The Black Keys Fan Lounge Forum

I think just about anything gear related can be considered Black Keys related. Dan is constantly buying pedals and gear and he seems to have a helluva collection... he's a gear hound, many of us here are also gear hounds...

That being said, what's your favorite OD pedal? I prefer natural tube overdrive but sometimes circumstances don't permit the use of the higher volume that comes with that.

Basically just lookin for a little dirt. My fuzzes are all way too "over the top" for when I want just a little grit. The best thing I can do at this point is roll back my guitar's volume knobs while cranking up my Soul Bender clone - it cleans up nicely, but my Muff and Fuzzrite do not clean up that well. I'm thinking it has to do with the fact that the Soul Bender uses Germanium transistors but whatever.

Favorite overdrive pedal (past or present) and why- Go!

I'm thinking about cloning the old Colorsound Overdriver. It's an overdrive but it gets real fuzzy after you crank it up 95% of the way, the fuzz comes in out of nowhere (so I've heard/been-told).

But I also think I wanna grab an Analogman Sunface fuzz pedal because it's a pretty mild fuzz and I think it could do low levels of grit/dirt and sound NICE.

Obviously there's a huge price difference between cloning the Overdriver and buying a Sun Face. This is my problem. Keep the suggestions coming por favor. Thanks.

I love my Muff paired with the clean channel on my Hot Rod DeVille 410. I can always find what I'm looking for by adjusting the sustain and tone knobs and fiddling with the volume on my guitar, all relative to the where I'm at volume wise on the amp.

The overdrive I enjoyed a lot while I had it, but it was more in the low-mid gain drive/clean boost area was the Timmy. It's really transparent and the controls were really interactive. I guess the bass is pre gain and the treble is post gain, which help on the sound and feel of the pedal. I'd love to get a Tim, especially the new version which has symmetrical and asymmetrical clipping switch. Another overdrive pedal I tried and really liked for Vox circuits was the Gaspedals Carb, it added a certain sheen to the sound and the feel was really amp-like. I also really liked the feel of the Honey Bee OD I had for a little bit and the Emerald Green Distortion by BJFE.

Other drives that I haven't tried but I hear kick ass are: The Clark/Barber Gainster, Skreddy Screwdriver (which has characteristics of a treble boost, overdriver, and fuzz face), and I've heard you can't beat a good fuzz face when the guitar is dialed back, and the overdriver is one another one that can't be beat...

There are a ton of OD's out there now and some that are coming out everyday it seems. The new Fulltone drive/distortion seems really cool

this is the fuzz i got built for me and i might be able to get the dude who built it to say how he built it and you could build one of these? the idea is a cross between fuzz face and big muff, it cleans up really nice with guitar volume and good crunch up high.

Its not super wooly like dan's tone but it is very cool, i could prob record a little clip through my iphone starting on clean channel pedal off then turn pedal on and work my way up the gain.

It can get a nice 10 cent pistol tone with the volumes rolled back.

I just found out about the Earthquaker Devices Ghost Echo reverb pedal (which I want badly) and the Earthquaker Devices Dream Crusher which sounds like it would have fit the bill for this thread nicely... too bad they're all sold out and probably won't be making more.

http://earthquakerdevices.com/DreamCrusher/index.html

So I might try for the reverb pedal since my amp has no reverb... decisions decisions...

Basically, these are the pedals on my list at the moment

1. Earthquaker Devices Ghost Echo (this does great reverb and can do slapback so it might replace my Reel Echo??)
2. Death by Audio Interstellar Overdriver
3. Analogman Sun Face NKT 275 w/sundial

What about a Rangemaster type booster? Most people making copies have an extra switch so you can bump mids or lows instead of the highs. And I "2nd" the vote for something from Plum Crazy. The Squawk is next on my list. Just gotta sell some stuff first.

As far as 'verbs go, I found a Van-Amps Sole-Mate used (real springs in a big ole box) and would gladly pay full price. Go that route if you can find one. They used to be 199 but have jumped to like 280 new. I think I paid 180 shipped.

The line6 verbzilla is also a really good reverb pedal. Has a lot of settings, including an echo, which I never used. Eats batteries like mofo, though.