Recommend an overdrive!

Josh Braun · Post by **Josh Braun** » 13 Aug 2017 11:54 am

Pretty simple: what overdrives do you use with your pedal steel, and what do you like/dislike about them?

I'll kick it off: I'm using a Fulltone OCD right now. I think it sounds pretty good when used sparingly. However, at the same time, it doesn't sound quite as good as it does with guitar or lap steel (IMO). The pedal steel sounds a little "thinner" with it than I might like.

Gordon Hartin · Post by **Gordon Hartin** » 13 Aug 2017 2:12 pm

Brad Sarno's Earth Drive works great with pedal steel.

I currently have

ODs
Earth Drive - Nice Grit and Sustain
Klon KTR - At times use without Grit, as a eq with the Treble knob.

Fuzz
Keely Dark Side - Nice smooth fuzz plus modulation effects (Flange/Delay/Phase)

on my board, I run the Earth drive and the Dark Side before, my volume pedal and the Klon after the volume pedal.

Gordon

Tony Palmer · Post by **Tony Palmer** » 13 Aug 2017 4:37 pm

Josh I agree, the OCD and really all the overdrives I have, all make the sound thin and lose the bottom end. For some reason, straight guitar doesn't react the same way, only the pedal steel. Pickups I assume?
Anyway I haven't found one that preserves the bass sound of the strings yet.

Tom Wolverton · Post by **Tom Wolverton** » 13 Aug 2017 4:49 pm

Sarno Earth Drive. I love they way it works at all gain levels.

Lane Gray · Post by **Lane Gray** » 13 Aug 2017 4:50 pm

I like my Sparkle Drive for light overdrive, and favor the Mahoney Buzz Tone for full-on fuzz.

David Gertschen · Post by **David Gertschen** » 13 Aug 2017 6:46 pm

Of all the old six-stringer od pedals I've tried, I keep going back to the Simble. It is on my pedal board to stay...

http://www.simbletone.com/

Jack Hanson · Post by **Jack Hanson** » 13 Aug 2017 7:37 pm

Can anyone compare and contrast the Earth Drive and the Sparkle Drive?

Brad Sarno · Post by **Brad Sarno** » 13 Aug 2017 9:19 pm

Jack Hanson wrote:Can anyone compare and contrast the Earth Drive and the Sparkle Drive?

Sparkle drive is essentially a Tubescreamer in parallel with a clean path. You can blend and mix clean with the Tubescreamer circuit for a lot of cool combinations. The Tubescreamer overdrive circuit has a huge midrange boost centered at 1kHz. It's a real nice pedal, built well.

The Earth Drive doesn't have this big midrange boost. It's much more neutral and natural in the EQ voicing. It's a more broad, full sound with more high frequency transparency. It's range of overdrive goes from dead clean to fairly thick and sustaining. It has a fairly natural, almost maybe amp-like breakup at low drive settings. At higher gain settings it get warm and full and feels a bit like a small class-A type amp. It's not a very sharp or cutting type of tone, it's more smooth and warm-ish compared to many pedals. What people have said often about it is that pedal steel still sounds like pedal steel and can even allow 2 and 3 note harmonies without being overly swamped in distortion overtones. Many other pedals can make pedal steel suddenly sound like bottleneck slide guitar.

B

b0b · Post by **b0b** » 13 Aug 2017 10:54 pm

Another vote for the Earth Drive. It gives me exactly the tone I like in rock and blues.

Erv Niehaus · Post by **Erv Niehaus** » 14 Aug 2017 8:38 am

Earth Drive for me.

David Weisenthal · Post by **David Weisenthal** » 14 Aug 2017 9:19 am

Another vote for earth drive. Ive been using it lately to boost the lower output of my National D8 lapsteel. I can dial in any amount of clean gain or overdrive without affecting the tone negatively. Nice build quality also.

Ken Metcalf · Post by **Ken Metcalf** » 14 Aug 2017 9:36 am

Sarno Solar flare for steel guitar heavy distortion ! ^_^
Plus I use a tone control on my PSG.

http://www.sarnomusicsolutions.com/products/sf.html

Fred Treece · Post by **Fred Treece** » 14 Aug 2017 9:53 am

Boss GT10 Warm or Natural OD. Sounds great through the Mesa Boogie's clean channel with minimal tone adjustment and a touch of compression. Tube Screamer is middy and harsh to my ear, but can work well with post eq.

Erv Niehaus · Post by **Erv Niehaus** » 14 Aug 2017 10:14 am

I use the Earth Drive sparely, just enough to add a bit of sparkle.

Karen Sarkisian · Post by **Karen Sarkisian** » 14 Aug 2017 11:54 am

Earth Drive for sure. Timmy is also good if you need more EQ

Godfrey Arthur · Post by **Godfrey Arthur** » 14 Aug 2017 12:06 pm

Certain pickups and amps react to different brands and models of effects, differently.

