OD pedal question

[JH1968]

I have a question for all the guitar players. I’m having issues with my overdrive tones. I’m using an MXR Sugar Drive for a light/ medium crunch which is great, but every pedal I’ve tried for a heavier overdrive seems to lose presence. So far I’ve tried a Movall Minotaur, a Keely Red Dirt mini,a Nail Audio Klone, and a Rowin Dumbler. I’m not looking for a volume change, I’m looking for a tonal change because all I do is play chords. I don’t know if it’s my settings or if it’s the pedals I’m trying. So I’m thinking that maybe I should just use a clean boost pedal to push the MXR into more overdrive or a compressor to make the mids pop some more. Any advice is greatly appreciated.

 

[Go Nigel Go]

It sounds like what you want to do is increase the drive knob and set the tone knob to taste, then finish up by setting the volume knob to match levels. What other pedals are you using, and what order do you have them hooked up in? Pedal order can matter a lot when tying to get them all to work together for a specific sound.

 

[donepearce]

You might want to try following the overdrive with an EQ pedal. That is a decent way to restore presence

 

[Bad Penguin]

What kind of amp are you using? Find the tone close, then tweak the amps EQ.

 

[JH1968]

It sounds like what you want to do is increase the drive knob and set the tone knob to taste, then finish up by setting the volume knob to match levels. What other pedals are you using, and what order do you have them hooked up in? Pedal order can matter a lot when tying to get them all to work together for a specific sound.

I have a simple board, just a tuner, OD, chorus, delay and reverb.

 

[JH1968]

What kind of amp are you using? Find the tone close, then tweak the amps EQ.

My amp is a Vox AC4TV in a custom cab with a Rola 12” nickel speaker. It’s just volume and tone so not a bunch of settings options.

 

[Go Nigel Go]

I have a simple board, just a tuner, OD, chorus, delay and reverb.

OK, so assuming you have them in that order currently, I would put the Chorus first, then the OD, followed by Delay and finally reverb. You can obviously put them in any order you like (whatever ultimately works for you), but that would be my starting order I think would be most likely to allow you to dial in the sound you want. Placing things like Chorus, Flanger, Wah, etc. ahead of the OD should make those effects more distinct and not get lost in the fuzz generated in the OD pedal.

Overdrives can work in two ways, one is to raise the level of the guitar signal at the amplifier inputs to "overdrive" the preamp section at a higher level to get that nice breakup and compression from the amp. This is the traditional way used by many players with great results. The second way is to drive the circuits in the pedal to generate the fuzz or grit there, and level match the input and output levels for no net increase in signal. This is the way I think you are trying to go.

When I was starting out playing rhythm guitar, that is what I did too so I could have a clean or distorted sound that stayed at a consistent level overall. It works OK, but you might prefer a Fuzz pedal instead. I tend to use my OD pedals in the more traditional way now, which sounds much better IMO, but you can work with what you have until you have other options.

 

[Decadent Dan]

If you like your dry signal but lose tone when you run through pedals, you might want to try this blender https://www.jonnyrockgear.com/zemixette

You can blend the effects with your dry signal so the tone doesn’t drop out when you step on a pedal.

 

[Bbr6704]

From what I hear and read, I guess you have two options : to try a booster in front of your OD, to push it, and have more gain from your amp. But you wont be able to tweak that much the tone (except if you find a boost with tone control, wich is not that common. I think about the Naga Viper from Catalinbread, don't have many other in mind).
But this way, you can have more gain and a tonal change.
For boost, I like the ZVex SHO a lot (the clone i built to be honest), or the Dallas rangemaster.

Or you may prefer another dirt pedal, to have 2 gain stages/flavor. If so, you open the pandora"s box... They are so many it's hard to give you any name. You could choose a pedal that goes from light OD to Distortion (the OCD is a good example, or the Glove for EHX, it's cheaper alternative), you could choose a Rat if you prefer this kind of tone, or a Big Muff, that can produce some nice Fuzz/distotion tones if that's what you like.

I only give a few names, because everybody has its own preferences, and it depends a lots on your taste, your gear, the tone you are after, and your level of geekery/nerdiness on pedals... :)

But, to conclure, if you want a good overview of some pedals, my recommandation would be to watch these videos : https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=the+pedal+bored