20 Best Overdrive Pedals For Metal (2022 Updated)

This pedal nails the medium to heavy gain humbucker beast sounds, from old school Van Halen and AC/DC to Staind, Breaking Benjamin and Sevendust territory. For that type of sound, this thing is absolutely amazing! I’ve bought and sold well over 50 pedals looking for this type of gut punch.

Any humbucker or noiseless guitar pickup will do fine going into this thing, but if you have vintage single coils, or a non-noise-cancelling configuration, the noise is just out of control, and for that I recommend something less harsh like an MXR il torino overdrive, which covers everything from clean jazz to blues rock, on up to medium gain applications.

Alright, I’ve been on the BE-OD hype train for a year now. I’ve played it several times at guitar center and when I got a birthday gift opportunity to go get one, I did. this pedal is a monster. It is not a low gain drive.

It was never intended to be. This was meant to be a monster of a gain pedal, and really calling it Overdrive is almost a disservice in some far flung way. Upon plugging this in, all knobs at 12, and kicking it on, I’m greeted with a face ripping warmth of a cranked to the limit Friedman – How am I supposed to go anywhere from there? You could honestly box this up as it is.

No, I decide to keep tweaking to find the perfect sound. Not hard for me, I play doom and sludge metal so I love the chewy response and thick creamy gain. Turn the Tight knob up and you get palm muted chugging for days.

the gain control goes from about ripping to so saturated that you’ll wonder how they did it. Bass and Treble knobs are responsive, bellowing out thunderous lows to screaming highs, and when used with the presence knob, you get an insane amount of tonal options (tip: if you are having trouble with finding mids, turning down the treble and pass knob will help you find them with some presence knob tweaking) I’ve basically been more inspired than ever because of this pedal, and honestly, if I lost this or had it stolen, I’d immediately get another.

Great job Friedman, you harnessed it.

Overall: I’m a *meat and potatoes* player. but also a tone chaser. I bought this based on a few reviews from Pete Thorn & Philip McKnight. What a pedal. I wasn’t happy with my 6505MH through V30’s – had too much high-end *sizzle* – This pedal is truly everything everyone has said it is – I guess I had low expectations, but it has reinvigorated my ears.

I’m a metal head, but also am in love with the classic VH tone, and with some tweaking, this bad boy delivers just that – BUT, running it through the green channel, with a little more tweaking, pushing it with an Ibanez Tube Screamer (gain at 0), and rolling off the volume on my guitar about halfway, I’m able to get some crisp, articulate metal tones that I’ve never been able to achieve before – if nothing else, this pedal has been the catalyst for helping me find a tone through the 6505 that I am FINALLY in love with.

Not a lot of noise, even without a hush pedal. The “tight” knob is pretty freaking rockin’, and really helps dial in a good response. Friedman has outdone themselves, seriously. and if I knew that my wife wouldn’t kick me out, I’d have the BE100.

But who wants to take out a second mortgage!? This pedal might as well be an amp! Buy this freaking pedal! I would replace it in a heartbeat is something happened, no questions asked!.

I was pleasantly surprised with this pedal, and all of ground that it covered. I figured that it’d probably only have a single good sound in it, but I found that it was pretty responsive and playable, as long as I kept the tone knob in check.

It also had a great range of gain, which seemed pretty extensive for an overdrive pedal. The distortion section also sounded great, and played just as well as any distortion pedal out there. And when blended together, I got tones that you don’t usually get with a single pedal on its own.

Definitely a winner here.

I recently visited Sam Ash after wanting to take my guitar playing to the next step. When I visited the store I asked the associate if the Boss SD-1 was in stock. He informed me that the OS-2 was available and that it included a distortion feature.

I asked if I could look at the item, and he explained thoroughly how the pedal worked. He never made any condescending conversation like other associates at other music stores have in the past, which I really appreciated.

Afterward he guided me to the XLR cables and supplied me with a power cord so I wouldn’t have to rely on 9V batteries. I couldn’t wait to try it out once I got home and it’s worked so well! I will definitely be going back.

Usual excellent quality all around you come to expect from Boss. Fantastic tones and highly recommend the combined overdrive and distortion unless you have plenty of room on your pedal board to indulge in separate pedals.

I’ve been searching for the distortion and tone even in an amp for years. One of my favorite guitar tones is AFI’s “Sing the Sorrow” album. Blend of a Dual rec and a plexi. Its been a struggle finding the tone I’ve been searching for and I never thought it would be a drive pedal through a fender Deluxe Reverb.

Lots of gain on tap, from distortion to a pushed amp style drive. Didn’t even know about this pedal til a week ago and it’s gonna be on my board for good. It also responds well to different guitars going in.

I often find a strat could sound great in a pedal and then a humbucker guitar ends up wooly, and reverse issues the other way around. This sucker just sounds great. It also stacks really well. Whether its a klon a buddy built or a protein drive, it just takes other pedals going in and such a cool way.

Solid for leads or tight rhythms. Try one out!.

Bought this for low gain. Even with gain on zero and toggle down on a clean valve amp there was so much gain ! Also trying to get more mid area even made the gain more again? If you like lots of gain this is a pedal to think about.

