If you grew up on the pristine, dynamic guitar tones of the 1950s and early 60s, standard overdrive pedals can often sound artificial, overly compressed, and flat-out unnatural. For years, I avoided them entirely because I preferred the sound of a guitar plugging straight into a great, clean tube amplifier.
But sometimes, a little grit is totally necessary. Over the years, I’ve had to find overdrive pedals that actually work for a "clean tone purist." In this video, I’m breaking down the 4 overdrive pedals I’ve ever genuinely enjoyed, and exactly why they work where other dirt pedals fail.
If you hate the typical "mid-hump" and compression of standard overdrives, this list is for you.
Ibanez Mostortion (MT10): The secret weapon. Thanks to its unique CMOS circuit, it clips more like a real tube amp, and the 3-band EQ lets you dial out any artificial boxiness, and has a ton of tone shaping abilities
Xotic RC Booster: A wonderful low gain drive/boost, with just a touch of mids
Menatone Red Snapper (2004 3-Knob): An incredibly open, uncompressed, and amp-like low-to-mid gain drive with an upper presence that keeps your pick attack perfectly intact.
Voodoo Lab Sparkle Drive: A Tube Screamer for people who hate Tube Screamers. The magic clean-blend knob lets you layer your pristine clean tone directly over the grit.
GEAR USED IN THIS VIDEO:
Guitar: Fender Vintera rosewood Tele neck with ash body, Dimarzio Muscle T pickups
Amp: Vintage Fender 1968 Princeton Reverb with Fat Jimmy C1025 speaker
Cables/Power: D'Addario cables, Truetone CS6 power
www.truetone.com
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