DOD 250 Overdrive Preamp

easy to use except battery change...whatever get a power supply

it sounds like poop going threw a am radio thats not in tune...using the low drive settings with level turned all the way up is ok...but for that little boost just turn up your dam amp....turn the drive all the way up and you may wonder, that ice picks stabbing your ear drums could sound better,i love it when people say it depends on what amp your using...it sounds great with a marshall jcm...not so great with my solid state crate...really!!! no duh...wow you guys are smart...if you have a good amp you don't need this worthless junk pile...the amp is fine on its own...wait its the grey not the yellow that sounds better...whatever...you can paint it any color you want its still the same crappy pedal...the 30 cents worth of outdated junk opamp is a insult to your hundreds of dollars worth of tubes....get a wah pedal with a boost or heck just get a delay pedal instead....one of those stupid one knob phasers could be better than this...heck go to the pet store and get a turtle...and feed it some snails.. now thats crunch tone!

i stuck this thing in the swimming pool...let it dry...still worked
wow who cares...I stole it from some chub who owed me money...worked really well as a blunt object to beat his cheap little face in...

who cares...life time warranty on all dod's just send in the card.. " you know that piece of paper everyone throws away"....otherwise throw it in the trash or use the case for something else, like a trojan horse for your enemy...just put some roaches in it instead of soldiers,

i play hamster rock and they all hate it, if you need to make your guitar sound like a AM radio this is the pedal, it looks way better if your spray paint it grey and sell it to some old fart thats dumb enough to pay 300 bucks for it...better yet give it a cheese ball van halen stripe job then sell it for 400 hundred bucks...

Very easy to get a good dirty sound from. It is my main dirt pedal, and it is used on pretty much every one of my songs. I use a mxr micro amp clone before it to drive it harder for solos and boosts and whatnot. It's a very effective duo and is the most used in my rig.

This one was built by myself using the GGG schematic. The only mod I did was to switch the stock diode setup to be asymmetrical instead of symmetrical... and HOLY CRAP! That pretty much did it for me. This is by far my favorite pedal now.

It's not too noisy, unless you are expecting it to act like a distortion, in which case you're using it wrong. This is really made to just dirty up your signal a little bit, without overly altering your original guitar's tone. So if you're dialing in the overdrive past say, 12:00, you're not going to get a good sound out of it and it's going to turn into muddy junk.

I'm using this with a telecaster (Alnico II pro humbucker in bridge) into a '69 silverface twin reverb. In a nutshell, this pedal makes my amp sound like the amp is set at 5 or 6 when it is actually set at around 2 1/2.

I built it, so this one is on me.

As far as overdrive pedals are concerned, this one does it for me. I've used a variety of others in the past, from Boss SD-1 to ts-808, ts-9, Crowther Hotcake, and this is still my favorite. And for roughly $30 of parts, you can't beat it. It's a super easy build as well. Great for first-time pedal projects, as it only has about 12 parts total. Even for an inexperienced builder, I can't imagine assembly taking more than about an hour or two. Plus, whatever tone your amp and guitar already have will essentially just be clipped (overdriven).

two knobs, few sweet spots, listen

This is the original yellow od 250 not the reissue. Unique voice, midrange bark that cuts through the mix. les paul- big muff-ts 808- dod od-akai headrush- ehx pusar- ehx holy grail- line 6 dl4 in various orders in the fx loop, sometimes run the distortions and wah straight in.

fender deville 2x12 60 watt.
semi noisy, might go clean it now. really colorful i use it for a bright bark overdrive, the muff for dark fuzz, the tubescreamer for boost/ color boost. and the amp channels as well.

this is a great sounding pedal and really has a voice of its own. bright but not overly harsh. really cuts through the mix and it can scream.

its old and beat i doubt it

if u like overdrive as i do you will most likely enjoy this pedal. dont expect cream, think bark.

Incredibly easy to use - 2 knobs and a stomp switch. The only issue is that there's no LED indicator, and the level knob maxed gives me unity gain. So, it can be tough to tell when it's on. Hence the 7 - points deducted for no LED. It's fairly simple to add one though, as well as a true bypass switch. I just need to do it.

