Scott's Superdrive

As you may know I've dabbled in the DIY pedal scene for a while.  I love the smell of melting solder and the fly by the seat of your pants "will it work?" feeling when making a pedal.

A number of years ago I started trying my hand at creating something different by mashing different pedal designs together. Some of these were non starters and others were OK.  This particular experiment came out quite well.

Scott's Superdrive took the Tube Screamer type circuit and married it to a Big Muff type tone stack. Of course each of these parts of the pedal received their own tweaking and modifications.  At the end of it all was a Mosfet output stage to recover some of the signal loss from the tone stack.

The result was an overdrive with more drive than a Tube Screamer, less buzz than a Big Muff, and an overall interesting characteristic all it's own.

Focus on the playing forget about the gear

We all go through periods where the quest for tone becomes almost obsessive.  We think,rethink, and over think the signal chain. “If I had my XYZ box on the board I could get the (insert favorite guitarist here) sound. 

Maybe we think we need another OD just to round things out.  Maybe a speaker change would get us that tonal nirvana.  What about new cables for the board?

I have gone through this myself.  While chasing the perfect tone is fun, it can be counter productive.  You see, it doesn’t matter how good you sound if the sounds being made are not pleasant.  I’m not saying that trying to get a great tone is a bad thing, just make sure it isn’t the only thing.

I have done the past several gigs without even thinking about my gear.  I have a few pedals, wah,a booster, a chorus, and an echo into a Fender Blues Jr.  I stopped worrying about whether the OD I have is the right one or whether I should use another pedal for an extra layer of sound.  I have been enjoying just playing with what I have and it has been great.

I’ve tried to make sure the notes I am playing count more than whether of not the Leslie sound I’m getting out of the chorus pedal is convincing enough. I'm too busy making music to worry about my rig. I’m also trying to make sure I sell the song.  Really making sure that the audience sees the fun I’m having playing the gig.

I have had many last minute gigs and when I find out in short notice instead of worrying about the gear I need I just nodded my head and said ” I’ll be there”.  All I’m concerned with now is the set list.

Try to spend some time focusing on the playing and you’ll be surprised at how easily the rig comes together.