However if you want low gain with no saturation and gain that increases rather than there a zero steer clear. Very disappointed.

Have the Dirty Shirley Pedal and BE-OD deluxe pedal. All provide different playing feel and have their own sound. A very good pedal, wider dirt range than the other two, with the BE-OD with heaviest distortion and least range.

Small box going for Plexi thing, Dirty Shirley JCM, BE-OD super hot rodded JCM.

I am a semi-professional (bar band type) guitarist/keyboardist with over 40 years of experience. My guitar rig consists of a Tele American Deluxe, an Ibanez AS100 semi-hollow (335 type), and an Acoutasonic Tele, through a pedalboard into a Fender Deluxe Reverb amp.

I play a variety of styles requiring clean, gritty, distorted, elongated sustain, etc. as far as overdrive/distortion effects go. I use several different pedals to provide the variety of sounds and tone I seek.

The Timmy is a good, ,crisp overdrive/boost pedal on its own, but really shines when stacked with my “Mad Professor Golden Cello” pedal. The resulting drive, sustain, and “singing” tone provides me with a signature lead sound reminiscent of David Gilmour meets Carlos Santana.

I really like this pedal!.

I love this Timmy Pedal, after getting over the shock of the size(or lack of it lol) I leapt right in. It’s a very responsive overdrive pedal, “very transparent”, I use it to dirty up my clean sounds (tube amp) and I also use it to drive the input harder on my Dual Rec Roadster.

It sounds great through a Solid State Amp too. The multiple clipping stages are a great feature as are the treble and bass knobs. I couldn’t imagine my rig without it. If you’re thinking about getting an overdrive, just do it.

You won’t regret it.

I must have read a hundred positive mentions while reading forums and reviews on the Timmy, “it works with any amp,. it’s my go-to overdrive” etc. I finally got around to getting one, and I’m not impressed in the least.

I spent some time trying to find out what everyone raves about. is it good at taking a clean tone into a sweet break up? Eh, it’s okay at that. Is it good at taking a breaking up tone into a nice crunch tone? Eh, not really.

Is it good at tightening up a crunchy tone? Not to my ears. Is it good at putting that liquid sustain on an overdriven tone for great leads? It’s okay at that. The point here being that I have other pedals that are far better sounding in all aspects compared to the Timmy.

I’ve tried it with everything from Fender Princeton, ’57 Custom, and Pro Junior, to Vox AC30, to Marshall 1987 and 2203, with humbuckers, single coils and P90s, but was not impressed with any setup. It’s better than say a TC Electronic Tube Pilot , so it’s worth owning; however, I already have other pedals that sound better, so sent it back.

Disappointing considering how much great press it gets.

Immediately liked this one. Lot of depth and character plus you can dial in the dry signal as desired which increases clarity. Five-position drive type selector offers some real choices, not vague nuances that you aren’t sure are doing anything.

Two of the five settings are noticeably “bigger” as in more girth. Still warm and rich though. This one’s a keeper.

I am 55 years old, I play 70″s Super Reverb , Gibson Les Paul 60″s standard with Duncan Antiquity pick-ups. This pedal is the 1st pedal I have purchased in over 35 years. I have not used pedals at all! This pedal is fantastic! I can get Fender Tweed tones , and so much more.

Set blend all the way to the left, set the gain the same , and set the bass & treble all the way to the right for a starting point, and pick the strings lightly and you have a great clean sound, then start picking a little harder and you will have Tweed tone.

you can control the grit by the way U pick. COOL! plus it does alot more. If there is a better pedal please let me know! I can get Page”s both pick-ups on sound from the 70″s, very cool. I don”t think you can go wrong with this pedal.

Okay fuzz pedals are NOT all the same by far! They may as well be different pedals. (The term Fuzz is not generic. ) I bought this one due to a YouTube review. Does it sound like it did in a video? No of course not.

That all depends on how they record etc. Even an acoustic sound has to come through a mic, which you probably EQ, because you want your playing to sound good. Plus no one is likely to have the same rig as you.

After a while you get to hear the pedal’s basic effect and can imagine how it will sound with your rig, not that you always get it right. I honed in on the more subtle settings of this pedal, they sounded sweet and controllable in the vid, I wanted to get a sixties feel but not so in your face.

This panned out, the pedal on subtle settings moves all your sweet spots around, where it makes some progressions sound great, when dry they are just so, so. Indeed, via the new sweet spots, it takes you in new directions, but yes subtle.

This on both my clean and driven channels, placed in front of the amp not in the effects loop, it’s great on both channels, but obviously a different result. Turn it up and you get big Fuzz, I don’t have a use for that personally and or the octave? I’d rather use my amp’s drive which I love, and colour it subtly.

It’s VERY well made; the tone is indeed tone not just more of the same. Input, output and power on the top, as it should be!!!! This so you can put the pedals closer. Easy to match the volume to the dry signal.

