Recommend me a new build please!

[ayayay!]

I'm looking for a medium gain pedal.  Something that emulates tube break up but not so high-end gritty.  Something more throaty.

I've already got a modified DS-1, BD-2, TS type (LP Eternity modified clone) and Dr. Boogie on my board, so something that's not like those.

For example, I was playing Tears For Fears "Everybody Wants to Rule the World" at practice Tuesday and the middle & end solos just weren't working with any guitar or any pedal combination.  I don't need a ton of gain or sparkle.  Just a good overdrive that I can dial up and down w/ my guitar knob.  Not an SD-1/TS type of clipping. 

I was thinking some kind of Big Muff style circuit perhaps.  The ROG builds haven't really caught my ear for this one, but maybe you can steer me towards one you think may work?  My Sparkle Boost isn't really cutting it...  The Trotsky Drive gets kind of there, but's still too buzzy for it...

So something kind of low-mid centric and sounds like the amp's being pushed a bit. 

Suggestions? 

[jacobyjd]

A Sansamp GT2 might be overkill for what you want, but it sounds amazing.

[23]

Liquid sunshine..... really amazing pedal imo

[caspercody]

I am not good at describing the sounds, but the ones I have built that I like for medium gain are:

Nobels ODR-1
Klon
BOR
Blackstone Appliance Mosfet


There are others, but are TS type. Also, check into 386 designs. Some will get a nice medium gain (Purple Plexi, ROG Grace....)

[jkokura]

Madbean has a metric tonne of overdrive and distortion projects now. Check out his website:

http://www.madbeanpedals.com/projects/index.html

Jacob

[nocentelli]

I'd recommend the Catalinbread Dirty Little Secret: I started building a short while back and worked my way through all the classic (i.e. ubiquitous) OD/distortion/fuzz circuits: Fuzzface, Dist+/DOD 250, TS, Muff etc tweaked them, tried a few values and clipping arrangements and then hit upon the DLS - And this is the closest to the sound you describe. It's similar to the BOR, some sort of cascaded mu-amp arrangement (i think) and really does sound (to my ears) more like amp break-up than any of the other designs i tried: I did it with the Rock/Rawk switch split into two separate toggles, and did a 3-way treble bleed on the gain control. The Madbean project is called Grapevine.

I'm experimenting with a 9/18v charge pump arrangement at the moment, and may well build another DLS with it onboard, as that is one thing I haven't tried messing with yet.

[ayayay!]

Awesome guys, thanks!  Funny I was just looking at a DLS today.  I'll look up soundclips.  The Madbean Grapevine is a close copy of it?  Cool!  

So that page w/ all the projects... is the price for the PCB?  Can't hardly beat it.  I usually like to convert schem to my own perfboard, but this one may be worth the $9. 

[jkokura]

He has a couple pro PCB's made out of house, but as far as I know (and have experienced) most of Brian's PCB's are etched using a photoresist method, and then coated with tinner of some kind. There is no soldermask like with GGG, BYOC or Tonepad pcbs. However, I will say that his work is excellent, and the products he has available aren't found many other places. Going through his list, I have another half dozen PCB's I want from him on top of the PCB's I've already gotten from him!

Jacob

[goulashnakov]

Might I recommend Dano's  "Daddy-O."  I've found it to be a quite versatile pedal, giving anything from "warm" to "smokin' hot" overdrive.  I think it's my favorite OD pedal.  I like it way better than the NoobScreamer.  But anyway, I think I read somewhere that it's actually based off the marshall guv'nor, which I believe is on ggg.

[ayayay!]

Might I recommend Dano's  "Daddy-O."  I've found it to be a quite versatile pedal, giving anything from "warm" to "smokin' hot" overdrive.  I think it's my favorite OD pedal.  I like it way better than the NoobScreamer.  But anyway, I think I read somewhere that it's actually based off the marshall guv'nor, which I believe is on ggg.

Good Lord!  I completely forgot I have a couple Daddy O's in my closet!  I modified them a long time ago but forgot about them.  Didn't have room on the pedalboard at the time... 

Duh!  I'll try that.  IIRC, I really screwed up the tonestack on that, with the advent of Duncans TSC I should be able to fix that now. 

I dunno, the listened to the DLS last night and I'm not so sure it's my thing.  I'll investigate it further though.  Thanks for the continued suggestions guys!