What's your favorite "Swiss Army Knife" dirt pedal

[eh là bas ma]

That Stockade seems like an interesting pedal

I didn't build the PPCB version, but I guess it's similar to mine.

5 clipping options (many flavors and a switchable volume boost to compensate volume losses ), 6 positions on the capacitors selector to cut or add some low frequencies. The sound can get very fat, very sharp and everything in between.

You're not toying with some 2 or 3 positions toggles. You get 2 rotary switches. That's a bit more comfortable. Although, there are two toggles for a buffer and a bass boost somewhere else in the circuit.

Gain A is a regular TS gain character, Gain B is an other gain channel, it sounds close but slightly different from A, a bit more modern or complex, i'd say.
Depending on how you set both gain controls, you can play something quiet with moderate saturation, and when ready, engage gain B on the fly, and unleash the gain with more grit.

Three footswitches make it easier to play with the effect and keep strumming on your guitar.

 

[jhaneyzz]

Building a Stockade AND a couple of TS clones.

 

[eh là bas ma]

...but if i had the overwhelming responsability to build :

"one drive to rule them all"

with no budget limitation, I would decidedly put an aion's Sapphire, or a Morning Glory, and one or two roto-tone mini boards with clipping and bass boost/cut options before a pedalpcb Tweed Man (or the amazing Aion TS-50 and its "tri-comp network"), maybe a little SHO volume boost at the end, all in one box. Like an improved Stockade sort of thing.

The Crown Jewel and the Infinidrive looks very interesting too, though... I built the Dwarven Hammer and ROG Azabache and they're both also absolutely impressive...and so versatile ! As long as the is good quality and not on the outside, of course...

You could also have a "quick" look at GCI circuits, for exemple you can't go wrong with a Bass Brutalist, it just rules.

https://www.musikding.de/index.php?k=438&lang=eng

 

[jhaneyzz]

...but if i had the overwhelming responsability to build :

with no budget limitation, I would decidedly put an aion's Sapphire, or a Morning Glory, and one or two roto-tone mini boards with clipping and bass boost/cut options before a pedalpcb Tweed Man (or the amazing Aion TS-50 and its "tri-comp network"), maybe a little SHO volume boost at the end, all in one box. Like an improved Stockade sort of thing.

The Crown Jewel and the Infinidrive looks very interesting too, though... I built the Dwarven Hammer and ROG Azabache and they're both also absolutely impressive...and so versatile ! As long as the is good quality and not on the outside, of course...

And you could also have a "quick" look at GCI circuits, for exemple you can't go wrong with a Bass Brutalist, it just rules.

https://www.musikding.de/index.php?k=438&lang=eng

Wait... you're not a... ahem... "bass" player are you...?

 

[eh là bas ma]

not a... ahem... "bass" player are you...?

I am glad you raised this point. Is it the TS-50 that gave me away ?

Edit : this shouldn't be a concern, tri-comp network and bass pedals are known to be of great interest for those who can only play guitar.

 

[gonzo]

I build a color sound color boost that is very versatile. So are rats.

 

[perfboarder]

Hard choice between Skreddy Screwdriver and Basic Audio Scarab.

 

[Feral Feline]

Wait... you're not a... ahem... "bass" player are you...?

Careful now, there are a lot of us on this forum... some are even Fender-Neutral or ambientdextrous and can play both ways, uhm guitar too, as well as, in addition to, polyphonious multistaverous ...

How have I never seen this? I feel like I scroll the list once a week at least...

I dunno, bhcarpenter had it in post #9 and you missed that...



BTW, I wasn't laughing at Jimilee's TS-808 suggestion, he just said "laugh if you want to" and I did.





I'll also suggest the Lycan...

 

[jimilee]

Careful now, there are a lot of us on this forum... some are even Fender-Neutral or ambientdextrous and can play both ways, uhm guitar too, as well as, in addition to, polyphonious multistaverous ...



I dunno, bhcarpenter had it in post #9 and you missed that...



BTW, I wasn't laughing at Jimilee's TS-808 suggestion, he just said "laugh if you want to" and I did.





I'll also suggest the Lycan...

Bwahahahaha I was waiting for lots of hate comments. I’m surprised at how well it went over.