And it’s cheap! I’m very happy it did what I wanted. The other fuzz that caught my attention was in the new Gibson affordable range. The modern feel setting is pretty cool! For context, the other fuzzes I tried were Boss via the ME 80 pedal board, which I couldn’t find a use for, and a cheap one, can’t remember the name but it was rubbish.

As ever it’s a journey! No quick fix.

I was a little skeptical of these cheaper Fender pedals, since I own alot of high end boutique pedals. But I was looking for something simple to use and at a great price. Fender knocked it out of the park with the Hammerone line.

Don’t let the price fool you they are a high quality good sounding addition to your board. And they actually look pretty cool. For the price and quality you will not be disappointed, I highly recommend them as a matter of fact I got 3 of them.

I’ve been playing electric guitar for a year and have a Marshall amp with an overdive button but I wanted a pedal so I can switch on the overdrive mid way through a song. This pedal is an affordable price for someone like me that has a fairly inexpensive guitar.

I did not want to pay more for a pedal than I did the guitar. The overdrive sound that it creates is much fuller and richer than the one that my amp generates with it. Very pleased all round.

I purchased the La Grange pedal after watching a few video reviews of it. Sounds unbelievably good in the reviews! I’m running this into a Marshall style amp with EL34’s into a 2×12 cab and/or Ox Box, and my purpose is to get higher gain/distortion tones out of my rig to emulate the 80’s/90’s Def Leppard tones, and then incorporate those tones into my personal music.

Listening thru the Ox Box over headphones was a let down. I may be able to tweak this or that later, but the pedal sounded harsh and unmusical at anything more than low gain thru the Ox Box with headphones.

I had to wait for a better opportunity to run the pedal into the amp using my 2×12 cab, and I must say that this is where the pedal shines! I have waaayyy too many od pedals, but this has a unique flavor and works remarkably well with my setup.

I have other pedals that do the lower gain tones better, but I think this pedal really excels at the higher gain tones and results in a rich/thick/chewy tone that cannot be achieved with my other pedals.

I can’t say how this pedal will work thru a Fender style amp but I would guess not on the same level. As a side note, researching this pedal after I received it, I found numerous posts on the web describing power problems.

One poster said he was running the pedal at 9v/ 250 mA. The pedal clearly indicates the pedal is to run on 9v/ 100 mA. I removed the battery and am powering the pedal with my Voodoo Labs PP2 using the standard power (9v/ 100 mA) and have experienced zero issues.

I have owned this pedal since it was first released in 2016. It has remained on my board as my number one overdrive. Many pedals have tried to dethrone it, to no avail. This is the best overdrive pedal in all of the Bogner range, and I would dare say of most overdrives on the market because it really can do it all from low to high gain and all in between tones.

It really has the sag and feel of the amp it is emulating. The ONLY pedal I have heard online that comes even close is the new Origin Effects Compact Revival Drive Hot Rod edition, but that pedal costs nearly $400, but that does sound pretty awesome.

I will be doing an a/b comparison soon, but until then this Bogner LaGrange is killer.

This is a great pedal, worth the money. I found it works best with a great clean amp – think Marshall non-master volume, Fender twin etc. Set up your amp with a great clean/rhythm sound. Then dial in the LaGrange for all your dirty work.

IF you really spend some time dialing it in, you can get even more versatility out of it by reaching down and flipping some of the switches on the fly, or for whatever song might be coming up next in your set.

It’s responsive to guitar volume changes, just like a good Plexi. The clean boost switch is super welcome, too. Variac setting seems to work best with single coil guitars. Over-all, it’s like adding another great channel to single channel amps.

Would probably work great with power block type amps that mount to your pedal board.

Been playing for 50 years. Where did the time go? I’ve had the SD-1 for 15 years or so. I’ve used it on it’s own for nice bluesy grit. So that’s a testament to its durability. Turning the drive down and the level up is great for playing slide – I play a lot of slide.

Currently playing an Epi Les Paul into a Peavey Bandit. The Bandit has a sweet clean channel, and that’s how I use it. In front of the SD-1, have a Keeley compressor and a Rat clone pedal for harder sounds.

Combining the two (with SD-1 first) yields a nice, fat distortion when I need it. I play some solo acoustic shows also. The SD-1 works great for a volume boost for solos or slide with the drive turned way down and the level up a little bit.

With the Les Paul, I also dig how the pedal responds to rolling the volume down. I went down the rabbit hole of tone years ago with guitar pickups. No reason to spend more time or money on anything else for drive pedals.

The SD-1 does what I need for the music I play – classic rock, blues, some country and mixtures of all, electric and acoustic. It’s a sturdy, great sounding overdrive pedal.

The main difference in a Tube Screamer and the Boss SD-1 is the type of clipping. SD-1 utilizes asymmetrical clipping, and a Tube Screamer uses symmetrical clipping. They both have a mid-hump as for as the EQ curve.

You can use them both as boosts into other pedals or amps. As straight up overdrives, the Tube Screamer often sounds like a layer of dirty and a layer of clean, where as with the SD-1, you get the single layer of dirty because of the circuit’s clipping type.

Either are great. Some prefer one over the other. I have both the TS and the Boss. Either work great with many configurations, and in some cases you might prefer one to the other with a particular setup.

