Help me cure my OD obsession! low/mid gain OD

timmysoft

MXR il Torino is good for low gains and raunchy bluesy drives.

StrummyBrummie

Wampler Ecstasy / Euphoria ftw.

Jeremiah

Cheap option: Mooer Blues Crab

builttospill

Great suggestion folks many thanks!

english_bob

builttospill said:

Never tried a vintage TS are they really worth the hype?

I can't say I've tried a vintage one either, but there's a reason why so many players put a Tubescreamer in between a guitar with SCs and a Fender-style amp. And why so many manufacturers produce a Tubescreamer-by-another-name pedal. The combination just works.

smudge_lad

I have a Caroline Guitar Haymaker in the classifieds. It's an outstanding OD as mentioned above, and the only reason I'm selling is that I need the cash! Otherwise it wouldn't be going anywhere!

Very flexible with the toggle switch, and can cover so much ground it's unreal!

Adji

Valvette Custom Drive does the low gain, smooth thing extremely well but also functions as a treble boost which gives it higher gain and a much brighter sound. It might be what you are looking for.

ICBM

builttospill said:

Never tried a vintage TS are they really worth the hype?

No.

Even a reissue one is not worth the hype compared to an identical circuit that costs much less, and vintage ones certainly aren't - but if you want it to look right as well as sound right, get a reissue TS-808 or 9 and be done with it.

I have owned several original TSs and at least one (possibly two, I can't remember) reissue TS-9s and they are all the same to within the natural variation from one example to another.

EricTheWeary

DOD Looking Glass does low gain onwards.

nickb_boy

It's been mentioned already but the Broadcast is a stunner!

Sassafras

Way Huge Pork Loin works fine through a Princeton and it's got plenty of volume to boost the input if you want to do it that way.

mark_jwedge

Thorpy peacekeeper or gunshot.

Worth every penny, can be dialed to suit any amp or guitar

Kebabkid

My Catalinbread 5F6 on the Classifieds is great with Fenders. Easy to dial in and can get hairy in regular mode but you also have the option of a gainier sound at the flick of an internal switch.

babysnake

I use a CMAT Signa Drive, tried quite a lot of others but nothing has shifted it. Amazing early crunchy breakup tones thru my Vox. 

When I want more, I boost it with a Juansolo Klone and I get lovely thick singing sustain, sometimes I boost it with a Fuzz Face clone for another flavour....so maybe try a Klon type pedal before the Mayflower?

english_bob

ICBM said:

builttospill said:

Never tried a vintage TS are they really worth the hype?

No.

Even a reissue one is not worth the hype compared to an identical circuit that costs much less, and vintage ones certainly aren't - but if you want it to look right as well as sound right, get a reissue TS-808 or 9 and be done with it.

I have owned several original TSs and at least one (possibly two, I can't remember) reissue TS-9s and they are all the same to within the natural variation from one example to another.

I seem to remember reading that there are only two component values that differ between the TS-808 and the TS-9. 

And when I suggested getting a Tubescreamer I didn't mean an official Ibanez RI necessarily, just a stock Tubescreamer circuit in whatever box with no pretensions of being anything else. 

slacker

Turn the amp up and ride the guitar volume.

ICBM

english_bob said:

I seem to remember reading that there are only two component values that differ between the TS-808 and the TS-9. 

And when I suggested getting a Tubescreamer I didn't mean an official Ibanez RI necessarily, just a stock Tubescreamer circuit in whatever box with no pretensions of being anything else. 

That's correct, and they're in the output buffer not the overdrive circuit - so it's quite possibly irrelevant in a true-bypass clone anyway. (Although in my opinion you want buffered bypass, if it was good enough in the much-vaunted original TS…) I fitted one of my TS-9s with a switch to toggle between the TS-9 and TS-808 resistor values - it made no difference at all.

The chips were changed at some points too so original TS-808s and 9s don't always have the same ones, but I'm pretty sure reissue ones both use the JRC4558D. The only other differences are the power jack and the 808 having a less reliable switch. I honestly think that if you want a 'Tube Screamer', a second hand TS-9 is really hard to beat for reliability, tone and just plain looking right… which as we all know is half the battle .

ESBlonde

Any pedal is a variation of a theme and personal taste/the amp/player combination have a huge bearing on our opinions.
For me having an ECC83 sort of pushed sound into something transparant is similar (but never identical) to the amp itself, as such it's predictable and can be pushed a little for snarl. At a sensible price the Blackstar HTdrive is my choice, but it's tall and requires 18v in it's own power supply. For your amp combo it might just excite you. If you want the full on cooking stack compressed drive tone look elsewhere.

MattG

for low to mid gain the SOV-1 and amp11 are very hard to beat, the bearfoot SYOD3 also deserves a shout out as it is one the most versatile overdrives i have ever used and i have got through alot of them

JonHosker

Thorpy Peacekeeper looks the best....in my humble opinion. I am heading for a 3xThorpy + DD500 delay board