DOD 202 Overdrive Preamp

Mine it is a reissue of the 70's model, bought in 1999, it has the same old simple circuit, but what a great construction, as it is with everything from the 50's, 60's and 70's, when things where made without thinking in the money. It has a preamp so the distortion is warmer than any other distortion pedal (besides you can connect it to a power amp and play along). No jack battery eliminator.
I'd say it's very easy to get a good sound of it, because there is only two knobs: level and gain. For a good sound just turn the way up both controls, and then try to regulate the volume on the amp for a taste of saturation.
When i bought it, nobody gave me a manual, altough i'm sure there has to be one. (i accepted it because it was the only store in buenos aires where they had this pedal).

I'm using a 1991 japanese fender strat with a Peavey Express 112 amp.
The distortion of my amp really SUCKS... i guess it's more kinda clean mode amp.. so, with the 250 i get a warmer distortion (because of the preamp), like a soft overdrive, good for blues and rock and roll, warm is the word, really good tube emulation, I'd say vintage is the word. or if you play heavy metal then use it in conjuction with your marshall or boogie amp's distortion for hot solos!
It isn't noisy at all.
The effect is only great when you have the controls on full.
In fact, I got this because Yngwie Malmsteen uses it. The way he use it is to put the 250 for a stronger signal, because the Dimarzio HS-3 single coil he uses doesn't have much gain, and the he turns all the way up the volume on his late 60's Marshall plexis. (that's what i do, except for my crappy Peavey).

If you're into blues and rock and roll and don't have a tube amp, then this might be a really good choice. Remember it only works with a 9v battery, and reaching it by removing 4 screws, which can be a pain the ass and makes it less ecological.

I never dealt with DOD because it have never broken down.

I play from rock and roll to heavy metal. I been playing for 2 years and a half. The other gear i own is a Boss DD-3 and an Ibanez Classic Metal, which is a cheap pedal with a really heavy distortion but very much solid-state sounding than the 250.
I love the warm sound, the good tube emulation, the easy of use, the vintage look.. they only thing i don't like it is the lack of the jack battery eliminator.
I compared it to an Ibanez Tubescreamer, which i'd say it is the only overdrive unit which can compare with the 250, and it was good but i prefer this because of the preamp and it is better constructed.
There's nothing i wish it had, it was made for overdrive and that's what it is.
The last thing i want to say is that for me it was very difficult to get one, specially in this country.

Couldn't be easier to get a decent setting. The controls are Gain, Level, and an MXR-style switch housed in a solid, yellow stombox. I have the original and it does not have a battery compartment (i'm not sure if the reissue accepts batteries)

Yamaha shit strat (EG112) -> Boss Compression Sustainer -> DOD Preamp/Overdrive 250 -> DOD Sustain -> Morley PWA Wah -> DOD Delay -> DOD Chorus -> (first out) yamaha shit combo (8" 10 watt) (second out) microsoft digital 80 computer speakers (it actually sounds better than the combo). Not particularly noisy for a distortion pedal. I don't really like it because it has too much of that 60s/70s fuzz. I think that the digital 80s just so happen to produce that fuzz tone when distorted. I would assume that the fuzz would go away if I use a real amp (no, my combo is not a real amp). Because my amps are not very powerful it does not take much to overdrive them. This pedal gives a pretty strong shot of overdrive into my pussy amps but if you use it on a more powerful amp the effect will be less. I'm planning on getting a tech 21 trademark 10 (if anyone cares to give me their experience with those that would be awesome). It's not the best pedal for Hendrix and SRV but hey, it's still a distortion pedal. It's also very good for bringing out some volume so I can get more effect out of my wah. I think the ideal distortion pedal for me would be a more versatile pedal capable of more tones (this pedal is pretty much a one dimensional tone).

Bulit like a tank, I can totally depend on it. The gain knob cracked a little and came loose once but this thing is pretty darn old... I fixed that with some super glue. Say... anybody that knows anything about vintage pedals: is this worth anything since it's the original? (It's in pretty good condition, superficial chips here and there)

On top of the two I've mentioned (Hendrix, Vaughan) I also play metal (metallica, ac/dc, rage, my own metal shit), many styles of rock (pumpkins, nirvana, beatles to name a few) At least with the equipment I have it isn't a terrific match. I've been playing a little over a year, other than the gear I've said I also have a yamaha d'nought which is pretty good. if it were stolen or lost i'd be screwed because it's not mine. had it been mine (and got stolen) it would just be an excuse for me to get like a boss metal zone or big muff or something.

Way easy.

I use this thing with a plethora of setups - strats, LP's, guits with hi-output Duncans, DiMarzio's, etc. I absolutely love the sound of this old thing for lead work - it's smooth, but exciting.

Mine's more'n 20 yrs old - never failed. Pot's are a little scratchy. It's innards consist of 7 resistors, 6 caps, and 2 diodes, so what's to fart out on it? Outsides are thick metal with grey paint and yellow marking. It's become QUITE scratched up over the years but WTF. I wouldn't use it on a gig without a backup but that's just because I have other distortions I like as well.

Never dealt with the company, never needed too. In fact, that's the kind of Customer Support I really prefer - the kind where they support you by making their product so good that you don't need to mess with it.

I noticed the review of the DOD 200 Od Preamp and got so tickled by seeing someone bother to write in praise of such an old thing I thought I'd join in.

Two knobs; Gain, Level. Any idiot can use this pedal

This thing is awesome. Its old, but its good. I play it with a Kramer and a Crate. With the gain all the way up on the clean channel of my 65 watt solid state amp it gets a great vintage rock sound, sweetest ive ever heard out of a solid state amp. In the lead channel (gain already maxed out) it adds a nice chunky sound and helps solos stand out, with the gain all the way up it make it go crazy, you cant conrtol the feedback and other great noises. It doesn't add too much to the sound quality but has unlimited gain. This is the perfect HEAVY metal players pedal.

I think the casing is cast iron. Heavy and tough, its never failed me with the electronics either.

Never dealt with them.

I love it. I play thrash metal and with my crate GX65AV and Kramer dual humbucker guitar it has plenty of in your face distortion, sometimes it doesn't even sound like a guitar at all. I keep it maxed and let the feedback consume everything.