I have more than one tube amp, and I have a variety of pedals that I use on this one or that one.

Why 4 starts and not 5? If you know what a tube screamer does, then this does the business – 5 stars. It really feels like it’s built to last, but this ‘80s style design means the pedal feels very heavy and ‘oversized’ compared to modern designs.

Underneath it has built in rubber seating which means it is a bit difficult to attach velcro to fix to a pedal board. All this means that if you use it on the floor (‘80s) style then 5 stars, on a pedal board though 4 stars.

Sound wise you might be shocked if all you do is compare the sound from a solo guitar with the pedal on and off – it sculptures the sound so that you notice a roll off of bass and treble … but in a mix or on stage the pedal is superb at highlighting the guitar.

Just step on it for a solo and you get this wonderful midrange boost and suddenly your guitar just pop’s out of the mix for all to hear. All in all if this is your only pedal and you don’t play with a cranked tube amp you might be a bit disappointed.

If you are combining with other overdrives and/or overdriven amps it can really bring out a clarity in the sound and is a great tool.

I took in a Maxon OD808 (stock version) for a repair as it had been zapped with an inappropriate power supply. It was a really easy fix, but in testing the pedal prior to sending it back to the customer, I totally fell in love with it.

I’ve owned a few TS9 units, plus modified repro units, so I wasn’t planning on adding to my TS units at all. I knew that Mr Tamura designed the 808, and that the original Ibanez units were Maxon products.

The early reissue TS9 which I bought still bore a Maxon logo pcb. To be honest, I used to prefer the Ibanez TS9 until I tried the Maxon OD808. I don’t like the Maxon aesthetically, but tonally it’s superb.

Not having the dopey TS9 foot switch is a huge plus, the OD808 has a regular DPDT. I bought a stock OD808, plus the 40th anniversary OD808-40. The stock unit is great, but the OD808-40 is just a bit more special in my opinion.

I love both units, but the stock version is 95% as great as the 808-40. With prices so ridiculously high for the early Maxon OD808s, the OD808-40 is a bargain by comparison. I love Ibanez, but I’m definitely a Maxon convert.

I’d love to buy an early 80s one, but they’re too expensive to justify. This stuff is made to be played after all. There’s always a new ‘must have’ overdrive being hyped on YouTube and forums month after month, but the little green pedals have been ‘go to’ units for 40 years.

They’re never going to be outdated, and they’re never going to need the internet hype machine.

Awesome classic pedal. Gives a great boost to any amp. Tonnes of gain when needed or just some extra bite where necessary. Extra saturation for what i need playing death metal. Durable and compact, gives me more than i would ever need.

Shipping was quick and easy and the price/amount was great.

I went with 3 stars, but this isn’t a bad pedal at all. It’s classic, but MXR has since done much better. Once I got the Super Badass Distorion, I never used it again on my main board. Honestly for years I made the mistake of using the Distortion + as a main distortion.

It functions much better as an overdrive through a dirty signal. I’d recommend this pedal for a beginner or a hobbyist looking for a simple, user friendly distortion to beef up their sound. The more serious players, I’d say look further down the MXR line.

Adds great low end distortion, its a no-nonsense pedal with 2 knobs (output and distortion), no extra knobs to fool with, its straight forward super easy to set up. The ONLY one thing I don’t really like about it is that the 9v.

power input plug is on the side (next to the instrument input) and it really crowds the instrument input jack position. So if you are into fancy cable management positioning on your pedal board, you might find this a challenge to get the cables just right.

I must add here that the positioning of the 9v input issue has nothing to do with the performance of the distortion pedal itself. The pedal is built rough and rugged and works flawlessly. I just prefer the 9v power input to be at the top of the unit like 80% of the other pedals are.

I give it a solid 4 stars.

Like many other dirt boxes, the Distortion + sounds terrible into a clean amp, and that will be a turn off for novices, players looking for an amp-in-a-box, or someone looking to add a second channel to a clean amp.

What it does do, however, is take an amp tone with some grit and add a ton of hair to it. The two knobs are very interactive. You can get a “push” with this pedal, but it works move better giving you a “shove”.

The tone comes from germanium, so at higher gain levels, you notice a distinct fuzz flavor which takes the brittle edge off the hard clipping stage. Higher volume settings fill in the tone quite nicely, and bring out a warm bottom end without being boomy.

Transparent is not in this pedal’s vocabulary, and as others have mentioned, it’s got a real 80’s vibe to it. I don’t think those are bad qualities. This is a unique tone-shaping tool. If you can’t find an original sound, blame your ears and hands.

The Strymon Sunset Dual Drive is not cheap by any means but it is without doubt the best pedal I have purchased. It took some time to dial in my preferred sounds but that is only because the Strymon gives you so many options.

It sounds great, it’s top mounted jacks are convenient and given all that it delivers it is very compact. A quality pedal and it is in my opinion well worth the money.

I needed a pedal to add distortion to my BOSS amp. It has gain, distortion and all that, but it is nowhere near what you need to play heavy metal. This thing takes it up to all you need and probably more.

