OD TYPES
___You have 4 basic types of OD's
LOW GAIN
___Typically transparent. Full chords finger styles and flatpicking can still sound good or even better than clean.
MEDIUM GAIN
___Crunch. Great for rhythm guitar, some flatpicking some full chords, some lead work
HIGH GAIN
___ Distortion. Power chords and solo work.
METAL
___ Near Fuzz like. Power chords and single note riffs that sound as full as power chords, great for solo work and 'wall of sound' long sustains.
Which type you pick is going to be typical to what styles or genres you
play in. Low Gain pedals are extremely hard for makers to get even usable but the criteria of what makes one good fits all types. Certain things that are extremely critical to get right in a low gain OD are more forgivable not being perfect or even usable the higher you go in 'gain' types. For example I would not expect that Metal pedal to sound killer with the gain barely on but on a low gain pedal I would expect some minimum of use as a clean boost.
Many pedals crossover from low to medium gain or from medium to high gain. Some by cascading transistors and others by adding a boost that is fixed or treated as a preamp stage on the input with a pot/knob to adjust it.
Some OD's have a simple level/volume, a gain and a simple single passive EQ. Others have extensive EQ, extra stages of gain etc. More features are great but do not at all guarantee the best sound. In short MORE is not better but often a bit more is great for tweaking it to your rig.
SUSTAIN? HOW AND WHY
Do not get trapped by the myth that a pedal can greatly increase it. A pedal works from input and if your guitar stops ringing you have no input. Higher output pickups do not make more they simply help make what is there stay louder. Great sustain is caused by a guitar amp being loud enough to vibrate you strings and keep them ringing. Guys like Hendrix played so loud that he could feel the wind pressure from the amp on his body, lol.
A pedal or amp can cause compression which simply works by keeping the input at one level until it has no signal from the input. Think of it this way. When your note starts to fade away the pedal turns that note back up as it fades. So if your amp is set to 'x' than it does not get louder but the signal is never less than 'x'. It is hardly a natural sound coming out so we all tend to trade off natural vs. compressed to taste.
THE IMPORTANCE A REVIEWERS vs. YOUR AMP MAKE
There are things you can and can't do to improve the dirt sound of an amp.
You can not turn a Marshall 100 watt Super Lead into a Fender Twin Reverb. You can however do the opposite. You can get a convincing Marshall sound out of a Fender Twin Reverb. You can only add dirt, not remove it in a meaningful way. So do not buy a Fender-in-a-Box pedal and put it on a Marshall. You can for example change a Fender Twin or Hot Rod into a blackface or Tweed Fender since you are adding dirt on two amps that have cleaner than clean sounds. The ideal amp to hear a pedal on is a Fender Hot Rod. It is the poor man's Twin Reverb. It is dead clean so you can hear what the pedal is really adding. What you hear from it is not so far away from cheaper amps or even so far away from even a Dumble to decide what you are getting.
Some high head room clean amps can really mess up your pedal choice. They will give you really solid tight powerful lows that will convince you they are part of the pedals sound. In short when listening to a pedal thru one in a video the OD may be acceptable but NOT killer fat or as punchy.
Ideally you want to see every knob turned up showing how much of everything you have to work with. Best of all is finding out that you have more bass, mids and treble etc. than you can use.
YES, NO & MAYBE
Once you do get a pedal whether you love it or hate it go back and listen to the videos. Usually what you got indeed sounds like the pedal in the review. The big BUT! You will indeed notice what the reviewers rig has that enhanced your pedal. It refines what is different about your rig so in future you will be able to look out for problems unique to your gear.
You will find certain reviewers are both thorough and consistent. They have personal preference for getting an EQ on any amp that is basically the same on any amp they use. It makes it easy to listen to any review they do knowing that you can or can not compensate with your rig.
WHAT TO LISTEN FOR AND OBSERVE ON A VIDEO REVIEW
The first thing to remember is if you do not hear a specific frequency range demonstrated in a video from a pedal is that it ISN'T there. For example if the pedal sounds great but you think you would add some more lows when you bought yours. Wrong! If the guy did not turn them up it is because they are either not there or they create unusable mud!!! Same for the highs. More may not be there or they are too ice pick painful ...or have a nasty rasp.
