Whether you just bought your first guitar and you are looking for something cheap to begin with, or you are someone who’s more familiar with the guitar, in this article we will try to offer you our list of best guitar distortion and overdrive pedals. As it’s proven to be most convenient to the readers, we start of the list with the cheapest, and most affordable distortion pedal, and end with top-of-the-line model. But before we start, let’s clear one subject: what is the difference between distortion and overdrive?
Well, sound-wise, if you imagine a clean, unaltered sound on one side of the spectrum, distortion would be all the way on the other side, and overdrive somewhere in between – perhaps much closer to the distorted side. Generally looking, the overdrive pedals were much more popular in the 1970s, and the distortion is more popular among the newer bands and guitar players, mostly from metal and grunge scene.
There are also “Fuzz” pedals, which are really a simpler overdrives, which were used in the very early stages of rock music. If you want a comparison between the “stereotype” sound of the each pedal, pay a listen to each song bellow:
- Cream – Sunshine of Your Love (Clapton used a fuzz pedal paired with his Gibson ES-335)
- AC/DC – TNT (Angus uses built-in overdrive in his amp, and the Gibson SG)
- Pantera – Cowboys from Hell (Dimebag usually played his Dean through MXR ZW-44 or his own DD-11 Distortion)
Listening to these you can easily notice the difference in the sound. You can hear how Clapton’s sound with Cream is closest to the clean sound, and Dimebag’s from “Cowboys from Hell” is really heavy and dirty. In short, overdrive and fuzz pedals usually deliver a sound that’s considered warm and natural, where you can still feel the clean sound, and the distortion pedals are much more aggressive and dirty-sounding. Although this is really simple comparison, it should help you decide in what pedal you wish to buy for yourself.
Of course, jumping from one brand to another, you’ll notice a great difference in what each individual manufacturer considers to be a standard for a type of pedal they are selling. The sound varies so much, that most of the people just ignore the name, and focus on how they sound. You probably know what kind of music you like to play, and if you start from there, the decision of buying a pedal becomes much easier.
Let’s start of with an entry line model – Danelectro D-1 Distortion. This little pedal is really simple and easy to use. It’s surprisingly small in size when compared to the rest of the pedals on our list, but nonetheless offers really comfortable use.
It’s equpped with three control knobs – Level, Tone and Distortion. Playing with them, you can achieve almost any sound you want – from warm sounding fuzzy one, to the really dirty one. Of course, you can’t expect a premium sound quality from this model, but the D1 actually does it’s job pretty well. We personally recommend it for home-use, as it comes in plastic housing and you’ll probably end up stepping on it a little too hard at some point if you use it for live gigs. Also consider that this pedal does not come with the power adapted (same case with all the pedals on this list), and if you don’t wanna use a 9V battery, you’ll have to buy one yourself.
If you are a beginner, or someone who’s really short on budget, Danelectro D-1 is a perfect choice. You’ll get an introduction to what a pedal really can do, and how much you can really change you sound with a simple turn of a knob.
Behringer is a relatively weathered company in the audio equipment industry – founded in the late 80s, and they make some really good products – which are usually cheaper copies of premium pedals. If you Google this particular pedal, you’ll probably find another two pedals with a similar name – the Super Metal and Heavy Metal. The third one in the line is the UM300 Ultra Metal, which basically combines the two previously mentioned models, and offers affordable alternative for the much more expensive Boss Metal Zone.
UM300 features a noticeably heavier sound than the previously mentioned Danelectro D-1. As it can be concluded from the name itself, this pedal is primarily targeted at the people who intend to play metal music – heavily distorted solos, shredding and power chords. The UM300 features very dynamic tone and the range on tones possible are really big – you can play around with total of 6 knobs, which control level, distortion, high, low, middle, and mid frequency. You can even go for a subtle overdrive or a fuzz, but don’t expect too much on that field. The only thing which may bother you about this pedal is the plastic casing, and occasional “buzz” background noise – but nothing too noticeable.
All in all, the UM300 is great for players interested in playing anything from metal, hard rock or heavy metal. For this price, you probably won’t find anything better for the job.
Price: 29$
While Danelectro and Behringer are relatively known brands of audio equipment, Joyo is somewhat more under the radar. The company is based in China, and judging from their website, they offer a wide range of equipment, including pedals, amps tuners, EQ systems and others. We admit we were skeptical about this pedal at first, but it proved to be actually a very logical choice for a beginner or someone on tight budget.
The JF-34 is really simple and easy to use. It features three knobs, controlling the volume, tone, and level of distortion. You can of course play with the sound, but considering this is a high-gain distortion pedal, it is probably best for rock/hard rock – and it can especially be useful for someone who has a single-channel amp. As far as the built quality goes – it is somewhat better than the two previously mentioned pedals, meaning that the case is built from metal – very thin metal, but metal nonetheless, and it will probably last longer than a plastic model.
