Advice and recommendations need- what pedal is my customer looking for?

OD3 is a good one.

A Precision Drive might be just the thing to make the other pedals and the amp come alive. I like it with drive at zero or near.

The ZVex Super Duper or Box of Rock are worthy of consideration too.
 
Lightspeed is great but I don't think it fits what they're asking for.

I was thinking crunchbox deluxe, but that's more gain they want. I haven't tried an OD-3 but agree from the descriptions I've heard about it, it would likely make a good match.
I absolutely love the od-3. On my board I'm stacking a bd-2 and an od-3 with humbuckers. Here's a great write up on it.
 
I'm stuck in a less-is-more mode lately but The Clap is a nice utility boost that drives the front of my Blackstar nicely with a bit more edge and thicker mids without buggering up the core sound. The Aion version adds a few tricks but the Clap on my board is built to Strat Elite specs which is decidedly tamer than the Clapton/Sambora version.
 
My two favorite combos for playing into my jcm 800 are a Lightspeed into a zendrive or a rangemaster into a cattledriver (buffalo fx td-x). The Lightspeed/zendrive has a great mid-gain sound when stacked. I think you could easily do hardcore punk with it but maybe not more modern, bro-y, chuggy bullshit. The rangemaster/cattledriver has a surprising amount of gain but when it distorts, the sound is not tight. I like that but it can get muddy despite all the top end. The eq on the cattle driver is really good too.

When I used to play in hardcore bands I didn't really overthink it and either just used a boost and/or a rat. The amp always did the heavy lifting.
 
Maxon ST-9 (AionFx Cirrus) [or PedalPCB Frost Drive is a close contender]

yes i froth circuit this all the time. but that's because it's really good.

the mids control will take you from thick, meaty, juicy to crispy, tight, sizzly, and sharp.
 
Honestly I would build him a rangemaster and don't tell him what the circuit is...... Tell him to put the thing down on the floor and turn the selector knob until it hits the sweet spot....... I play live with a band a lot and that pedal has become a big part of my live tones because it can make you pop out of the mix when you want it too.... I'd tell him it's a tone sweetener and not a " Treble booster"... that reference puts people off I've found.

I placebo'd one of the players I play with and he is super picky.. made him one and told him to put first in chain and set it up to just above unity gain and select the knob till he got the sounds best to what the pickups wanted.... It's never left his board now...
 
What about the "lead mode" on the Formula 5F6?

There's already the low gain excellence of the Bassman, but this additional voicing allows for quite the extended range; it's not modelled after anything, but sounds "American".
 
So from reading through this thread, just about anything you build is going to work. 🤣🤣🤣
Considering what's being requested, and for which genre, that's indeed the case. Something that covers the whole wide middleground, buy with a bit of charm and character. It feels to me everyone recommends pedals that have a bit of range to it, so the person has room to see what it exactly is that he's after?
 
Considering what's being requested, and for which genre, that's indeed the case. Something that covers the whole wide middleground, buy with a bit of charm and character. It feels to me everyone recommends pedals that have a bit of range to it, so the person has room to see what it exactly is that he's after?
The best part is, they can be built up pretty quickly and tested without boxing.
 
Got a friend who does all the 80-90s power ballad/metal type stuff along with wedding singer. Plays a Les Paul and dual humbucker fender into a Marshall. His go to is a BD-2 into a Mojohand Rook (PPCB Bastion)
 
The Rook is a soft clipping gain stage followed by an active baxandall tone stack. The Timmy has a cap blend in the soft clipping stage to control the low end in the clipping with a simple low pass filter afterwards. I actually have a Rook/Bastion pcb I never got around to finishing. Once I get some parts ordered I should wrap that one up.
 
Cast Iron Overdrive (Lollar Overdrive). Basically a Timmy-ish with a mids control. Perfect for adding a bit of grit with a lot of control over the EQ section to boost/cut what’s needed. I use it a lot to boost the mids for leads and give it just a hair more gain.
 
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