A video that does not at least let you hear what the clean sound is near useless. It can be used if you have a second video that does because if it passes the smell test on that clean sound first video you may get to hear more of the pedal played in a different style or context to see how it will work in yours.
You really need to hear a dirt pedal played on open full 6 note chords, power chords, flatpicking. single note riffs and a solo. What you never need are shreds. The notes do not last long enough to hear the tone or sustain.
DO IT AGAIN
Finally you should listen several times. Each time ignore all but one frequency range. Do the highs, then again with the upper mids, then the low mids and lastly the lows.
The highs should not be ice picky or harsh. The upper mids should have poke and definition. The lower mids can have small fat resonance but should not honk. The bass should be reasonably tight but fat and never muddy. Listen for 'smearing' especially in both the mids and lows. Smearing is where the harmonics seem to melt into each other and are not defined.
All pedals will have somewhere in the mids that a certain frequency seems to poke out over the others. If it is lower in the mids it will make the pedal fat and if higher (like a Tube Screamer) it will make the pedal cut through the band without simple forcing you to play too loud since they will cut through the mix. It is not necessarily a bad thing no matter where it is. The fact this is what attracts to a pedal and gives it character. It is the main reason why guys often own more than one OD even when it is otherwise similar to what they have. Some tunes need an extra fat sound where others need to really cut.
Now if you listen to a lot of classic amps they too often have some less than perfect characteristics. So it is forgivable to have bit of mud or loss of definition or over compression and lack of headroom. The thing is to be able to find what and how much is too much for your kind of music. It is all about knowing what you are getting :-)
I have pedals like the RAT that are by definition a mess. The thing is the current RAT II has lots of poke so it's 'torn & patched' jeans sound is better than a the gourmet versions 'designer jeans sound.'
THE LOW GAIN PEDAL HEADACHE
The only thing you really want from a low gain pedal is a bit of color and character and a some more sustain. You should be able to play a full 6 note chord and hear every note clearly separated from the others. The ideal guitar to judge by is a Stat. A Strat has a bell like chime to the tone. It is also glassy sounding. You want to hear both. BUT the bell like chime is the acid test. Some of the best selling low gain pedals destroy it. Like some Tube Screamers and Klons. Budget pedals on the whole are crap for low gain pedals. Even the beloved NOS vintage and rare transistors can kill it.
Generally speaking the pricey Low gain OD's are better. They use a lot of pricy cutting edge parts that do not at all distort or are noisy. They do not smear the harmonics.
Having said that do not discount pedals that are based on vintage pedals. The reason they are still sought after is because the actual schematic was brilliant. The design had to be made working with very low tech parts.
So if the old design is used with high tech parts the results can be suburb. The problem with some, like for example the JHS Morning V.4. It was based on the Marshall Bluesbreaker Pedal made famous by John Mayer as his go to transparent drive. It has been altered so much that even if you turn off the extras, those extra parts needed to alter it have killed the original sound. I bought one and was totally disappointed. I hated the damn thing. In contrast the Bluesbreaker style Browne Amplification Carbon has nailed it. The BB vibe is ALL there but it is crisp, clean and as glassy as the original Klon.
CHECKING THE BOXES
Even the best pedal will unlikely check all the boxes. The golden rule of Rock is that if it sounds good it is good. Sometimes a pedal that is weak in one range is otherwise killer. It can be more than perfection on some tunes but crap for others. I have Mosky's D250x a very accurate clone of the old now defunct DOD 250. I only use it as a booster either behind another OD or in front of a Fuzz. On it's own through a dead clean amp it is very nasty and not in a good way.
SONG WRITERS SECRET WEAPONS
I would never even think about not having less than at least one each. Even a heavy Doom OD can be ideal for simple drone accompaniment for just a few bars in a tune. Think 'orchestration'. A Doom pedal can give a Cello, Double Bass vibe in a style of music that uses clean guitar 95% of the time. Your music can be the leader of your chosen genre instead of another "Me Too".
You may only enjoy and feel at home playing one style of music but you would be a liar to say that you haven't enjoyed other kinds. Often that music might have been in the soundtrack of movie using for example a very niche cultural music that primarily based on drums alone. In short just ...borrow the groove of the rhythm.
LAST WORD
You can never have too many Overdrives, lol.
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