Stock this pedal is very impressive - especially for $30. I've used it with a Squier Strat (GFS pups) and a Tele Custom (Duncan humbuckers) in front of a 65 Tremolux and a modded Valve Jr. Sounds pretty good stock with all of the above. The issue (when stock) is that unity gain comes with the level knob maxed, and more volume is obtained by using the gain knob. Turning up the gain knob causes cool mild distortion down low (especially in front of a pushed tube amp, which is this pedal's forte) - but the distortion got pretty hairy, not in a good way, as the gain knob gets turned up. SO, I modded it using Indyguitarist's 'clean boost' specs - very simple, 3 changes. WOW! Still the issue of unity gain coming with the level knob maxed, but turning up the gain causes a nice very mild distortion - just barely breaking up - at low gain, with more overdrive coming as you turn it up, all the way with a pretty intense distortion (almost fuzz) with both knobs maxed. Not noisy at all when used with a battery. It gets a 9 for the modded version. A 7 stock.

If I gigged I would need a backup, only because I use batteries and this pedal a)doesn't have an LED indicator and b) needs to have the bottom plate unscrewed and removed to change the battery. Not a cool thing to have to do on stage, especially since this pedal would be used often. The metal case and footswitch are top notch though - super rugged. I'm quite surprised I got something this nice for the price. Must be the lack of LED/true bypass circuitry keeping costs down. I've had it for a year now with absolutely no issues.

Haven't tried to contact DOD. Though I don't suspect they're going anywhere anytime soon...

This pedal, modded as I mentioned, is fantastic for a lead boost in front of a pushed tube amp. I use it for many types of rock, and for when I attempt blues. I've been playing about 3 and a half years so I'm still getting my feet wet in terms of skill for sure. But, my ears are keen for tone and the more I play, the more I find I like the sounds of my guitars straight to my amps. This pedal helps get a variety of sounds out of those amps by just kicking the switch. If it were lost or stolen I'd definitely get another - last time I checked it was $30 at Musician's Friend, and I put 50 cents worth of parts into modding it. If I gig I'd get a backup no question.

You have two knobs: volume, gain.

It's pretty easy, but there is a compramise with the gain at times because the treble increases at the end of the gain knobs range. Conversly the tone gets muddier the lower the gain is set. Certain units will also have a harsh overtone at the highest gain. This is where using two of them together becomes usefull because you get the super saturated gain without the harsh tone.

The 250 is right up there with the most classic dirt boxes of all time. The 4 pedals any proper dirt box collection should have: tube screamer, big muff, rat, 250.

The question is whether you like the sound? If you don't like one 250 chances are you won't like any 250 whether it is gray, yellow or reissue. If you like the 250 sound you should get a few and see which one you prefer because there are subtle vartiations from one pedal to the next.

My favorite one is a reissue from the 90's which is US made. The best boutique 250 I have found is the Slow Burn with tone knob. The original Voodoo Lab Overdrive is a gray 250 clone. It sounds just like a gray 250 but it has about 4 times as much output.

It is a pedal icon. How can you not give it a 10.

Sound great in front of a fender style amp, an vox style amp or a marshall style amp.....

250 dude. Like yngwie plays one dude. Like its so heavy or something...

Well how should I start. The price of this thing depends on the version and model and I have learned there are about 5 versions so far. The grey one, the yellow vintage version, The yellow reissue, the yng version and some black box. But basicly it all comes down to the same thing. A simple operational amplifier that has the ouput signal shunt to ground with two silcon diodes causing a horrible shreddy overamplified sound. I have written a review about this thing before but this time I have used this thing with a amp played with volume on 10!! and that makes a big difference + that I am a few months further in using this thing. Ohw btw This thing got two knobs, volume and gain. Pretty useless if you ask me since this thing will always give you tone no matter what you do.

Well I sound a bit negative on the features. Thats for two reasons.
1. ) Using this thing alone is your worst mistake ever. It sounds like a broken AM radio, similar to the ibanez tube screamer.
2. ) You need a real amp. When I say real I mean a big ^&*(*&^ tube amp that has a straight signal path. NO diodes or transistors in the way.

