Of all the must-have pedals a guitarist needs in their collection, the humble overdrive pedal is chief. But with so many to choose from, it can be difficult to know what the best overdrive pedal is for you.
The overdrive market has always had plenty of choice, but in recent years boutique manufacturers and budget brands have flooded it with a seemingly endless amount of options, and for the novice (or even the pro), it’s not entirely clear why one would be better than another.
This list presents you with a collection of the best overdrive pedals you can buy across various styles, tones and price brackets, so whatever kind of drive you’re looking for, you will be able to find the pedal for you.
Quick list
The Boss Blues Driver (BD-2) is a legendary overdrive, first released in 1995 and a pedal that just about every player should own. The experts at BOSS’s Waza Craft division have reworked and improved the classic drive to create the BD-2w – one of the very best overdrive pedals you can buy at any price.
The Klon is often considered the holy grail for ‘transparent’ overdrives, however getting your hands on one can set you back in the region of $5k+, which doesn’t make financial sense for most. Our recommendation is to invest in a Wampler Tumnus, a modern day Klon clone that won’t cost an arm and a leg, sounds just about identical to the original.
The MXR Duke of Tone is a mass-market remake of the legendary Analog Man Prince of Tone, designed in conjunction with Analog Man itself. If you do want a legitimate Prince of Tone, you’ll have to get in line and add your name to Analog Man’s five-year waiting list. Fortunately the Duke of Tone is readily available and sounds absolutely identical.
The RevivalDRIVE Compact is an amp-in-a-box style overdrive pedal, which gives you tube-amp tones at your feet. This is derived from the genuine amp circuit topology hidden within the RevivalDRIVE that accurately recreates the signal path of a tube amplifier using solid state components.
Vemuram started appearing on professional pedalboards several years ago, which immediately piqued the interests of pedal enthusiasts… many of whom would have been given quite the shock when finding out their price. To get it out of the way, the biggest reason to avoid the Vemuram Shanks ODS-1 is the price...
The Morning Glory put JHS on the map and was one of the pedals that changed the concept of boutique manufacturers forever, and for good reason. Whilst some may look at it as yet another Bluesbreaker-style, transparent overdrive, the Morning Glory provides certifiably fat low end and crisp highs, that are unctuous and delightful to the ear.
As with all genuine Tube Screamers, there is a pronounced mid-push which works brilliantly with some amps – Fender tube amps for example – making it ideal for cutting through a busy mix. It is however worth stating that amps that have a lot of mids of their own – a Vox AC30 for example – may not work quite so seamlessly.
The Nobels ODR-1 is another stalwart in the overdrive market, having recently hit its 30th anniversary. Over that time, the ODR-1 has gone from cult hero to becoming a fan favorite. Self-described as a ‘natural overdrive’, the ODR-1 doesn’t have any aggressive boosts in its EQ, instead bringing your natural tone to the fore, with additional gain.
The TC Electronic Mojo-Mojo is a natural, tube-style overdrive pedal that aims to reproduce vintage Tweed-style tones. For those looking for an extra gain stage in their effects chain, the Mojo-Mojo is an excellent addition as it doesn’t vastly color your tone.
Best overall
The BOSS Blues Driver (BD-2) is a legendary overdrive, first released in 1995 and a pedal that just about every player should own. The experts at BOSS’s Waza Craft division have reworked and improved the classic drive to create the BD-2w – one of the very best overdrive pedals you can buy at any price.
With all-analog circuitry, the BD-2w doesn’t try to reinvent what the BD-2 does, rather it has been enhanced in almost every way, being quieter than the standard BD-2 (in terms of noise, not output volume), providing a more tactile feel to the player, and offering additional tonal options through its voice switch. Roll back the gain knob and you can get a subtle crunch that sits very much in the realms of blues, or dial it up and there’s plenty of gain on tap for heavier genres. Its standout feature is the ability to react to player dynamics. If you dig in, you get the full amount of its fury, but if you back off on your playing or guitar volume control, it cleans up really well. If you have a single channel amplifier then this is excellent, and guitars with volumes for each pickup mean you can flick effortlessly between your clean and lead tones, using your guitar volume to effectively set the crunch on the Blues Driver.
It is around double the price of its non-Waza sibling – and if you can’t stretch your budget to the Waza version, the standard Blues Driver is fantastic in its own right – but it still represents excellent value in the market, producing boutique-quality tones and feel at an accessible price point.
