Today we will show you the five, in no particular order, highest rated overdrive pedals, we made this list with the user’s reviews made in on-line stores and review sites, so feel free to share with us your opinion on each pedal or what pedal would you include in the list. The chosen ones have been: Damage Control Womanizer Tube Distortion Preamp, DigiTech Screamin Blues, Vox Cooltron Big Ben Overdrive Pedal, Musician Sound Design Silverstone Overdrive Pedal and Boss FBM-1 Fender Bassman Pedal.
The Damage Control Womanizer Tube Distortion Preamp is a Class A dual tube preamp with distortion pedal that features two channels (engage and nuclear), two 12AX7 tubes, analog tube circuit, true-bypass switch, analog opto-compressor, 2-band bionic EQ (pre and post), master level, drive and opto compression controls and magic-eye display (output meter that reacts to performance’s volume levels). The Womanizer produces a warm tone with a huge range of sounds, from clean and funk to high-gained sounds at any volume levels. The recommended price for this pedal is $299.99.
The DigiTech Screamin Blues distortion pedal is, obviously, specially designed for blues and classic rock tones. The pedal features distortion level, low (boosts and cuts bass frequencies), high (cuts upper harmonics) and gain (sets the maximum ditortion level) controls, dual outputs (for amp and mixer, which has a cabinet emulated circuitry) and non-slip on/off footswitch and LED. The Screamin Blues pedal produces a very good clean sound and classic rock mid-range distortion tones that will allow you to play vintage rock, rockabilly, rock ‘n roll, … The recommended price for this pedal is $49.95 and you can buy it at zZounds.
The next one is the Vox Cooltron Big Ben Overdrive Pedal is a tube-run distortion pedal that features one 12AU7 tube, 3 simple controls, gain, tone and volume, true-bypass switch, on/off footswitch and mirrored finish. Can be powered by 4xAA batteries or by a 9V DC adapter. This one produces a cool vintage tube distortion sound at any level (volume or overdrive) that will allow you to play everything, from chords to classic rock riffs. The recommended price of the Vox Cooltron Big Ben Overdrive pedal is $179.
We found few information about this pedal, so if you own it, feel free to make yur own comments. The Musician Sound Design Silverstone Overdrive is a full frequency response overdrive pedal that features volume, tone and warmth controls, low/high tone switch (that adjust the pedal to bass or guitar) and on/off footswitch. Those simple controls shouldn’t put you back, this pedal provides provide a huge range of overdriven tones, from clean boost to powerful saturation, all with a very good dynamic response. The recommended price is $199.99.
The last will be the Boss FBM-1 Fender Bassman, a pedal that tries to emulate the sound of the 1959 Fender Bassman amp, that we introduced you in Winter NAMM ‘07 coverage. The device has the classic BOSS pedal shape and features presence, middle, bass, treble, gain and level controls, on/off footswitch and LED (that also works as battery indicator) and its sound really captures the original sound of a Bassman amp. The tonal range goes from a fat clean sound to a tube-like overdriven sound that will allow you to recreate the sound of your favorite blues and classic rock players. The price of the Boss FBM-1 is $149 and you can buy it at zZounds.
Please send you comments and additional reviews of your favorite overdrive pedals.
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