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sounds better...whatever...you can paint it any color you want its still the same crappy pedal...the 30 cents worth of outdated junk opamp is a insult to your hundreds of dollars worth of tubes....get a wah pedal with a boost or heck just get a delay pedal instead....one of those stupid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

Two knobs, level and gain.

I'm using two G&L Legacy's single coil guitars into my chain. A Korg DT-10 turner, Budda Bud Wah, SPF Ego Booster, Jacques Mercer Box, Aramat Green Machine, DOD 250, Aramat Mojo Fuzz, TC Jauernig Luxery Drive, into one of two Peavey's, a Delta Bluse w/2-10's, or a ValveKing through a THD 2/12 cab. And the sound I get from the DOD 250 is great, beautiful, singing mild OD. Placement of this pedal is the key; and that's why I'm writing my first HC review. If it's not in the right place it WILL SOUND SHILL, it took a while for me to find that out. But otherwise this is a boutique sounding pedal, at Wal-Mart prices no less.

The build quality is very good.

N/A

I've been at this hobby for only a short time, and I'm learning to play 60's, 70's Rock, Blues, and Funk, so I can play Gospel in our churchs.This works very well with all the rest of my gear, and it suits my developing style perfectly. If lost or stolen I'd repurchase, no question; and yeah it need's a on light. Again, it great for what it's made for, and at the price point, it's impossible (?) to get this wonderful sound.

Two knobs = Volume and Gain. No nonsense. Easy peasy. Very solid construction, switch does not make funny noises or crackles.

This is definitely NOT an overdrive pedal, but rather an incredibly cool booster for the dirty channel. Very nice sounding and thick 70's overdrive, perfect for blues and straight ahead rock'n'roll. Gain above 8/9 it's a little "over the top", at least for me (too muddy, definitely not for metal or harder styles).

Sounds amazing at lower gain settings for crunching up the dirty channel. Also fabulous for solos and boosting a little your signal when you need that extra little bit

I absolutely luuuurve it (compared this one with the Malmsteen pedal and this one's got a more vintagey sound, less trebly, incredible for the price).

Think Marc Bolan. ;)

Definitely. Rock-solid construction, built like a (small) tank. Not heavy at all, easy to lug around gigs and will definitely withstand some throwing about. Construction inside is not "top knotch" but definitely worth for the price and easy to muck about (mods, etc).

N/A

Been playing for a while, owned too many guitars to tell and currently laying my chops on four Teles (HB's and singles). Play through a VOX AC15 and a small custom made head with 2x10" and 1x12" speakers.

This pedal did it for me. Very cheap, warm sounding, great fun for boosting those solos or getting a different sound from your amp and very reliable. Does wonders with low gain amps like my AC15 (you can go from 60's to 70's or crunch to solo in one second!).

A definite 10 for me. For those who are looking for cheeep thrills don't waste your time on cheapo junky pedals, go for this cute little yellow box.

Very easy to use. Two knobs, simple!

I have used this through various amps and guitars and have always been able to get a decent sound. This thing has a very nice and simple overdrive tone to it. With no tone cotrol on the pedal your guitar tone stays the same off or on. Not the best overdrive I have heard in my life, but for a "pedal" this puppy has it. If you are looking for nice/realistic sounding overdrive/distortion this is your pedal. Not for metal or high end crunch!

All metal!
No plastic!
Hard as stone!
No problems here.

Never had any problems so I don't know.

I play Rock/folk so this pedal works great.
I have used it for punk and surf/garage in the past.
This thing can be used for almost anything depending on the volume and gain you go for. Compared to the Tube Screamer and the Boss OD this little DOD in my mind sounds better. Don't fall for the newer Yngwie Malmsteen signiture model! Buy the yellow one.

Two knobs. Can't figure it out? Find another hobby like eating dirt.

I use a Fender YJM Strat through a Marshall JCM800 100W head and BOSS NS-2 noise supressor.
Awesome, plugin and go.
I can conjure up Yngwie, Uli Roth. It's a lot of fun.

