How To Choose The Right Overdrive Pedal For Your Needs – That Pedal Show

[Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] you [Applause] [Music] [Music] hey guys welcome to that pillow showdown here Makia hello and that rather stop-start impossible to play yeah skip through gain texture and gain structure yes very nice which is part of what we're talking about today yeah we're going to be talking about how to choose an overdrive pedal I think a really interesting thing that's happened over the last number of years you know the the pedal market is huge there are literally thousands of effects pedals thousands of just just over drives I don't know how you do it if you haven't had ten years of buying and selling over yeah so I don't if you arrived in the market and you had to choose one blood through really tell where on earth do you still exactly exactly so I thought okay well this is a good place to start because there are a number of factors that you need to consider when you're choosing an overdrive pedal namely the sort of guitar you playing the sort of amps you playing the sort of sound you're going for have you heard something that you want to try and emulate or that's inspiring you to key on a certain direction so I thought we'd have a look at the you know the varieties of you know the the EQ you know that we go mid hunt we go full frequency are we going to into dirty apps or do a clean out the fire we're using humbuckers using single cause of strats yeah so let's say you know why is this important number one your overdrive and your gain structure of your sound even for people who don't use overdrive is the most important part of your guitar sound right so the game structure whether you play clean or whether you play heavily over driven the way that basic gain makeup is made in your guitar sound is the most important thing about yourself yeah it's so even though I use clear amplifiers I have an overdrive pedal on 95 98 percent of the time and I'll use the volume pedal with that with the overdrive pedal because that's into the interaction with that gain stage is everything so of course it's the it's the core of your tone and then of course it's the core of things like boosting for solos if you play solos it is literally number one stop yeah it are tone isn't it absolutely so everybody even if you play clean like if we go if we rewind all the way to rock and roll guys in the 50s or Hank Marvin or some people who you might think of as clean that sound is driving a bit yeah a little bit an absolutely brutally clean guitar sound is quite an unusual thing well yeah which is really just to make the point that most of us use overdrive most of the time sure and when once you get as deep down the well as Dan and I are it's a boy oh boy I must have 50 overdrive pedals yeah I'm I'm protein yeah I'm probably knocking on more but more more so how do you take let's let's let's take it let's say there are 500 overdrive pedals on the market as a conservative estimate how do you take that 500 and go right here's the 10 I think I might want to start listening to yeah yeah and that's really what we're gonna cover today I'm offering some notes then to try and keep us on because that could go awry quite easily which and it's also to say you know what we're not going to do today is tell you which of the 58,000 tube screamer clones to buy you know so it's not how to choose a tube screamer clone or a Bluesbreakers clone or a first clone it's not you know does JHS make it better cheap screamer than one player than Ibanez then it's not about that it's about zooming out a little bit from that and going how do I get yeah to the to the area in which I want to look so Daniel yes what is the most important question about choosing an overdrive pedal right so what do I want an overdrive pedal for what do I want it to do yeah why do you want it yeah isn't it yes the you might you might spend you you'll life looking at forums and reading stuff and deciding you want this and that in the other but if you haven't actually answered that basic question then you're just gonna be running around in circles or at least it's gonna be not a focused search it's gonna you know more difficult to get to that final answer and we had a brief discussion didn't we and we came up with four things four of the most common reasons you might want to know the drive pedal yes they are thusly one you might want an overdrive pedal for your always-on core sound yes so this is my sound look at that - you might want it as a solo boost yes which is probably the most common use of an overdrive pedal for most people yeah sound sound sound bang louder yep more loud and all out number three a VST a very specific tone I like it so if you want to sound like Jimi Hendrix or if you want to sound like they've Gilmour or whoever you might want it for a very specific sound and we'll get into that a tiny bit with a massive word of warning yes or you might want an all-round do-it-all miracle maker that can literally do anything yeah to take whatever amp it is you use and make it sound like something else so with this smorgasbord of awesome OverDrive's we're hopefully gonna give you something to go away with and help yeah a bit yeah great great okay so if we let's start with the always on overdrive so the ants we're using today we've got the the Fender hotrod deluxe v4 v 3 3 V 3 and we also have the victory Kraken yeah this is the new one it's the it's VX the Kraken in the compact series so it's okay one that's been out for a few years we've chosen these amps because this is getting on for the most popular clean pedal platform on stages everywhere loads of people own them and in the world hmm super common amp and for good reason wonderful and the VX is really about a gain thing because as we'll discuss and as we have discussed in many