Today is Part II of the overview of the pedals. It concentrates on the overdrives, that occupy the lion's share of the pedalboard.
Part II. Overdrive, Distortion, and Fuzz Pedals.
10. Dolamo Overdrive
Provenance. Amazon. Was part of the first batch of pedals I bought during the Thanksgiving sale in 2020.
Cost. Somewhere around $20-22.
Category: bargain basement budget
Review. This is a very mellow overdrive pedal. Originally it sat at the beginning of a chain of my overdrives, although with time some new pedals were placed in the middle row of the pedalboard and in front of it (note the picture above is of the new pedalboard configuration and place it at the beginning of the chain of drives again).
For several months I had gain at 9 o'clock, bass at around 9 o'clock to noon, treble at close to max, and level to bump up the over all volume a bit. In this configuration it is a nice clean boost with just a tad color and saturation added to the signal - it works really well with most clean channels of my amps, and is a great sound for laying down rhythm guitar on a loop. With time I learned to warm up the sound by dialing the treble off a bit. I still prefer using this pedal on low gain settings. On higher gains it goes into a plausible crunch, which is not unpleasing to the ear. On my pedalboard though I have plenty of crunches and not enough clean boosts, so the Dolamo overdrive has the default role of being the one pedal on when I need a clean sound that enhances the signal coming from the guitar. It does this job really well.
Difficulty of use: Easy. Low gain - essentially clean boost, higher gain - crunch. Bass and treble are responsive and can be easily kept around 12 o'clock if one wants to just forget about them. Level is not too powerful - I can get it close to max (on my standard amp volume setting) and not crash anyone's eardrums - "gradual" is probably a good word to refer to it.
Rating: A. I don't know what overdrive this is based off of, but it is a very useful pedal on my board - and it is keeping its relevance and holding its own in the presence of everything else that I piled on the board since.
Verdict: Keeper.
11. Kmise Ultimate Drive Overdrive
Provenance. Amazon. Same batch as the Dolamo pedal.
Cost. $25 or thereabouts.
Category: Bargain basement budget.
Review. For several months this was the most high-gain pedal the board. It is ... capricious. I've had situations where I was able to coax some of the purest, most "very rock! wow!" tones from it - both by itself and in combination with Dolamo placed in front. I also had produce very unpleasant and unbalanced tones.
To start with, I would recommend anyone trying to use this pedal to start at close of minimal gain, and put the switch (I am assuming it is a clipping diod) on low, and just try to manipulate it to the edge of breakup zone. This is not that difficult to do and the sound is full and rich, and nothing like any other drive/distortion pedal I have, although the sounds it makes are sorta "classic rock"-ish and are quite recognizable. I play a Yamaha Pacifica with a homebrew pickguard that contains a Blacktop Filtertron in the bridge position, a TexMex Fender middle pickup, and Wilkinson neck pickup), and I think it reacts better to the single coils than to the Filtertron. It also goes much better with some form of reverb, the dry sound is a bit... well, dry, although it is less of an issue with edge-of-breakup settings.
Unfortunately for this pedal, edge of breakup is not what I needed it for - as I mentioned, this was the highest gain pedal I had on the board for somewhere close to 8 months. As a result I had to figure out the combination of volume and gain that would work well with my guitar. Such combinations exist, but they are affected quite a bit by other things in the chain: EQ, Compressor, delay, reverb. This pedal can be very loud if one does not control Level when moving Gain up. I typically max out the tone, as it get s too dark very quickly when the Tone knob is moved counter-clockwise.
One last thing to note is that this pedal is where I learned to control the tone with the guitar's volume knob - lowering the pickup volume definitely cleans up the tone and most of nice tones I produced from this pedal were with my guitar volume at around 50% or lower.
Difficulty of use: Moderate. As discussed above, some care is required, but it definitely has several sweet spots that would work.
Rating: B-. Perhaps a full B, but I wind up using this pedal less and less, especially now that I have some other high gain options, so, my playing habits are perhaps the best way to assess it.
Verdict: I am keeping it on the board for now, but this is probably the #1 candidate to be removed from the board, or moved to my office board, as it is largely redundant on the board at the moment.