People usually compare this pedal to the Suhr Riot, which is probably what this pedal was based upon. If you think about the $200 price tag on the Suhr, getting the cheaper Joyo version is really a no-brainier – unless of course you don’t care about the money.
We are slowly, but steadily heading to the big league. The DigiTech Bad Monkey takes that sweet spot when it comes to both price and sound quality, and offers a really great choice for a player looking for something more serious for relatively cheap price.
The DigiTech Bad Monkey features controls for level, gain, and high and low frequency. If you don’t know what these do, basically with the “High” knob you adjusts boost and cut of upper harmonics, and with the “Low” adjusts the bass frequencies. Sound-wise this pedal is perhaps closest to the Ibanez Tube Screamer, which means it is suitable for basically anything from Metallica to Stevie Ray Vaughan and Gary Moore (who actually used one). Build quality of the pedal is surprisingly good. It is completely built from metal, and you’ll have no fear of stepping too hard on it.
Although some guitar players avoid anything from DigiTech in their signal chain, this pedal can really compete with some of the way more expensive models. We see no reason not to go and buy it, and prove some of those elitists that they are wrong.
The fact that you are browsing a website about guitars, probably means that you are well familiar with the company called “Boss” and how popular their products are among the professional guitar players. SD-1 is one of their most popular and most praised models.
The pedal itself is pretty straight forward, and it features three simple knobs controlling the tone, level, and drive. The sound quality is great, and the pedal is versatile, but not as much as some other pedals – mostly meaning that you won’t get all those fancy effect you’d get from an average distortion pedal. The SD-1 is old-school, and meant to be played on a tube amp. It produces some of the sweetest notes, and it’s really great for adding that little dirty color to your sound. If you are skeptical because of relatively low price, let’s just say that the SD-1 will blow some of the much more expensive pedals out of water.
All in all, this pedal is perfect for someone seeking a cheap pedal for bluesy/fuzzy old-school sound. Not that it can’t do the rest, but if you are really into metal and shredding, better look for something else.
Big Muff Pi is widely recognized as one of the most iconic effect pedals, and you can hear it in David Gilmour’s solos and Jack White’s dirty riffs – among others.
The pedals itself is pretty robust, and features really simple and lowly design. You get to play around with three knobs, responsible for volume, tone and sustain. With knobs set up in right position, you can achieve that warm fuzzy sounds from Hendrix, or if you wish, something on the other side of the spectrum like Smashing Pumpkins or even AC/DC. Although the pedal lacks in versatility when compared to some other pedals, the sound quality that it offers really makes it worthwhile. Some players argue that this is really not a pedal to be used by itself, but paired with more “adaptable” pedals.
This guitar pedal one is really something special, and the people who decide to buy it, usually end up falling in love with the sound. If you’re into White Stripes, Hendrix and especially David Gilmour (who uses this effect as his main) the Big Muff is a must-have. With the Big Muff Pi you get that basic fuzzy sound, but delivered in a best possible quality.
Since we mentioned a couple of times that some of the pedals on this list are not so versatile, here is something right up that valley. The DS-2 is a successor of the widely popular – but also criticized DS-1, and it features the basics of it’s older brother paired up with some added functionality.
The knob controls on the left are pretty standard, and include Volume, Tone and Distortion level settings. The added feature when compared with the DS-1 is the fourth knob, which switches between two modes: Turbo I and Turbo II. The first mode offers you cleaner and smoother sound closer to overdrive, and the second mode is full-on heavy distortion. Playing with this pedal you can basically pull out any kind of sound you want – from grunge to heavy metal. Just to name a few people using it: John Frusciante, Kurt Cobain in the post-Nevermind era, Steve Vai, Kim Deal from Pixies and many, many others.
A lot of people who were not satisfied with the DS-1, completely accepted the DS-2 and gave it well deserved good reviews. If you’re thinking that DS-1 wont fulfill all your needs, but you still want something that’s been proven to work by many popular guitar player, this pedal is the right choice. Believe us when we say that you wont regret the little extra cash you’ll have to put in.
Here is something more suitable for people who are after modern sounds. The original Pro Co “The RAT” was modeled in the mid-1970s, by engineers Scott Burnham and Steve Kiraly who decided to build a superior product of the widely popular Dallas Arbiter Fuzz Face.
Since then the RAT found it’s way to a handful of professional musicians such as Dave Grohl, Graham Coxon, Andy Summers, Jerry Cantrell and others. The pedal is based upon same scheme as the Boss DS-1 distortion pedal, although there are major differences between the circuits, which account for the huge difference in the sound between the two pedals. Some also compare it to the Big Muff, but say that the Muff offers more of a fuzz sound, and Pro Co gives you that raw distortion. The RAT2 is perfect for playing heavy and dirty power chords, and in contrast to some other pedals mentioned, this one proves to be great as a stand alone distortion. Playing with the knobs you can dial in many different tones, ranging from fuzz-like distortion, warm blues, treble-high metal tones and many others. As far as the built quality goes, it is as good as it gets, and RAT2 will probably end up lasting you decades.