videos pedal into a clean amp and pedal into a Gainey amp is two totally different whole different things totally different things so we're going to try and compare and contrast what happens when you run them into a clean up and into a dirty up yes we all listen to the amp stuff yes yes is very good okay so this is the Kraken [Music] no that's cut so that setup like you would think some sort of vintage e-type Marshall somewhere between a really cranking plexi and moving on from that maybe into master volume Terry yeah it's not crazy amount of gain no it's just crunching yeah yeah I'm with humbuckers it's kind of a little bit just a tiny bit more [Music] see that's a great sounding guitar lots of people like to run their amps like that bit going up the front down I tend to go for a cleaner amp such as this [Music] you [Music] so good [Music] [Music] why would you want a clean amp like that as opposed to a dirty amp well why don't we move to question want yeah well which is you're always on core tone yeah so you're using a pedal to get to you're always on core tone yeah I know plenty of people who they're always on quarto is there be exactly the sound that's coming out of that crack and sure so yeah if that's in fact that's a really important point if you've got the amp that is you're always on core tone yes you don't need a pedal to get there there you go exactly is that what you were pushing VTA's yeah because the thing is I can go from a clean amplifier and I can get to that yeah but I can't go the other way yeah you know what I mean so with that sort of sound I can get the lovely clean things and I do a lot of clean stuff and big chords and things but I can't really do that with that sound as good as that sound is okay it's great you know let's say then let's say that you've you've got a blues junior or a deluxe or some amp that you've had for years or that stamp that you've ended up with you you you would like a modern slightly more modern Gainey around but you don't have the cash for it so you're gonna get a pedal to try and get you closer to that yeah is there is there a pedal on here mm-hmm that can make this hotrod deluxe get closer to that for are always on gaining sound yes one thing that I think the gay Nia set up amplifiers have something in the mid range and what would this amplifier it has there's a really specific mid range and then there's almost this sub your bass that you don't get but just adding bottom end yeah I mean but let's okay let's try it with the sweet tea so this is like the angry Charlie no Charlie version three right and I have to get the thing here and I always get it wrong with JHS pedals which is which it's a moonshine version - on this side okay is there tube screamer ii type one right and the angry charlie version three on that side cool so we'll come to that later okay let's give that a go then okay [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] there's a top end bite that that thing's got yeah really massive Hongki mid-range compared to this as well yeah yeah yeah yeah so okay we could literally spend all day doing that and I think one of the key questions in buying an overdrive pedal is can it make it sound like a Gainey amp you depends on the Gainey app depends on the Gainey amp yeah you could go through many many many many many absolutely pedals to get there so if we just rewind a little bit from there and talk about your always-on core tone so if you wanted back to the hotrod deluxe for a second mmm-hmm you've got a clean amp and you want a pedal for your always encore tone what's important about that well it's important to understand what your what you want you're always on call tone to be like so for me I have nowhere near that amount again yeah in my court own its dynamic so it cleans up depending on how heavy I hit the strings so if I was going from my core tone let's I'm gonna try the Timmy yep okay so I would be [Music] you this one's clipping I think and these work the opposite way around had you already work that out [Music] [Applause] [Music] so that's from what for a core tone that's as much gain as I need how does that so one thing that a lot of people like to do is the use of volume control on a guitar to just back off the gain a bit and make it a little quieter how does that work with that pedal beautifully [Music] great so as the basis of an always-on core tone what you've got there straight off the guitar is full on overdrive if you want it I'd probably have a bit more trouble bit less space [Music] even with humbuckers it cleans up reasonably well you [Music] great good good great or sounds absolutely so if that's you know if what you use all the time it's not crazy game yeah you know but something that will give you a bit of an edge if you're playing songs for example if you're doing a cover gig and you're playing just just chords the great thing about a sound like that is that you can do you can do [Music] and then by just not nudging up with the volume [Music] good diversity got the chorus it's all there yeah I just the interaction between the guitar and the pedal so you know for those sort of sing-along type things when you want to give that bit more of lift in the chorus a really great option now the Timmy it's a classic overdrive pedal made by Paul Cochran there are lots of Timmy clones but this is the original and you know still up there with one of the best sounding yeah and it's popular because it has a fairly reasonably even frequency range so that's not massively focused in any particular part of like for example a tooth comb which will come on to in a minute so it has a full range in terms of EQ you can change the bass and treble and it has a wide range of gain and it has a wide range of volume Headroom on tap so let I think one important point to make right now is that great Timmy's going to give