Overdrive Explained
This one goes out to my guitar players…
So you’ve decided to buy an overdrive pedal. Maybe you want to start investing in a pedalboard. Maybe you want to add another gain stage to your amp sound. Maybe you, like myself, have a minor (or at least that’s what I tell myself) gear obsessed personality and want to keep obtaining different sounds for your “collection”. Whatever your reason, before you go about buying a pedal you need to have some information about this confusing market. First, let’s take a look at the different types of Gain:
Overdrive - Think Stevie Ray Vaughn - Pride and Joy or Led Zeppelin - Whole Lotta Love Gives your sound a little bit of dirt, or can make your amp sound like a cranked up Marshall stack.
Popular Examples: Ibanez Tube Screamer, Klon Centaur, Fulltone OCD
Distortion - Think Nirvana - In Bloom. The next level up from overdrive. Sounds very distorted but the pedal retains (some) clarity for hitting chords.
Popular Examples: ProCo Rat, Boss DS-1
Fuzz - Think Jimi Hendrix - Foxey Lady. This box will make your amp sound broken, but in the best way possible. If you want to unleash your inner Jimi or rip a David Gilmour solo, this is your best bet.
Popular Examples: Electro-Harmonix Big Muff, Fuzz Face, Tonebender
So that was a brief description of the different types of gain, but enough about that. This was about overdrives. You can separate Overdrive into distinct categories, TRANSPARENT and MID-FOCUSED. Mid-Focused boosts the mids in the EQ significantly. Transparent focuses on distorting the entire signal and is a good baseline overdrive. Here are some potential scenarios for either type.
TRANSPARENT: Baseline overdrive
Using a Mid-Focused amp (Voxes or Marshalls, their Derivatives, or the Hot Rod Deluxes)
Using Mid-Focused guitar pickups (p90’s or Humbuckers)
Popular Options: Greer Lightspeed, Barber Gainchanger, JHS 3 Series Overdrive, JHS Morning Glory
MID-FOCUSED: Boosting a Transparent Overdrive
Using a Mid-Scooped amp (Fender Deluxe Reverb Derivatives)
Using Mid-Scooped guitar pickups (Strat Pickups)
Popular Options: Ibanez Tube Screamer, Klon Centaur Derivatives, Fulltone OCD
These are all just suggestions and I always suggest you try new things! What works for me may not work for you. Overdrive is a journey and everyone takes their own pace. Enjoy it!