Best Klon clone
The Klon is often considered the holy grail for ‘transparent’ overdrives, however getting your hands on one can set you back in the region of $5k+, which doesn’t make financial sense for most. Our recommendation is to invest in a Wampler Tumnus, a modern day Klon clone that won’t cost an arm and a leg, sounds just about identical to the original, and has a comparatively microscopic footprint on your pedalboard.
As a transparent overdrive, The Tumnus doesn’t drastically alter the EQ of your sound. When you kick it in, you get a gain boost that brings out those sought-after harmonics in your tone and produces plenty of luscious sustain that is perfect for solos. It’s not a one trick pony either – if your other pedals aren’t quite cutting it, try using the Tumnus in conjunction and it fattens them up and gives you a thicker, fuller drive tone. If neither of those options float your boat but you want that additional harmonic richness to your tone, you can dial back the gain and use the Tumnus as an ‘always-on’ pedal, that simply makes everything sound better.
The team at Wampler has done its very best to accurately reproduce the magical quality of the original Klon, carefully and thoughtfully replicating the original circuitry – and they’ve done a more than admirable job. Bill Finnegan – manufacturer of the original Klon Centaur – doesn’t buy into the hype of spending thousands on his classic pedal and we’d argue that neither should you. Get a Tumnus instead.
Best Blues-Breaker
The MXR Duke of Tone is a mass-market remake of the legendary Analog Man Prince of Tone, designed in conjunction with Analog Man itself. If you do want a legitimate Prince of Tone, you’ll have to get in line and add your name to Analog Man’s five-year waiting list. Fortunately the Duke of Tone is readily available and sounds absolutely identical, and that’s because its circuit has been designed identically too, save for a few internal dip switches.
The Duke of Tone is essentially a ‘bluesbreaker’ style design, which adds warmth and provides a really strong backbone to your sound when engaged. With three modes, taking you from a pushed clean (in ‘Boost’ mode), to crunch (in ‘OD’ mode), to dirty (in ‘Distortion mode), the Duke of Tone is a pedal for those looking for versatility. It’s not as pronounced and bitey as some overdrives and the EQ curve of your sound should remain largely flat, but in every mode it is articulate, cuts through a mix, and has an excellent ability to react dynamically to your playing.
A really nice feature of the Duke of Tone is the ability to run it at either 9V or 18V, with the 18V mode providing an extra level of headroom, which is particularly pronounced in its ‘boost’ mode, and only adds to the pedal’s versatility. For those looking for something compact in size, but rich on tonal options, the Duke of Tone should be a serious consideration.
Best amp in a box
The RevivalDRIVE Compact is an amp-in-a-box style overdrive pedal, which gives you tube-amp tones at your feet. This is derived from the genuine amp circuit topology hidden within the RevivalDRIVE that accurately recreates the signal path of a tube amplifier using solid state components. Unlike the original RevivalDRIVE, the compact version has only one channel, but this is still more than enough for just about any player and can take you from British to American amp tones in the turn of a couple of knobs.
EQ and tonal shaping is where the RevivalDRIVE Compact is in a class of its own. The ‘Highs’ knob does more than just cutting or adding high frequencies, it shapes the overall character of your tone through classic tube amp settings. Likewise, the ‘Lows’ knob doesn’t just offer balance in the low end, it controls how much low end is sent to the pedals output stage, giving you the choice to sweep between fat modern and tight vintage tones.
The integrated post-overdrive EQ means you can shape this to work with bright or dark guitar amps or even for a DI output, power amp or speaker emulator, so you can use this pedal as a preamp for an ampless rig.
Though the compact version comes in at a significantly lower price than its big brother it still is a lot of money for an overdrive pedal, but if your amp isn’t quite cutting it, this is a great way of breeding new life into your sound, which could be a lot cheaper than purchasing a new tube amp.
Best high-end overdrive
Vemuram started appearing on professional pedalboards several years ago, which immediately piqued the interests of pedal enthusiasts… many of whom would have been given quite the shock when finding out their price. To get it out of the way, the biggest reason to avoid the Vemuram Shanks ODS-1 is the price; at over $400, it’s a lot of money for a single-function overdrive, but while the price point is wild, so is the tone.