me all of that yes let's hear it into the victory ye aaaa so if you compare what you've just heard ie quite a lot of dynamic response here you go Dan here's what's happened here's the victory [Music] [Music] that gives a little bit more edge and little more bite yeah but you don't get that dynamic range that you do with that - okay I thought it cleaned off quite nicely does with the volume control that surprised me how much clean you could get there by coming right down and it might be that if you're if the way you approach the guitar is you don't need a huge range of volume what you need is essentially a good crunchy rhythm and then thicker for leads because the PA person is gonna turn it up for you anybody if you don't need a crazy amount of difference in volume in your playing you really you just want thicker and thicker then running a Gainey ramp and a pedal into it can be a great way however if you like that dynamic range of clean amp then it gets louder when you step pedal on it using it gain iam doesn't really work yeah respect yeah yeah and that probably brings us to the next part of the story so yes you can choose any overdrive you like to get your course sound but just be aware that Oh Timmy sounds great it does but it sounds radically different into different amplifiers exactly right so you need to think about that yeah about stacking lots of gain on more gain just gives you more gain and more compression and more Distortion yeah stacking gain onto a clean amp will give you volume bit more gain it's shades of grey is it yeah yeah but also the guitar so the difference between the humbuckers and the sand coils is stuck yeah so if you're hearing a you know like like a sound that's the guys using a strat and a logan overdrive into a clean amplifier you're thinking okay if i get that pedal into my pv rage with my yeah and they're going why isn't that doing the same thing it's that because you've got it's all these different gain stages so you know and we talked about this a lot but these these are all gain stages that interact with the guitar and the gain stages go into the amplifier so it's just part of that chain as part of that equation totally yes it's very windy today by the way so if you hear lots of blowing and blustering and things banging outside that's what that is sir hurricane Beatrice yeah there's on the way alright that leads really nicely into the next question which is what if you want to use a pedal for a solo boost and we'll do that in two ways one is we'll talk about the solar boost into the clean amplifier which is easy that's really easy what's less easy is let's say you do love that amp distortion and you run your app super crunchy what what are your options then sure so if we start with a clean amp yes is easy is this very easy so you can Daniel will explain okay so because the clean amp has so much Headroom once I've got my core sound okay so go the Timmy here and I'm really happy with this [Music] that is Killa [Music] so as far as boosting that is concerned I have two options I can boost into the front of that sound which is going to give me more compression but it's depending on how I voiced that boost yeah it will cut but if I want a volume lift what I need to do is boost after that so if you imagine that this is the sound and I need more of that so that needs to go into basically a more pedal right so let's use the let's just say what let's use the con yep for this this is a this is a clone clone anyone familiar with the fabled clone Center will know it's the the most fabled overdrive pedal of all time ever yeah don't need to give you a clone history look it up on the web if you don't know about the clock this is a clone of a pond relatively affordable and it's one of the best clones we've ever heard absolutely and it does condors two things really brilliantly well clone type circuit should we say do two things brilliantly well one is they work into pretty much any amp yeah including different gain stages game yeah yeah because they do a very specific thing one is they drop a little bit of bottom end off to they add in a very I'm gonna stop talking about it we'll just listen to it I care about that so again so this plant is now after the Timmy okay [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] right so great example their consummate lesson in gain stacking there you go there you go so the Timmy I've got that sound it's it's great having the to having the con after it and it's shaping the tone a little bit it's focusing it a little bit more but it's lifting then Timmy has a bit so that the the clone has low shell at the Rio the Rio or the clone relatively but that that type pedal has got loads of headroom yeah so I'm hitting that quite hard but it's it has so much Headroom is taking all of that and it's just lifting I'm just gonna accentuate the effect of that a little bit by turning the Timmy down yep giving you a bit more gain so just try that say okay [Applause] [Music] [Applause] and now when you turn the rider on I'll do it part the way through [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] now let's just compare that exact thing if we do exactly the same thing into an amp that's already gained so here's our gain sorry [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] probably the best example we've ever done yeah of the difference in running overdrive pedals into clean and dirty amps yeah there is no more headroom available in the front of that dirty amp it's already there's just nothing left no so you hit it with a pedal and all it does is get thicker and fatter which is a cool thing yeah but there's no solo boost available in that so so sorry it's gonna say so what's the answer exactly so what's the answer to that you have it that dirty app it's the sound I love and that's what I want to use but I I need