Light Overdrive Recommendations

[Yr Blues]

Ever since I bought my first BJFE pedal, the Honey Bee OD, I've been looking for more light overdrive pedals. Please give me some recommendations and anecdotes on the experiences you've had. Transparency and touch-sensitivity are what I'm looking for.

I never thought I would love overdrive as much as I now do.

[Eskimo_Joe]

This brings up a question/thought --- wouldn't a regular overdrive function as a light overdrive if you roll back the drive knob?

[EyeFly]

Ever since I bought my first BJFE pedal, the Honey Bee OD, I've been looking for more light overdrive pedals. Please give me some recommendations and anecdotes on the experiences you've had. Transparency and touch-sensitivity are what I'm looking for.

I never thought I would love overdrive as much as I now do.

Yr Blues,

I recently acquired an Antelope Lovelight Overdrive and it complements the HBOD very well. You can dial up a bit more gain with it and actually it works pretty well for "pushing" the HBOD.

If you turn down the gain, it does a nice job of adding some "girth" to the notes or chords without any real overdriven sound. I don't have a lot of experiences with other "light" overdrives.

You can find one now and again on ebaY or The Gear Page. Brian at Antelope no longer makes them or the Morning Dew EQ which is quite good as well. He does have a web site; just Google Antelope Effects. Seems like a real nice guy when I've emailed him


cork

[Yr Blues]

Ever since I bought my first BJFE pedal, the Honey Bee OD, I've been looking for more light overdrive pedals. Please give me some recommendations and anecdotes on the experiences you've had. Transparency and touch-sensitivity are what I'm looking for.

I never thought I would love overdrive as much as I now do.

Yr Blues,

I recently acquired an Antelope Lovelight Overdrive and it complements the HBOD very well. You can dial up a bit more gain with it and actually it works pretty well for "pushing" the HBOD.

If you turn down the gain, it does a nice job of adding some "girth" to the notes or chords without any real overdriven sound. I don't have a lot of experiences with other "light" overdrives.

You can find one now and again on ebaY or The Gear Page. Brian at Antelope no longer makes them or the Morning Dew EQ which is quite good as well. He does have a web site; just Google Antelope Effects. Seems like a real nice guy when I've emailed him


cork

Why did he stop making them?

[Donner]

You bring up a good point.

Most distortions are built around thier 'crankin amp distortion' sound and simply sound like weaker distortion at lower distortion levels, not particularly interesting....

This is one thing BJ is particularly good at is making a circuit thats useful throughout its range... I am regularly amazed at how much variety there can be in a 'Deestortion' pedal when made properly....

This was the real strength of the BBOD to me - at low drive levels it is a realistically touch sensitive drive, really follows your fingers well. AND as you crank it it gets nastier and is a really good distortion fully cranked.... you could really like it for very different reasons...... and I think the DRD was designed around its lower distortion sound and also happens to nail a cranked 4x12 when its full up....

Kind of the opposite of the heart of the MP Amp which was designed to be fully functional at full volume, so its always going to sound good no matter where its run, with the distortion pedals if you make them so they sound real at low distortion levels then they are probably going to sound great at full drive levels.....

my vote for best touchy low drive is still the BBOD followed by the Honey Bee .... tho the Sky Blue may elbow its way in there for different abilities

[Yr Blues]

Thanks for the suggestion on the Baby Blue, but until BJFE starts making them again, I'll take that as a taunt.

Or are you cunningly suggesting that he's going to start making them again? That would be so awesome. Maybe he should release the schematic if it's of no use to him anymore.

I can't wait for the Sky Blue to come out. That does sound interesting. On another note, Analog Man's King of Tone sounds amazing, but the wait is retarded-long and I don't need the booster half.

[Donner]

well I gues it would depend on what sound you wanted -- do you want an EQ change too like a little more mids ,, or maybe a bit of compression with the light drive ??
the Dyna Red down low is excellent and does me fine

Try all the ones you have.... when Doc was over we found the Fire Red Fuzz is really tasty with the fuzz almost off....

[Cobra]

I find the LGW works extremely well as a low gain OD, & I use it like this all the time. I set the gain knob around 9-10 o'clock, or just a smidge above where it starts to really happen. This helps alot when using the LGW as a pre-driver for stacking too. Careful chip selection can enhance the LGW's lowgain qualities quite a bit, with the LF353 being my favorite. Another way to enhance the LGW's lowgain qualities is to run it at a higher voltage, 12vdc, or even better at 18vdc. This really improves the whole sonic fingerprint with more headroom, touch sensitivity, and a overall more open sound. The LF353 chip really shines when run at higher voltages.

[EyeFly]

Couple of last minute thoughts on this subject.

- I recently acquired and was able to test drive a BJFE LGW and was simply amazed at its versatility. It was one of the most "touch sensitive" pedals I've ever used. Unfortunately, I had to rebox it after a short trial since my wife is giving it to me for Chrismtas.

- I'm uncertain of why Antelope effects didn't prosper as the products seem well made. There are likely others who know the inside story there.

- I've never gotten to use the BBOD but hope to acquire one at some point in the future. You can sometimes find them on ebaY or The Gear page and I wouldn't be surprised to see one pop up from time to time on this Forum. With regards to the BBOD, if Donner tells you it excels at something, it does....simple as that.

- I have found that even the EGDM and my CAF, believe it or not, can be used at lower gain levels to round out your sound if you tweak your amp adjustments a bit. Bottom line is, you can get a lower driven sound out of most of the overdrives/distortions/fuzzes by varyiing the gain structure but they all have a "personality" of their own which I think is a good thing. I don't own a DRD at this point.

- the HBOD is by far the best "low intensity" overdrive that you will find....but that should not curtail your curiosity!! I'd certainly consider the Sky Blue to slake your lust for THE DRIVE.

Merry Christmas!!!!!!

cork

[Yr Blues]

I think I'm going to wait for the Sky Blue to come out. That's the most logical ticket for me right now.

I do have a Honey Bee, but as much as I love it, I want something that's transparent. The Baby Blue clips (low gain) are awesome and I pray for their resurrection some day.

I'm surprised that the Timmy is so popular. They sound artificial and tinny (NPI).