If you can only have ONE drive pedal?

BluesyDave

So, I'm on a bit of a quest to find one drive/distortion/fuzz pedal to cover edge of break up to mid gain tones.  Nothing high gain.  The pedal can be a 2 in 1 but not if one of them is a boost only.  I really want something with 2 distinct voices.  

LastMantra

A boss os-1 has a good range of voicings. Only one foot swtch tho. 

jellybelly

Deucetone RAT or some other rat-type pedal that allows you to switch between standard/LED/Silicon/ no clipping types. 

After getting hold of a Turbo Rat (LED clipping) I was shocked at how good an overdrive it was, to the point that I’ve asked Dan @4114Effects to modify my Whiteface Reissue to have the above options added. 

I imagine a deucetone would get you everythibg from light breakup to big muff levels of fuzz. Distinctive voice to these pedals though so you’d need to like the basic flavour. 

Short answer: RAT. 

poopot

Expandora...

Th4fonz

My Jesse Davey Duellist love that pedal.

builttospill

Boss SD-2

camf

Klon, clone or similar 

kennedydream1980

Xotic BB Preamp

paulnb57

Hudson Sidecar
I have two on my board!

monquixote

The MK2 Liquid Sunshine is the most versatile pedal I've ever had.

Stacks really well and works into clean and dirty amps.

As a low to mid gain the peace keeper is pretty special or you could go full unicorn tears and get a KoT

english_bob

I've only got one- Elektron Analog Drive. 

Yeah, sort of cheating.

Fuengi

For edge of break up to mid gain it has to be the Peacekeeper. 

All.

Day.

Long.

JDE

Visual Sound/Truetone VS-XO. Highly underrated. Great low-mid gain uncompressed channel and the the best TS ever in one box.

crunchman

Fulltone OCD.

Run it on 18V and it cleans up really well using the guitar volume and picking dynamics.   Set it for mid-gain, and back off your guitar volume for edge of breakup.  At least that's the case with the older versions of the pedal.  I'm assuming Mike Fuller's latest circuit tweaks won't have changed it too much.

It's a good pedal on 9V, but it doesn't have the same dynamics as on 18V.

FastEddie

Lumpy's Tone Shop.
Jelly Roll.

vasselmeyer

Wampler Plexitone Deluxe. Gives you drive from a mildly crunchy Plexi up to a JCM800 at full chat and has a secondary boost switch. Run it at 18V for more headroom and better clean up with the guitar volume control.

TimmyO

Dual? What's that Boss one that has a JHS pedal in it too?

Or a D&M Drive maybe 

shady

EHX Germanium 4 muff. Does everything you've listed there, don't let the muff bit in the name put you off dude. Loads to tweak, dual pedal, two distinct voices if you want it. Defo worth a look. 

Sassafras

OD-2.
Plain and turbo mode.

JezWynd

This does the job very well -


The effects are parallel which enables a wide variety of sounds.

Majorscale

These have already been mentioned in this thread, but a Hudson Sidecar or Thorpyfx Peacekeeper will more than do the job well.