What's your favorite DIY Overdrive or Distortion? Looking for something new...

[dmc777]

Just curious what seems to be the most popular pedals on here. I'm looking to build an Od, 2  channel Od, distortion, or a single tube od. I currently have the boards to the Blue Magic and Hwy 89 Od's as well as the AMZ SuperOD or what's it called. What do you guys think about those?

Also, what's everyones opinions on John Hollis Easy Vibe?

[CynicalMan]

www.diystompboxes.com/smfforum/index.php?topic=78723.0
www.diystompboxes.com/smfforum/index.php?topic=85547.0

Professor Tweed, Fuzz Face/Factory (even as an OD), my designs

[askwho69]

For me..is boss Ds1 modded to wamplers jcm 800! and add some mid and bass for r17and r16 "i think" +opa2134pa + Q2's 2n5088 man its awesome sounding the dist can be sound overdrive and can be clean boost and dirty boost!

A2

[Schappy]

low gain
Barber LTD

Medium Gain
DLS
Thor
MXR Distortion III

High Gain
BSIABII
Dr. Boogey

[MetalUpYerEye]

I've built a few pedals: Electra Distortion, Howie's Metal Simplex, TS808 Tubescreamer, EA Tremolo, Tiny Trem, Colorsound Inductorless Wah, AMZ Mini-Booster and a couple of Dr. Boogey's.

The only pedal that has stayed in my rig 'tried and true,' since I built it, is my Dr. Boogey.

[Talon5051]

I think my favorite is the Umble.  Real solid tight distortion with decent tone shaping.

[jkokura]

Sunking found here:

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

There's also another half dozen EXCELLENT and easy to build overdrives available there also, but the sunking has changed my pedalboard.

Jacob

[MmmPedals]

I built and used a million and just keep coming back to a Tube Screamer (Son of Screamer actually). But its nowhere near stock. Messing with the high end roll off after the gain stage and the tone control will yield drastically different sounds. Just look at an sd-1 and a ts 808 pretty much the same save for a few values and they sound totally different.

[darron]

BSIABII is an awesome build....

[spargo]

A break from your typical tubescreamer circuit, I prefer a Marshall Bluesbreaker modified for significantly more bass response.   I've tried others and built different things, but if I were to build another overdrive I'd either build another one of these to put on my board or build a double pedal with two of them in the same enclosure for different presets.

It will give you a thick, creamy overdrive.  I play through one with humbuckers and LOVE it.

[deadastronaut]

+1000 on the dr boogie...

you can have it low gain or mentally hi....and it cleans up nice when the volume is backed off too...
its the only distortion ive had where the gain is proper full on  without having to have it turned fully on..12 o'clock is fine by me..

brilliant circuit. thenext one i build will have a switchable tonestack..on/off..

might eventually build the bsiab2..but ive read that its quite noisey?.
thats what put me off building it..can anyone confirm this? darron?
cheers rob.

[newfish]

Fuzz Face (Si - let's not be too fussy) feeding into a Big Muff (NYC re-issue - again, not too fussy over vintage mojo).

Leave the FF hard-wired for maximum gain, straight into the Muff stage 2 (first transistor with clipping diodes).

DPDT switch to bypass the Muff Tonestack is a useful mod too.

It'll take yer head off!

[tubelectron]

Hi,

I have a truckload of disto boxes of all kind (I should count them one of these times) but I mainly rely on my DOD 250 overdrive preamp on stage (the yellow one, I have 2 units in cas of...), half position settings.

A+!

[askwho69]

Try high gain two knobs of deadastronaut 

[Philippe]

Landgraf Dynamic Overdrive (clone)...essentially/basically a modified TS808 with switchable assymetric/symetric clipping options + a switchable frequency cut-off.

[StereoKills]

I'm very partial to my Proco Rat clone.

[tubelectron]

I'm very partial to my Proco Rat clone.

Ah yes : the RAT with the LM308N is a good value - if like me you have a Vintage RAT RI, change the OP07DP for a LM308N : it's way better ! I have made the comparison in A/B situation to confirm : thickness, even harmonics, smooth decay...

A+!

[Zapp Brannigan]

My favourite overdrive pedal is definitely russian mod of BSIAB II (BSIAB-X), the coolest thing on Earth. A couple of weeks ago I finished Soldano GTO Supercharger which sounds pretty good, but anyway my Bsiab is still #1.

[deadastronaut]

note :

it all depends on what style of music you play..

one mans idea of distortion/overdrive is very different from anothers...

some swear by simple lo gain overdrives...some like full on thrash!.....