Starting an overdrive shootout

J

jcpst

Well-known member
As much as I like guitar pedals, overdrive is something I never really put much thought into. Over the past 25 years, I've been doing OD one of three ways: TS9, RAT, and/or tube amp.

So I'm going to start by exploring some classic/hip/trendy pedals. Here's what will be in my first batch:

Cobalt Drive
Kliché Mini
Mean Green Metal Machine
Awful Waffle
Mach 1 Overdrive
Informant Overdrive
Thermionic Distortion

Here's some on my wishlist that might be in the next batch:

UberDrive
Muffin Man Fuzz
ADHD Overdrive
Ample Alpaca Overdrive
Pandora's Box
FraJeeLay Distortion
Tyrian Distortion

Why am I posting this? Just curious if anyone has any takes on the ones in my next batch, or any suggestions on sub-categories of OD worth exploring. Apologies if this is too close to a "ummm whut should I build???" post. I am throwing a few high-gain "metal" pedals in there too. 🤷‍♂️
 
My favorite genre is transparent (buzzword), relatively flat mids overdrives. Looks like you already have the Mach 1 and the ADHD lined up. A couple of my other favorites in that space are the Acer, Son of Ben and Narcissus.

Higher gain, I like the SD-9 (I built the Fuzz Dog version with some tasteful built-in mods), the Disarray and the Chela.
 
sticky1138 said:
My favorite genre is transparent (buzzword), relatively flat mids overdrives. Looks like you already have the Mach 1 and the ADHD lined up. A couple of my other favorites in that space are the Acer, Son of Ben and Narcissus.

Higher gain, I like the SD-9 (I built the Fuzz Dog version with some tasteful built-in mods), the Disarray and the Chela.
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Ah, the Narcissus! I remember liking the demo I found on YT, but somehow it never made it into my wishlist. It's in there now 😁

Thank you for the suggestions.
 
The Plumes is weirdly satisfying for its voice toggle switch. My favorite mode (asymmetrical) is my friend's least favorite mode. Weird.

Makes me wanna try the Dunes for its 3 toggle switches. (y)
 
For your first batch, adding an ODR-1 (Nobleman) and/or Timmy to complete the list of classics. In fact I'd probably take off the Informant (not classic) and Thermionic (too gainy) from your first batch.
 
spi said:
For your first batch, adding an ODR-1 (Nobleman) and/or Timmy to complete the list of classics. In fact I'd probably take off the Informant (not classic) and Thermionic (too gainy) from your first batch.
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Thank you, added those to my wishlist. I had heard of the Timmy, but not the ODR-1.

For the Thermionic, the PCB already populated, it was actually part of my last batch and of course I was one part short- it's just waiting on a pot in my next parts order to finish it out. That one's part of an exploration into a few of those high-gain AIAB type pedals.

The Informant is more of a "hype" selection for sure. I have the PCB and a tayda matte white sand enclosure already on the way for it.
 
Recently finished a Timmy v3 and am surprisingly happy with it! Very smooth, nice treble and bass controls, and much more gain than I was expecting. Not really hyped anymore, but I can see why it's a classic.
 
I don't feel like figuring out if one made your list but if you aren't trying at least one fetzer valve style overdrive or amp in a box then you aren't really trying different things. best I could make out was you are trying out a bunch of "op amp(s) and clipping diodes" overdrives
 
ICTRock said:
I don't feel like figuring out if one made your list but if you aren't trying at least one fetzer valve style overdrive or amp in a box then you aren't really trying different things. best I could make out was you are trying out a bunch of "op amp(s) and clipping diodes" overdrives
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I looked up what a fetzer valve was. Then searching on the forums I didn’t find it correlated with a PCB- it was being referenced as a standalone circuit block.

I’ll see if I can figure out whether any of them fit that category. I’d rather try new things than just get a bunch of op amp & clipping diode overdrives if what I’m looking at is a narrow perspective of overdrives. It’s not a category I’ve explored much.

Most of what I have built/explored so far are octave, PLL, wavefolding, filters, time-based.
 
sticky1138 said:
My favorite genre is transparent (buzzword), relatively flat mids overdrives. Looks like you already have the Mach 1 and the ADHD lined up. A couple of my other favorites in that space are the Acer, Son of Ben and Narcissus.

