'm not looking for speaker OD, just tube OD. I can get great OD sounds from my tube amps even at low volume just by turning up the gain. Even my hybrid Vox Valvetronix modeling amp has some great tube overdrive sounds because it has a single tube in it just for that purpose.

But, if you put a speaker from your JC-120 into one of your tube amps, I'll bet you'll lose the tube OD sound you're getting. In the same way, if you put a pair of Celestions Greenbakcs in the JC120 you'll lose the clean tone of the JC120. The speaker makes a HUGE impact in guitar tone.

lunarpollen · #11 05-28-2010, 01:14 AM

Sure, speaker choice does effect overall tone color, but the way tubes break up when pushed is something separate from that.

A lot of people have JC-120 amps; their sonic qualities—both their advantages and limitations—are known things... I would think that at least one pedal maker out there would take advantage of the obvious market for a simple OD pedal made especially for these amps. If I knew anything about making pedals myself, I would make it my goal to be that pedal maker!

tapp01 · #12 05-28-2010, 01:28 AM

Tubescreamers sound great with either SS or tube amps. There are also countless clones out there you can find with the features/price you want. These are easy to find and try.

Tube sound in a pedal brings Tech 21 to mind. Maybe one of these --

http://www.tech21nyc.com/products/sansamp/gt2.html

or one of these in whatever flavor you prefer --

http://www.tech21nyc.com/products/sa...terseries.html

René_Julien · #13 05-28-2010, 02:15 AM

My guitarist uses those Sansamp Character Series pedals with a JC-120.
They work great at sounding like a tube amp.
He has the California, Liverpool and British.

The British he uses the most. It does the Marshall thing very well. (We both love the Marshall sound... for guitaramps.)

He doesn't exactly use it as an overdrive, more like an amp-sim: cleanish with the tubes breaking up in the sweet spot. (Or however that should be phrased.)

lunarpollen · #14 05-28-2010, 02:25 AM

This one looks and sounds interesting

http://www.wamplerpedals.com/plexidrive

I'm not really a Marshall fan except for the earlier smaller amps which kind of sounded like Fenders on steroids.

lunarpollen · #15 05-28-2010, 02:44 AM

Wampler's Cranked AC pedal also is very appealing... hmmmm.....

superbassman2000 · #16 05-28-2010, 09:44 AM

my favorite guitar overdrive is the fulltone fulldrive

cnltb · #17 05-28-2010, 09:51 AM

I like the proco rat.

jive1 · #18 05-28-2010, 10:04 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by lunarpollen

Sure, speaker choice does effect overall tone color, but the way tubes break up when pushed is something separate from that.

A lot of people have JC-120 amps; their sonic qualities—both their advantages and limitations—are known things... I would think that at least one pedal maker out there would take advantage of the obvious market for a simple OD pedal made especially for these amps. If I knew anything about making pedals myself, I would make it my goal to be that pedal maker!

The thing is that the JC-120 is coveted it for it's clean tone. I don't think many people get one thinking they'll get a killer OD out of it. They go for pristine clean, which is what it does. If people are looking for an overdriven sound, they usually go for something that does it well. IMO, trying to get an overdriven tube sound out of a JC-120 is like trying to modify a cargo van so that it performs like a sportscar. Making an OD pedal to sell to users of the JC-120 is like making racing tires for a school bus.

I said it before, in the end the speaker makes the sound. You can record something in High Def, Dolby surround sound, but if you play it on a 3" B&W, you won't get any of that. Outside of speaker emulation, you're not gonna get that sound out of an overdrive pedal.

Here's some suggestions:
Line 6 POD (Best I've heard)
Sansamp Character Series
Sansamp GT-2
Play through your tube amp

superbassman2000 · #19 05-28-2010, 10:10 AM

you could also do what most guitar players who want a roland amp and distortion do, get tube amp that you like the od/dist on, and get an a/b switch

lunarpollen · #20 05-28-2010, 10:33 AM

I think some kind of really transparent preamp pedal with a 12AX7 that can be overdriven might work. I'm not looking for anything high-gain. Just something that breaks up the sound in a pleasing way without sounding harsh or sterile. A lot of solid state OD pedals, even the amp simulators, immediately add a bunch of high frequencies to the sound when turned on, and unlike many other amps where it's not as noticable, the JC-120 loves to reproduce those frequencies and shove them in your face. Right now I am using a Vox Valve-tone (basically a Tube Screamer clone) but it sucks a lot out of the tone, which is not really as noticable on a nice tube amp, like my old Bassman 70, where it excelled at doing what I am looking for a pedal to do for my JC-120, but the JC-120 reveals *everything* about your tone, good and bad. It's unforgiving! The OD sounds of my tube amps sounds great no matter what cabinet I use them with. The natural sound of my JC-120 sounds great no matter if I use its internal speakers or use other cabinets. Switching speakers does impart different balances of frequencies etc., but the overall tones of the amplifier sections remain.