___THE LUCKY 7 BEST OD'S ON THE PLANET!!! ...no bull !!! these are it !!!___

 THE LUCKY 7 BEST OVERDRIVES ON THE PLANET 

Followers will know that I have bought what I deemed to be the best OD's money can buy ...price no object. I have kept some for merely weeks and then sold them.

A great OD must have more then just a great overall sound.

It must follow the dynamics of your touch...

There must be great detail in it's sound and have movement within the overtones and harmonics...

The notes must be prone to swell...

Quality parts must be used wherever possible (exceptions for new old stock for tone is acceptable)

The casing should be robust...

The voicing should be accurate to the original amplifier that the maker is claiming it simulates.

Finally the pedal should have 'a little Mojo' ...quite simply some character in the voicing.
There are pedals I could add but I found them soulless.
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THERE IS A FULL POST OF ALL THESE PEDALS....so I was not going to go into all the fine details or re-Post all the vids. I certainly recommend that you check them all out!!!

  One final note.   
The smallest thing in the deign of many of these pedals has made a big difference.
With analog parts there is a limit to what parts and what order they can be put in.
Often it is simply parts with identical spec in for example a transistor made be several manufacturers that make a difference ...because for one thing they were never made to create an audio sound ...they could just as easily end up in a garage door opener circuit or factory floor machine to make widgets.
.
With a small country like Venezuela having 1000 pedal makers...world wide the number has be at least 1000 plus.

SO EXPECT SOME GUY BEAVERING AWAY IN HIS APARTMENT IN SOME SMALL OBSCURE TOWN IN SOME SMALL OBSCURE COUNTRY TO MAKE THE NEXT MIND BLOWING OD NEXT YEAR!!!!

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MASTERBUILT AMPLIFICATION Stone Groove Tube Overdrive

Yes the REAL deal. It does everything from a steel clean at
the edge of breakup to high gain.I only got it to keep it at the lowest
gain for what I use for my clean sound. For serious medium and higher gains I use my pedals.
Any trace of a transistor vanishes nicely by the tube.
An 'Always On pedal' this sweetheart never get's turned off.
I love the 'Deco Streamline' look right out of a...
1930's Flash Gordon serial.

Lawrence Petross Design LPD SIXTY 8 Drive

It ticks ALL the boxes.

It is a medium gain 68 Plexi. But it has a second sweet spot so a great low gain is possible.

Add to that if you stack any other OD into it ...the sum is greater then the whole. The sound of the pedal going into it has incredibly improved  and the 68 seems to have disappeared ?
The 68 becomes your instant studio post production tool!
I actually stacked 3 OD together...they sounded really interesting.
The problem was they had a lot of artifacts that needed to be tweaked out.
You guessed it. Clicked on the 68...and they disappeared.
MY JAW DROPPED!!

It has more 'Mojo' then a Klon
and the Klon comment is not some off hand hyped comment.
I for one will not be surprised if it sells by word of mouth over the
next few years until there is waiting list that is over a year!!!
IN SHORT IT IS SO GOOD THAT
ANYTHING MORE SAID ABOUT IT WILL SOUND LIKE BULL.
JUST BUY ONE!!!
One final word ...bulletproof!






The Deluxe has everything switchable and more headroom. It was made completely because of a demand by users!!!!
YES! Users that love the pedal so much they sold all their other OD's and wanted to cover all the bases often found in a single tune.
DEAD COOL!!!

Friedman BE-OD

In spite of the excessive hype it really is a great pedal.
It is based off of the voicing of their gourmet amp.
Although the amp started life as a Marshall JTM 45 the overall sound sounds more like a JCM 800 on steroids. Beefed up with a extra 12ax7 tube custom fitted into the 800.
There are two main reasons it is loved.
Endless sustain.
And...much more important all the notes swell even at very low bedroom amp volumes.
The pedal always feels on the verge of feedback!
The good kind...even order harmonics are just dying to sing out.
KILLER!