12. Iset Dumbler Overdrive
Provenance. Amazon. Bought at the end of 2020.
Cost. About $25.
Category: bargain basement budget.
Review. It says "dumble"! Wow! What a bargain!
I don't know how a Dumble amp sounds (youtube videos compared to a pedal on own board do nothing to answer this question), but I am pretty sure, it ain't it. Having said this, though, this is a great and very versatile pedal with a range of tones, and a unique voice.
Unlike the Kmise Ultimate Drive, the Dumbler, which spent most of its time on the pedalboard right in front of the Kmise pedal, has been used in a wide range of tonal settings. The beginnings, however are the same - max out the Tone and the Voice knobs (the latter is an interesting mid-frequencies EQ), put the Gain at 9 o'clock and adjust level. This creates a nice clean-to-edge of breakup sound (depending on the pickups and the gain setting of the amp), and this tone alone is probably worth the $25 this pedal cost me.
It however does have quite a bite as well. Adjust the Gain up, and past 1 o'clock we are in a pretty serious overdrive zone. I never liked maxing out the gain on this pedal, but if I want a pastiche on classic rock tones, taking the Gain to 3 o'clock does the trick quite nicely, as long as the volume is adjusted. Just as the Ultimate Drive, the Dumbler is responsive to guitar volume changes, although I often forget that I have this option of controlling the tone.
With time, like with many other pedals, I learned to roll the Tone and the Voice off. The setting pictured on the photo is pretty much what I am using now - sometimes rolling the Tone down to 12 o'clock.
Difficulty of use: Easy. It might take some use to dial the exact tone one wants, and the Voice control is different from the EQ controls on other overdrive pedals, but finding a nice tone is pretty easy.
Rating: A-. It gets a minus because I don't use it as often as I do some other pedals. But every time I turn it on I keep thinking "I should use it more".
Verdict: Keeper.
13. Mosky/Musiclady Golden Horse Overdrive
Provenance. Ebay. Bought at the end of 2020, I think
Cost. $23-25. The one time Ebay was cheaper than Amazon by a few bucks.
Category: bargain basement budget
Review. Well, it's a Klon clone, perhaps one of the cheapest on the market. I have used it in a variety of ways - in front of other overdrives/distortions, at the end of an overdrive chain, with gain up, with gain down. Not all combinations were successful, but most recent uses - turn the gain down, volume up, hit another pedal with it, gave me a really great boost. In general, I think I rarely use it all by itself (even with the gain up) - usually teaming it up with several other pedals: like the Dolamo (my other clean-ish overdrive), or the Lumberjack (see below). It also works really well as a boost for the King of Kings.
Difficulty of use: Moderate. Not because controls are sophisticated, but because the range of tone options requires careful choices. Boost use is more or less obvious, but upping the gain requires more care.
Rating: B+: really nice to have, growing on me.
Verdict: keeper.
14. Caline Tantrum Metal Distortion
Provenance. Amazon, late 2020
Cost. $29
Category: bargain basement budget
Review. Wow - 29 bucks for a pedal with TWO switches (my only such pedal until the King of Kings)! I do not begrudge myself buying it at that price. But at the end of the day, this is not really a good pedal for me. For starters, with anything resembling a reasonable gain, this pedal is really noisy, and the noise gate has a hard time keeping up. The boost only works when the main distortion is engaged - which is unfortunate - I would have kept it on the board if the boost was independent. The tone, as far as metal tones go is ok, but nothing particularly exciting. Muza FD55 (see below) makes this pedal completely redundant on the main board.
Difficulty of use: Moderate. I mean, it sounds pretty metal even with gain most of the way down, but calibrating metal pedals is not my strong suit.
Rating: C: works as advertised, but needs a different audience.
Verdict: Off the board.