something I've got to have a solo boost I've got to cut through you've got two options first option is going into the running into the front is that I'm going to shape my sound going into the front of that amplifier and I can do it with something like a treble booster or even a tube screamer now what these pedals do is so the Timmy for example is this full frequency overdrive and working into the front of the clean amplifier it's beautiful it's you know it sounds great it's dynamic but as you heard that going into the Ganey amplifier there's there's no more Headroom so it just it doesn't work nothing to lift just got thicker didn't just got thicker which is cool but which is very cool but we're going to do now is have a look at the Java boost by Kili and we're going to it's called a treble booster child booster circuit and what it does is it accentuates the upper mids and top-end and when you hear that into a Gainey amplifier not actually let's hear it into the typically amplify to start with only so that you get an idea of the frequency this is putting in here and I'm gonna be really careful with this because the output on these is is very high yeah and the sound when you hear it clean but he's not lovely so this is just the app [Music] it somebody's gonna think that's a cool sound out there and it might be useful turn down a bit but here in the room it is extremely unpleasant yeah it's that that ah that that upper mid-range frequency this like oh my word so you know how to choose an overdrive pedal which you think what I need is treble booster and you plug it into your hot rod clean clean Fender amp and you're like this is broken I need to send it back yeah however however [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] just such a brilliant sound and kind of what treble boosters were invented for right exactly if you think back to the 60s when it first came out the apps were over driving in those days whether it was a marshal or a box or whatever other and they might be using and the treble booster used very famously by Jimmy Page Rory Gallagher Tony Iommi yeah of course hey really only works into an over driving amp doesn't yeah well Sonia that sound at that stage yes you know so when you've got your amp cranked like that what it's doing is it has so much gain but it's so focused in those frequencies and it pushes those frequencies through those frequencies overdrive and you know so you have this level of touch sensitivity so sometimes if you're looking for an overdrive pedal for your gamy amplifier in actual fact what you might be looking for the treble booster booster yeah and that is quite often we'll get the question you know how do I boost the gain e/m yeah well if you want to boost it for overdrive in the front end that's how you do it many overdrive pills they can work cheap screamer can work but actually the treble booster is it's the fun part yeah into a guinea amp but I will do one last thing yeah I'm gonna put the Timmy on and so you can hear the treble booster into the Timmy okay because if you this is a thing I've done for years I love this sound did it with my hot cake into my ac30 for a long time cuz I I couldn't get the ac30 crank both this troll booster into a cranked AC 30 is something to behold but the volume but he's cranked it is just crazy so I'd use the hot cake and get the game that way and then I'll put that troll booster into it and it was awesome but if we do the same thing with the Timmy so if you would go back to the clean sound yeah and then we get a team together [Music] and this is the sound of the amplifier [Music] isn't that cool brilliant yeah gain stacking yeah but it's such a specific sound yeah so you know again that the treble booster can be great until it into you know if you have a a pedal like a core tone pedal breaks up naturally if that's a great option if you were blasting in the front let's have a look at the tube screamer because this is also as far as boosting is concerned and we're talking about tube screamer quite a lot as a booster pedal because well we talked about the the treble booster that really shapes those and focuses those upper mids the tube screamer sort of moves that that shaped down a little bit but it's a famous pedal used for like really heavy time yeah yeah and just to shape those moods and push it a bit so if we go from we have a listening to the sound of the the - screamer on its own [Music] [Applause] very kind of nasally mid focused isn't it that's that is the sound is the sound of the cheers paper tube screamer and we gotta be looking at this obviously a little bit further detail out a bit but that's the sound of the tube screamer insta clean air let's have listen to this exactly the setup exactly the same into the daily amplifier [Music] [Music] very commonly used isn't it very again amplifiers for that job yeah so if you're you know I think we always associate the sound of a - screamer or many of us do certainly with the Blues the Stevie Ray thing which we'll have a look at in a bit but it might be that if you've got a high gain amplifier you know you don't need a high gain pedal to boost that what you need is some of the focuses that sound yeah and and punches that in the front so we have looked at how we shape the frequencies and boost into the front but the other thing we need to look at is if we have that sound and we just want it overall boost you want one that's the that's the question it's like look it's all very well for you guys running clean amps I really really like dirty amps yeah what I really need is for it to be louder yeah in in in my solo one very popular way of doing that yes so we have a clean boost pedal in the effects loop of the dirty amplifier now this doesn't work the same for all 30 amps effects loop because it depends on the effects loop all effects loops are not