The Steel Guitar Forum

I'm building a small 6 string guitar pedalboard and want an overdrive similar to Brads Earth Drive. I have an earth drive but want to keep it with the leg clip on it and use it with steel guitar only. I could just buy another earth drive for guitar but want to try something different and less expensive, perhaps with a little more gain on tap. I've tried the sparkle drive and don't love it, I want something more transparent without the mids bump. Just looking for some suggestions. Thanks !

I like the Wampler Paisley Drive on my tele board. I also use the earth drive for steel. The paisley has mid contour toggle switch that really controls mids, tons of gain and doesn't color the sound. The tone control works very well for tweaking. But unfortunately its more expensive than the ED.

Mitch have you tried the euphoria as well ?

Voodoo Labs Sparkle Drive?

I really like my Timmy pedal. I found that there was considerable overlap with the Earth Drive but the Timmy was a little more transparent and had more flexible tone controls. Pretty much the same price as the ED though

edit: As I think about it, I can't say that the Timmy has more gain on tap, I use it as a grit pedal. The Euphoria may be worth checking out.

The Simble is a very versatile pedal!

Steve Vroman wrote:I really like my Timmy pedal. I found that there was considerable overlap with the Earth Drive but the Timmy was a little more transparent and had more flexible tone controls. Pretty much the same price as the ED though

edit: As I think about it, I can't say that the Timmy has more gain on tap, I use it as a grit pedal. The Euphoria may be worth checking out.

Yeah thinking I might try the Timmy. will look for a used one.

Hard to beat the Ibanez Tube Screamer as a simple Overdrive. They're relatively cheap and they're easy to find. Most boutique pedals are a variation on the TS8 circuit anyway.

MIchael Bean wrote:Hard to beat the Ibanez Tube Screamer as a simple Overdrive. They're relatively cheap and they're easy to find. Most boutique pedals are a variation on the TS8 circuit anyway.

I have the sparkle drive but dont love it. maybe i just need to play with the settings more.

The Sparkle Drive is cool where it has that Clean control; if you are playing chords, you can retain some of your clean signal and not get mushy.

In addition to the Timmy, you might want to check out some variation of a Klon circuit - I use an ARC Effects Klone on my 6 string board and other than my original '80s TS9, its been my favorite low-mid gain overdrive for a few years now. It also has, IMO, the advantage of being buffered, which I like.. I have an original V1 but the V2 is quite popular as well:

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=IagqxGNxxnY

If you're looking for a bit more gain, I also like the Skreddy Screwdriver, which has a trim pot to adjust the gain range - it can be pretty light, or get to almost fuzz territory.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=dWWAOexI3HA

Lastly, I wouldn't be surprised if Brad would build you something with a little more gain than a standard Earth Drive if you asked!

Good hunting!

that Klone sounds great ! thanks guys..

I agree, I've found it to be versatile and amp-like, really vibey... There are of course various makers who produce a Klon/Klone circuit, and you're welcome to Google about to learn more about it all in general... but if you like the ARC, here's a couple used ones for sale over on TheGearPage...

http://www.thegearpage.net/board/index. ... t.1732267/

http://www.thegearpage.net/board/index. ... 2.1729647/

If you're not a member over there, it may not let you view the classifieds posts... but, they're quite active on that board and there's usually a lot of great sounding used pedals available at any one time, so could be worth your membership if you're a gear geek like me.

OR, Aaron at ARC Effects is a real stand up guy and new units can be purchased here: http://arc-effects.com/

But hey, there's loads of good OD's out there - this one just works for me!

I'm pretty blown away by the Wampler Tumnus, also a Klone. I owned two original Klon Centaurs about ten years ago and actually think the Wampler is far better. Also sounds incredible as a clean boost on PSG.

The Nobels overdrive is another good pedal. I'm not sure how good the recent reissues sound but I have the silver version of the odr-1 and the preamp/boost and I really like them both, and they're pretty cheap.

so many choices. Just watched some demos of the Tumnus, sounds amazing. I think I need to take my Earth Drive down to my local Guitar Center and A/B it against some pedals. I may just order another earth drive, it sounds really great with a hollowbody guitar (I have a gretsch 6118). The transparency of the earth drive is really what I'm after. thanks for the responses everyone.

I use OCD pedal for 6 string only because I dont have 2 Earth drives. Plus I like a little more grit on a guitar than pedal steel.

Ken Metcalf wrote:I use OCD pedal for 6 string only because I dont have 2 Earth drives. Plus I like a little more grit on a guitar than pedal steel.

Ken, sadly I sold my V1 OCD when I bought the earth drive. wish I had kept that pedal !!

I have had heaps of overdrives, still have many of them - inc the Nobels and klones mentioned here. I like clean boosts and medium drives. and a fuzz first in line. I like the Austin Gold Overdrive (Rocktron) , Zoom Power Drive PD-01, Nobels is nice, DOD FX50 (for the Neil Young songs!). These days, for guitar, I just have the fuzz, an Earth Drive and my Dingotone HZD boost. Earth Drives are the best.

Yeah I may just end up with another earth drive for guitar. I'm hearing good things about the new EH Crayon pedal over on the Gretsch forum so I do want to try that one also. What fuzz pedal are you using ?

That's a germanium fuzz face circuit from Dingotone. I think they call the production version the GHF (germanium hybrid fuzz)

http://www.dingotone.com

Jeremy Threlfall wrote:That's a germanium fuzz face circuit from Dingotone. I think they call the production version the GHF (germanium hybrid fuzz)

http://www.dingotone.com

those Dingotone pedals look nice ! I bet the boost sounds killer with the earth drive !

I prefer the Klon, the Simble and Zendrive OD but the OCD is liked by many.

Don't forget the Fulltone Plimsoul. 2 stages and quite versatile. Sometimes stacking an OCD before it, I like it for both PSG and 6-string.

Karen Sarkisian wrote:
those Dingotone pedals look nice ! I bet the boost sounds killer with the earth drive !

Yeah, it does. It's a nicely made clean boost in the way of the Boss FA-1 FET Amplifier, and same functionality. Does the clean boost thing as good as the ARC Klone I had for a while. Mines an early one, the newer ones are a bit fancier.