First Overdrive Pedal

Gloompunk

Gloompunk

Oct 21, 2021
180
311
1,571
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Adelaide, Australia
#1
Hey y'all, as the title says, I'm looking to finally dip my toe into the world of effects pedals, and I want to get an overdrive/distortion pedal first.

For context, I'm playing a Sterling by Music Man Stingray Ray4 and I'm mainly looking to play metal (Gojira, SOAD, Slipknot, etc.) Because I'm a bit of an obsessive git, I already looked at a lot of demos and my options atm are:
  • Fulltone OCD
  • Wayhuge Green Rhino
  • Boss ODB-3
  • Earthquaker Devices Plumes
Of course, if you got any other suggestions, please do share! Although keep the pedal bellow $150 USD (I have to account for shipping)

Thanks in advance!
 
#4
knumbskull said:
Green Rhino is (i think) a Tubescreamer circuit - in my experience these get a bit lost in heavy, downtuned guitars. (I do like them in general and GR looks good otherwise)

Fuzzrocious Cat Tail would be my go to for heavy overdrive,
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First time I heard about it. From a cursory glance I can see it's just a bit over my budget but I can work that out.
 
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#7
Gloompunk said:
Atm, don't really have one. I play on a poopy guitar practice amp at home, and when I perform it's usually whatever is on venue. I will most likely get an Orange Crush Bass amp once I move out.
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There's a TC Electronic Spectradrive in the classifieds right now for $135. It has a nice eq section, as well as drive and compression, a balanced DI out, headphones out/aux in for silent practice. Worth checking out, seller might be willing to ship it internationally. Sale/Trade - TC Electronic Spectradrive (price drop / accepting trades now)
 
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#9
Ricky Caboverde said:
You never specified a preference between analog or digital—so, a used Source Audio Aftershock will give you all the dirt you need for less than your budget. And if you can wait till Black Friday/Cyber Monday, you could get a new one instead.
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I'm very new to pedals so I don't know the difference between analogue and digital. Most pedals I've seen so far have been analogue and people treat that as a positive, but I'm fine with either.
 
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#10
Gloompunk said:
I'm very new to pedals so I don't know the difference between analogue and digital. Most pedals I've seen so far have been analogue and people treat that as a positive, but I'm fine with either.
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Oh! Exploring something new—that’s a fun place to be :thumbsup: Effects can easily lead you down a rabbit hole, but thankfully there is tons of great info in this forum and on several YouTube channels. Be sure to use the search feature, here, and read up what you can; but for the most part, as you’ve already found, folks here are always willing to give their opinion and advice.

My first pedals were a DarkGlass B3K and a Polytune mini noir. The DG pedal was not the sound I was looking for, so then I tried a GreedTone overdrive, and then a different pedal, and so on and so on….
 
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#11
Gloompunk said:
First time I heard about it. From a cursory glance I can see it's just a bit over my budget but I can work that out.
Click to expand...

Shipping the US is free from us (Fuzzrocious). I'm available by email to talk more and I have another suggestion - [email protected].
 
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#12
The OCD is an awesome pedal (for guitar). I experimented around with it for my bass rig and it just sounded a bit "vanilla" to me... as well as losing a little bottom end. Additionally, I don't think it would produce an aggressive enough tone, from what you described you are looking for. I use a Tech 21 VT Bass Deluxe preamp/DI pedal to achieve more ballsy/aggressive tones. But that seems to be out of your budget. May be worth looking into finding a used one. Great pedal! Good luck.
 
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#13
You don't just buy an OD and be done if you really care for OD sounds.
You will buy one and check it out and figure the settings that work for you.
Then you will encounter another one that will do a certain thing much better and you dig that.
But it will not do the one thing that your first pedal does, so you start looking for a solution.

At one point, you will have a preamp pedal with a certain EQ setting playing into a Boss LS-2 where in loop A there is a compressor, then an octaver with just a bit +1 and -1 to expand and then heavy distortion and/or Fuzz, while in Loop B there is an Overdrive with a rather mild setting and a clean blend to keep the lows intact - playing into another obscure boutique pedal ... all that put in a loop of a looper pedal, so you have somewhere around 8 pedals to get your Dirt sound going. That's where you realize that this might be a bit excessive.
 