created equal but it's certainly an option yeah the biggest thing to know about that is if you have an amplifier with what's called a post phase inverter master volume right is to do with where the master volume is positioned in the circuit if your amp has one of those and the victory ball say just a minute ago sheriff series has that so it has a post phase inverter master volume if you try and do this with that it doesn't work as effectively because all you're doing is over driving a phase inverter so this amp doesn't have a post phase inverter master volume right nor does the hot were deluxe so anything you put in the effects loop is it going straight to the power up section will give you a boost yeah so it doesn't work for all lamps but it does work for shall we say most so you need to check that okay so we have the sound that we want or totally sounds without a sound and we just want to boost that a little bit more to go you actually you go ye cuz it saves a familiar okay so we have the EP booze set up in the loop of the victory yeah okay and you want so this is I've got me sound going to sound I like it you like it it sounds like this trying to think of something different to play other than the mindless power chords I've been playing so far let's do it [Music] [Music] there you go nothing that we put in the front of that amplifier was giving it anything like that lift in volume it was giving it a bit of a shape yes which you might perceive as a lift in volume but yes it just tightens it up and puts it in your face more because do that yeah but in terms of actual thump lift nothing was doing it so that is an option yes so again if you're thinking of well I need more my high gain amplifier I want another overdrive maybe you don't maybe what you need is a clean boost in the FX loop if that's what you put you only want and the other way to do that is does does the EP start at unity going or is it there is you do there's a dip switch inside that you can that you can change to turn down at the moment it's if that's not like a 10 DB boost so is it okay yeah so the other thing you can do is if you've got a pedal with a master volume on it oh I like this you like the sound of your amp absolutely completely gained out you can use the pedal to turn it down yeah that's a great some people call that an under boost or whatever under drive yeah you basically just set the pedal the pedal that's in the loop of your amp you set that at a lower level than the amp itself and then when you switch the pedal on it gets quieter so it's the other way around you might have it you might have the pedal on ie quieter for all your rhythm stuff and then when it comes time to play the solo you turn the pedal off yep which kind of opens your amp up completely and on you go so that's the other way to use a boost in the loop sure now one other quick thing about using boost in the front so we looked at the tube screamer we looked at the Java boost and we looked at the clone for boosting and the clean amplifier there are that type circuits are the Tumnus pedal by one player again it's that clone type thing but what it does give you is much greater control over the EQ yeah this is the Tumnus deluxe so there is a mini pedal Tumnus which is great sounding pay pedal lots of people use it for a boost either before or after another overdrive pedal or just as an always-on pedal this one adds to that functionality by having separate EQ control right so so why would you want separate EQ control in your boost because let's say that you've got your clean tone so make if you'd be so kind [Music] okay it's almost nearly entombed oh they're getting there okay now let's say that I have the the tubescreamer on yep and that's my rhythm sound and I really like it I said we're back into the back and back is an ongoing yep before so with the two screamer on yep now that's working in the track it's really great what I want to do is boost that I really like the way that the client attacks are like the way that the client feels but the that mid kick that the clone has is going to be too much in the situation what I can do is just adjust you have pulled down the mids attached a touch and give it a bit more bite in the treble so that what I'm not doing is taking meds on meds yeah so one of the things about when you know choosing these OverDrive's and boost pedals is you know we can talk about EQ but but they all feel a certain way and I know that like the clone that you've been using for years it's not just about where those the EQ is otherwise you're just using the EQ pedal yeah it's about the way that the pedal reacts as a boost pedal yes so if that's the sound that I like and I want to boost that or maybe you know having the the it's what we can do actually it was still both both ways will click with the rider on as a boost and you'll hear that shape right am an arguably it might be too much meds we're talking before or after at this point so at this point we'll be talking after so the aurora we're using it as a solo boost yeah yeah okay so there's a tooth screamer that's the sound we like we want to boost that if we use them the raira as a boost [Music] it's gonna come out of any mixer yeah exactly it's great but if what I want is that was the feeling the attack of the of the that star circuit yeah but without so much mids yeah using something like the Thomas deluxe which gives me more control over the EQ so that's let's have listen to that [Music] so there's much more flexibility there with the in with the just the overall EQ no massively so yeah yeah just do some extremes of you just just to like take all the bass out for example just to just hammer that point home okay [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] [Applause] still feels like a Quan it still has the attack of that circuit you know but with