With a circuit derived from the Nobels ODR-1 and designed in collaboration with its namesake – John Shanks – it adds beautiful gain to your sound, without coloring the EQ in any discernible way and it has a great natural compression that provides ample saturation with a tasteful amount of ‘squash’. It’s hard to quantify what it is about the Shanks that makes it sound so good, but it just sounds expensive. Your tone is that much more complex and rich having been subject to the Shanks’ signal path. Its response is like that of a vintage tube amplifier, and you can really feel dynamically involved with it, and the addition of bass and saturation trim pots on the top of the pedal adds a layer of flexibility you struggle to get from the pedal upon which it’s based.
If you’re on a budget, there are many other pedals that use this general circuit type, however if you can stretch your budget there is a notable improvement in the tone with the Shanks over rivals, plus the nods of approval you will receive from those jealous of your shiny Vemuram pedal is good for the ego.
Best transparent overdrive
The Morning Glory put JHS on the map and was one of the pedals that changed the concept of boutique manufacturers forever, and for good reason. Whilst some may look at it as yet another Bluesbreaker-style, transparent overdrive, the Morning Glory provides certifiably fat low end and crisp highs, that are unctuous and delightful to the ear. With tones to die for, it took boutique to the mainstream.
As a ‘transparent’ drive, it really amplifies the characteristics of your guitar and amp, so for those with a set-up they aren’t super happy with, the Morning Glory may only make you more dissatisfied. That being said, if you love your rig as it is, the Morning Glory is like the cherry on top of the cake, opening up a new dimension of sweet but subtle harmonic content that you wouldn’t have had before.
The Morning Glory is effortlessly simple, which is one of its endearing qualities, however if you want more tonal options, JHS’s ‘Double Barrel’ has two overdrives in one: the Morning Glory on one side, and their Moonshine – a more saturated overdrive – on the other. It’s a lot of fun, but (unsurprisingly) costs twice as much.
Best Tube Screamer
You can debate all you want about which version of the Tube Screamer is the best, but in terms of value for money, the Tube Screamer Mini is the pick of the range. Despite its TS808 inspired design, internally the Tube Screamer Mini shares its components with the TS9… but in all honesty, that doesn’t matter – it does precisely what you’d hope any Tube Screamer would do.
As with all genuine Tube Screamers, there is a pronounced mid-push which works brilliantly with some amps – Fender tube amps for example – making it ideal for cutting through a busy mix. It is however worth stating that amps that have a lot of mids of their own – a Vox AC30 for example – may not work quite so seamlessly. Those looking for a pedal that can effortlessly push your tone into focus for lead sections should definitely give this a go, but it may not be an ideal fit depending on your amp.
With a mass of cheap Tube Screamer clones on the market, why settle for an imposter when you can have the real thing? The Tube Screamer Mini is among the first pedals every guitarist should own.
Best warm overdrive
The Nobels ODR-1 is another stalwart in the overdrive market, having recently hit its 30th anniversary. Over that time, the ODR-1 has gone from cult hero to becoming a fan favorite. Self-described as a ‘natural overdrive’, the ODR-1 doesn’t have any aggressive boosts in its EQ, instead bringing your natural tone to the fore, with additional gain. This makes it ideal for players looking for a warm saturation and wanting to add guts to their sound.
A bass cut switch hidden under the battery cover – what the BC stands for in its model name – was specifically added to respond to some comments from users that the ODR-1 could produce too much low end when used with humbuckers. On its own, it’d sound great, but in a packed mix, it could become muddy. The bass switch helps eradicate this issue, making it far more usable in most settings.
Alongside the bass cut, the ODR-1 has some other neat features up its sleeve, including the ability to run it on either 9V or 18V, with the latter giving you additional headroom, and it also features glow in the dark knobs, which may sound like a gimmick but for gigging musicians is a simple but very welcome addition.
Best on a budget
The TC Electronic Mojo-Mojo is a natural, tube-style overdrive pedal that aims to reproduce vintage Tweed-style tones. For those looking for an extra gain stage in their effects chain, the Mojo-Mojo is an excellent addition as it doesn’t vastly color your tone. With all the controls in the 12 o’clock positions, the Mojo-Mojo gives you a nice transparent overdrive that works beautifully with your amplifier, allowing you to ramp up or down the drive knob to suit your needs. The bass and treble knobs do give you good control of the EQ though, so you can crank the highs and cut back the lows for soaring solos.
At one stage you could pick up a Mojo-Mojo pedal for next to nothing, but it quickly gained credibility (and grew in price) because of its use by the likes of Thurston Moore, Steve Lukather and Paul Gilbert – the latter of whom even has their own signature version. You may not get one for that super-low price anymore, however, at under $70 it’s still a really competitively priced pedal with tones that far exceed other pedals at this price point.