Star Jones couldn't crush this heavy duty pedal. She could eat it though, and you'd be out a nice unit. Seriously, this thing could go through a chipper without incident. It's as tough as calculus on a dummy.

Never had to deal with them. I'm sure I won't have to. This is a tank, easy to use and always sounds smooth and powerful.

Can't get easier--one gain and one volume level with one footswitch.

Here's the setup= Fender 50's Stratocaster re-issue and a Fender HOT series (made in USA solid-state). Needed more drive from the single-coil pickups in order to get a good distortion from amp. This amp is either unwieldingly clean or super-driven; needed in-between sounds. With the gain totally cranked and the level at about 1 or 2 o'clock, I got low-noise/high-quality distortion. Think of the guitar sound of the Rolling Stones on "Get Yer Ya-Ya's Out" (my main goal actually)and you get that good and dirty, but not totally saturated distortion. no mid-range humps or audible change in tone.

first of all, the casing is absolutely metal like Iron Man (no Black Sabbath pun intended). the footswitch is metal and the knobs are thick and silky. all of the input/output jacks are metal and installed separate from the circuit board. Rough and ready it seems.

No opinion, only had it for four days.

I play classic rock and blues. Mick Taylor-era Stones, Mick Ronson, Mott The Hoople and the Peter Green/Danny Kirwan Fleetwood Mac. I've been playing for 13 years. You saw the main gear above. I was trying to get some good dirt, not necessarily a raging bull-type of distortion. Admittedly I have to crank the pedal pretty far to get the amp going good below 1/2 volume, but it can be done. This is the reason I am writing this review:

I have read many other reviews here and I feel some things need to be pointed out. It seems as though some tube-amp people here opine that the pedal is not meant for pure distortion or for use with solid-state amps. Sorry guys, that makes no sense. Yeah, you've got to crank the pedal all the way, but then you have to crank the amp up too to get the sustain going. I cannot figure out how anyone has failed at knowing or doing this and submitted a bad review.
1. It's not going to give you the sound of arena-sized crunch unless your are playing a full stack in an actual arena. When I say that I get the sound of "Get Yer Ya-Ya's Out" I mean I get a good approximation of that tone...I know it does not sound like 350-watt Ampeg SVT's lighting up Madison Square Garden.
2. No it is not good for Metal, unless you have a high-gain amp that you can add to. If your are relying on it for all your distortion, it is moderate-only. I agree it would operate differently and probably more efficiently on a tube-amp, but previously it has been very inaccurately noted that it will not distort or work with solid-state amps...crank everything to near-max and hear the magic. That's what you would do with a tube amp anyway if you're trying to rock out.
3. I have tried a Tubescreamer and a Bad Monkey before this one. The TS has an interesting sound, but the bottom-suckage/mid-range injection was not needed (see Keith Richards, not Stevie Ray Vaughn). The Bad Monkey was just the Mildly Irritated Monkey. It had a sound that accentuated the single-coils in the Strat to an exaggerated degree--and that distortion would truly go to a certain point and then stop cranking and sustaining. This pedal will not do that...it will get more sustain and crank harder as long as you play hard and push everything up. Uh oh, some people might not like having to work for it a little bit.
4. This pedal does not help alter your inherent sound or turn bad into good. It seems to take whatever sound you have and multiply it well. I'd imagine it does not cover up a bad guitar or a bad amp, it probably makes deficiencies more obvious-hence the unconscious resentment some other reviewers seem to have around here.
5. It'll clean up completely if your turn down your volume and then you can come roaring in when you want. No perceived problems when unit is not engaged.

In Summary: I think it's great. I do not miss the lack of a tone knob, so switching pickups is enough for me. I'm not using it live soon--but I would without a backup. I feel some people who have reviewed here were looking for more deadly distortion sounds or were expecting a great change to happen to their guitar sound. Once again, it is a good distortion (like Clapton had at the Cream Farewell at Albert Hall)but not outrageous. I highly recommend it for price and quality to any classic rocker or bluesman.