that really flexible EQ it means that you can it is just that you you can use it in an you know depending on whether you want to boost into the dirty amplifier or the cleaner as I've solid boost after your overdrive pedals that sort of stuff is really really powerful and the radical shaping you can get absolutely cube yeah you know we didn't change the volume on the pedal at all all we did was change the EQ but the audibility of it changed absolutely massive yeah yeah okay um we've gone quite deep on solo boosting now yes we changed about clean amps and dirty amps with clean amps is relatively easy because they've got enough Headroom when you step on a pedal the whole thing gets louder mhm we're in a dirty amp not so much because the front of the amp compresses and if you step on a pedal it just gets squashy oh yeah so you could use the effects loop or you know lest we forget the thing that probably lots of people are screaming at the screen now you can just turn your guitar down which is one way of yes regulating your mega gaining amp so I just want to give a shout-out to you guys who are screaming at the screen because your language ah we don't need all these pedals that's definitely one way to do it yeah it is a way to do it if that's your if that's your bag yeah I mean ideally ideally probably you'd do all of the above sure you'd have all the options yeah which is but also you know using the volume control is just as applicable with your core tone into your plane amplifier yep you know that's it's a skill that you develop but yeah yeah a lot of guys with the really getting out of pfizer so you know get again a great way to do it yeah so why do I want an overdrive pedal number one as my always-on sound number two to try and get some sort of solo boosting going on yep number three let's move on number three might be a VST yes very very specific to tone we'll just we'll try a couple of examples here you probably don't need to spend hours on it the reason the reason this is really important to include is that I still see you know this pedal sounds like this guy'll this pedal it sounds you know it's they've Gilmore in a box this pedal you know stuff it's like man it's really important to understand that the pedal is part of the circuit yep all right and arguably the amplifier that you use and the guitar that you're using a I'll give you more shaping if you have that you know if you if you look at now people go for so I've included a couple of a power boost at a big muff to hammer this point home me using my Telecaster into either of these two amplifiers using those pedals will get me nowhere near David Gilmour right it might you might be surprised its might give me if I kid me a shade of it but I'm not going to be Daniel Steinhardt live upon pay you know with that sort of rig it's just not gonna work but what I want to do before I go there yeah if you can grab blue yep for a second okay because with the with the tube screamer I think I know what you gonna ask me so I'm just gonna start on this guitar so we've got the contrast okay alright good yeah good yeah the the Stevie Ray thing that Texas blues sound that he you know sort of encompass them personified well it was him it was his sound and it stood alone right there we go and that's something that you sort of I was massively into it as a younger person right so I worked out after a long period of spending lots of money that I would never sound anything like Stevie Ray Vaughan okay but you said so much more here I came then same and then nearly anyone I've ever heard yeah yeah but I think to hammer your point home is it's like you can chase this and you can say this pedal is gonna give me this sound but it won't really because we're get into a very deep water there with the tone being in the face Tony's not in the fingers I've listened to my fingers you go by the mic so you can really hear them Tony's not in the fingers it's in the interaction of a human with the gear and anyway let's move on so let's let's talk about Stevie right just for a second and so seeing as we're talking about very specific tone yep Stevie race thing was a strap a tube screamer and a Fender amp right not necessarily this fender out but a Fender amp so let's say I don't have a strap I've got this guitar here's what the Fender amp sounds like [Music] [Applause] [Music] so now let's ever gonna excuse you sounded like Stevie Ray doesn't sound much like Stevie Ray does it no so if we introduce the important thing Fender Strat and in this case tuned to E flat right oh nice so a big part of what happens with the strap when you turn it to E flat here we are into the just straight to the end [Music] already it's already closed ready [Music] you [Music] [Applause] [Music] it's closer it's not loud enough course the amps to middly yeah so like a more mid scoopy fender that's over driving a bit more would get you closer but the really interesting thing about that was as soon as you got that 'flag guitar and even just cleaned it was like oh okay there it is with the tube screamer added though yeah it was yeah you couldn't you can't it's very difficult to do that particular version of SRV stone without a tube screaming yeah yeah so that the point is isn't it if you want to get that very specific tone you may well need one yeah but it's not going to give you the tone in isolation you didn't [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] too much meat yeah but loads of mid yeah way too much mid but anyway it was interested in that okay so yeah a very specific tone but the other thing is you play that stuff and you've you know you lived that stuff for years and if you're after a really specific tone like that yes you're not gonna get that sound without that pedal doesn't work any standard there you go all that stuff yeah can sound really great actually