Ok My amp is a homemade Marshall JCM-800 2204 and that is a real amp to my opinion. I plugged this box in front of it with the settings on 12 o clock and the amp gain on full and what you start hearing is smooth yng like overdrive. The real secret is that you put your amps volume on 10!!! Once you are in that sweet zone you get real yng power. Once I found that out I couldn't believe my ears This is tone people!! This thing makes playing the guitar fun it makes you move your head and body with the sound. It makes you a soundgod and all that for 20 euro's can you believe this!!
We plugged different guitars in and it does't matter it just sounds superb. Even cheap guitars sound great with this combination. If you trow all the knobs on full you get old skool metal sound which to my opinion is much better than the metal sound you hear today.
I boosted my amp with an extra tube but is simply not the same. you don't get enough shred. Something is missing, counts the same for the tube screamer. It btw sounds best if you use celestion speakers. My jensens are not giving that final bit that is needed to get ultimate yng sound. Lucky for you I tested it with celestion speakers.

Ohw btw if you use a fake amp (heheh just kidding) you also get real tone. Tried my valbee and guess what got tone!! tried a kustom kga-10 got tone. If your amp doens't give tone with this thing you will have to realize your amp simply sucks!! trust me if your tone sucks use this thing and youll get tone.

Now Ill give it a ten but I should be carefull warn you that the tone strongely depends on your other gear. Anyway it does what it is supposed to do and thats boosting your amp to the limit without noise and other crappy problems.

What should I say. One 741 op-amp about 5 resistors and a few caps. And the two diodes. I really very strongly doubt this thing will fail on you. especialy since the shop versions are put in steel boxes. O YEAH MINE TOO :)

I don't think these guys have a costumer support but a hospital for people who have used their amp to long on high volumes and now have lost their hearing. This thing makes you addicted to high volume.
Who on earth will help a homebuilder ;)

So I play everything. Except country an pop music. But you have allready figured out by reading this post that I love yngwie and steve vai. Iron maiden, Guns and roses, cradle of filth, srv, ac/dc, eric clapton, joe santariani, vladko stefanofski, children of bottom etc etc etc. Everyone that likes to shred and wake the neighbours should have this thing and a marshall offcourse ;) If you want black metal stick this baby in front of a mesa and get blasted away. This band in an box will keep on amazing me with the minute. I say get your schematic of the net now and start soldering!!!

pretty easy. fine tweakin's the key

amazing. flat response to all frequencies. doesn't change your tone

I play british rock. 60's and 70's style. been playing for 22 years.
you can get that classic T.Rex sound with this baby. or AC/DC or Zepp or Who or ...

This is yellow and black 1st reissue of the original made back in 1981 which I did a D2 mod on. Mine is pretty beat up and is missing the back cover. It has a volume and a gain nob. Pretty straight forward and easy to figure out.

I play a Yamaha AEX502 semi hollowbody w/P-90 pickups into an Tubescreamer, into the DOD 250, into a Ampeg Reverberocket(reissue) amp. The Tubescreamer is for solo's and the DOD is my gives me a little dirt when I need it. When I first got it I could hear the potential but I thought the overdrive was just way too harsh for my liking so I replaced the D1 and D2 diodes with red leds. Now the overdrive is a lot smoother, has more range, and the output has increased dramatically. Before the mod I'd give it a 6 after the D2 mod I'm giving it a solid 8

This thing could withstand nuclear war. All that will be left is cockroaches, Keith Richards, and this pedal. The circuit is fairly simple so it makes it a lot easier to work on. I've gigged with several times despite no back cover and never had a problem with it.

For my style of music i.e. garage rock n roll it works perfectly. With the D2 mod it totally gives me a clean boost with just a little grit and dirt. It really does what it's supposed to and pushes the tubes and along with the Jensen speaker it really breaks up nicely in the Reverberocket. Not too be rude but as I tell my bandmates it's like fucking warm butter. Ha!

Two knobs (level and drive) and two jacks (in and out.) Couldn't get much simpler, although I do suppose some compressors only have one knob. I like that there is no tone knob - seems to give it a fuller sound.

First of all, my setup is: Les Paul (Duncan SH-2 and SH-4 pickups) -> Boss CS-3 Compression Sustainer, DOD 250 or Boss OS-2 Overdrive/Distortion -> Boss BF-3 Flanger -> modified Vox V847 wah -> various amps.

Despite what the tube police say, this pedal has a great sound through any amp - tube or solid state. Using the pedal's drive sounds great and using it strictly as a preamp (level up, drive down) easily overdrives my amp. This pedal gets loud!

It also seems to be very dynamic. Individual notes don't get lost in a sea of distortion. This may very well be my new favorite. I feel like it has a much "fuller" sound compared to my previous favorite, the Boss OS-2 Overdrive/Distortion. Playing them side by side, the 250 sounds great for any kind of playing - rhythm or lead - while the OS-2's tone control sort of limits you to a certain range.

