Smooth Overdrive

bbill335

Pork Loin sounded very smooth to me when I had one.

kswilson89

Thanks for your replies everyone. I played a friend's Barber Gain Changer today and thought it was excellent! How does it compare to the Barber Direct Drive? Do they cover much of the same territory?

shaunm

For some reason it doesn’t get much said about it around these parts but the Xotic AC Boost is a very smooth sounding drive that works really well with 18watters. 

Chester

Free the Tone Red Jasper is ideal, and worth a test drive

Oakie

Sarno earthdrive? 

crunchman

Dave_Mc said:

In my experience the flatter eq/more transparent ones usually aren't as smooth, things like a tubescreamer (or similar) are a lot smoother but then the eq is nowhere near flat.

Out of what I've tried, maybe a Digitech Hardwire Tube OD (if you can still find one, it's discontinued) or a Nobels ODR-1? Both of those can more or less get into tubescreamer territory (though probably don't sound completely identical) but they can also get into the more flat EQ territory as well, so maybe you can find a setting which is a happy medium.

You have a point here.

If you a TS style pedal without so much mid hump, the various versions of the Fulltone Fulldrive might be worth a look.

Grocer_Jack

crunchman said:

Dave_Mc said:

In my experience the flatter eq/more transparent ones usually aren't as smooth, things like a tubescreamer (or similar) are a lot smoother but then the eq is nowhere near flat.

Out of what I've tried, maybe a Digitech Hardwire Tube OD (if you can still find one, it's discontinued) or a Nobels ODR-1? Both of those can more or less get into tubescreamer territory (though probably don't sound completely identical) but they can also get into the more flat EQ territory as well, so maybe you can find a setting which is a happy medium.

You have a point here.

If you a TS style pedal without so much mid hump, the various versions of the Fulltone Fulldrive might be worth a look.

Good call - FD3 is the best I reckon. Very smooth, but quite gainy, and you need to run it with drive at least at noon to get all the overtones to come in. 3 modes though + separate boost so lots of options. 

ESBlonde

Knock back the tone control of the guitar and a lot of fizzy drives get quite nice and smooth, especially in a mix.

kswilson89

ESBlonde said:

Knock back the tone control of the guitar and a lot of fizzy drives get quite nice and smooth, especially in a mix.

Thanks for the tip

bandmaster188

+1 for the barber direct drive if you want a marshally kind of drive. The barber gain changer is good too, but I prefer the direct drive personally.