My first overdrive....here's what I want it to do......

[jimmyohio75]

I have just built my first pedalboard. I have a tuner, reverb, vibe and looper. I am still overwhelmed at the number of overdrives out there and I have not bought one yet. Here's what I am looking for:
My band never plays clean. We are either full on hard rock or edge of breakup.
I play an Orange Dual Terror using the Tiny Terror channel for most songs and I kick over to the FAT channel for solos. I love the thick, punchy overdrive sounds of the DT but sometimes it feels a little wooly around the edges. I am looking for an overdrive that can tighten things up and possibly clear up some of the fuzziness. I would like to use it as an "always on" pedal.
What am I looking for?
By the way i play a Les Paul Standard and my budget is $100 or less (used is OK).

 

[tremolo3]

Soul Food.

 

[bobcunningham]

You're in Akron. Walk over to Earthquaker and grab a White Light... or whatever.

 

[Ham_fist]

Barber Gain Changer. I sold mine to fund a "emergency" purchase. I'm going to end up buying another one sooner than later. Tightens up the low end, and makes an already overdriven amp sound huge. Should be around $100 used.

 

[rotlung]

lower output pickups. a drive can make the orange tighter by cutting some bass but that fuzzy midrange is a characteristic if the amp and won't really go away. Some pedals will mask it a little by cutting bass and adding treble. the soul food is a good suggestion to be honest since you aren't wanting to add much drive.

 

[Jason_77]

I'm going to suggest the MXR Badass OD.

If you want it to tighten your sound, you want a pedal that rolls off low end. The MXR has a 100Hz knob that let's you cut or boost to your taste. To clear up the fuzziness, you can roll the tone and gain back a bit. It also has a button for mid emphasis, and it fits your budget new.

 

[jimmyohio75]

You're in Akron. Walk over to Earthquaker and grab a White Light... or whatever.

I am actually going to be at Earthquaker next week. I am the FedEx sales rep for their account. Gonna check out the Speaker Cranker too.

 

[Holzar1988]

I'm going to suggest the most obvious answer of all: some kind of Tubescreamer. Accentuating the mids will give you more punch. Might not tighten the bottom, but it'll give you more punch where you need it. A Bad Monkey or Hardwire CM-2 (essentially two versions of the same pedal) will give you separate bass and treble controls, so you can dial dial down the bass a bit and punch up the higher frequencies. Or get a Way Huge Green Rhino for semi-paramtric mid controls.

I stack a JHS-modded Bad Monkey ($89 from JHS), and it's the best stacker I've come across. For adding to an amp that's already got some growl, breakup and what not, some kind of Tubescreamer (or perhaps Boss SD-1) fits that bill well, methinks.

 

[fl00dsm0k3]

mxr gt od/ Wylde overdrive

 

[Twangzilla]

sd-1/ts, or maybe an eq of some kind.

 

[thedroid]

I am actually going to be at Earthquaker next week. I am the FedEx sales rep for their account. Gonna check out the Speaker Cranker too.

Speaker Cranker is a great pedal, but it's not going to tighten anything up. It's purely a gain pedal.

 

[Serenity]

I had the MXR Wylde OD for a while. Really good, especially for the price, but sold it after getting the MHP 72 degrees as i wasn't using it anymore.

 

[jimmyohio75]

I had the MXR Wylde OD for a while. Really good, especially for the price, but sold it after getting the MHP 72 degrees as i wasn't using it anymore.

There seems to be 2 versions of this pedal. ONe is called the "berserker". Is this the one you are referring to or just the plain old Zak Wylde Overdrive?

 

[jordane93]

Try a VFE Blues King. Its a fantastic low gain overdrive that can cover a lot of ground.

 

[rotlung]

Also, since you play humbuckers, many people say the Terror series is great with a treble boost, whereas it can be picky about overdrives. I don't play humbuckers so I've never grabbed one for my Tiny Terror, but I bet something like the Naga Viper or a germanium boost like the MJM Dallas would be perfect. I've always wanted to try one.

 

[kdc113]

For $100 you can get a Boss SD-1 (Tubescreamerish) or a Digitech Bad Monkey, and a Boss BD-2 (More Transparent) and you can choose what works better for you. Then you can choose a more specialiced or boutique OD.

 

[Serenity]

There seems to be 2 versions of this pedal. ONe is called the "berserker". Is this the one you are referring to or just the plain old Zak Wylde Overdrive?

I had the older Wylde OD, but i think they're the same pedal with different graphics on the case.

 

[Serenity]

I should also mention that if you don't want the Zakk Wylde graphics then buy the MXR GT, same pedal.

 

[playthecray]

Timmy. The pedal will not overly color your tone and the EQ is extremely useful. I use a Tim for this purpose and the pedal is always on.

 

[jimmyohio75]

Bump for more opinions