Best OD/Distortion for humbuckers

[DSV]

Jus a bit, which IMHO is good for placement in a mix, but in case you don't like it you can simply rework the output filters.

[AM]

Ok, this is an update.
I followed Aron's and John's advice and reworked a Llama circuit once more. It ain't really a Llama anymore but it's still a 4049. It sounds pretty good! It's on my board and I will test drive it for sometime. The Big muff I leave it stock for now. I might tweak the mids a bit later.

Stan suggested to try out a DS-1. I was always sceptical about those ones, BUT.....I found an old Boss ME-5 lying in my studio. There are a couple of overdrives and a distortion in there. The distortion I believe is pretty similar if not the same as the DS-1. I gave it a try and much to my surprice I really liked it!!! I usually set my amps a bit dark for rhythm so when that thing kicks in for lead, the extra high content is very wellcome. Because I always play humbuckers, it didn't get ovberly bright as it might have been the case with single coils. I liked it the best at a lower gain setting. At higher gain it didn't do much for me. I think I will pick up one of those in the single pedal format and mod it.

DSV, your preamp seems like a really cool project!!! I think I will skip building a stand alone BSIAB and built your preamp at some point in the near future.

Thanks everybody for your input.

[modsquad]

 
Told you so.

I modded mine, so you may want to try some of the mods.  If interested I will have to go back and check what I did.

[Ben N]

+1 on the DOD250/Distortion+ suggestion. I find these top go great with HBs, much better than SCs (IMHO). Again, there are so many variations/mods/variants (most notably the Voodoo Lab OD), that I suggest you read up on it, pick a configuration based on other people's descriptions, and then breadboard it so you can try stuff out and tweak to taste.

[DSV]

DSV, your preamp seems like a really cool project!!! I think I will skip building a stand alone BSIAB and built your preamp at some point in the near future.

Thanks! And good luck with the tweaking!