Good Blues-y Overdrive?

directorfitzy

I'm looking for an overdrive pedal that is not so crunchy, but something that'll let my Strats tone shine through rather than getting lost in the crunch...any suggestions? I checked out the Boss Blues Driver, but I'm kind of shying away from Boss pedals these days. As for an example of some sound...kind of like the way Hendrix's sound was...it was that line between clean and overdriven...

StevieK

Some suggestions, if you're serious about getting a good blues sound you'll take one of them:

Germanium Fuzz Face of some sort with your guitar volume knob backed off.

Tube Screamer TS 808

Boss BD 2 Blues Driver

Crowther Hot Cake

All of the Above

The main thing for a good blues sound is to turn your amp on its clean channel up very loud (only if its a tube amp). Turning the clean channel up loud adds just a touch of natural overdrive to the sound, put one of these above pedals in front of it with their level knob up high and very little drive and this will push the amp into a great natural saturation, that's the key to a good blues tone.

Richie

There's that new Electro-Harmonix one, the Germanium OD, I've heard good things about that, although prices seem to be pretty inconsistent from one place to the next. You could also get what I have, the Vox Big Ben overdrive, that's awesome, and the prices of the Cooltron pedals plummeted a little while ago (I suspect because not many people were buying them, although can't imagine why).

jace

If you have a tube amp turn it up and puts Tube Screamer TS 808 in front of it. This will give you the sound you want.

taylormade

I'm getting good results out of my Marshall GV-2 pedal. Low-Mid gain, dial in some "deep" and let it wail. That's on an 07 MIM Strat too. I'm still getting the Jagstang dialed in - the extra hot pickups definitely require a different setup.

directorfitzy

I'm actually thinking of the Fulltone OCD overdrive pedal. It basically has all I'm asking for...hmmm I'll have to see if Guitar Center has any.

Fran

I agree on the TS808. The Nobels overdrive is good, Digitech Bad Monkey...

There are that many your best bet is to try them out at a store.

TheJam104

How about a boss blues driver.

StevieK

boss blues driver is great for what it is, its the one boss pedal I actually really like, the drive on it is just a touch cardboardy but its super transparent and doesn't color the tone that much. Having it modded to true bypass and having the drive tinkered with by robert keeley is well worth it, but stock they still sound great for blues.

directorfitzy

So, I've decided I'm going to go with this neat little boutique pedal I've found. The Freak Show Brown Rabbit. Check it out:

(this is with a Strat run through a Fender Deluxe)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qBgmk0r15CQ

It looks to have incredible range...plus all the pedals are hand-painted, making each one unique.

Fran

Sounds great. Transparent crunch to Hendrix fuzz, i want one!

What do they retail at?

directorfitzy

they go for 165. Made more expensive because of them being hand-painted and such...but I think it's a good deal. They describe it as a meticulously souped up ProCo Rat...and well, I'm pretty much sold. You should go to http://www.freakshowpedals.com to see the other two they make. The DigiLog (a really cool delay pedal), and the Mahirishi (an octave pedal without the fuzz and it also has the ability to sound like a Sitar!)

Lou

tube screamer on one side...more on the other and combos

I've had like every distortion/overdrive pedal known to man kind. now I pretty much just use this.

TheJam104

the jekyll and hyde is a great pedal. I also had many distorion pedals and nothing really ever compared to this and my big muff.

tragictravisty

i like the route 88, its a comp into the same tubescreamer copy, and the comp adds lots off boost... + a bass boost on the tube screamer, which sounds very nice... but i think that you made the right choice

tragictravisty

what is the brown mouse deluxe or whatever? what do the extra knobs do?

tragictravisty

check this one out to:

od/fuzz