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Huge deja vue here, I think I actually asked the exact same question several times before

Pedals come and go, but it's especially the vanilla type middle of the road overdrive pedals that I get bored with REAL fast. I have one all-purpose crazy loud single channel non MV amp with tons of headroom, so a "useable" overdrive pedal is sort of a necessary evil for me. Right now, I don't have any blooz boomer type dirt pedals to stack with fuzz or whatever, and my favorite options to try are all $250 or crazy rare

- not overflowing with useless controls
- decent amount of low end (ie no Rat)
- wide gain range, from a slight bark to really saturated.
- not dark/muddy at high gain settings (ie no hotcake), preferably not overly 'colored' at all.
- Don't wanna be stinchy, but this is such a huge pedals category that a budget limit of $120ish (used) should be reasonable. Right?

Mini = not available in Europe. Opamp type overdrives (ocd, gunslinger,...) tend to be hit or miss, they seem to sound harsh through my amp.
No fizzy high gain pedals with too much top end sizzle (Suhr riot, MI audio Tube Zone, ...).
Haven't had much luck with Boss, they all seem either too tubescreamery and tame, or too colored, or too...HM-2

What am I overlooking, what ticks all the boxes and sounds good going into a clean loud vintage style amp? Tgp lurkers can come out and play now

Check out Fuzzmonster.dk for Minis in Europe. More than your budget and not currently in stock, though.

Idk how different the used market is down there, but used stuff from Catalinbread seems fairly plentiful up here. One of their older od's might fit the bill?

This is slightly out of the budget, but my all time favourite overdrive/distortion is the Elements. Lots of controls but none are useless, massive gain range, great EQ. Can be had for $150ish used?

I am also a big fan of DOD 250 style pedals. In one of my bands I use one as an always on overdrive into a very loud clean amp. Sounds great!

Boss OD-3, sounds like an amp and costs like 30 bucks used

fredric klone
WH pork loin

250's, hot cakes, death metal.

coldbrightsunlight wrote:I am also a big fan of DOD 250 style pedals. In one of my bands I use one as an always on overdrive into a very loud clean amp. Sounds great!

Oh yeah, this is a good take!

Tnks.

Never been too impressed with tubescreamers, they just lack a ton of gain for what I'm after. The eqd seems to go further, but it costs too much for what it is imo, at least here in the EU.

250 type circuits are one of the few old school circuit types I haven't messed with yet, weirdly enough. Will look into it some more.

Elements: had one for a while. Crazy good indeed. And you wouldn't think versatility is a bad thing...but having 29 totally different dirt sounds in one pedal gave me option anxiety
It's just kinda overkill for me at the moment. I'd love something with a similarly wide gain range, but without all the full EQ and the clipping options and all that.

As far as Boss goes...It's not like I gave up on all their entire od/sd range of pedals. Never tried the OD-3. Seems to cut a fair amount of bass though, one of my pet peeves. Also came across the OS-2, forgot about that one. Gets a lot of mixed reviews, I guess cause there's fairly narrow range of good useful tones. But still, the idea of getting an OD-3 that can you can blend with a pinch of ds-1...Might be the set and forget type pedal I need. Tweaking the gain a bit and maybe adjusting the tone/volume a bit depending on gtr/ampsituation, is really all I need from this one.

I just pulled the trigger on a Vextron Distortron (tries too hard to sound marshally maybe?), and also an old Marshall Shredmaster (overly fizzy and noisy?). I'll find out soon I guess. The plan is to keep buying/flipping for a couple of weeks and than decide which one I'll velcro down to the board. For however long it takes untill the cycle repeats itself

HM-2 for sure

I quite like my DOD 250, and I do use the boost mode of the FZ-2 clone I have quite a lot nowadays. But that is for dirty amp usage.

I do think you should take a look at a 250, seems to fit your criteria

EDIT: shredmaster would be worth checking out if they can still be had for decently cheap, for sure.

Maybe also check out the MXR Distortion+, might work for you

Maybe you want a boost rather than an overdrive? SHO/2-in-1, MicroAmp, LPB-1, any of the EP-3 preamp derivatives (though I hear Clinch is tops). Or a treble booster tuned more as a booster.