Easy to use, just gain and level knobs.
Mechanical on/off switch.
Thank God, no power draining LED (I run my distortion boxes on batteries).
This review is about the yellow reissue (made in China) with the 4558 chip and the D2 mod.

Out of the factory this is an average sounding overdrive/preamp with high output (level max, gain low) to push your tube-amp. It's almost exactly the same sound (and circuitry) as the MXR Distortion+.
I did the D2 mod which makes it more of a (soft-)distortion box which you can even use with a clean amp.
The sound is very 70s. Just think of 'Rebel Rebel' (David Bowie), 'School's Out' (Alice Cooper) and 'Heartbreaker' (Led Zeppelin) to get the idea. It's also very suitable for blues and AC/DC sounds.
I use it with humbuckers (Gibson) and always set the gain at max.
Definitely not for metal though.
Not noisy at all.
The mod is very easy. Just replace D2 with a germanium diode and there it is: Smooth asymmetrical clipping!! I used a GA104 (=OA705) but I guess any germanium diode will do.

Built like a tank.
Circuitry is very very simple. Not much to break I think.

With the D2 mod this is one of my favourite distortion boxes. It's the perfect 70s box.
I play mainly heavy 80s rock/metal so I don't use it every day. But I'm happy to have it in my rig.
I can't believe it costed me only 39 euro (and 25 cents for the germanium diode). If it was stolen I would buy it again.

Easy to get a great sound out of this pedal, just two knobs.

Running this with a Trace Elliot V-Type 33/Eden 210XLT...various basses.
You can get some great and useable sounds out of this for a bass overdrive pedal. As long as you don't run it at the highest overdrive settings, there isn't any majo low-end loss. Great for mild to medium overdriven bass tones.

Had it about a week so far, built pretty solidly.

----What style of music do you play? Is this a good match?
Rock, Blues, Metal. Great for these styles.

---How long have you been playing? What other gear do you own?
3 years. Ibanez, Peavey, and Schecter Basses. Trace Elliot amp, Eden cabinet.

---If it were stolen or lost, would you buy it again or get something else?
Yup.

---What do you love about it? What do you hate?
Great tones, especially for the money. Hate? The power adapter costs more than half what the pedal does!

---Did you compare it to other products? Which ones? Why did you choose this one?
Compares fairly well with a lot of more expensive OD pedals made specifically for bass. Jacques and Fulltone both make great pedals, that are better than this one...but for the money, I'd go with this if you just want some mild or medium grit.

This is one of the easier pedals out there. There is no LED to let you know it's on, so you have to figure it out first (especially with little brothers who like to click it on and off a hundred times a day). Once you turn it on adjust the two (Two? that's too many!) knobs to your preferred style. It doesn't really get any easier. The only thing that may not be considered easy is battery replacement. You must unscrew the back plate to get to it. No big deal. It's worth the effort.

I have a few electrics and a few amps, and I find only one bad combination. If I turn the gain and level full on while playing through my little 30 watt Park solid state amp(Park is a subdivision thing of Marshall) with both gain levels on the amp maxed out, the distortion is very harsh. It is no longer musical, it's just bad. Also, the amp gain adds a TON of noise to the eqaution. Other than that, this little box sounds GREAT. Sounds good as a boost, and gives some beautiful crunchy tones with some gain thrown in the mix. I am not an audio expert or anything, but the box doesn't seem to change the guitar tone at all (except adding the gain if you set it that way). I am just in love with this thing though. My favorite type of distortion is that smooth creamy type. I have been told this is that tube sound that many people search for. Whatever. I just know I like it. I know I get it when I crank my Fender Pro Reverb (I think this was made in the early 80's) and it is pure ear heaven. If I adjust the level till it is equal when the box is on and off, then start the gain at o and raise it just until it starts to break up, it is great. Doesn't sound the same as the loud Fender, but you can come pretty close without the loudness. A huge bonus for teens with angry mothers, I would know. I rate this as an 8 because it gives great sound, but doesn't get quite as distorted as I sometimes like. It's not supposed to though, so I guess I am expecting too much. It's incredible for what it is.

