Transparent overdrive pedals often have a low gain and a wide frequency response, which allows them to preserve the natural tone of the guitar while adding just enough saturation and harmonics to create a pleasing crunch. The 3 Series Overdrive offers exactly this, featuring the build quality and great tone that JHS is known for, in a simple stripped-down chassis with basic controls that's super easy to use and sounds awesome. Is the tone lost in translation through an approximation of a pedal approximating an amp? In all honesty, it’s impossible to tell. What we can go by is the common thread in the tones we’re aiming for: fat, smooth sounding overdrive that the players mentioned above deliver in spades. The Santa Ana is a FET-based circuit, which means tons of dynamics and articulacy no matter how much gain you pump into it. It features a 4-band EQ for a wide tonal palette, separate gain and boost functions, and an A/B (American/British) switch that can be variously combined for a huge range of overdrive sounds. The Sunset features two independent channels, each with massively different capabilities. The left side features a Germanium-based drive, a tube screamer-style drive, and a treble boost, while the right side features a two-stage drive, a hard-clipping distortion, and an analog boost.

If you’re looking for the best overdrive pedal for you, then there are a few things to consider beforehand. Firstly, what are you looking to get out of it? Are you looking to use it as a boost for solos? Do you want one as the basis of your main sound? Are you using it to push an already driven amp? Thinking about the application will help you figure out what you need in an overdrive pedal. What's the difference between overdrive and distortion? What I will share, though, is that I have not felt the need to grab my original Timmy v2 pedal to A/B them. To my ears, the MXR Timmy is close enough for my needs. Final Thoughts Yes. This is the reason for the notorious long wait times for new ones. Thankfully, the used market still has a decent pool of affordable specimens out there. Studio Diary #39: Why I Use DAW Plugins For Delay And Reverb On My #TweedTone Comparisons – HomeToneBlog.com on First Impressions: Earthquaker Devices Special Cranker Overdrive PedalNot a transparent drive, but a classic nonetheless that'll beef your midrange up and make your amp sing. TweedTone: How Does The Wampler Tweed ’57 Pedal Compare To A Real Tweed Deluxe Amp? – HomeToneBlog.com on New Arrivals For August 2019 Fuzz pedals produce a much more extreme, distorted sound, although they can also sound sweeter and more musical than distortion pedals. Where should I place my overdrive pedal in my effects chain? Overdrive pedals come in all shapes and sizes (okay, mostly just rectangular), and as such, can feature any number of different controls and settings. Any overdrive is likely to feature at least an adjustable gain and tone knob, but there are a number of other features to look out for as well. I put this line-up against any for having a LEGIT guitar tone that covers many genres. I find that, even at low volumes - I can get into MESA territory.....Marshall tones can be dialed-in to cover different era Marshall heads.

The main difference is that, while a distortion pedal provides the same (or a similar) amount of distortion at any volume, an overdrive pedal reacts more like an old school tube amp - with the amount of gain and grit being dictated not only by the amount of gain you choose, but also by the input and output volume. What do you want to get from an overdrive? I spent a while with the tone controls at noon and the volumes matched trying to get them to sound the same. They're close, but the original is a little thinner and lets the original guitar sound through a bit better. The MXR seems to have a little extra low mids happening compared to the original. Bottom line, they sound very close, but still a bit different. I found myself liking the original more more than not, although on a couple of settings I liked the MXR better. The best overdrive pedal for one person might be something that pushes their tube amp into a more natural overdrive and retains all the tonal characteristics of the guitar, however, someone with a solid-state amp might prefer something that adds a bit more ‘something’ to their existing sound. You can even get overdrive pedals that offer the breakup sound of some classic tube amps. Overdrive can be a great effect to always have on, or it can be used to boost a clean sound for solos, or it can be paired with other pedals – there are seemingly limitless ways they can be used. While the TC Electronic Mojomojo might sit at the more budget end, it’s still absolutely one of the best overdrive pedals out there. It’s been used by none other than virtuoso Paul Gilbert, and offers a dynamic, smooth overdrive with lots of headroom. It won’t give you massive amounts of gain on tap, but, if you’re running it through a clean amp, it does give you a very nice cranked tube amp sound.

After some experimenting, I decided that the Timmy was a great choice for boosting the True Grit to get closer to my other Telecasters (so that I can switch guitars without having to adjust settings every time). Look out for details about that in a future blog post. I built the first Tim Overdrive for myself and my specific needs. Nobody was making exactly what I wanted—a pedal to cleanly boost my Marshall Plexi Super Bass. I wanted it to sound closer to a Marshall Super Lead, so the Tim Overdrive was to be a flat clean boost that could add more dirt if needed. The JHS 3 Series line of pedals is designed for players on a budget who are looking for boutique sound quality and vibe at a more affordable price point.

Transparent overdrive adds a subtle amount of overdrive or distortion to the guitar's sound while maintaining the original tone and character of the guitar and amplifier. Overdrive and distortion are terms that are (often wrongly) used interchangeably. Granted, they're essentially versions of the same effect - with distortion being overdrive's extreme big brother - but they provide vastly different playing experiences depending on what you go for. Actually, my current board set-up (and I have had MANY) initially consists of a tuner going into the Freidman Sir-Compre/ into an ARCHER/ into the TIMMY/ into a JHS AT/ into the Freidman BE (and then to the special effects, out to amp).

MXR buddies up with Paul Cochrane for a reissue of his much prized transparent drive pedal

In what seems like an ocean of barely distinguishable low and mid-gain overdrives, the Paul Cochrane Timmy pedal has emerged as a life raft of no-nonsense transparency and clarity, with just enough tone shaping EQ to suit a wide variety of preferences. It does the one thing you want to mid-gain overdrive to do - act as a clean boost when needed and a creamy front-end builder when wanted - and nothing else. No additional color. No mid-boost or cut. No compression.