# Overdrive pedal for metal



## XxImGuitardedxX (Oct 17, 2010)

Quick question, what is the best overdrive pedal to use infront of a high gain amp? I play some hardcore stuff and want to tighten up the sound and also get a little more. Any suggestions?


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## warlock7strEMG (Oct 17, 2010)

any type of Tubescreamer or Tubescreamer type OD will be good. what kinda amp are you gonna be using it for? all TS-type OD's basically do the same thing, but some do sound better with some amps than others i find. with that said, my fave one is the Maxon OD9. Digitech Bad Monkey is also great, particularly for boosting already high gain amps, also super cheap!!


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## xvultures (Oct 17, 2010)

Could try a BOSS SD-1. I just got one and it tightened up my 5150 so much. And they're really easy/fun to mod.


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## FireInside (Oct 17, 2010)

Ibanez TS-9. The new MXR Classic Overdrive (Guitar Center exclusive?) sounds pretty good and it only costs about $40.


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## Stealthdjentstic (Oct 17, 2010)

Ts9's and Maxon 808's are both very common.


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## Leuchty (Oct 17, 2010)

MXR GT-OD/MXR WYLDE OVERDRIVE


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## Rook (Oct 17, 2010)

Here's a thumbs up for the Ibanez TS808


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## Darren James (Oct 17, 2010)

I use an old jekyll and hyde od(the lawsuit one) and love it. It has a bass boost which for me I find comes in very handy.


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## Ericbrujo (Oct 17, 2010)

MXR GT-OD


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## XxImGuitardedxX (Oct 17, 2010)

Wow! thats a lot of choices so far. I have a Madison Divinity 2 head, very high gain stuff going on here. I dont know where to start, a lot of people tell me to go with the ts9 but that is still 100 bucks, but I dont want to get something that is going to sound like s**t. I had a ts9 before I had the Madison and now im kind of regreting getting rid of it


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## Stealthdjentstic (Oct 17, 2010)

You can score ts9's for like 60-70 bucks on craigslist, maxon 808's are also around that, a little pricier i think.


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## warlock7strEMG (Oct 17, 2010)

XxImGuitardedxX said:


> Wow! thats a lot of choices so far. I have a Madison Divinity 2 head, very high gain stuff going on here. I dont know where to start, a lot of people tell me to go with the ts9 but that is still 100 bucks, but I dont want to get something that is going to sound like s**t. I had a ts9 before I had the Madison and now im kind of regreting getting rid of it



Digitech Bad Monkey..........works great for boosting already high gain amps and costs about $50 new


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## XxImGuitardedxX (Oct 17, 2010)

warlock7strEMG said:


> Digitech Bad Monkey..........works great for boosting already high gain amps and costs about $50 new


 
A few people also suggested the bad monkey  arhhh this is going to be a tough choice.


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## Despised_0515 (Oct 18, 2010)

Get the GT-OD and call it a day bro. - $0.02



No matter what you get, go eBay or Craigslist.


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## XxImGuitardedxX (Oct 18, 2010)

Despised_0515 said:


> Get the GT-OD and call it a day bro. - $0.02
> 
> 
> 
> No matter what you get, go eBay or Craigslist.


 
the GT-OD sounds really good, this may be the one I will go for.


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## Necky379 (Oct 18, 2010)

Despised_0515 said:


> Get the GT-OD and call it a day bro. - $0.02
> 
> 
> 
> No matter what you get, go eBay or Craigslist.



agreed


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## Leuchty (Oct 18, 2010)

What type of amp are you using? IMO, rectos should have a Tubescreamer (TS7/9/808) in front because of the circuit frequency range. Everything else should have the GTOD


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## Soubi7string (Oct 18, 2010)

well it isn't an overdrive pedal but if you're looking for a gain boost and can find one
I suggest a Boss FZ-2 Hyper Fuzz
I love that pedal and brings out a BEAST in Gain(in a good way)


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## Ishan (Oct 19, 2010)

We don't use OD for gain but for sound shaping, at least most of us do.
I use a Hardwire CM-2 with my Piranha, sounds great, very tight. It's a better made in USA Bad Monkey with better components (and 2 modes) and is true bypass.


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## XxImGuitardedxX (Oct 22, 2010)

Well gain boost would be nice in a way, but I also want to tightn up the sound a bit to. I am also going to get an EQ pedal too, I might go with the FIsh and Chips EQ pedal seeing how cheap it is and if I dont like it then it wouldnt be a huge loss. So with that in mind, whould an OD pedal do me any good? what about gain boosters what exactly do they do, do they just boost the signal from the guitar or do they actually boost the gain in the head?