15. Playwell British Distortion
Provenance. Amazon, some time in early 2021
Cost. $15
Category: bargain basement budget
Review. Ugh. At 15 bucks for "british" and "distortion", I figured that I'd take a plunge. The result though is rather disappointing. It sat on my board for a while because (as I stated in my Amazon review), I found one set of positions for Level, Gain, and Tone that created a decent tone distinct from any of my other tones on the board. One set. Move the knobs just a bit, and the tone stops being decent to my ears. To boot, the Tone knob is all but useless - move it just a bit off the Max position, and lose ALL the treble immediately. No range at all. Higher gain settings yield unpleasantness to my ears. Perhaps it is a proper rendering of the "British" distortion sound, but I just don't like it that much.
Difficulty of use: Hard. It is hard to find a good tone.
Rating: D-: do not buy. I don't know if this is just Playwell, or ALL "british distortion" budget models from all manufacturers, but this particular pedal is not a good deal even at the measly $15. There are better bargain basement pedals.
Verdict: Off the board
16. ENO Blues Overdrive
Provenance. Amazon, 2021
Cost. $29, but received a $10 discount.
Category: Bargain Basement Budget
Review. I wrote a bad review of the ENO's envelope filter pedal, and received a "sorry you did not like it, here is a $10 coupon" note from them. I decided to give ENO another try and bought their blues overdrive pedal. Interestingly enough, the one I received looked different than the Amazon picture - it looks like two batches were made and they colored them differently.
This is the only ENO pedal (I have three) that sounded reasonable. There is a nice range to tone and gain. On low gain, I can get anything from icepick (with tone set to max) to pretty warm sweet blues (tone below noon, neck pickup). Higher gain is not as useful, I think, but overall, using this pedal was fun.
Difficulty of use: Easy. Lower gain, control Tone, win.
Rating: B
Verdict: Off the board: at the time I had too many low-gain overdrives on the board and needed one overdrive pedal to move to a separate pedalboard. This seemed both somewhat duplicated (Dolamo does similar things, for example), and somewhat versatile to fit the bill. So, it went off the main board.
17. Caline Pure Sky Overdrive
Provenance. Ali Express, June 2021
Cost. $25.
Category: Bargain Basement Budget
Review. My first Ali Express pedal purchase. It was basically an "I can take it or leave" purchase, but Ali Express delivered it rather speedily. A really nice transparent overdrive, which, on low gain settings can be easily used as a boost. I tried it both at the beginning of the overdrive chain, where I mostly used it to boost other overdrives, and at the end - where it is sitting now. I am using this pedal a bit less now, but it this pedal doesn't really have too many "bad" spots. Occasionally I turn it on all by itself to play "loud clean".
Difficulty of use: Easy. You get nice tone from pretty much any meaningful position.
Rating: B: probably closer to B+, but I am not using it much.
Verdict: keeper.
18. Behringer Vintage Tube Overdrive TO800
Provenance. Sweetwater, late 2020
Cost. $19.
Category: Bargain Basement Budget
Review. When the entire line of Behringer pedals goes on $19 sale, and you don't have a tube screamer, you buy a $19 tube screamer. You get a very nice tube screamer. I can definitely make it work all sorts of things - from a pretty overdriven sound, to barely audible overdrive. It definitely sounds unique compared to all other overdrives on the board, and thus, it earns its keep by providing nice alternate tone options. Even though it is kind of made redundant by the Muza distortion pedal (see below), I like using it for tube screamer sounds over the Muza. I also like on occasion to double up on the tube screaming and run this pedal into the Muza in tube screamer mode. Gets a bit noisy, but not too bad, and the tone becomes quite rich and saturated/distorted.
Difficulty of use: Easy. What you see is what you get - dial anything you want - it'll sound like a tube screamer.
Rating: B. Solid.
Verdict: keeper until I decide to get a different screamer clone - which might not happen for a long time.
19. Electro-Harmonix Lumberjack Log Overdriver
Provenance. Reverb, 2020.
Cost. $45
Category: vintage
Review. I was looking for a boost pedal, and wound up spotting this one and decided, heck, I can buy a real Electro-Harmonix pedal for a measly 45 bucks? How cool is that! On a more serious note, I was attracted by the unusual nature of the gain (log growth), and the presence of a separate volume and boost knobs (with the noticeable absence of tone). Youtube videos made is sound like a rather obscure pedal, so I went ahead an bought it.