Higher gain, I like the SD-9 (I built the Fuzz Dog version with some tasteful built-in mods), the Disarray and the Chela.
Click to expand...
I'm not sure it is really an OD yet, but the Chop Shop is fantastic for fairly transparent and a different approach. Duocast on lower gain settings is good too.

For higher gain, I like things like an Awful Waffle or ODR cranked, or Duocast on the fuzzier channel.
 
Ok- I have built batch one and tried them all out. So that's:

Cobalt Drive
Kliché Mini
Mean Green Metal Machine
Awful Waffle
Mach 1 Overdrive
Informant Overdrive
Thermionic Distortion

I think I get the hype around the Kliché. It is a great sound. However, I think I like the Mach 1 quite a bit more than it.

favorite stacking combos in this batch:

Mach 1 <--- Cobalt Drive
Mach 1 <--- Mean Green Metal Machine.

The Thermionic is kind of the odd duck of the group has tons more gain. Really enjoy that one and now I think I have a bug for high-gain MAIB projects.

The Informant is quite pleasant. I get why people would like it over a Rat. Still think I prefer a Rat instead.

least impressed - Awful Waffle. It's not bad per se- I just wasn't excited about the sounds I was getting out of it.
best in show - Mach 1. I think it might win the prize of being an always-on pedal on my board.

Now that I've tried those, and considered the great feedback in the comments from last month, I plan on trying these out:

Son of Ben (already have everything for this build)
Nobleman Overdrive
Narcissus Overdrive
Blue Breaker
Red Herring Overdrive
Chop Shop
Tommy III (currently on waitlist)
 
FWIW I was a bit disappointed in the Son of Ben (and Chop Shop too, but I think I would like the tone switch version more, I built the previous one - always had to turn the tone knob down a bit on my strat with it), but YMMV. I quite liked the Pot and Kettle (although that might also depend on how afraid you are of pedals with more than 3 controls) and the Scenario Preamp.
 
Fama said:
I quite liked the Pot and Kettle (although that might also depend on how afraid you are of pedals with more than 3 controls) and the Scenario Preamp.
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Checked out some demo videos and both of those sound great.
 
Depends on what the criteria for "overdrive" are. I tend to think of them as amp-like, so amp sims are there, but I personally wouldn't include Frajeelay (rat) or muffin (big muff). Preamps, sure.

Deofol
Angry Timmy
Brownout Overdrive
Corroder overdrive
Mahayana/any ZenDrive clone (I built the Aion version)
Sanguine Distortion
Cetus Preamp
 
Man, I've built SO fricken many OD/Distortion pedals from PPCB. Also have at least 15 more in my backlog to build yet.......

I just put together the SoulDrive (Fulltone PlimSoul) and just wow! Between that and the Scenario Preamp, I finally found my faves after building 1/4 of PPCB's stock.......and the OD/Dist/Fuzz section here is MASSIVE
 
jcpst said:
I think I get the hype around the Kliché. It is a great sound. However, I think I like the Mach 1 quite a bit more than it.

favorite stacking combos in this batch:

Mach 1 <--- Cobalt Drive
Mach 1 <--- Mean Green Metal Machine.

least impressed - Awful Waffle. It's not bad per se- I just wasn't excited about the sounds I was getting out of it.
best in show - Mach 1. I think it might win the prize of being an always-on pedal on my board.
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IMO (and most early Klon owners), the Kliche and the like are best as a boost with the gain barely up. Try doing that into a Mach 1. I love that combo. I love the Mach 1 on it's own too and into a Chop Shop (I set mine as a light crunch channel more than anything).

I think Awful Waffle is a love it/hate it kind of thing. I like it and gigged with one for a few years. Many friends don't.
 
Fama said:
FWIW I was a bit disappointed in the Son of Ben (and Chop Shop too, but I think I would like the tone switch version more, I built the previous one - always had to turn the tone knob down a bit on my strat with it), but YMMV. I quite liked the Pot and Kettle (although that might also depend on how afraid you are of pedals with more than 3 controls) and the Scenario Preamp.
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I built both Chop Shop versions. I don't find the original too bright. I do find V2 too dark in both alternative positions. But, I usually turn the tone knobs on a Strat down a bit so...

I really like the Son of Ben. When I was biasing it, I found two methods. One made it cleaner and punchier than the "proper" method. I keep meaning to go back and try to figure out what I did as I find the "proper" method a bit to wooly at times. I think it sounded better the "wrong" way.
 
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