overdrive

A reissue of one of the best-kept secrets in overdrive effects, the new Nobels ODR-1 has been one of my personal favorite OD pedals for a few months now. While this little green pedal might not be well known by a huge segment of players, it's actually a very popular overdrive in the Nashville music scene -- and for good reason. Boasting a unique combination of natural smooth overdrive, rich sustain, and gritty distortion when pushed, the Nobels ODR-1 is definitely not your typical tube-style pedal. Continue reading →

When we had our first look at the new Ernie Ball Expression Overdrive effects pedal, we found the combination of an expression pedal on a dirt box very interesting, to say the least. Despite its long history, expression pedals in the effects world have been mainly relegated towards wah-wahs, whammy emulators, and volume pedals. After a few hours of putting this pedal through the paces, I can say that the Ernie Ball Expression Overdrive succeeds in taking two type of pedals and creating an experience that manages to feel like something entirely new. That alone makes this pedal a winner because if there’s a single effect that feels like it has been done every possible way imaginable, it’s overdrive.     Continue reading →

ProAudioLand is proud to bring our customers the best from boutique pedal manufacturer Analog Alien! Based on the desire to recapture the legendary analog tones of the ‘60s and ‘70s, Analog Alien pedals are made to deliver the quality, dependability, amazing tone and hands-on touch that is essential for today's recording or performing musician. Founded in 2009 by Joe and Jack Napoli, Analog Alien has built an impressive following of professional users including Joe Walsh, Stevie Wonder, James Burton, Joan Jett and more. Today, we're taking a look at a few of our favorites. While these effects are built to be straight forward and easy to use, they remain highly versatile and sound fantastic!   Continue reading →

If you were to ask ten different musicians about the differences between distortion and overdrive chances are you’ll get ten different answers. They will all most likely do it by trying to describe what each sounds like. In other words, they will be describing the effect’s tonal qualities rather than what it is technically doing to a guitar signal. Still, the line between distortion and overdrive tend to blend together so much that it’s pretty hard to draw a line between the two, especially when it comes to effects pedals. In this article, we take a closer look at these two popular effects from inside and out in order to give you a clearer picture.   Continue reading →

The Ibanez Tube Screamer is easily one of the most influential effects pedals in music gear history, used by wide variety of guitarists across several genre of music from Brad Paisley to The Edge, John Mayer and -- most famously -- Stevie Ray Vaughan. It has also been outright cloned numerous times, used as the basis for hundreds of overdrive pedals from several manufacturers and also enjoys one of the largest modding communities around. Today, we're taking a look at what exactly made the Tube Screamer such a success as well as taking a look at the differences between three of its popular iterations: the original TS808, the TS9 and the TS9DX.   Continue reading →