Orange Amps Forum

Just want to see what you guys feel is the best bang for the buck pedals that will never leave your board.

I have two surprises. The Danelectro Cool Cat Transparent Overdrive (ver.1) and MOD kits Piledriver boost.

I bought the CTO-1 (Timmy clone) and the CO-1 (OCD clone) thinking that I would just keep the CO-1 and probably huck the CTO-1. With the gain anywhere over 25% I felt that the CTO-1 was just a horrible overdrive, but with minimal gain used as a cleanish boost this one is staying. Just love the clean 3d sparkly sound that gives my Bandmaster. I ended up selling the CO-1 to my brother after getting a Tubeworks RealTube .

I wanted to get into building pedals so I started with the MOD kits The PileDriver Boost just as a way to get my feet wet and for $30 it was the cheapest kit i could find. Just thought I would build it and be like Meh, but to my surprise it is an amazing clean boost.

Anyway excited to hear about your guy's gems.

Pro rat . Had it since 92. A keeper.

Does that have the Famed LM308?

Mattydaddy1 wrote:Does that have the Famed LM308?

yes

Behringer DC9 compressor. Sounds as good as any other two knob compressors. Solid construction, true bypass.

Mooer Hustle Drive, cost me £50 on Denmark Street, gives a lush, subtle drive on the clean channel of my th30, making a welcome change from the fizzy drive channel.

Also, my Behringer Reverb Machine, cost £30, the shimmer/space effect is spot on and I have used it on TOO many song intros/outros and can give a great 'normal' verb aswell.

mostly anything joyo and mooer makes are pretty incredible for the price. Mooers used to be $44 apiece through some non-compliant distributors, but now they got found out and it's back to their standard $88 price

Well I may still be in the honeymoon phase with it, but as far as bang for the buck, you can't go wrong with the Hardwire TR-7 Tremolo/Rotary, if you wanna go swimming I found a good deal on a new one on Ebay. Its replaced my modded MXR Phase 90 as my go to modulation pedal right now. It has four tremolos, rotary, univibe and Vibropan settings. I'm loving the univibe and vibropan settings the most. It can do slow creepy chorusy sounds, all the way up to crazy warbles. It nails the Warren Haynes Rotosphere thing as well as the Gilmour univibe sound on Breathe. The Rotary setting is ok if you get it dialed in right, and its much more pronounced in stereo, but to me the Vibropan setting actually sounds more "Leslie-ish". The only drawbacks I've found with it is that it eats 9volt batteries fast and the tap tempo is hard to turn off on the fly, but the sound quality of the effects is outstanding, no tone suck or volume issues, and the pedal really shines in stereo (has two outputs). I do wish that it had the ability to run an expression pedal to adjust the speed since the tap tempo is tricky to use and the pedal does have two inputs but you can't have everything Its just a really fun pedal to mess around with.

apocalypsedude wrote:Well I may still be in the honeymoon phase with it, but as far as bang for the buck, you can't go wrong with the Hardwire TR-7 Tremolo/Rotary, if you wanna go swimming I found a good deal on a new one on Ebay. Its replaced my modded MXR Phase 90 as my go to modulation pedal right now. It has four tremolos, rotary, univibe and Vibropan settings. I'm loving the univibe and vibropan settings the most. It can do slow creepy chorusy sounds, all the way up to crazy warbles. It nails the Warren Haynes Rotosphere thing as well as the Gilmour univibe sound on Breathe. The Rotary setting is ok if you get it dialed in right, and its much more pronounced in stereo, but to me the Vibropan setting actually sounds more "Leslie-ish". The only drawbacks I've found with it is that it eats 9volt batteries fast and the tap tempo is hard to turn off on the fly, but the sound quality of the effects is outstanding, no tone suck or volume issues, and the pedal really shines in stereo (has two outputs). I do wish that it had the ability to run an expression pedal to adjust the speed since the tap tempo is tricky to use and the pedal does have two inputs but you can't have everything Its just a really fun pedal to mess around with.

That's Great news! One of the effects that I am looking to source is a Vibe. I traded off my MG Monovibe a while back. The only inexpensive vibe type everyone refers me to is the Danelectro Cool Cat Vibe. It sounds ok, but not nearly convincing enough for me.

- CoolCat transparent overdrive (v2): just like for the OP, I use it as an edge of clean boost, gets a great drive going. With a bit more gain and the treble boosted and lows rolled off, it changes my AD15 in a Marsall too - tight and bitey! Free to me but cheap anyway.

- DIY Tremolo: bought for £35 On eBay, an all analog design based on the Australian Electronic design. Pure old school tremolo, but the chap who made it added a second switchable speed setting. A truly great pedal.

- Guyatone sustainer - old 80s pedal, give a great extra sparkle as well as clean boost. Free to me.

Yeah, plus the Cool Cat Vibe has the huge volume jump issue when engaged, and also has that momentary delay between the time you kick it on and the time the effect actually kicks in, that would drive me nuts! With the TR-7 you're getting some other great effects too.

Les Paul Lover wrote:- CoolCat transparent overdrive (v2): just like for the OP, I use it as an edge of clean boost, gets a great drive going. With a bit more gain and the treble boosted and lows rolled off, it changes my AD15 in a Marsall too - tight and bitey! Free to me but cheap anyway.

- DIY Tremolo: bought for £35 On eBay, an all analog design based on the Australian Electronic design. Pure old school tremolo, but the chap who made it added a second switchable speed setting. A truly great pedal.

- Guyatone sustainer - old 80s pedal, give a great extra sparkle as well as clean boost. Free to me.

Someone told me that with using the "under the hood" controls you can return the V.2 to V.1 settings.

apocalypsedude wrote:Yeah, plus the Cool Cat Vibe has the huge volume jump issue when engaged, and also has that momentary delay between the time you kick it on and the time the effect actually kicks in, that would drive me nuts! With the TR-7 you're getting some other great effects too.

I know there's a simple mod you can do with a single resistor to solve both of those, but even with that done, the Cool Cat just seems flat and 2d.

Any suggestions for a great cheap fuzz? Especially if it has the bc108 around $60 or under?

Black Arts Toneworks Black Forest OD.

Half the price of the Colorsound Overdriver (or any of its clones) and many more options. Can do a nice fat OD, Dist, or Fuzz. Gets along great with my OR15 set both clean or dirty and adds a nice fat bottom end. Love this pedal.