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Transparent Overdrive options

tsheldon

tsheldon

Jun 20, 2005
372
699
Western New York
#1
Hi guys,

I'm mainly a jazz player with a high-fi clean sound (solid state amp) but got myself into a rock n roll power trio situation :help: and I'm lacking a good way to beef up my tone when the guitar player takes a solo. I'm hoping to glean some advice from the overdrive pros.

I would like an overdrive pedal which is simple, analog, true bypass (too many buffers already) and basically passes on my basses unaffected tone characteristics with addition of overdrive.

Thus far I've tried a Sansamp which I didn't care for, I found the distortion muddy and lo-fi sounding and the blend knob had to lean way to far towards unaffected before I got my highs back but then didn't have enough overdrive. I also tried an MXR M-80 and the distortion character was just a bit too "gainey" (buzzy and aggressive) for my tastes.

Judging from Youtube videos the Rodenberg GAS-808B seems like a good possibility and perhaps the Darkglass Vintage Microtubes. Does anyone have some suggestions of other pedals I should make an effort to hear?
 
#2
A "transparent" drive is kind of misleading, because you are looking for a certain amount of baked in tone. The Darkglass VMT is a great pedal but it rolls of the highs and has a real mid focus, something that may be a bit drastic given your regular setup (or maybe that's the kind of flavor you need with that band?). Given what you've described, with your rig and wanting to stay fairly transparent I would check out a Paul Cochrane Timmy.

Your best resource for referencing different overdrive sounds is going to be this page:
http://johnkvintageguitars.homestead.com/Overdrive-Pedals.html
 
#4
999Brent said:
The Blacksheep Outlaw does this well, I think there is one for sale on TB now...

As long as you have a blend you should get close to what you are after.
Click to expand...

The second part, +1. I can't speak the outlaw unfortunately.
Keeping your original tone as much as possible thru distortion may be quite difficult. A blend knob will allow you to make up your final signal being amplified part original tone part over driven/distorted tone.
 
#6
Judging by the clips that John K has posted, the Joyo American is very transparent - as in, the clean tone he dialed in on the pedal sounded darn near identical to the bypassed tone. As for the bypass, I'm not too sure about that. Some folks claim it's true bypass, some say its buffered but really clean (no tone suck), but for $35 it's an experiment worth trying.
 
#7
Hobobob said:
Judging by the clips that John K has posted, the Joyo American is very transparent - as in, the clean tone he dialed in on the pedal sounded darn near identical to the bypassed tone. As for the bypass, I'm not too sure about that. Some folks claim it's true bypass, some say its buffered but really clean (no tone suck), but for $35 it's an experiment worth trying.
Click to expand...

The Joyo comes very highly recommended and is a great value from what I understand. If you have some extra coin on hand, the Barbershop is a solid, easy-to-use option.

Riis
 
#8
Hobobob said:
Judging by the clips that John K has posted, the Joyo American is very transparent - as in, the clean tone he dialed in on the pedal sounded darn near identical to the bypassed tone. As for the bypass, I'm not too sure about that. Some folks claim it's true bypass, some say its buffered but really clean (no tone suck), but for $35 it's an experiment worth trying.
Click to expand...

It uses a "Millenium Bypass", so not true bypass but yes non tone-sucking IME (I don't have the American but have the UD and AC Tone that uses the same bypass).
 
#10
It probably won't be at the top of the list for people who have tried more ODs than I have, but the Empress Multidrive is pretty transparent with the EQ knobs at noon.
 
#12
One that was popular around here years ago for its very transparent sound is the Barber LTD SR. I've owned maybe 10-12 OD pedals, all good stuff, and i would say its the most transparent I've ever heard. Having said that, I'm DYING to try a Barbershop and I'm gonna be looking to grab a used one in the near future.
 
#13
Check out the Wampler Euphoria. I've compared it to the Darkglass Vintage Microtubes, VT Bass, Ibanez TS9DX, Catalinbread SFT, EHX Muff OD, and Barber Deep Fryer. It's the purest of the bunch, in terms of not coloring your sound.

There are two for sale in the TB Classifieds right now (and only one of them is mine... :D).
 
#17
Charley Umbria said:
Check out the Wampler Euphoria. I've compared it to the Darkglass Vintage Microtubes, VT Bass, Ibanez TS9DX, Catalinbread SFT, EHX Muff OD, and Barber Deep Fryer. It's the purest of the bunch, in terms of not coloring your sound.

There are two for sale in the TB Classifieds right now (and only one of them is mine... :D).
Click to expand...

+1 on the Euphoria .... I decided to keep mine! so there is only 1 in the classifieds
 
#18
Fuzzrocious Dark Driving

iStomp has a downloadable pedal called the "Sparkle Drive" (not true bypass but sounds great)

JCM modded Boss DS-1 with bass mods.

Durham Sex Drive

Also, really anything with a JCM typle of circuit but with the mods to allow additional bass.
 

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