The input/output impedances of pedals and the inputs on amps have differring results when ganging chains of guitar-pedal-amp, hence how your guitar and amp reacts to a certain pedal could spell a better effect over just WHAT EFFECT you plan to use.

A popular effect may sound good in circuit of a certain guitar and amp but not be as effective on another rig.

To ask which effect to use is not the whole story.

Finding something that agrees with your system and ears is one way to look at this.

Quentin Hickey · Post by **Quentin Hickey** » 14 Aug 2017 12:20 pm

I've been using my Ibanez tubescreamer TS-9 that I think I will be happy with but still need to play with it a bit to find the right settings for me.

Overall I am happy with it, I run it straight out of my guitar

Daniel Haymore · Post by **Daniel Haymore** » 14 Aug 2017 12:44 pm

I use a Walrus Audio 385, and I absolutely love it.

It has a usable eq and i'm able to dial out some bass with its bass control since my clean tone is very clean and strong bottom-end. Lots of range in the amount of grit.

It's the only overdrive I have tried and really loved. I have never tried the Earth Drive, but would like to check one out.

Bob Russell · Post by **Bob Russell** » 14 Aug 2017 6:39 pm

Way Huge Pork Loin overdrive, for the ability to blend in clean sound with the overdrive and the ability to shape the overdrive tone as well as the overall tone.

Fred Treece · Post by **Fred Treece** » 14 Aug 2017 10:20 pm

Godfrey Arthur wrote:Certain pickups and amps react to different brands and models of effects, differently.
To ask which effect to use is not the whole story.
Finding something that agrees with your system and ears is one way to look at this.

True words. That's why my suggestion may seem so off the wall. It was meant to imply that I found something I like that works great with my rig.

There are so many very well made drive pedals available, I'm sure it is possible to make just about any of them sound good if you know how to work with them. But if you have a crap amp and can't get a good solid clean tone to save your life, no pedal in the world is going to make it sound good.

Bob Watson · Post by **Bob Watson** » 15 Aug 2017 1:53 am

Check out a Tone City "Bad Horse" od pedal, its a clone of the infamous Klon pedal. It can go from a boost pedal to a very mild overdrive sound, one that I will still play 3ds with. Another cool od pedal is the Skyline "Grass" pedal, its a Dumble pedal and is a bit heavier sounding than the Bad Horse, but still more of an overdrive sound than a distortion pedal. The Grass pedal is great for Allman Bros tunes and Blues, the Bad Horse is actually my favorite out of the two, because you can make it sound like a small tube amp turned up a little, or a lot, but the Grass pedal is better for a heavier sound. I am digging both of them and they both sell for under $80.

www.riffcityguitaroutlet.com/products/t ... rive-pedal

www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/Skyline ... ylineGrass

Stu Schulman · Post by **Stu Schulman** » 16 Aug 2017 7:21 am

I've been using a "Boss Blues Driver"for years,works for me.

Bob Hoffnar · Post by **Bob Hoffnar** » 16 Aug 2017 8:18 am

I use a Lovepedal eternity overdrive and an Earthdrive. Both are on my very limited pedalboard and I wouldn't want to live without either of them.

b0b · Post by **b0b** » 16 Aug 2017 8:53 am

What I love about the Earth Drive is that it doesn't sound like an effect. It sounds like natural guitar amp distortion. In fact, I recently was playing a fairly loud gig with my Milkman, and thought that maybe I was pushing the amp too hard. After a few songs I looked down and noticed that I had left the Earth Drive switched on. It had fooled me!

Karl Paulsen · Post by **Karl Paulsen** » 16 Aug 2017 5:15 pm

Bob Watson wrote:Check out a Tone City "Bad Horse" od pedal, its a clone of the infamous Klon pedal. It can go from a boost pedal to a very mild overdrive sound, one that I will still play 3ds with. Another cool od pedal is the Skyline "Grass" pedal, its a Dumble pedal and is a bit heavier sounding than the Bad Horse, but still more of an overdrive sound than a distortion pedal. The Grass pedal is great for Allman Bros tunes and Blues, the Bad Horse is actually my favorite out of the two, because you can make it sound like a small tube amp turned up a little, or a lot, but the Grass pedal is better for a heavier sound. I am digging both of them and they both sell for under $80.

www.riffcityguitaroutlet.com/products/t ... rive-pedal

www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/Skyline ... ylineGrass

I'm interested in the Bad Horse. Can anyone tell me more about this? I'd really like to mess about with a bit of overdrive, but the Zvex Distortron my brother gave me (and I recently sold) was just way too much.

Also, $50 is about all I can swing right now.

Any other $50 overdrives that would compare favorably with the Bad Horse?