Buying advice
What is overdrive?
Overdrive is an effect that changes the signal of your guitar to mimic the sound of an old school tube amplifier running loudly and cascading into natural break up. It also works well if you have an existing tube amplifier, helping the amp to work harder and bring out its natural dirt. A good overdrive pedal should also offer the dynamic feel of a tube amplifier, reacting to how you play – harder offering more dirt, and softer retaining clean tones.
The vast majority of overdrives available on the market are lightly tweaked copies of existing circuits, with the most commonly copied being the Tubescreamer, but there are plenty of other designs that have multiple homages to them (Klon Centaur and Marshall Bluesbreaker, to name just two). Overdrive as a circuit tends to be relatively simple, using diodes and sometimes op-amps, though various overdrives will use variations to achieve their specific tone.
How to understand overdrive buzz words
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‘Soft clipping’, ‘hard clipping’, ‘transparent’, ‘true bypass’. When looking at overdrive pedals you will hear a number of words used to explain their characteristics. You don’t need to be an expert and understand the theory or design behind these, but knowing what is meant by these terms will make it easier to understand the general behavior and tone of your overdrive.
Soft Clipping – A ‘gentle’ overdrive that is smoother and doesn’t cut off the top of your guitar’s sound waveform, helping retain a natural curve.
Hard Clipping – A more aggressive overdrive that uses diodes at the end of the circuit and affects your entire guitar signal. Used typically in harder rock settings, this will square off your waveform.
Transparent – An overdrive that doesn’t color your tone and works with your guitar and amp, without drastically changing the EQ.
Not Transparent – An overdrive that does make changes to the EQ of your sound, boosting specific frequencies, e.g. a mid boost.
Which overdrive pedal is right for me?
Once you’ve understood what the different types of overdrive are, it becomes a little easier to understand which overdrive pedal would suit your existing set-up and the tone(s) you’re trying to achieve.
The Tube Screamer – arguably the most important overdrive pedal of all time – is not transparent and has a distinctive mid push, which works really well with Fender tube amplifiers, which tend to have a slightly scooped midrange; however a Vox AC30, with ample midrange of its own, won’t necessarily work quite so well. Alongside understanding the character of a specific overdrive pedal, make sure you know the character of your amplifier too as they have a symbiotic relationship when creating your drive tone.
Overdrive, distortion and even boost can sit fairly closely to each other in terms of effects, but make sure that if you specifically want an overdrive, then that’s what you get. Boost will raise your signal level, which could drive the preamp of your tube amplifier and achieve natural overdriven tones, however this is not achieved in quite the same way as an overdrive. A boost can also add a perceived volume increase due to the way it works your amplifier’s preamp, or a genuine volume boost if run into your amp’s effects loop.
Distortion on the other hand adds much more color to your signal, through harmonic saturation. This will typically create more sustain and be a more intense effect than overdrive, though similar results can be achieved.
If you think that you’d want a mix of these effects then they can complement each other. There are even a number of pedals that will have two modes, or two footswitches that have different functions, including combinations of overdrives, boosts, or distortions, for example, Fender’s Santa Ana overdrive, which features an integrated boost switch.
Should I have more than one overdrive?
This is quite an easy one. Yes. One overdrive may be enough for some, but there’s a really broad canvas of tonal options and most overdrives won’t be able to fill all of that, so the likelihood is that there is always room for a second overdrive on your pedalboard.
The other excellent thing that you can do with overdrive pedals is stack them, with one effect cascading into the other. This can result in entirely new tones that are perfect for lead sections, or heavier moments. Some manufacturers will even do this for you, for example JHS’s Double Barrel features the circuits of both its Morning Glory and Moonshine overdrives, which can be run in series, including flipping which order they are placed (either can be first or second).
How we test
At Guitar Player, our team of writers aren't just music enthusiasts; we're real-life musicians. Our hands-on experience with overdrive pedals ensures that our reviews and recommendations are backed by practical knowledge and real-world testing.
When it comes to selecting the best overdrive pedals, we leave no stone unturned. Meticulously evaluating factors like tonal versatility, sonic character, build quality, and value for money, it's only after rigorous testing in a variety of playing scenarios do we choose products for our guides. We stand by our selections, ensuring that every set of strings we recommend is one we'd use ourselves.
Read more on how we test gear and service at Guitar Player.
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