My Soul Food was great for lifting an already driven guitar sound, but it shit the bed and I'm looking for something more gritty/edge of breakup.

I'm currently knee deep in BD-2 vs OD-3 vs SD-1... threads online and feeling a little agitated.

Sell me on your favourite overdrive pedal.

Any kind of Rangemaster. A friend build me a germanium one with a tone control and I love it. I use it on medium wattage tube amps and it sounds EXACTLY like the amp sounds dimed, but at lower volume settings. It's perfect.

I love using my Chuck Collins Harmonic Percolator with the drive up about 1/4 or less and the volume up about 3/4. I know they are known for being insane noise machines, but I think they're way underrated for use as a subtle to not so subtle overdrive. And you can actually hear the intent of the whole "pleasing harmonics" thing when you use it like that.

I have a lot of pedals, but it's rare that I use more than one at a time. These are my absolute go-to drive pedals.

I'll +1 to a rangemaster, "treble booster"

other than that, Box of Rock - just a big ol' boost so if you're after edge/treble with the right amp you're there

On guitar/baritone: Paul Cochrane's "Tim" pedal.

Remarkable overdrive, very responsive to input level, super easy to clean it up just by turning down or playing lightly. Anything from very mild breakup to raging. Full-bodied, flexible. Does not suck tone or otherwise fuck up the basic sound of your guitar. "Transparent" and "tube-like" are terms other people use and yeah sure why not.

(I have an old one, not sure if the recently-reissued ones are the same or whatever.)

(The Timmy pedal is a Tim without the boost circuit, sounds fine, smaller, less range and not as good.)

On bass: Civil War Big Muff

Depends on what amp I’m using it with. But I’ve mostly been using a JHS Angry Charlie (3-band EQ version) set for low gain on most amps the last 5 years. Definitely my current fav drive pedal overall.

For my Marshall I like the Chinese-made King of Tone clone I have a bit better. Not as mid focused, and sounds a lot like the amp.

I really like Rangemasters too. Naga Viper (modded rangemaster) sounds great on everything at the expense of some noise. Have to use it first in your chain though.

An old Rat set for low gain sounds great on everything but is a bit too mid heavy for Marshalls for my liking.

I’m not a huge fan of the Klon, Tube Screamer, or SD-1 as I find them all too honky in the mids. I don’t mind them on a mid scooped black panel Fender though. I see its use there. Blues Driver sounds fizzy as hell to me.

Love the Hot Cake with a Vox amp but not much else.

To the OG poster - OD-3 is a great sounding pedal. The downside/upside is it will make your guitar sound the same from amp to amp. It will also make your guitars sound more like each other. Basically, the pedal has a sound. And it’s a great sound. It only does the one thing though.

For bass some variation on the Ross Distortion/DOD 250/MXR Distortion+/Kowloon Walled Bunny circuit, both knobs at noon. Right now I’m using the version of the KWB that Scott Evans built a couple years ago:

tommy wrote: Fri Mar 08, 2024 12:40 pm Love the Hot Cake with a Vox amp but not much else.

I really enjoyed my Hot Cake with a black panel Fender.

I really enjoy the Red Llama / Anderton "Tube Sound Fuzz" circuit. Not a fuzz at all.

OF course, the Ross Distortion/KWB is a favorite.

Finally, I do love the Klon thing, especially to push a distorting amp int a mid-range focused hyper-crunch kinda sound. But that's what you had with the Soul Food, right?

Good Luck!

The Rangemaster recs are interesting. I always see that mentioned as the tried and tested solution for guitar. It sounds superb, but it's not "transparent" enough to generalise for baritone (which is not the end of the world).

Also, did you guys know you can get fake Klons off AliExpress for like $40 and they're supposedly pretty good?

I've been happy with the Basic Audio Futureman (Colorsound Overdriver-inspired) for over 10 years now. Does a fun '70s splatty fuzz if you want it, but is remarkably touch sensitive on lower settings. All of the knobs are useful and interactive.

As far as well known pedals, I can be happy with TS inspired pedals as long as it doesn't lop off low end like the originals.

I forgot about the KWB, it’s been in my board as my “rhythm” sound since I got FM Dr Balls’s PRF version.
Because of this I bought DOD250s for a bunch of friends when they were blowing them out