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

english_bob

ICBM said:

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 .

You jest, but I do think there's something to be said for it. 

There's all sorts of highly unscientific bollocks that goes on in the minds of... well, everybody really, so I dare say looking down at your guitar gear and knowing that it's all "right"- sounds good, won't break down, looks cool etc. has a positive psychological effect on some players.

...which may have just completely undermined my initial "sod paying £200 for something that's probably a Tubescreamer anyway and just get a Tubescreamer" stance

p90fool

I've been using Tubescreamers through everything since 1981 and

1) A TS7 is a perfectly adequate substitute for a vintage TS-808

2) They really don't work well at all with Princetons IME.

After two years of messing about I found that for warm, natural amp-type overdrive an OCD (or Joyo Ultimate drive) set fairly low works well.

If you want it to sound like you're pushing a Princeton into overdrive the Wampler Black 65 is great, but by far my favourite is the Nobels ODR-1. As soon as you plug it in you realise why it's been the pedal of choice amongst Nashville session players with black or silverface amps for decades. It's amazingly versatile, and makes a single coil bridge pickup sound great with those amps with no brittleness. Bloody cheap, too!

Jeremiah

How does the Nobels ODR-S compare with the ODR-1? With 3 band EQ it looks like it should be more versatile, but it doesn't seem to get as much internet love.

djspecialist

What do people think about the Visual Sound VS-XO?

From what I read the left side is based on the ODR-1 circuit, but with a bass control (and the option to switch out the buffer) - and the right is based on an 808 but with different clipping modes and bass cut / boost options.

Seems like it should cover lots of bases for low / mid gain - is it any good?

John_A

Check out the 'Nine Volt Pedals Surfing Bear'  very tube screamer like, but more natural sounding as an overdrive, great graphic too (which is why I bought it )

Kylef

My JHS Superbolt that's in the classifieds. A pedal I keep coming back to, but I need to get down to one board and that has an SS-3. It loves my deluxe reverb, I'd imagine it's the same for the Princeton. Check it out on YouTube.

TTBZ

I just got a Zvex Distortron to play around with and it sounds pretty nice and amp like. It has way too much gain for me especially with the hi gain switch, but lower gain stuff sounds really nice and British (if that's what you're after). It does sound a little muddy and fuzzy on the lower strings at times though but I haven't had enough of a chance to play around with it to get the best out of it, but first impressions are quite good.