Actually 10 + 6. That's 16 total. Yes, this box passes the scale. It is 6 better than the best. That's reliable.

Here goes. This is one of the yellow ones, but it's from a long time ago (to me, sorry if I make those of you who are more experienced feel a little old). This was my dad's friends brother's pedal. He got it new in either 1980 or 1981. He beat the crap out of it. Eventually my dad got it. He kicked the shit out of it as well. Now I have it. I am a little bit nicer, but I could beat it up to. It wouldn't matter. This thing is indestructable. I could throw it of the empire state building. Twenty bucks says I could take the elevator down, reach into a crater and pull it out unscathed. After all it has been through the back plate is missing. A lot of paint is chipped off. The battery just hangs out of the pedal by the wires. Guess what? The things still works like brand new. I click the switch, it turns on or off. We need more craftsmanship like this today.

Don't take it the wrong way. They aren't helpful at all, and they are basically worthless. It's not because they lack any braincells at all, in fact I bet they are nice. They are worthless because these things don't break. I bet they sit around playing paper football al day, looking up dirty sites on their computers. This box will never break, so customer support is useless. I don't need any support. I plug it in and rock, occaisionally replacing the battery.

I play a little of everything, but mostly older rock n roll, older metal (sabbath, deep purple, stuff like that. Yes it is metal) and blues. This pedal is pretty much the only one I need. I have a crybaby, and my fender amp has a spring reverb. I don't need much else. An actual distortion pedal could be nice, and I am gonna get a phaser or flanger soon, and eventually I will have a delay of some sort. Okay I guess I need some more ;) But seriously for basic rock and stuff this is the best pedal I have used, and I will own it until either it dies or I die, probably the latter first.

Hey all you Yngwie J. Malmsteen fans.

I'm about to expose a big secret about how he gets that great sound of his using a DOD 250.

Plug your guitar straight into your Marshall and use the DOD in the EFFECTS LOOP!

It makes all the difference in the world!

What makes that amazing tone is a tube distortion pushing a solid state distortion! That's the big secret! Hey, I put a Tubester tube distortion pedal in front of my Fender solid state Frontman amp and wow, there was Malmsteen!

Don't use a lot of gain on the Marshall or the DOD 250. Just a little and do some tweeking and you will be amazed at what happens!

High notes will jump out and sing and lower notes will be lost in frequency cancelations just like Yngwie gets.

It's a very radical departure from traditional distortion. It is far more lively and punchy.

I've been playing lead guitar since 1969.

I love Yngwie Malmsteens tone!!!!!!

I bought a Stratocaster and stuck a HS-3 in the bridge like Malsmteen and then bought a couple DOD 250's and almost went crazy trying to figure out how He gets that amazing transparent tone...

finally, I found out the secret and am sharing it with you!

You are so lucky!

Now, to learn all those kooky scales! Actually, I prefer to play Hendrix like stuff. Ever see Yngwie play and sing Manic Depression by Hendrix? Wow, super cool!

Just a slightly overdriven Marshall with the DOD250 in the effects loop. Actually, ALL the effects in the effects loop. That's how to get his tone.

It WILL blow your mind!

Simply the BEST! Get a Nice guitar and connect it to DOD-250 Over Drive (all turned up to the MAX), then connect to a Marshall 1987xl Head (both volumes on 10->MAX)... then connect your Marshall 1987xl to a Marshall Power Breaker (so you won't get deaf)... then connect the Power breaker to a Marshall 1960AC (Classic) Cabinet.... And be ready to have an ORGASM!!!!!! Ohhhhhh Shitttttttt.... That's the strongest and cleanest OVER-DRIVE THAT YOU WILL EVER HEAR!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! As I said.... Simple the Best!

two knobs, one little metal on/off switch. so easy.