To my surprise, it is actually a nice pedal with a lot of range. Lack of tone is a bit unfortunate (I tend to correct its tone with an EQ pedal), but boy does it go from clean to dirty with ease and with a lot of different options. Low gain (log) with boost up and we have a mid-boost, which stays clean. Raise the gain, and you can have as much dirt as you want. I typically hold it on clean-ish settings, and use it as one of the three go-to clean tones on the board.
Difficulty of use: Moderate. Log control needs some getting used to.
Rating: A: yeah, I know it's an obscure pedal from a manufacturer that does not even notice it. I still love it.
Verdict: keeper. The only way it moves off the main board is if I ever make a vintage pedalboard.
20. VSN Plexion Rocker Overdrive
Provenance. Amazon, November 2021
Cost. $29.
Category: Bargain Basement Budget
Review. Black Friday/Cyber Monday deal. Wanted a plexi overdrive. Chose this one over several others based primarily on the warpaint. This purchase came before King to Kings. In isolation, this is a great saturated overdrive pedal. Short of the Muza distortion models, this is probably the heaviest overdrive I have on the main board (Kmise US Dream is another candidate here). While the pic above shows it in "Bright" mode, I prefer "Normal" mode, and then roll down the tone a bit for warmer sound.
King of Kings made this pedal a bit redundant - at some point I was switching between one side of King of Kings and the plexion, and they sounded almost indistinguishable to me.
Difficulty of use: Easy. Pick the gain. Go.
Rating: B: nice pedal, it is not its fault that it is close to redundant
Verdict: keeper. For now. If I need space on the board for a more exciting overdrive, this may be the first one to go.
21. Muza FD55 Distortion M+
Provenance. Ebay.
Cost. $18 pedal + $10 shipping.
Category: Modeling. What little I know about the maker (a Dutch company that released a series of modeling pedals including distortion, reverb and delay) is from a couple of web pages, and one or two youtube videos I was able to find.
Review. Yes, ladies and gentlemen, I bought a distortion pedal with 10 different distortion/fuzz models, including Distortion+, Rat, MuffFuzz and MetalZone, and with six presets, for less than the what the Plexion cost me. And yes, this is a modeling pedal, but this matters less than the fact that this pedal just rocks. I bought it at the time when I was coming to a realization that I could use some Distortion+ or Guv'nor style saturated/compressed/clipped distortion pedals on my board, and was looking for one representative of the genre that would not be embarrassing. Instead I got the entire genre in one box.
Purists will probably scoff, but screw that. This pedal sounds amazing even on the settings on which it should not. It can get loud and rough around the edges, so some care with the settings is required, and this is especially true if one wants to switch from one model to another on the fly - the change in tone is nothing compared to the change in volume (different models have different controls engaged). But I was able after a bit of tinkering to tame every single model (even the DOD FX86 DEATH METAL (tm) model which should only exist in nightmares). Three models stand out: the Tube Screamer model is more fun to play than my dedicated Behringer clone (although I sometimes wax nostalgic and play the Behringer pedal just for kicks). The Distortion + model is rich and creamy, and easy to control, thanks to just two knobs. And Rat is my go to for this pedal.
The interface is complex, but the UI/UX design my the folks at MUZA is top-notch. For each model, there are up to six possible controls, and the LEDs show which controls are used with the currently selected model. The dynamics are great and so is the range of tones - both within single models and between different ones. Somehow the three metal pedals all manage to sound very differently, justifying their inclusion (although I would have preferred a Guv'nor model).
The pedal also has six presets, which the previous owner set to some fairly nice sounds, including a couple of low-gain, edge-of-breakup options that are among my favorite tones out of this box.
Difficulty of use: Should be Moderate (lots of controls), but the awesome UI/UX makes it Easy.
Rating: A+. Best bang for the buck save for my first looper, perhaps.
Verdict: Keeper. One of two anchors of the entire drive section of the pedalboard.
22. Joyo King of Kings
Provenance. Amazon
Cost. $69
Category: Budget, clone.
