Transparent Overdrive? I Have Discovered The Secret!!!

[Boy_Narf]

Hello Everyone,

Ok so... I gave up on overdrive pedals a few years back as I could never find one that retained the character of my amps. I want my clean channel with just a hint of hair, I don't want a dramatic EQ change. I went through a bunch of drive pedals, and ended up using my volume knob to clean up. Now this was all fine and dandy until my board got a bit more complicated (split into a clean, and dirty chain). Say I want my effects with a hint of dirt? Impossible with my currently setup, as the delay/verb are wired into the clean chain, which goes into a very clean amp. Blah Blah.

When I played bass in a band I ended up with a bunch of blender and dirt pedals. The best bass tone I've found (so far with my current gear) is my Bass BB Preamp (flat gain at 2100) inside a Mosquite blender with the blend set to 2230. It has a pretty significant mid boost which really helps to cut through, but also adds a bunch of mud at higher volumes (even though it is designed for bass). Blah Blah.

Yesterday I re-wired my bass board with only three pedals. Wireless/tuner, Bass BB, Mosquite blender. I was too lazy to pull the bass out of the case so I grabbed one of my guitars. To my surprise, blending the OD into the guitar sounded brilliant. I could hear the natural character of the guitar/amp, but with a touch of hair on the notes. Why did I waste so much money on OD pedals, and not think of this???

Anywho. I'm itching to get a bit of grit on my clean tone, and ran across the Dr. Scientist The Elements pedal. Not only does it have the most comprehensive EQ I've seen on a compact dirt pedal, but it has a mix knob. WOW!

My usual online pedal store is currently out of stock, but in 6 weeks we shall commence party. On the hunt for more od pedals with a clean blend.

[Les Paul Lover]

My ebay name is gear aquisition syndrom- without the c in acquisition as someone already had that one. I should give that ebay ID to you.
Though I might keep it as I'm pretty bad myself!!!!!

I love how you describe how you found the perfect set up and justify your next purchase at the same time. It's pretty impressive work!!! I'll have to remember some of that and keep it up my sleeve to explain to my wife one of my next inevitable purchase....!!!!


More seriously, I must admit this blending malarkey does prick my curiosity. It does sound perfect - your clean tone, unadulterated, and whatever you fancy on top of it. It does make you wonder what you could do with that.

I'm sure blending loop pedals must exist somewhere - or they should, it can't be hard to build one. It'd be nice to chose whichever OD / distortion /fuzz you want to blend to your clean tone.

[Jondog]

Xotic makes a blend pedal. Blend can be turned on or off, mixed etc... This is the stereo version: http://xotic.us/effects/stereo-x-blender
Regular version which has some pretty good features. Eq, boost phase inverter. Knob is big enough to adjust with your foot.
http://xotic.us/effects/x-blender
I love xotic effects. Every pedal I've owned from them are very transparent

[Boy_Narf]

Well it was perfect until I split it into two chains

I have the One Control Misquote Blender already, but it's on my bass board. First world problems you know

The xotic wasn't all that great when I tested it out. Really colored my tone.

[Jondog]

Don't know if you've tried the wampler Black 65, but that pedal is wicked for a clean tone that breaks up when you dig in. I listened to a couple demos of the elements pedal. To me it sounded like two separate tones blended together rather than one tone with a bit of grit, not natural.

[AryaS]

I recently builta little OD pedal, just one gain stage, no fancy stuff...more along the lines of the Em Drive, but not really an Em drive..



Removed the guts of the JOYO Pedal and built in my OD...



This is how it sounds!! was still on the breadboard at the time I did this clip!!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QhxZ_9DNHos" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[Beexter]

BOSS LS-2 works great as a blender.
It also has a myriad of other uses too.

[mr_william]

i've got a way huge pork loin and a visual sound VS-XO. both have a clean blend control.

the VS-XO blends in your original signal, where as the pork loin does purposefully colour the clean.

the T-rex Moller and voodoo labs sparkle drive both have clean blends on them also. i believe both of these are more tube screamer based, similar to the right side of the VS-XO, where as the pork loin is it's own thing.

[Boy_Narf]

I was looking into both the pork loin and the visual sound when I was playing bass last year. For some reason I didn't ever think to put them on guitar hah. I love the fact that the Elements can be set completely transparent even when set to 100% wet. The store is currently waiting for the next batch which just to happens to have the wilderness paint job. LOVE IT! Will report back when I get mine.

[Ro_S]

On the hunt for more od pedals with a clean blend.

Stone Deaf Trashy Blonde

distortion with clean blend, and a parametric EQ.

[Boy_Narf]

Good find dude!

I've got a Dr. Scientist "The Elements" on back order. They should be in stock any day now. Will report back once it arrives.