Your Favorite DIY Overdrives...

[Frank_NH]

So I thought it would be fun to see what people like these days, since there are (count 'em) well over 250 overdrive layouts in the library.
 
My favorites (so far)??

(1) Zendrive - very versatile, good for a wide range of rock tones.
(2) Clark Gainster - Smooth overdrive, very effective tone control
(3) Modded Liquid Sunshine - I added switchable caps in the source leg of jfet #2 which increase the gain from low to high (removed the 10K pot).  Nice sound from this one...

Some things I've built (like the Hao Rust Driver) tend to be "one-trick ponies" - but the sound that they do, they do very well .  Others are more experimental (like the AEFEA drive) and I'm still playing around with them.

[IvIark]

I love the Zendrive, it just has a fat tone which I love, but my fave is the OD820.  It's just a great pedal.

[piltdownman]

I agree with the Liquid Sunshine.  That one has a permanent place with me.  Also the Gas Pedals Dumbbell, the Greer Sucker Punch and the DOD FX50.  In the heavier realm is the DAM Meathead with one of the Bulgarian germaniums in it - incredible.

[Heath]

The Lovepedal Kalamazoo is my #1.  I fell in love with it the first time I heard PGS Andy playing a Black Crows tribute to demo the pedal.

A close second which threatens to upset the Kalamazoo's crown is a Zen Drive with some modifications to make it more "Dumble" like.  I used an OPA2134 opamp just because I wanted it to sparkle a little more than a 4558 and it really works well with it.  Just a gorgeous sounding pedal.

I have to mention the Timmy which works so nicely with either of those, or by itself.  It deserves a mention even if it's not my #1.

piltdownman wrote

Greer Sucker Punch

I love that pedal too.  What an evil decision to have to make!!!!

[rocket88]

my top 5 not in order
1. Throbak Overdrive - Boost: it has that classic od tone, and get get heavy as hell

2. Blackout Effectors Mantra: touch responsive and creamy, great tune ability especially with the bandaxal tone stack, and vintagey sound

3. Fairfield Circuitry - The Barbershop: can go from slightly overdriven to full on torn speaker sound and still retains the sound of the instrument

4. Wampler Ecstasy - great od, 3 different types of overdrive in 1 effect, and can be as clean or as dirty as you want.

5. Em-Drive - Once modded is a nice fairly transparent od that can help fatten/thicken the tone, and add a bit of grit to your signal

but i also got to 2nd about the meathead, especially the meathead deluxe, is definitely one of my favorites. and don't forget i use most of my effects with my bass too, so i look for the ability to retain the low end.

[Heath]

Rocket88, what would you recommend for a mild to medium bass overdrive?  I built the MP Blueberry once and never got it working right, so something other than that, heh!

[rocket88]

hmmm, i would think the barbarshop. what would be perfect is the BJF BBBOD or the new Bearfoot BBBOD, i think the MP version has too much gain and doesn't sound like the others, but unfortunitely there is not schematic for either the BJF or Bearfoot. hopefully the Bearfoot will show up soon since it just released. i'm thinking about building a bearfoot honey bee to try with bass. it seems like a low-medium gain od and retains the tone of the instrument, plus it's supposed to retain a good amount of bass, but i won't know until i build it. hopefully i'll be able to tomorrow or early next week to let you know.

[rocket88]

so i just built a Bearfoot HoneyBee, and ran it through my bass. it's a real nice light to medium od, it's very touch sensitive, and doesn't seem to have much if any low end loss. what's interesting is that the nature knob blends the green leds with the Si diodes. but what surprised me is that the green leds are dirtier and more trebley sounding, while the Si diodes are less distorted and have a lot more bass. this is pretty transparent, and adds a touch to your tone, but still hear your instrument. its a pedal that when on begs to be played and wants you too push it, at least that's how i felt while running one of my basses through it. i also noticed that the higher the output of the pickups the less clean you can get it. pretty nice od, definitely worth the build.

side note: i didn't realize that the led's should be red, and used water clear green. sounds great as is, but may change them to red like the original. not sure if diffused leds sound different then water clear so i may go back and put sockets in to mess with it.

[Jopn]

Clipper Ship, hands down favorite, no close 2nd.

It's a germanium transistor based overdrive, running roughly at 18v.  Because it's one of Jon Patton's designs, you've got ample notes to customize if you so desire.

I have the volume set at 9 o'clock and the gain set to 1 o'clock which gives me unity gain (yes, that is a crap load of volume on tap).  With my guitar's volume pot set to 7, it just gives me a little definition, sparkle, and grit when I dig in hard.  Pushing the guitar's volume up from 7 on the way to 10 gives me all kinds of shades of screaming overdrive.  Even at full bore, any adjustments to my guitar's tone or pickup selector are very evident.

It's definitely one to keep at the front of your pedal chain.  Or you could do what I did with one of my builds (gave away as a gift to my nephew) and toss Jon Patton's Fallstaff OD in the same enclosure as a treble boost in front of it for solos.

[Frank_NH]

Thanks all for your responses.  It's good to read these reviews, especially after some time with the pedals.  Keep 'em coming!  

Often, an OD design sounds good to me at first, then the novelty wears off or some less than desirable characteristic emerges (e.g. fuzzy, gated, fizzy low end).  So the search goes on for something just a little bit better...

[rocket88]

finally had a chance to change the water clear green leds in the honey bee to diffused red, and while i was at it i got some 1n4007 diodes so i swapped out the 1n4001's. sounds so much better, great freaking od.

[Dennis Fox]

I love the Zendrive also. I have built 2 and they work perfect. I also love Shins Music Dumbloid Special.

[Travis]

I'm not really a fan of overdrive pedals so I haven't built many, but I'd say my best ones are the Klon and Barbershop

The Barbershop is really useful because you can pretty much use it as a buffer where it adds sparkle and clarity without adding distortion

The Klon is nice and really standard sounding but good. It doesn't add any noise and it has a very natural, even decay, good clarity, and a nice low gain range. There's nothing offensive about it, except that the max gain setting sounds pretty bad. I guess the Klon is good because it avoids so many pitfalls of OD/distortion pedals, although there's nothing too exciting about it's actual effect

[Frank_NH]

Re: the Klon

Recently, I've been using my DIY Klon(e) as a preamp before a tube screamer clone, with gain set to 9:00 and tone set to 3:00 ( volume at noon or to taste) on the Klon(e).  It adds a shimmer and sparkle to the sound that's undeniably great.  This combo sounds very Marshall-like to me, without getting muddy or sputtery.

I have high hopes for the new ROG Thunderbird as the ultimate Marshall-style overdrive and will be building that soon...

[Vince]

Catalinbread RAH. Through a slightly dirty tube amp it's a beast. Massive low end and aggressive top-end bite.