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#14
el murdoque said:
You don't just buy an OD and be done if you really care for OD sounds.
You will buy one and check it out and figure the settings that work for you.
Then you will encounter another one that will do a certain thing much better and you dig that.
But it will not do the one thing that your first pedal does, so you start looking for a solution.

At one point, you will have a preamp pedal with a certain EQ setting playing into a Boss LS-2 where in loop A there is a compressor, then an octaver with just a bit +1 and -1 to expand and then heavy distortion and/or Fuzz, while in Loop B there is an Overdrive with a rather mild setting and a clean blend to keep the lows intact - playing into another obscure boutique pedal ... all that put in a loop of a looper pedal, so you have somewhere around 8 pedals to get your Dirt sound going. That's where you realize that this might be a bit excessive.
Click to expand...

...a bit, yeah.
 
#16
knumbskull said:
Green Rhino is (i think) a Tubescreamer circuit - in my experience these get a bit lost in heavy, downtuned guitars. (I do like them in general and GR looks good otherwise)

Fuzzrocious Cat Tail would be my go to for heavy overdrive,
Click to expand...

Agreed, however the Green Rhino (latest versions at least) have some EQ options to avoid the bass cut of the traditional Maxon circuit.

Another good TS-ish drive is the Hardwire CM-2. Based on the Bad Monkey, which is a TS with a Baxandall EQ (Bass/Treb instead of Tone), but it has some additional tricks like a higher-gain mode that might work well for you in heavier styles. These change hands between $75-$100 and aren't too difficult to find. Only potential hesitation is no clean blend, though the bass shelving control makes sure you have all the low end you want, dirty or not.

I personally use two drive pedals on my pedalboard. My Bass Soul Food is a "poke-out" pedal, I use it to put a bit of a nose and some edge on my tone, so I can play a bit lighter to sit in the mix, then when I dig in I pop out front. It's not an in-your-face thrash metal pedal and I don't try to make it one, but it has a nice "don't **** with me" growl for alt/post-grunge (think Filter's "Hey Man Nice Shot", with just a little attitude on the verse riff, then dig in on the chorus hammer-ons). The bass version adds a clean blend, which is a little redundant if you understand the Klon circuit, but it works.

The Hot Wax, that's another story. A stack of the Timmy-ish Crayon and the Red Llama-ish Hot Tubes, this thing has gain to spare on either side of the circuit, let alone slamming the Crayon into the HT. This is my pedal for Zombie, Seether's Careless Whisper cover, Radiohead's Creep and a few others where I want real grind underpinning the guitars. Like the BSF, it has a clean blend to keep the lows in the mix. And they're not expensive either, currently going for $120 new, about $100 used.
 
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#18
rratajski said:
Shipping the US is free from us (Fuzzrocious). I'm available by email to talk more and I have another suggestion - [email protected].
Click to expand...

I got to admit, I'm on the cusp of picking up a Fuzzrocious pedal myself as I've gotten a bit into doom/stoner/sludge metal as of late. From what I've heard, these pedals are really great on bass.

To the OP, think about what you want to accomplish. Fuzz or overdrive pushed to distortion will get lost in a wall of sound if you are essentially doubling the guitars. Case in point, I play in a cover band that does Metallica's For Whom the Bell Tolls. I love it. Crazy bass solo that wails in the beginning. I run wah/octave/fuzz. It screams. But, as soon as the bass goes into the guitar groove, I need to shut all the fun down because what screams solo...completely disappears in the groove. A cleaner, clankier tone cuts the mix when competing with loud, distorted guitars. So for 95% of my sound it's just a Darkglass B7K for light overdrive/preamp.

So that's the conundrum. Buy the pedal that's going to be used all the time, but is subtle - or - the pedal that sounds awesome soloed? For your first pedal, I would suggest a good overdrive/preamp with DI capability (especially if you are relying on notoriously unreliable backline) and then get the higher gain pedal second. Stacking pedals can create some amazing sounds, and in my experience stepping on/off buttons is more practical than trying to tweak knobs when playing live.
 
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#19
Consider a Used Darkglass pedal. Specifically the Vintage Microtubes or B3k. They both have blend knobs and can go from slight OD/Gainy to distortions and have many usable tones. The VMT is more low mid focused and they B3K is alittle more modern and aggressive. Ive been through over 15 OD/Distortion pedals and the VMT is my go to pedal for 90% of my OD needs. Good luck.
 
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