My dual screamer is a great way for multiple clipping and stacking options. I’d like to see @Robert do a more well thought out version. I just used two of them and a KoT concept and put them together. Sure, it seems absurd, but now we know.

 

[jhaneyzz]

as long as we don't allow drummers I'll be fine...

Hell, I barely count as a guitar player even...

 

[The Gator]

Anybody try the MDMA as a versatile overdrive?
It's like the Wampler ecstasy/euphoria.
It does light to heavy overdrive and fuzz.
It switch from soft diode clipping, op-amp clipping, and hardclipping.
Just throwing that out there.

 

[HamishR]

Why not ask the Swiss army?

I'm with Barry - today I might say the Dane/Fordoble (modded for a bass pot of course!), but tomorrow I might have discovered something else. Seriously though there's not much I couldn't do with that.

 

[jhaneyzz]

Anybody try the MDMA as a versatile overdrive?
It's like the Wampler ecstasy/euphoria.
It does light to heavy overdrive and fuzz.
It switch from soft diode clipping, op-amp clipping, and hardclipping.
Just throwing that out there.

I'll throw mu Wampler Euphoria on the board tonight and refresh my memory, but I don't recall every thinking of it as super-versatile. Maybe I was just trying to get the Dumble tone out of it and didn't give it a fair shake.

 

[Guardians of the analog]

Sd-1 into rat can pretty much do it all
Thread 'BtRiab-BuddytheReow in a box' https://forum.pedalpcb.com/threads/btriab-buddythereow-in-a-box.14660/

 

[jhaneyzz]

Since I started this thread I've been playing king of the hill with the full lineup.

• Zen drive
• PPCB Cobalt - Blues Driver
• OD1
• OCD
• Madbean EgoDeath (OCD with some tweaks)
• PPCB Simulcast - Hudson Broadcast
• Wampler Tumnus
• Rat - amazingly silly little Mooer Black Secret that for like $30 is one of the best sounding pedals I own
• All of my TS pedals are in various states of disassembly ATM

And right now... the Madbean EgoDeath is kicking ass and taking names...

 

[steviejr92]

Anybody try the MDMA as a versatile overdrive?

I don’t like the MDMA for me it’s definitely NOT a versatile OD. It has way to much bass and if you turn the bass knob down it sounds like crap. I would look elsewhere for a versatile OD.

 

[jhaneyzz]

Sd-1 into rat can pretty much do it all
Thread 'BtRiab-BuddytheReow in a box' https://forum.pedalpcb.com/threads/btriab-buddythereow-in-a-box.14660/

I need to build an SD1...

 

[jhaneyzz]

Does Pedal PCB have an SD-1 board?

 

[The Gator]

I don’t like the MDMA for me it’s definitely NOT a versatile OD. It has way to much bass and if you turn the bass knob down it sounds like crap. I would look elsewhere for a versatile OD.

Well I guess I did modify the circuit pretty heavily. Didn't think about that before I posted lol.
Just to re-affirm what your looking for,
One overdrive for all purposes?
Not a fuzz, not a distortion?

 

[benny_profane]

With a question like this, it seems to lead to thinking more is more: more knobs, switches, gain stages, etc. allow for more custom tweaking and dialing in with precision—so, necessarily, that means that it’s more versatile.

I think that there’re diminishing returns there. With the ability to modify circuits, we can easily add options simply because we’re able to. But, does that proportionally add versatility?

The ease of making a new pedal can lead to a lack of exploration with circuits themselves. For example, you can get very nice overdriven sounds from rudimentary fuzzes with the interaction between the guitar and the fuzz pedal. That can easily be overlooked because a “fuzz is a fuzz and I’m going to approach it and use it as such.”

With the rat, dirty boost, OD, distortion, and (somewhat gated) fuzz sounds can all be found. Is it the “best” at all of those? That depends on what your preference is. But, it’s much more than just a distortion.

I think that the available number and variety of circuits may discourage really digging into a single circuit to find everything that’s there. And, of course, this applies to much more than just the rat. That’s just my preference.

Now, this won’t hold true for everything, but I do think it’s useful to investigate the full potential of a circuit rather than pigeon-holing it into a narrow use category.