Before I guess the sound from my amp was what I would call weak. This has made my guitar sound totally different. Definitely made for high gain/ distortion. If this is what you are after it shouldn’t disappoint you!!.

I needed something to take me into very heavy territory, but couldn’t justify buying a whole new amp. While there were some more expensive options I considered, price ultimately lead me to the Fullbore Metal.

There is an enormous amount of gain in the pedal, and it doesn’t “go away” when you turn the gain down. The Gain knob is there to fine-tune the gain structure in combination with your amplifier, not to control varying levels of gain.

Keep that in mind if you’re considering this pedal. Having said that, it does respond well to your guitar’s volume knob. The basic tone of the pedal is a little jarring in the treble register, so you’ll have to work to tame that.

Luckily, the pedal compensates for this by having very responsive EQ knobs. The “Sweep” knob is best used for fine-tuning the tone of the pedal to your particular amplifier. With the Scoop button disengaged, and some patient EQ-ing, you should be able to get a deep, aggressive, smooth gain structure comparable to perhaps a 5150 amplifier, but with some loss of fidelity.

(Hey, it’s just a pedal, after all, not an amp!) Engaging the Scoop button, to my ears, will not do your tone any favors. If you’re running through a tube amplifier, the added bass frequencies will muddy up your gain when it hits your preamp, while the added treble frequencies will have to be rolled off unless you want your tone to be shrill.

However, you yourself might find a sweet spot with the Scoop engaged and the bass and treble turned down some. The major drawback to the pedal is the fact that the noise gate – which works very well – must be adjusted by removing the back plate.

Overall, this is a very nice-sounding pedal that will give your a great high gain option. Paired with a good amp, this might be the best high gain pedal for the money. I’m pleased with my purchase.

This pedal is a one trick pony – brutal sounding heavy metal. It can run the gauntlet of thrash, modern, nu, and classic metal – everything from old school Dio and 1980s Metallica to Pantera to Trivium to Avenged Sevenfold.

It can scoop the mids out entirely for the dry. And Justice for All sound with the push of a button while the push of another button can enable a nice percussive sound and prevent any bleedthrough of extraneous sound.

Using mids dial on this pedal is not a bad thing. it shouldn’t be turned down unless specifically needed for a certain sound. Mine is actually set around the 1 o’clock position. Where care needs to be used is actually with the low and especially the high (where it can sound like an annoying chain saw if turned up).

Take time and care with dialing in the sound. It is easy to get a brutal sound if used properly and not the high pitched awful whine that you might find on demo videos on YouTube. Definitely recommend using this pedal on the clean channel.

Boosting it with an overdrive pedal isn’t necessary or useful.

Still getting to know this pedal and trying it in different orders on my pedal board but so far so good. I wouldn’t normally shell out this kind of money for a pedal since there are so many good pedals out there for under a hundred but the demos on Youtube sounded so good I had to give it a try.

I am so glad I did. I had been running a Visual Sound Open Road as my always on pedal and a VS Drivetrain as a boost with an Electro-Harmonix Big Mu**-tone wicker (with guitar volume rolled back) for added dynamics through a Peavey Delta Blues 115.

The DLS sounds better by itself than my other three pedals do stacked. It has all the warm, blooming dynamics of the Big Mu** Pi but with a tighter and more defined bass. Chords sound full and articulate through the DLS and there seems to be a hint of voltage sag when the master is run up around the 10:00 position and you dig into the strings.

I keep it on the super lead setting as the VS Open Road covers the low mid character of the super bass mode on the DLS. When I run the VS Drivetrain into the DLS I can get a good 70’s – 80’s era hard rock/metal tone.

I run the Open Road pedal after the DLS for a fat, lead boost. I really couldn’t be more pleased with this pedal and I wouldn’t trade it and my Peavey DB for a vintage Marshall Bluesbreaker. If I had one small gripe it would be that the switches for the super bass/super lead modes and the presence switch are located inside the pedal and I hate having to open up a pedal to adjust things.

However it isn’t a big deal as I leave it on the SL mode all the time and I haven’t felt the need to mess with the presence control.

Take my review with a bit of insight please as i am a pedal-holic and not just for the sake of having them but looking for that one that does it better than the last one. That being said , no pedal is perfect for any and every rig setup but will rather shine in the right chemistry of gear and player ability.

So, the DLS (Dirty Little Secret) is a magic bullet for my rig giving me closer than before Marshall tones and feel from a pedal. It pairs very nicely with my Wampler Plexi Drive and i recommend these two together.

Now my experience with this pedal is boosted by the fact my amp runs EL-34 tubes (a classic Marshall staple tube) and that i set the amp to a very clean setting as my clean tone – which happens to be mostly Marshall in its inherent voicing and circuit design.

I prefer distortion from a box more than from the amp to gain a tighter more focused tone / feel. not a fan of heavy tube amp compression when pushing an amp hard. Add the fact that my cabinet is loaded with Celestion G12-30’s and you can see why my experience is even better.