If you are into grunge, punk or even some metal, this pedal is essential. It can do nearly everything you’d expect from a distortion pedal, and if you still find yourself confused with what model out of all these you should buy for yourself, we would differently recommend getting the RAT2.
Kirk Hammet, James Hetfield, Gary Moore, Mark Tremonti, Noel Gallagher, John Mayer and Stevie Ray Vaughan. What all these guitarists have in common? They all use/used the Ibanez Tube Screamer.
The pedal features quite basic functionality, which is to be expected from a pedal that has been on the shelves since the 1982. Nonetheless, it’s very versatile, and offers the sound from clean boost all the way to vintage sounding distortion, and it’s especially useful in combination with other pedals suchs as flanger or phaser. The TS9 is for players wanting a vintage sound from their guitars in the style of Stevie Ray Vaughan, or even some Led Zeppelin, because it’s not really a distortion but a boost pedal, which ads boost the signal at the front end which results in a very mid range-heavy “blues” tone. If you want thought, you can even pull out some Metallica sound from the period of “Ride the Lightning” and “Kill ‘Em All”, since this is the pedal those guys actually used on the album. But, if you indeed want to play modern-style music, you should probably look into the newer 9DX Tube Screamer model which features that same vintage sound from TS9, but adds three more modes for some heavier stuff.
All in all, whichever model you choose, whether it be the original TS-808, TS-9 or a modern TS9X, you’re getting yourself a classic. If you are serious about playing a guitar, and you wanna replicate some of the classic sounds from SRV, or modern players like Edge from U2 or John Mayer – nothing else will do the job as well.
The TL-2 is shortly put – a monster. It is marketed as an improvement over the Boss Metal Zone, and if we are being completely honest here, this pedal is indeed a better choice – unless of course you really care about the brand printed on the case.
This pedal is mainly for people who want as much distortion as they can get, packed up with seemingly endless sustain – so it’s not an ideal choice for people who just want little overdrive or distortion here and there that’s delivered by a traditional overdrive or distortion pedals. The TL-2 covers the broadest range of distortion from hard rock to extreme metal, but even when the knobs are on the lowest settings, you get that precise and fierce distortion sound. Controls include a level, a high knob with a low ring, a mid knob with a frequency ring, and a gain knob. There is also a switch to choose between tight and loose mode, which greatly affects the tone of the pedal.
If you are a true metal-head and you want something monstrous that can be considered a weapon – look no further.
Here’s something little less heavy, but still very versatile. The Fulltone OCB (Obsessive Compulsive Drive) is widely hailed as one of the best pedals to buy if you’re looking for something a bit more serious.
The OCB features three standard knobs for Volume, Drive and Tone, and a switch which toggles from Low Peak to High Peak. This basically means you can pull out very distinct tone for solo or rhythm, varying from from Fender Tweed-like to Marshall Plexi-like sound. The pedal gives you clear, uncompressed signal, and it doesn’t change the tone – it just adds volume and distortion. It sounds very open and natural, which is a thing to appreciate if you really like to have the control over you sound.
We honestly got nothing but words of approval for Fulltone OCD. If you don’t mind giving up some extra bucks for a sweet sounding pedal which will keep you satisfied for years – go for it. Robin Trower from Procol Harum also approves – he’s been using it for couple of his recent tours.
This list can’t go without the original “overdrive” (or whatever you wish to call it) pedal – the Dallas Rangemaster. But, there’s one problem – the pedal is no longer available.
Fortunately, some people decided to build replicas, and of course, there are some bad ones and some good ones one the market. We search around all possible sources, forums and stores, and by the looks of it, the Analogman Beano Boost is getting good reviews all around.
The original Dallas Rangemaster pedal was first introduced in the mid 1960s . The fact that it was one of the first treble boosters on the market, made this little box very popular among some of the big guys in the rock and roll, such as Eric Clapton, Rory Gallagher, Tony Iommi, Brian May and others. This was what all those guys used back in the day when overdrive or distortion pedals didn’t exist yet. They came around 1980s, when Dallas Rangemaster, and many other basic effects became obsolete. In more recent years treble boosters have gained some popularity again, especially among the people seeking that raw rock and roll sound.
Unlike the original Rangemaster, which was cased in a box meant to be placed on top of the amplifier, Analogman Beano Boost is a pedal. To us, this is a great plus, because it’s more convenient, and allows you to switch pedal on and off by foot.
All this being said, we warn you that this is a really simple pedal, and you wont be able to make as much of it as with some of the pedals mentioned in this list. But in case you are after the sound of the late 60s and early 70s, Analogman Beano Boost is certainly, if not best – one of the best replicas of the original Dallar Rangemaster.
So, there you go – our list of best overdrive/distortion/fuzz pedals. We are probably gonna add some more as time goes by, so keep an eye out for that. If you have your personal favorite, and we haven’t included it in our list, be sure to share you experience in the comments – it’ll help both the readers and us to reach a more autonomous and definitive list of best distortion and overdrive pedals.