Aleks K Production Red Scorpion Distortion

It strikes all the boxes as well!!!
First the company does not claim it is any particular amp ...but
it has gourmet Plexi written all over it.
It has the highest possible gain you could give to an OD ...
and still not destroy it's amp like roots.
It has more breadth to the sound then any OD I have ever heard
The sound is rich ...very, very full and sumptuous.
It isn't just fat it is obese.

Last but not least the pedals parts are military spec.
and you could throw the thing thru a wall and it is the wall
 that would be damaged.
Finally even the finish ranks as the best
...better then that on any of my 50 plus other pedals
The down side to this reviewer is I could not find even any lint to pick!
If you love a high gain....IT IS A MUST BUY!!!
If I were voting for the best OD on the planet
...this would be it
#1

Custom Tones Ethos TWE-1 Train Wreck

From the second you hit the strings until the sound hits your
ears on that big stack we call a Marshall the sound going thru the
circuit does a hundred things. This creates not only the sound but the feel of playing thru it. This pedal thru astonishing engineering emulates them ALL!!! 

No matter how good your fav OD sounds ...and it may sound to your ears better then this this. I will give you zero argument.
If an OD was judged on response right now the winner could easily be Friedman's BE-OD. It is the biggest selling pedal on the planet I feel it because of it's physical response 
Compared to the TWE-1 ...THE FRIEDMAN IS JUNK!!!



We are left with a pedal that has a perfect sonic response.
Like all pedals it has a basic sound of it's own. If you like that
then buy one. You will never find anything better!!! Anywhere!!! EVER!



PedalPalFX Pal 800 JCM Emulator

So Luis sat down at his bench one day and thought
"What if I took a Marshall JCM 800 schematic and replaced the tubes with transistors and put it in a box?"
Ok ...over simplified BUT!!!
I for one would not want to bet my life I could tell this pedal from the real amp.
My last amp was a gourmet jobbie based on an 800...so I
have had some experience with this sound.
It is in effect a medium gain pedal that borders on the edge of a high gain.
Indispensable if you play a Strat. Without it I avoided my Strat and played the Gibson. Now I love playing it.
It maintains the single coil sound and it  does not make your Strat sound like it is a guitar with cheap sounding hummies.

It always takes me a few weeks to really 'hear' any pedal
often the smallest tweaks on a really good pedal make
an off the self sound become a tailor fit.
The thing I noticed after working the pedal into
a few tunes was the exquisite detail in the sound.
I could not be more pleased.

It gets the astounding achievement award !!!
6 out 5 Stars!

I have been using this a lot lately. I can't stop ...LOL
The thing just sounds so real!!!
You click it on and want to turn around and see if some
practical joker plugged your cable in a different amp!!!!

8/19/2017
THE 'PAL' HAS SLOWLY BECOME MY FAVOURITE OD.
IT JUST SOUNDS SO "REAL"!!! 
It has a limited sustain and is not great for a solo. But for riffing on an intro or for a riff type bridges etc. nothing can touch it!
Think of it like a guy who loves a sports car and has a Porsche... he inherits a custom 1954 F150 pickup truck. He hardly drives it but can not get the smile off his face when he does!

KHDK Dark Blood Distortion

A straight up Heavy Metal pedal. The perfect Metal pedal for those who want the highest gain pedal that they can get that will not jar with their music because it

sounds too adolescently like a METAL PEDAL. LOL

My god the thing has tone!!!!

It does not sound like a 'Fuzz Wanna Be.'

It was designed for Kirk Hammett of Metallica. He wanted it consciously or not to have his classic old Metal Marshall sound with a good dash of the Modern Metal sound thrown into the mix.

He wanted to have his cake and eat it too. LOL

But damn it!! That is exactly what he got!!!!!

It really is a very well made and a rich sounding pedal. 

Fat with lots of aggression but it has tone, tone tone.