So, if your rig has some Marshall basic ingredients already , this pedal should do wonders for you. the brilliant EQ section is done nicely on this pedal also. I think of this pedal as a wannabe Marshall helping out a wannabeMarshall rig.

together combined to make a believer out of the listener.

After years of playing a digital modeling amp, I got the urge to do a 180 and go back to analog. I had the incredible fortune of coming across a 1967 Fender Bassman head that I was able to rebuild, and decided to use it as a clean canvas for creating sounds.

Since it obviously has the “Fender” thing covered, I looked around for something to take care of the Marshall side of things. As soon as I saw a demo video for this box, I was hooked. The Dirty Little Secret is not your typical overdrive or distortion box (although by dialing back the gain, it makes a dandy boosst).

No. this thing is way more dynamic than most distortion boxes. By using FETs (which is the closest thing to a tube that’s available as a semiconductor) instead of clipping diodes, you can go from a fairly clean (just a touch of hair) to full on distortion with your guitar knob.

And unless you get crazy with the treble, the distortion doesn’t get fizzy or splattery. In addition to the 5 knobs on the front, there’s an internal adjustment pot for the Presence, and a switch to select between a Super Lead and Super Bass.

that switch can really change the tone. In the Super Lead mode, there’s a lot of gain available. With resonably hot pickups and a 70’s Les Paul, I can start coaxing some dirt from the pedal with the preamp at 10:00.

With a lower output guitar like my Firebird, you’ll get to about 1:00 to get the same effect. Dime the preamp control. and you’ve got all the distortion you need with either guitar. And my favorite aspect of this setting is where the mid control is voiced.

I usually find them voiced to low. almost in the mid bass region. This one is spot on. Switching to the Super Bass mode changes the center frequencies of the tone controls and drastically reduces the amount of distortion that you can develope with the preamp control.

You even have the option to run the pedal at 18V, which really opens up the range and headroom. Built like a tank. this thing will last!.

I have been using TS9’s since the late 1990’s. My current rig had an early 2000’s TS9 and a TS mini. The mini would pop and echo through my spring reverb on my Fender. So I needed another Tube Screamer that wouldn’t do that.

The switch on the TS9 has always had a softness to it that never seems to pop, no matter what power source I am plugged into. Got another one from Pro Audio Star as an open box. Saved some loot, didn’t have to worry about buying “used” with those hidden issues that sometimes is the reason someone is selling.

When it came in, it was flawless. Not sure I could find a single imperfection. Almost like they accidentally put a NEW one in the OPEN BOX package. Shipped quickly, and had all packaging and users manual as new.

Great experience on this transaction. Thanks.

It’s an Ibanez tube screamer, so of course it’s wicked. Easy to use, bombproof, and gives you that extra bit of oomf for a big solo. If you want pure dirty blues then I’d go for the 808, but the TS9 is great for rock, it’s got a slightly brighter more aggressive tone.

These things really shine with a Strat, but they sound just as great with whatever guitar you’re using, and they are just loads and loads of fun. If you’re currently wondering whether you should buy one, the answer is yes, you should.

I’ve owned and used the Boss ODB since 2002 and IMO, it’s awesome. but maybe not for everyone. For Punkrock or Metal (especially Doom) this thing kills. It’s got a warm tone and it saturates your bass signal.

With the Gain cranked up, it functions a little more like a Fuzz, but the controls are variable and responsive so you should get some nice thickness and more sustain as you increase the Gain and Balance.

I recently tried my old ODB alongside an Ibanez Bass Tube Screamer, (which I think is a nice pedal and worth checking out) and I still prefer the Boss. Is it great for every single application? Nope.

But it’s still my favorite means of adding “distortion” to bass tone.

I asked for this pedal for my birthday and just got it a little while ago. When I first turned it on, with all the knobs at 5, I was a little disappointed, but I was able to find a setting that fit my needs pretty well: Level pointing a little bit higher than straight to the left, Bass EQ pointed straight to the right, Trebel EQ at a 45-degree angle to (i.

e. at a lower setting than) the Bass EQ, Balance perfectly in the middle, and Gain straight to the right. Being a huge Cliff Burton fan, this setting gives me a sound I like (while soloing). It is true you might have trouble using this with other instruments-especially drums-but the level knob goes so high you’ll almost surely be able to get your signal over them (it helps to turn the gain down a little).

While the distorted sound is great on its own, you can run into problems if you use a lot of other effects, including wah, at the same time as this box; in the low end, it barely changes the sound. Along with this issue, if you play any chords in the low end with this on, it’ll sound like it’s behind a wall or underwater compared to the single notes.

A good way to overcome these two problems is to use a really light distortion or overdrive between this and your bass (this might cause excessive hissing, though). Keep in mind, I use pretty thick overdrive.

If you just like a little grit in your tone, you’ll probably have an easier time finding a sound you like. Overall, I’d say this is a great effect, which I’d give a 5/5 if not for the chords and wah issues.

The thing to remember is that a lot of people who dislike this pedal are those that don’t like distortion or overdrive on bass period. So I’ll just say to try this out before you make the call and see if it’ll fit your personal style.