into a clean Marshall right that can work okay so there's so many preconceptions going on with about what you need to get the sound and like you're like you're intimating you know a great proportion of it is in here and how this connects with that but without that without an 808 style tube screamer isn't quite difficult sure to get that to get that sound exactly so that that's part of it but there's so many other things going on and the most important thing though cuz I mean I could with your Stratton everything I'm not gonna sound anything like that because I don't yeah I don't have that Stevie Ray thing yeah and so if you know I just I I see so much stuff online about this is the to scream you need to get his turn no it's this one it's this one you know it's there's so many other things perhaps you should be looking at if that's what you really want to get you insert you know for example and I've got the color driver and the big muff here so again into the into the fender no the big muff [Music] now if I didn't delay on that [Music] [Music] it's by no means instant Gilmore but what it is [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] it's very cool it's a great cells buzz this is some of the most specific of vsts aren't they parasitic tones we were talking briefly about Billy Corgan and his kind of very mid focus yes you know ultra aggressive high output humbucker yeah I guess it's big muff he uses is it something like that yeah well he uses the fender blender right well there has that octave in it yep so he's he's you know but it's again it's really specific tone yeah but chasing after that without you know the guitars that he uses and and he also used bass amps and things when his recording or a mat just the hugeness yeah and here you're not gonna get Stevie Ray Vaughan I'm a big map into a Gainey amp with a humbucker guitar right [Music] [Music] [Music] not exactly no no no that's a really interesting example so you so you listening to the sound of the big muffin just how big it is trying to put that sound into the front of a Gainey amplifier everything just collapses yeah so you know which is why he david gillam will use tie was because could we just that that crazy Headroom still had character I wasn't like plugging into a PA yeah it still had character but it just worked with that sound and then I'd need a strat and you know my get the a correct baby out and all that sort of stuff yeah that big muff is part of it and again with the color driver as well if we just have a quick listen to to that oh this is as far as that like a transistor based overdrive pedal it's amazing [Music] [Music] [Music] now we hear that into the front of a dirty amplifier [Music] [Applause] [Music] not going to change anything please don't turn the volume up to maximum on the guitar okay this is going to be the power of the color driver set exactly the same way into the clean amp okay okay sometime very very gently haha st. peddle yeah same settings yeah different amp exactly no better example than that yeah by the way if you've never tried a college driver man so I'll just turn that master volume down again so this is into a clean Fender amp right here you go down silly boots [Music] [Music] same pedal not going to change anything on the amp whatsoever [Music] you [Music] [Applause] you [Music] he's gone-gone um brings us quite nicely into our final thing for doesn't it so yeah we could sit here trying to sound like Stevie Ray Vaughan and Billy Corgan and David Gilmour all day all day long and that's not really it's not our thing is it no because no matter how hard you try you're never really going to sound like them it's much more interesting to understand the game structure and the way pedals interact so you can get to something close to what you want so just say what's amazing about that is so many people listening to you play go oh my god you sound just like Stevie Ray and what I hear you do that stuff you sound more like in them always anyone I've ever heard but that's still something that you've you've come to on your own going you know what I'm never gonna but then you listen to Matt Scofield do it or Philips ace do it or anyone who can really really do it and they sound even more like him and they say for me personally it's a hiding to nothing but anyway the colour driver I think brings us into our last category so we've done number one you're always on always on core tone number two solo boost yes number three a very specific tone trying to sound like somebody yes number four and finally that one pedal that you can get that does everything yeah I am amazed this thing right was designed late 60s for the one of the if not the first overdrive in it circuit in its original form is the solar sound power boost right it was called the over driver in the US but this is a modern remake which has a master volume which makes it a little bit more versatile blimey O'Reilly we went from super-high Headroom clean boost all the way through to crazy almost gated yep gritty overdrive to do a what a what a great pedal that is however it does when it gets into the overdrive it is quite vintage II that's right very next transistor II overdrive sounds and now that smooth thing it's it's it you know yeah really hear the edges of that drive not for everyone so the final thing is why why do you want an overdrive pedal finally finally finally as I kind of do it all fix a pedal and we've got two of those on the board today the sweet tea mm-hmm because it's a dual overdrive pedal that has bunch of modes and also I think the Tumnus deluxe falls into this category as well because it can sculpt yeah so and to me what this comes down to which we alluded before is finding it's that circuit that you connect with right so I've loved the angry charity circuit you know since it came out when but back in the