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## warlock7strEMG (Oct 22, 2010)

any pedal is in front of ur amp is gonna basically boost/EQ/etc the guitar signal itself which isnt a bad thing at all. the exception is if u run a pedal, like EQ pedal, in the fx loop, this will directly affect the sound of the preamp itself. 

with an OD pedal, you will get a tighter sound. they cut out a little bass so that the mids of the ur tone are more emphasized, which makes for added tightness. not only that, but an OD can work as a gain booster. even with pedal drive at 0, with the pedal level past half it is boosting ur signal, which in turn boosts ur preamp volume and gain. the compression from the from the OD basically adds to ur amp gain from its existing setting by adding sustain, harmonics and saturation(the higher the pedal level, the more it adds saturation), so therefor u end up with more "percieved" gain.....which basically means u are gettin absolute most out of ur gain knob but without havin the crank it anymore. this is why guys who use an OD pedal end up turning their gain down.


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## atimoc (Oct 22, 2010)

IMO everyone should try a Bad Monkey, for the price you can't really go wrong - and even if you end up hating it you don't really lose a whole lot of money. You can also get interesting tones when you use it to boost other pedals. The Monkey cost less than a half of what I paid for my Catalinbread Supercharged OD but I like it just as much.


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## Galius (Oct 22, 2010)

If you got a bit extra cast to put toward it I REALLY dig my Bodenhamer Bloody Murder pedal.


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## Larrikin666 (Oct 22, 2010)

Galius said:


> If you got a bit extra cast to put toward it I REALLY dig my Bodenhamer Bloody Murder pedal.



Yup


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## widdlywhaa (Oct 22, 2010)

I'm actually about to try a new pedal I stumbled on at work.

It's called the DOD FX101 "Grind"

It's an overdrive/distortion pedal that apparently was marked toward hardcore punk/grind guitarists.

I used to boost a couple of different amps and there are a few settings that gave me a really fat and sludgy tone like Skinless' album "Trample the Weak, Hurdle the Dead". Looking forward to trying it with my ampeg.


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## XxImGuitardedxX (Oct 23, 2010)

I may just end up getting the GT-OD, in about a week and a half. How much noise do overdrive pedals add to the signal? My amp with gain all the way up with my guitar with active emgs is amazingly quiet. Will a noise suppressor be necessary? I'm asking these questions because I sold my multi-effect pedal and I'm just getting a behringer dr400, and OD pedal, maybe an EQ pedal (Danelectro Fish and Chips), and maby a noise reducer pedal if I need one.


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## Necky379 (Oct 23, 2010)

the gt-od is fairly quiet. if you listen closely you will hear some added noise but that's going to be there regardless of what pedal you choose, they all add a little noise. i don't use a noise suppressor with my rig and it's fine. im going to be picking up another ns-2 soon though. imo you really cant go wrong with the gt-od.

as far as the eq pedal goes, they're really helpful if you're willing to take the time to tweak. im running a gt-od in front of my amp and a ge-7 eq in my loop. this setup gives you a ton of control over your sound but it was very time consuming to get right. with the eq minor changes make dramatic differences so take your time and dont go crazy with the boosts and cuts, be subtle.


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## XxImGuitardedxX (Oct 23, 2010)

Necky379 said:


> the gt-od is fairly quiet. if you listen closely you will hear some added noise but that's going to be there regardless of what pedal you choose, they all add a little noise. i don't use a noise suppressor with my rig and it's fine. im going to be picking up another ns-2 soon though. imo you really cant go wrong with the gt-od.
> 
> as far as the eq pedal goes, they're really helpful if you're willing to take the time to tweak. im running a gt-od in front of my amp and a ge-7 eq in my loop. this setup gives you a ton of control over your sound but it was very time consuming to get right. with the eq minor changes make dramatic differences so take your time and dont go crazy with the boosts and cuts, be subtle.


 
Cool thanks. Just so that I dont mess anything up, can I have your or anyone elses opinion on how I should set my pedals. Right now I have a BOSS RC-2 looper and BBE Sonic Stomp pedals and they go into the effects loop of the amp. I'm going to buy a delay pedal, OD, and eq pedal. I know the od goes after the guitar and the eq pedal goes in the effects loop, does the delay/reverb pedal goes in there as well? If I get a noise reducer pedal should I put that in the effects loop with all them pedals?


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