This pedal sounds great on bass. Warm and fuzzy? Sharp and crunchy? Whatever ya want. Tough construction. Good, simple features. Good range. Very practical. And what’s nice is that if you are a touring kinda guy and your pedal breaks or someone steals it, most Boss pedals aren’t too hard to find, so if you’re on the road you can find ’em anywhere.

This may just be my own preference, but this thing also positively destroys as a regular guitar distortion/overdrive/whatever the heck. As stated before, very warm and muffy or very crunchy. Obviously, it’s made for a bass, so on a regular guitar, the result is that it can sound very thick and that is OK with me because i really like those big Wino-ish, Melvinsy Doomy kinds of guitar tones that are usually associated with the so-called “stoner rock” big tube sound.

But that’s just what i use it for because i’m more of a guitar player anyway. You can actually use it for a lot more than just that. If ya want good dirt, you should at least give it a try. This is a pedal for those who yearn.

This is my third favorite pedal in the chain. My first is my Boss tuner, second my MXR 10 channel EQ, then the Sparkle Drive OD. I prefer this pedal to the Fulltone OCD, simply because of the ability to blend the sound.

If I could make one recommendation for future enhancements, I would like the housing to be smaller. I prefer the mini/micro sized pedals because I could then put more pedals on my already crowded board.

I get the best tone out of a ’93 Fender Blues Deluxe and playing either my Gibson LP Std or Fender American Deluxe Strat. As many here have said, the tone knob is what makes this pedal. Having the ability to blend the clean and the crunch really provide a wide range of tonal possibilities.

The case is rugged and has been on my pedal board for over a year without issue. I use the power cord on my pedal board, but have had no issues at the connection. You’ll be hard pressed to find a pedal with similar quality and features at any price range.

If you’re looking for an overdrive pedal give this a try. To say this is the best overdrive pedal out there would mirror saying that a Subaru WRX is the best car. There are many cars each with their own great applications.

And there are sooo many different kinds of overdrive pedals, each with their own sweet spot on the pedaltrain, but i can say the Sparkle Drive stands out among the crowd. The housing unit is solid, not as thick as MXR, and has cool graphics on the face.

The knobs are as follows: GAIN(overdrive level)/ TONE(treble cut for overdrive only)/ CLEAN(clean signal level)/ VOL(volume). The overdrive on most pedals i find to be a bit scratchy (have alot of treble).

I tend to have the TONE knob between 9 and noon. If I have it more than that the sound gets too raspy for my taste. The CLEAN is a real nice touch. It essentially blends a boosted clean signal of your guitar along with your overdriven signal.

With that option you can dial in some really nice, very full sounding overdriven tones. With the CLEAN up to 2 and the GAIN around 10-11 its a warm boost with slight dirt for melodic solos. I have had this for five months now and have not come across any problem with it.

In a nut shell. this is a great overdrive pedal.

Guys, it doesn’t get much better than this. I have this, a Soul Food, and a Fulltone OCD, and this pedal gets WAY more work than the other two. Don’t get me wrong, I love all three of those, but this is probably my favorite tubescreamer circuit ever.

The blend feature is SOOOOOO useful. Gives you that extra snap and definition you always feel like you’re missing when you engage that distortion. Beautiful, full sounding distortion. I may replace some other pedals, but this one stays.

I have at least 10 distortion devices, overdrives, fuzz, etc. My favorite has always been the Fulltone OCD and a Hermida Nosferatu. Thought the latter can’t be replaced, the green mile would be my favorite keeper.

Very responsive, excellent variables between the hot and warm switch ( both very usable). I’ve been playing 55 years and toured professionally, owned at some point all the hot gear, and this little pedal is most impressive.

Plus, it has no snob appeal at 300. 00. You need one.

I have a small VOX amp I use as a practice amp. The amp has nice pre-gain for OD, but it’s not great practice to apply OD after other effects (such as flanger, delay, chorus, reverb). I use a medium pre-gain on the VOX for a “clean” sound and bought the Green Mile to run the recommended setup.

Pedal train is as follows: tuner (TC polytune mini) – Green Mile – flanger (Mooer) – chorus – reverb (both Hotone). All these are low-cost pedals more suited to the low-wattage amp. The Green Mile yields great tone and drive.

The sound is very professional. Has expected controls – level, drive and tone and the bonus Hot/Warm switch. I’m happy w/ the Warm most. I’ve run a Les Paul, Rickenbacker 330 and Gretsch hollow body and they all sound great.

One complaint – the Hot setting sounds muddy when using the neck pickup (or both). The Warm sounds great w/ any pickup selection, and Hot sounds good w/ bridge pickup.

This is a great little overdrive. I run it into a Marshall dsl40c, on the classic gain channel that breaks up by itself a bit when my volume is wide open. On moderate settings, everything around 12, the increase in gain was substantial but not over the top.

Smooth overdrive perfect for rhythm playing. I could tell right away if I wanted to dial in a much heavier sound I had the room with the gain dial only at 12. The only knob I had to boost up higher than the others was the level, which I set at almost 3 o’clock, giving a boost in volume when engaged.

