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I'm all over the place with my dumb questions, the whole pandemic lockdown gave me time to rethink my board. So I'm looking to ditch or replace everything that I've fallen out of love with, hasn't been used a lot, or doesn't work with my current rig/situation/taste anymore, etc...

Next up: My old Microamp. Love how it pushes my bassmaster to the point where it sounds like something's about to explode. It's like it gives my guitar this pissed off super sensitive attack. Saggy lows, razor sharp highs,...

But there's got to be something out there that does both that, AND lets me dial in more ghain if I wanted to...Right? Like basically a micro amp type of clean'ish boost with some mids/highs emphasis, but with an extra couple gain stages or something...Meaning I could use it in my living room for low volume overdrive stuff OR use it in a low/mid gain setting at rehearsels, in front of another dirt pedal, or into the slightly crunchy Bassmaster.

Should I be looking at Treble Booster type circuits, like the Catalinbread Naga Viper, or the Laney TI boost? Tubescreamer based pedals, like the EQD Dunes?
It's been ages since I had an OCD, how do those sound with the gain backed down? Tried and failed: dod gunslinger, hotcake (muddy and dark with the gain up), rat (compressed and fizzy, kills low end).

So in short: looking for a bread and butter dad rock ovedrive poedal that doesn't compromise anywhere across the gain spectrum. Any ideas? Thanks.

what about the mxr distortion plus and dod 250? it's the same circuit but with clipping diodes and some different component values. i prefer the 250 as there's more volume on tap.

if you don't mind soldering, you could even try throwing some clipping diodes into your micro amp.

but note that the microamp really is a totally clean, it's not boosting or cutting anything in the audible spectrum: https://www.electrosmash.com/mxr-microamp

so those saggy lows and razor sharp highs are almost certainly from hitting your amp hard with full-frequency volume boost. most drive pedals cut both the bass frequencies (to prevent muddiness) and the treble frequencies (to prevent harshness), which means they won't hit your amp in the same way.

i know it's a bit of a buzzword, but it sounds like the best option would be "transparent" overdrive like a timmy to add gain while keeping that full-frequency boost.

Maybe check out an Earthquaker Devices Bows?

Bartimaeus wrote:what about the mxr distortion plus and dod 250? it's the same circuit but with clipping diodes and some different component values. i prefer the 250 as there's more volume on tap.

if you don't mind soldering, you could even try throwing some clipping diodes into your micro amp.

but note that the microamp really is a totally clean, it's not boosting or cutting anything in the audible spectrum: https://www.electrosmash.com/mxr-microamp

so those saggy lows and razor sharp highs are almost certainly from hitting your amp hard with full-frequency volume boost. most drive pedals cut both the bass frequencies (to prevent muddiness) and the treble frequencies (to prevent harshness), which means they won't hit your amp in the same way.

i know it's a bit of a buzzword, but it sounds like the best option would be "transparent" overdrive like a timmy to add gain while keeping that full-frequency boost.

Yeah, I'm pretty sure that what I was describing is just the sound of my COOKING amp, rather than the clean boost that's making it cook

So getting that same thing going, in a pedal that also goes up to distortion/fuzzy territory, is what I'm after. Just to save board space, so I don't need a different dirt pedal for each particular setting and different gain level. I'll still have three fuzz pedals ofcourse, but boost/od is something one pedal should be able to handle.

I'd actually rather just flip the micro amp, in favor of something more versatile. It's from the late '70s, I gave it a dc socket and a blue status led. Hoping to get enough for it to help fund the new pedal. I'll check out the Timmy. Never gave it a closer look, cause of its blues laywer tgp reputation Same reason it took me this long to look at Klon type pedals

EQD Grey Channel could do this with one side set to no diodes and the other set to taste?

Klon
I had a Boss Blues Driver for a similar task, maybe check that out? I can remember it staying pretty clean with the gain reduced and the volume maxed out.

Love the Grey Channel demos. But the simplicity and footprint of the BD-2 are giving it the edge, and most importantly the fact that I could find one for $50 any day of the week.
Timmy, Klon, and all the lesser known boutique 'transparant boosts'...I honestly don't hear much that justifies the hefty prices
It's also hard to judge tones when they're colored by the recording, my headphones, the dudes amp and guitar,...Not to mension it's hard to translate all the blooz wanking to my shoegazy sludge pop improv style of playing

Well, the Klon suggestion wasn't really serios
If you can get your hands on a BD-2 just try it, you can always flip it for the same money. Or keep it, because it actually sounds quite excellent. I miss mine. Maybe I should get one again.

It is truly hard to go wrong with a blues driver.

Also it sounds like you're kind of describing your standard issue "always-on + a boost" dual OD pedal. I think pretty much every company makes some version of this, you could even get a $90 KoT clone from ebay.
Or you could get 2 BD-2s.

mcatano wrote:Also it sounds like you're kind of describing your standard issue "always-on + a boost" dual OD pedal. I think pretty much every company makes some version of this, you could even get a $90 KoT clone from ebay.
Or you could get 2 BD-2s.

Yeah, but instead of a KoT type of deal, a pedal with one side going from clean boost to medium gain and a second side going from medium to stupid high gain, would be way more useful to me.

But I guess that's the point of using multiple dirt pedals

frigid midget wrote:Love the Grey Channel demos. But the simplicity and footprint of the BD-2 are giving it the edge, and most importantly the fact that I could find one for $50 any day of the week.
Timmy, Klon, and all the lesser known boutique 'transparant boosts'...I honestly don't hear much that justifies the hefty prices
It's also hard to judge tones when they're colored by the recording, my headphones, the dudes amp and guitar,...Not to mension it's hard to translate all the blooz wanking to my shoegazy sludge pop improv style of playing

Transparent boost rec that is less pricey than timmy/klon (although you can find cheap alternatives to both) would be the Barber LTD. I bought mine very cheap, but if you came across one for around a hundy or so they sound excellent

I have fell for the boss FA-1 recently. pretty awesome cranked and it isnt that loud. You could probably find some cheap clone on the bay. I know valetone made a 50$ one but it seems to just have disappeared

I mean, you can also never go wrong with SSBS Mini.

Schlatte wrote:I mean, you can also never go wrong with SSBS Mini.

Yeah, that's a pretty popular one around these parts. Pretty hard to score one here in EU, no? I'm not sure I want to spend 180Euro on an overdrive pedal :/