On the negative side, the 250 can be a little noisy when the drive is up but that seems to be true of anything with a lot of drive. If you are the do-it-yourself type, a few small changes like using low tolerance resistors will help that out a bit.

Seems rugged inside and out. The only drawback is that the bottom plate has to be removed to change the battery, but I suppose that's how it should be since it is a reissue of a old pedal. I use AC adapters anyway.

I've owned a few DOD pedals over the years and haven't needed to deal with them but I didn't even know they were still in business until I noticed these reissue pedals online. DOD is owned by the same company as Digitech but I thought DOD was phased out years ago. The DOD web site doesn't appear to have been updated in years and I can't imagine them being very easy to get a hold of.

I play a fair mix of rock from different eras (mostly 60's onward, excluding the 80's) and this seems to be a good pedal for all of it. It has a good range of sounds and tons of drive for single note runs.

I'm not sure I would get another if it were lost/stolen but only because I have a few other distortions and overdrives. I would certainly be missing a great pedal though.

The only shortcomings of this pedal are the lack of an on/off light and the uncommon 1/8" power jack (both of which are relatively easy fixes for do-it-yourselfers) but neither "problem" affects the sound/performance of the pedal.

To summarize, you need this pedal. As inexpensive as the reissue is, buy it... now.

I will not rate this part as there are some interesting remarks. I found out by searching on the web that there are 3 versions. The grey, the yellow and the black box. According to nearly 90% of the people Ive spoken to have agreed that the grey version is the one you should be after. So I did, Well people are asking 300$$$ for a grey one on E-bay so I summoned my powers once again and have constructed my own. The sound coming out of this thing is really strange, kinda like an old transistor radio. It took me 2 days actually to figure out how to use this piece of equipment read on.

The key word here is TUBE AMP. Once you slam this box in front of an overdriven tube amp you get what you came for. This thing is useless crap on its own but once you put this in front of your vintage amp you get launched into tonal heaven. My amp is a marshall jcm-800 2204 (read my other post if youre planning on building one yourself ;) )and I run it straight through a 2x12 self made cabinet with jensen c12hq ceramic speakers. too bad my guitar sounds like crap (aria pro 2). with such bad guitars it is really hard to get a decent tone. Anyways what I hear is a huge load of smooth singing overdrive that is very pleasing for the ears. I am though not getting that little aggressive tone I hear in the malmsteen recordings when he plays on the low notes (did I mention my guitar is crap) anyways smoother then smooth thats all that I can say. If you are into smooth this is your pedal. It also has a lot of bass, no not the bad type of bass the good one that fills your sound with balls and attitude. always use this one with a good amp or you will be dissapointed. I am missing that little amount of shred I always hear in many songs from a variaty of artist but Im sure I may blame my guitar for that. If you are looking for metal don't buy this get yourself a metal pedal or slam this thing in front of a mesa :)
Ohw and it sounds like crap if you don't crank your amp loud. volume, overdrive, tubes. those are the magic ingredients to get this pedal to the metal..

741 op amp a few resistors, capacitors a reinforced wooden box. I don't think this thing will die out in the short term. I used real strong wood and steel plating. Maybe it will outlast my marshall let's hope not ;)

I don't think DOD wants to talk about home made stuff. If they do they should deserve my money. Just for the good thing I read about the prices of their pedals and I think they keep it all very fair. Mine was built for 20$ And a new one is something like 30 go figure. These people ask fair prices unlike IBANEZ!!

I play guitar for a long time and I lost count allready. 10 years - 15 years?? I have played through a lot of amps by now and I know what tone is. I have hand made every piece of equipment that I own expect for my very first practise gear. By now I can tell people what to do to make their tone sound better. A good overdrive pedal is a vital part of a very powerfull guitar sound. You don't believe me?? then tell me why do all the new marshall's an mesas have overdrive cuircuits built into themselfes. If you own an old amp or an amp uncapable of producing a decent distortion you should try this thing out for sure. It may help you to find that tone you where looking for. It certainly did for me. I won't start trowing around with tens and nines but this is a powerfull weapon against bad tone. Ohw if it gets stolen. FINE GO AHAID I will make myself a new one. Besides the thief will never be able to sell it anywhere for a decent price since it is crapy handmade MOEHAHAHAHAH