Like most others, I use the warm setting primarily. The hot setting is just too harsh for anything I’m doing now. The same price as the mini tube screamer, with a bit more flexibility.

Update on my previous review: I built my Thunderdrive a bit over a year ago. not one to leave well enough alone, I modified it to include external power supply jack, and on/off LED. I didn’t see much need to put in the boost toggle to make it a “deluxe”, but I began pondering swapping out the original silicon diodes for germanium to get a different sound.

I was just about to order those components when I saw the listing for the Thunderdrive Deluxe LTD, which, go figure, had switchable silicon and germanium diodes. i bought the switch and diodes listed in the parts list, and just finished the mod.

Still don’t have much use personally for the turbo boost setting, but I like having the two different drive characteristics. I think the germanium sounds better with ‘fatter’ pickup settings (humbuckers and neck positions), as it is more of a “fuzz-buzz” sound.

The germanium seems to have weaker output, all else being equal, so I’m not sure how switchable it would be in a live setting without something else to compensate for the volume. Suggestion for improvement/new product: Offer the basic Thunderdrive with external power and LED, and maybe offer a “Thunderdrive Vintage” with just germanium diodes (and external power and LED).

The Thunderdrive is a good kit for beginners wanting to try their hand at making a useable pedal. The kit came exactly as described, the instructions were easy to follow, and the pedal functions more or less as advertised in the blurb.

Its best use, to me, is as a clean boost when you want your guitar to jump out of the mix for solos. It does this quite well, although I’d recommend getting the Thunderdrive Deluxe kit for a bit more money so you’ll have an LED.

A few cautions: 1) Don’t build this kit thinking you’ll get anything on the level of a Tubescreamer, SD-1, Bad Monkey, etc. The “overdrive” effect is very rudimentary — more a mild fuzz with a late 60s vibe, which can be useful in its own right.

2) Once the battery is inside the finished unit, the tight fit makes it impossible to fit the back cover onto the unit, because the lip on the inside edge of the cover hits the battery at the corners.

To solve this problem, use a file or Dremel tool to file out two corners of the lip (you won’t see it once the lid is on) to allow the cover to lie flush so you can screw it on. 3) Although the instructions state that you should mount the terminal strip inside the box before attaching the components, it is much easier if you do most of the basic hookup outside the box, to give you more room to fit and solder the parts.

Overall, for the price, I was happy with this kit and look forward to moving on to something a bit more challenging.

Missing Parts I just left a review for the PileDriver missing parts. So I went and opened the Thunderdrive to check if the missing capacitor for the Piledriver was there and I would’ve had to go out for the missing parts.

Well, The Thunderdrive was even worse. Basically is missing components, the bag came only with the knobs, switches, and wires, no diodes, no resistors, no capacitors. I’m surprised since all reviews are mostly positive, I guess I was just unlucky but now I lost the holiday break to actually build the projects.

Extremely dissapointed.

This is truly one of the top five overdrive and/or distortion pedals on the market currently. And what with the recent announcement that Fulltone are ceasing production from their California factory, they won’t be around forever.

Way more gain on tap that a Tubescreamer or Klone, that will push a driven amp into high gain distortion. Don’t even think about it, buy one while you still can.

Great sounding and quite unique drive. Plenty of tonal options in the range of gain and tone. I prefer the lp setting as it’s a bit ‘smoother’ to my ears but hp is fun for a bit of higher gain. Not sure if its better or worse than the other versions.

TBH, with different guitars, amps and playing you’re heading more than just subtle differences in the output stage of the circuit. The designer is a horrible human being. Great pedal though.

What a great time to be a guitar player. So many options for great gear at low prices. This overdrive pedal (at less than $20) compares favorably with many pedals costing 5 times as much. Others have mentioned it being a bit noisy when the gain gets cranked, (and it does) but so what! I can live with it.

Plus, the tones I dig live in the lower rotation of the drive control. I wasn’t expecting perfection, but this solid, well built pedal has far exceeded my expectations. The quality of the tone far exceeds the price point.

I did not need another overdrive, but the price was too inviting. I’m glad I got it though as it works well for my needs. PROS: Low cost, solid build, sweet low gain tones. CONS: The only con I can find (as others have stated) is it gets a bit noisy on higher gain settings.

Again, not really as issue for me as the lower gain settings are excellent and that works for me!.

For the little bit that I have tested it, this pedal gets a range of overdrive sounds from a little “dirt” or “grit” for classic rock to full-on “crunch” distortion for hard rock or light metal. This was the most important criterion for me, as I dislike pedals and want one overdrive box that can do it all.

The true bypass is an important feature, too. Other than that, it’s simple and the price is right. Can’t yet comment on its long-term durability, but having the aluminum housing is a good sign. I’ll be honest that I can’t discern the subtle sonic differences between the myriad overdrive pedals out there and the prices vary so wildly.

Since they all sound about the same to me, I just opted for the cheap ones, and this Monoprice pedal fit the bill. I think it will satisfy all but the pickiest, audiophile-type player. I gave it 80%, as I’m sure there is room for improvement.