There are bass and treble controls for tone sculpting, as well as gain and volume knobs so you can dial in exactly what you want it to do. The pedal has been designed in such a way that it increases the voltage sent into it, to increase headroom which makes it super responsive to your playing - all the nuances in your picking hand will shine through, and it will react really well to your guitar’s volume knob. It won’t give you massive amounts of gain on tap, but, if you’re running it through a clean amp, it does give you a very nice cranked tube amp sound. It’s been used by none other than virtuoso Paul Gilbert, and offers a dynamic, smooth overdrive with lots of headroom. While the TC Electronic Mojomojo might sit at the more budget end, it’s still absolutely one of the best overdrive pedals out there. Overall, the MXR Timmy Mini is a really good take on a classic pedal - it keeps everything that players love about the original, and houses it in a smaller casing. The three-way clipping switch provides you with even more options and different headroom settings.

The EQ has been designed in a clever way too - the bass and treble are cut-only, so you’re not adding in frequencies but keeping your tone ‘truer’, plus the controls are wired pre- and post-overdrive to help maintain your low end, and smooth out the top. If you’re looking to drive a tube amp without colouring your sound, then this could be one of the best overdrive pedals for you. The originals however can be hard to come by, but this MXR version does a great job of replicating that sweet, low-gain boost, in a compact casing. These are known for being super transparent and allowing your guitar’s fundamental tone to really shine through. This is based on the famous Paul Cochrane Timmy overdrive pedal - Paul even helped MXR with the design. I hope you’ve found this roundup helpful.įeatured Image credit: Adam Connell // Tone Island.Cut-only EQ restricts tone-sculpting a little From blues to metal – some of your most loved records have likely had a Tube Screamer used on them. It’s a workhorse pedal that’s popular throughout genres. It’s likely been modded and cloned more than most other pedals. The Tube Screamer is one of the most popular overdrive pedals in history. The Plumes by EarthQuaker Devices could be potentially used as a clean boost as it’s toggle switch in the middle position removes clipping from the circuit. Like dialing in any amp or pedal, set all controls to 12 and adjust accordingly. However, it generally wouldn’t make for a good clean boost. You can use your Tube Screamer as a boost pedal. It’s commonly used by metal players to tighten up the low-end – this makes for better chugging! Can you use a Tube Screamer as a boost pedal? The Tube Screamer is typically used to get amp-like overdriven tones from a clean amp or to push an overdriven amp into heavier saturation. If you want to learn more about this pedal, Analog Man has an article on the history of the Ibanez Tube Screamer. And various iterations of the pedal have been used by a huge number of artists from Stevie Ray Vaughn to Jerry Cantrell. It’s known for low-medium transparent overdrive tones that have an amp-like quality due to how part of the clean signal is blended back into the signal path. It was originally developed by Maxon and sold under the Ibanez brand in 1979. The Tube Screamer is arguably the most copied & modded overdrive pedal in history. Then there are pedal builders that have started with one of the Tube Screamer variations and taken it in an entirely different direction.

While there are many clones of this circuit, there are also many mods that have been done to it.

The best pedal depends on personal taste and budget.

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