old broom yeah the Holly is roughly based on a cranked Marshall listen yeah yeah that good thank governor type circuit isn't that the yeah yeah I think it's supposed to supposed to be in the cranked Marshall bull part sure now what what this version does because got the the massive EQ range which means depending on the reason we might need a pedal that covers a huge amount of ground as we might don't know what amplifier we're going to be plugged into you have the gig we're going to so we need to be able to shape that tone so yet for example if we go to the the suite team we have it set up like this at the moment into the into the fender [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] it's killer so done using your knowledge of how to tweak overdrive pedals yes find me in that pedal a fairly clean boosting mid mid boost II clean sound okay my lads use the other side yeah okay so again the the sweet T there are two sides we've got the treble booster and the shabbiest of the the the tube screamer type moonshine ooh the moonshine side which is based on a tube screamer that also has this clean blend in selfie [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] nothing wrong with that nothing wrong with that got me a nice clean boost II give me a bit more compression okay and a bit more gain similar sort of sound but I just want more compression and more gain okay [Music] more again not much wrong with that I don't think we need to gild that lily I'm like no now give me uh gimme I'm gonna play a Fender Stratocaster give me a high gain 80s melt sound okay [Music] [Music] you [Music] it depends on who's ladies hi gay medicine I'm going full-on cliche okay [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] and now give me a more modern high gain heavy ok sound [Music] [Music] [Music] not sure how much more we need to say about a do-it-all pedal long we know there's plenty of them out there jewel sided essential things to look for or is good things to look for some kind of clipping option mm-hmm if you want to know more about clipping that's quite a deep dive subject but it basically means how much compression and Headroom you've got compression versus headroom and a 3-band EQ does make a massive amount of difference yep I think we should we didn't really hear much more of the Thomas Dylan I just show you the gain range of the Thomas Deluxe and show you some EQ stuff you wanna play let you play for a became the and so what you're talkin about the clipping options as well so the Thomas to last you've got the normal and the hot as well so yeah yeah a massive massive range of okay clipping stuff [Music] [Music] [Music] and the cool thing about that is it still has the feel of that K type circuit that attack K type the cable on top yeah it's massively massively versatile yeah yeah one potential downside of massolit massively versatile overdrive else to Timmy is another one that's massively first time is that if you just want that an 808 tube screamer then just get yeah yep absolutely but if you do want more and of course we're galloping towards the conclusion which is how do you buy an overdrive pedal you can't have one right there you go got with one start with one and then instead of buying eight tube screamers which is what I did 20 years understand which general groups these things fall into yeah get one of each yeah stack them up have all the overdrive tones you want in the world you'll start with one go to two when it feels right if you end up at twenty you do have something approaching a problem but that's okay you're right it wasn't your problem to have and on one end of odd it's fine yeah then you can start obsessing about whether you know this tube screamer is better than that cheap screamer is better than theirs you scream at eight hours online figuring out which cheap screaming to buy you know what stick with one tube screamer and add a blues breaker type a fuzz and a some kind of boost yeah and happy days isn't it brilliant all right there you go guys I hope you enjoyed that doesn't that was a whole heap of fun yeah I can just read the comments now how to buy an overdrive pedal an hour of deep information and they tell me I need 20 that's the conclusion yes I massive thank you to everyone that's gone to that pedal show store calm and purchased a t-shirt or a hat or strings or hostess journals pencils all things to help you and us yes yes thank you very much also massive thank you to our patrons on patreon I couldn't do without your help guys we so appreciate each and every one of you also to our preferred retailers in the UK and Europe which is Anderson's music of Guildford in Surrey oh good with our friends over in the US of A would be riff city guitar various locations and of course Australia pedal Empire of Brisbane Queensland thank you very much guys please go and check them out online and see what they have to offer some of which may be on this pedal board there you go thank you so much guys have a fantastic weekend and we'll see you soon bye [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause]

Channel: That Pedal Show

Views: 393,515

Keywords: Best overdrive pedal, what overdrive pedal to buy, best OD pedal, Tru-Fi Colordriver, Keeley Java Boost, JHS Sweet Tea, RYRA The Klone, Wampler Tumnus Deluxe, Ibanez TS808 Tube Screamer, Timmy Overdrive, Xotic BB Preamp, EHX Triange Big Muff Pi, JHS Big Muff, Xotic EP Booster, What overdrive should I buy?, How to choose an overdrive pedal

Id: pMpJuFJBTsQ

Length: 77min 9sec (4629 seconds)

Published: Fri May 03 2019

Reddit Comments

[u/[deleted]]

TPS should be a source used frequently for anyone with gear questions. Very useful information!

[u/guybrush_threepwould]

This dilemma comes up pretty regularly here. Hope this video might help some of yall!

[u/pomod]

Answer: Just get a tubescreamer (jk)