I bought and sold many high end Metal Pedals but none worked out.

If you are into serious Modern Metal get the GOOSONIQUEWORX KULT....an 8 megaton  sound!!!
With this pedal your high E is as fat as a dropped D on the Friedman. lol

BUT ...for every one else the KHDK is 'It'.
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 NOT TO BE MISSED!!! 

The following are I suppose the runner ups.Which means instead of a 10 out of 10 they are a 9.75. lol
I would hate to be without them because each one does something exceptional that other pedals do not.
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JHS Angry Charlie & AT 
They  have a gutsy raw Marshall JTM sound. The JTM being based off of the Fender Bassman.

So it has a cross between an American & Brit sound. The Charlie gives you active EQ and is based off of a JTM 45w.
The AT gives you a selection of a 25w/45w or 100w model's sound and has passive EQ. A new @ + is exactly the same
but you get a boost and a second foot switch to kick it in.

The sound is full with a mild scoop and a biting attack.
You can solo or use it behind the vocal equally well.
                                  It will cut thru without having to kick up the volume.
If you were to buy this as your number one pedal I for one 'get it'. I just prefer a Plexi. Those that prefer a JTM have lots to argue about in their favour.
Oddly enough my Silvertone that is modded with a '64 Fender Strat PU going
thru it gives me the exact tone Hendrix got on Purple Haze. He used his first Strat which had the same PU on that tune.

BJF DESIGN BEAR FOOT Model G

A breath of fresh air not a Fender or a Marshall but a nice little 50's 

Gibson amp. At lower gain it is almost clean but crank it and you get

a really nice crunch but  every note and chord well defined.

In fact the gain is usable over its entire range.

The dynamics and respond to your touch is second to none.

It cleans up big time when you back off on your picking but gets really gritty when you come down hard on the strings. I use it for a tune I wrote for my Martin ...and it worked out even better 'electric' thanks to the Model G.

A total gem!!!

CMAT Mods Brownie

Brownie? Very subjective. It has a fat lower mid and lots of dirty bass. 
The EVH Brown sound captured by many pedals is based off of several early 'PRO' engineered albums. His live sound was also
majorly manipulated by the guy on the sound reinforcement board.

An amateur recording of Van Halen playing a high school
shortly before going big time shows that the sound Eddie heard live standing in front of his amp is damn close to this 'Brownie'

I love it's untamed sound. Not a modern tight pedal' 

It is a screaming Wall of Sound

with a raspy low end  This pedal takes no prisoners. 

It sounds very open and very natural.

Based loosely like a lot of pedals on the M.I. Audio Crunch Box

just like the JCM Angry Charlie.

The Charlie has tamed it and the Brownie has released it back into the jungle.
In spite of this it lies down beautifully behind a vocal.
On some tunes I love switching from the @ for instrumental parts but back to The Brownie when the singing comes in.

Supro 1305 Drive

The popular impression for years has been that nothing sounds better then a 59 Les Paul  

playing thru a Marshall Plexi stack.

The LP is to a Marshall
as...
The Tele is to a Supro.

NO BULL!!!

The first three Zep albums were just such a combination. So if you have a Tele

JUST BUY IT!!!

warning-it sounds lame with humbuckers

The Tele sounds so good thru this I could never be without a Tele ...or at least a Tele bridge PU in one of my guitars.
I bought a Fender Duo Sonic and got a hand wound Duncan 55 Tele bridge PU put in it before I even play it once ...that is how good this pedal is.

Xvive Thomas Blug's  Golden Brownie

Designed by Thomas Blug a stunning guitarist who has engineered  guitar amps of every kind ...solid state, digital and even all tube.
He has designed countless pedals for name brand companies.
This is a gourmet amp style take
...on the infamous 'Brown sound'!!!
capturing the EVH overproduced recorded tone. LOL

Second to none in design,  parts or casing, even the finish.