Review. I was both Bluesbreaker-curious, and, upon learning about Analogman - curious about that specific pedal as well. Was looking at some outright rip-offs from DemonFX and LYR, when I spotted this new Joyo pedal. When it appeared on Amazon for the same price I saw on AliExpress, I pounced.
This is the most recent acquisition, and the ostensible reason why the pedalboard was rebuilt - the gap in the first row between the MUZA and the Blue Sky is the space left of the King of Kings. This is an awesome pedal, and a great and versatile choice.
At the outset (diode clipping switches down, tone midway, Gain at 11 o'clock) each individual half of the pedal sounded very much like my VSN Plexion. Which makes sense given the provenance of the ideas behind both pedals. However, with both sides engaged, and with clipping diods on, the tonal range of this pedal far exceeds everything else I have, except for the MUZA, which isn't a fair comparison anyway, as it is a modelling pedal.
Figuring out this pedal takes a bit of time, but the good news is that there isn't a single bad tone in it - pretty much any setting, with pretty much any pickup combo on my guitar, with pretty much anything else on the board (I usually use some warming EQ, reverb and delay, I also added the compressor for this pedal to some nice effect) it produces really sweet and playable tones.
Both Gain and Volume controls are gradual, "on the side of caution", which means that 12 o'clock Volume and 12 o'clock Gain are not too loud or too distorted respectively. Tone plays really nice with them, and in the vein of my recent attempts to play warmer sounds, it rolls off nicely, taking the edge off the most biting treble in the tone with ease.
Both Gain and Volume controls are gradual, "on the side of caution", which means that 12 o'clock Volume and 12 o'clock Gain are not too loud or too distorted respectively. Tone plays really nice with them, and in the vein of my recent attempts to play warmer sounds, it rolls off nicely, taking the edge off the most biting treble in the tone with ease.
Where things require some understanding and experimentation is with (a) diode clipping settings, and (b) playing the two halves together.
Diode clipping settings. One thing to recognize (thank you, Josh Scott!) is that the clipping diode settings are not going to change anything until the pedal is actively distorting the signal. So, on low gain settings, there is not difference whatsoever between the four possible positions of the clipping diodes. It is when the gain is ramped up to close to max, when flipping the feedback switch (#2) produces a compressed distortion, and flipping the clipping switch (#1) saturates the signal, although without falling into the "scooped mids" territory. Moving both switches into the "up" position turns King of Kings into a full-blown distortion pedal, albeit with some dearth of lows.
Pairing the two halves of the pedal. I've had several setting combinations where each half of the pedal by itself is quite loud, but turning both on results both in enhanced distortion, but also in a drop in the volume of the sound - so there is a definite compression effect at play here. To properly operate both halves at the same time, I first set both halves to the same settings, and then adjust the behavior of each half to my liking, but gradually. I like keeping one half with diodes in the "down" position, and one half - with diodes in the "up" position, and high gain to turn them on.
Difficulty of use: Moderate. The most sophisticated overdrive pedal I have, requires definite experimentation to get the sounds one likes - especially in the part where the diode clipping settings start making sense.
Rating: A+. A huge boost (no pun intended) to my pedalboard.
Verdict: Keeper. The other anchor of the drive section of the pedalboard.
23. Sonicake Fuzz
Provenance. Amazon, 2020
Cost. $29, I think
Category: Bargain Basement Budget
Review. Somewhat of the testament to this pedal is that this has been my only fuzz, and I don't necessarily feel compelled to buy another one. Of the two Sonicake pedals, this is the winner. Great range of fuzz sounds, fuzz that sounds really good in a mix (when I play with the looper pedal with like 2-3 guitar overdubs), fuzz that can be both gentle and powerful.
I have experimented with a variety of uses - boosting it with other pedals, combining it with the octaver, or boosting another overdrive with it. Each time, the sound, while not necessarily something to use every day, was impressive.
Difficulty of use: Easy. Fuzz knob does all the work.
Rating: A. Not using it often, but it's a quality pedal.
Verdict: keeper. I should have one fuzz on the pedalboard.
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