For me, the TS clippers in the feedback loop of an opamp thing sometimes works but is rarely my favorite sound. If doing diode clipping, I really like hard clipping to ground ala Rat, Distortion +, OD-250. The 250 or a derivative is worth a try if the only thing that isn’t working about the Rat is the lack of low end.

fcknoise wrote:HM-2 for sure

I quite like my DOD 250, and I do use the boost mode of the FZ-2 clone I have quite a lot nowadays. But that is for dirty amp usage.

I do think you should take a look at a 250, seems to fit your criteria

EDIT: shredmaster would be worth checking out if they can still be had for decently cheap, for sure.

Maybe also check out the MXR Distortion+, might work for you

Yeah, it almost seems silly that I went over +20 different dirt pedals the last 2 years, but overlooked the old school stuff that started it all. Rat, tubescreamer, treble booster,...that's it

The Distortion+ is basically a 250 with different clipping ie more gain, right? The original ones supposedly sound a lot better than the new ones? Any truth to that, or is that just forum cork sniffy bs?

250 style dirt is a good choice for your needs is the amp has a lot of headroom, tried a clone in my Hiwatt and it sounded killer.
The Elements: there are a few ones used in EU right now for 130€ or so, definitely worth it.
RATs with LED clipping: you don't lose that low end and are good for low-mid OD sounds.
For mid-gain sounds i feel at home with the DBA Interstellar OVerdriver but it reeally depends on the amp --> it sucks with solid state amps imo.

OR EAE Surveyor if you want some clang clang too.. i've been eyeing those for a while, definitely wat to grab one sooner or later.

vidret wrote:Black Forest

Oh yes that is an excellent pedal, but its more for a amp just about to break up, right?

frigid midget wrote:

fcknoise wrote:HM-2 for sure

I quite like my DOD 250, and I do use the boost mode of the FZ-2 clone I have quite a lot nowadays. But that is for dirty amp usage.

I do think you should take a look at a 250, seems to fit your criteria

EDIT: shredmaster would be worth checking out if they can still be had for decently cheap, for sure.

Maybe also check out the MXR Distortion+, might work for you

Yeah, it almost seems silly that I went over +20 different dirt pedals the last 2 years, but overlooked the old school stuff that started it all. Rat, tubescreamer, treble booster,...that's it

The Distortion+ is basically a 250 with different clipping ie more gain, right? The original ones supposedly sound a lot better than the new ones? Any truth to that, or is that just forum cork sniffy bs?

Yeah they are very similar, as is apparently a Ross pedal from then as well. I haven't really been able to compare the vintage ones, but I am sure you can find another builders version of the vintage one for a dece price somewhere. Musikding sells PCBs/kits for both if you can get someone to make one for you https://www.musikding.de/Das-Plus-250-3 ... Distortion

I'm a big fan of the Boss OD-3, its a surprisingly unique overdrive... definitely not a tubescreamer. lots of bass, lots of hair

Dowi wrote:250 style dirt is a good choice for your needs is the amp has a lot of headroom, tried a clone in my Hiwatt and it sounded killer.
The Elements: there are a few ones used in EU right now for 130€ or so, definitely worth it.
RATs with LED clipping: you don't lose that low end and are good for low-mid OD sounds.
For mid-gain sounds i feel at home with the DBA Interstellar OVerdriver but it reeally depends on the amp --> it sucks with solid state amps imo.

OR EAE Surveyor if you want some clang clang too.. i've been eyeing those for a while, definitely wat to grab one sooner or later.

Thanks.

250/D+ : tends to sound harsh and nasal, depending on the amp. Really hart to tell based on just yt clips. Might be worth investigating slightly improved clones, with muybe a tone control or something. I know I'm insisting on a "less is more approach", but by today's standards a stock d+ might be a bit...primitive

Elements: see previous post. All those controls and sounds kept me tweaking instead of playing, they don't make it easy to dial in *that* partical setting you used the night before. It lacks a couple extra preset switches imo. 1st world problem, I know

Rat: I had/tried a bunch of different ones. Clones, derivates, og, old, new, modded,...Closest I came to liking one that wasn't modded to the point it wasn't a Rat anyomore. Plain old LM308 Rat2, with a 'Ruetz' switch. Great in front of a muff or a slightly dirty amp. Not enough oomph on its own though, and a stock one trades in too much low end for fizz imo.

EAE Surveyor: Not exactly easy to come by nor cheap, at least not in this part of the world