I got mine for $45.00 USD and brand new!
Yes you read that right LOL.

Even to leave one in your gig bag for emergencies makes sense!

In fact buy two ...one for your board as well.

Menatone The King

Brian Mena has for years decades been making OD's

Most have been Marshalls. Not long ago he decided to put the Marshall's all in one little box.

The idea was to give it so much flexibility you could zero in on any Marshall model from any year and clone it.

I think he did just that!!!

You can even go inside the box and sweep thru the years with a dial!

What blows my mind is you can literally create anything from a vintage Plexi to a Gourmet metal pedal!!!

Because of this it has become my Swiss army Knife pedal.

When I can not find the right sound. I know where I can get one.
It wouldn't be as much fun but if you bought 3 of these and set them to a low, medium and high gain you could cover any situation with what would be 3 original sounds.
Using your amp clean with 3 The King pedals would give you a 4 channel amp.
THIS PEDAL RANKS AS A 9.9 OUT OF 10!!!


CKK Destruction Drive
My god ...this thing is a real winner. A flat out no holds barred
 modern Metal pedal that can compete with the best!!!!
In 2016 it won 'BEST OF' in Europe.


This is a straight up slammer! It has the best attack of any Metal pedal.
It slices down like a meat cleaver but with the punch of a sledgehammer. It ain't no 80's type pedal and unlike it's best rivals
does not even try to be. Zero versatility!
BIG BUT!!!
At $100.00 USD ...GET ONE!!!
If you want an 80's sound too...do what I did ...I bought the KHDK too.
Hell the CKK is half the price of it's rivals!!!!


MR.BLACKS JDS-50 Overdrive
This pedals was designed to capture Angus young's
of AC/DC's Marshall Super Lead 100watt Plexi sound.
Angus never even rehearses with less the 3 stacks. LOL
Before you jump to conclusions ....the amps have every knob on them set to'4'
.
So loud ...yes! Distorted ...No!
The pedal just nails that tone! The really cool thing to me is the sound is
the same as Jimi Hendrix's clean sound!!!






MYTHOS Erlking

It is based off of the JRC-4558 chip used in Tube Screamers

This includes the Noble ODR-1 that inspired this pedal.

The comparison ends there.

It has a rich sumptuous beautiful and airy sound that borders on the ethereal.
It is ideal for vocal accompaniment that will not fight

the vocals for attention. .

Unique and highly useful.

FRIEDMAN Dirty Shirley 

YES! Friedman has done it again.

A medium gain OD that is perfect for backing a vocalist. Thick and chunky with Balz big time.

It is borderline for Best on the Planet a 9.9 out of 10.
Actually I have both and prefer it over the BE-OD.
I left the BE-OD where it is in my choices because objectivly
most of you either want one already and I do not regret buying it.

                                         
     

FREE THE TONE Quad Arrow

This pedal was designed to have the most head room and the lowest
 noise floor of any high gain dirt box.
Basically voiced to be a Marshall but with more than enough power to reshape it's voice to be a reasonable double of any Marshall voice.
So why is not at the top of the page?

It is like a picture of a beautiful women touched up with too many hours on 'Photo Shop'
until it ceases to become a picture of a beautiful human being ...
but the picture of an 'ideal'.

...this pedal is flawlessly flawed.


SO WHAT WOULD I DO IF I LOST ALL MY OD'S TOMORROW!!!

I would beg borrow and steal but with these two I could get by.

Aleks K Production Red Scorpion Distortion

Back it off and you have a mid gain sound. A bit overly aggressive on some tunes ...but usable.This pedal will sit in for anything high gain right up to Metal or even a Fuzz without spoiling your tune.         

Mr. Black JDS 50

It covers all the bases from a clean sound thru to a medium gain OD. In short it is incredibly versatile.

ARE THESE THE BEST 2 OD's ON THE PLANET ???

NO>>> they are simply the best two tools to get you by. Or perhaps to start a collection.