(i'm not sure whether this dod is a vintage model or not, but its stamped DOD on the baseplate, has true bypass, and screams like a champ) been playing boss ph2->crybaby->dod250->fender princeton 65 with my usa washburn tele lately... sounds amazing when the amp is around 5-6 and the guitar turned down on vol + tone a little... jesus. i played it back to back with an analogman ts9/808 mod the other night and it sounded as good, but a lil different. the dod has a brighter growl with a little more texture, the analogman has a deeper sound to it... i liked the dod better, but then i;ve been playing on it for a year or so and have only played the analogman for about 30 minutes... meh.

so far so good... no real problems. sometimes it doesnt turn on correctly or something, maybe a switch issue, but i just click it again and it works. could also be bad batteries.. i dont know.

haven't dealt with them so i dont know.

this was an impulse buy on ebay--maybe i should say steal because the digitech reissues of this pedal go for this much... anyways, the pedal rocks my face... i play through s-d hummers, fender strat singlecoils, tele-style stock washburn pickups (that i need to replace) and it all comes out better. i havent heard any overdrive pedals that i can say i like better outright, even the analogman ts9. the dod is versatile and quiet and true bypass and beautiful there in yellow and black... get one.

2 knobs (drive & volume) plus footswitch to engage the effect. However, the drive and volume knobs are very relative to each other, meaning that you can't turn the drive down and crank the output as on a tubescreamer, because the drive knob also has great effect on the overall volume. Also has no led, so if you use subtle settings you may not be able to tell its on. So its a little trick to set initally

I'm currently using this w/ my homemade tele, and agile valkyrie (with Dimarzio tonezone in the bridge) into a peavey classic 50 w/ 2x12 open back cab. Like I previously mentioned, it's a little tricky to set the pedal's drive needs to be at least @ 9-10 oclock to get any sort of boost out of this thing. It's a pretty transparent sounding driver (meaning that it keeps the sound of your guitar/amp combination in tact, adding volume and grit), that tends to get brighter as you increase the drive knob. My personal "sweet spot" has the drive at 12 oclock and the output between 1 and 2 oclock. This gives me a nice boost, which adds volume, sustain, and a bit of breakup on the clean channel, and a nice sustain and gain boost on the drive channel (for those tapping leads). If the drive is too low it sounds a bit dark, as others have mentioned, and it starts to get really bright as you crank the drive. However, with the drive cranked & using humbuckers through ganged channels of My silverface bassman, I got a great Husker Du tone. (bob mould used the mxr d+, who's circuit is almsot identical to the dod 250). My setting suits me just fine. It's definetly "clearer" sounding than the tubescreamer I used to use, and seems to work better with humbuckers than the tubescreamer did. It also rocks with single coils!! The pedal's not true bypass, but it doesn't load down on your signal, therfore I can't detect any "tonesuckage". Not too versatile, but what it does, it does great!!

This thing is built like the "proverbial tank". Very similar construction to the MXR pedals, however, it's constructed inside more like the older mxr pedals, (i.e. the jacks, pots and switch are all seperate form the board, not board mounted like the reissue mxr pedals). This will make the pedal very easy to mod (i.e. adding a true bypass switch or led), and should hold up to years of abuse.

For $30 new, I got an awesome sounding, sturdily constructed pedal. It does exactly what I ask it to and couldn't really ask for anything more. Forget the overhyped botique crap, this pedals where its at!!

Bought this pedal back in the late 80's, it has 2 knobs-Gain & Level. The gain knob on mine was BROKEN when I got it and never been fixed. It is constantly at the maximum level of gain. This doesn't tend to be a problem as I use several guitars with different output levels. If I want more crunch, I'll switch to a guitar with higher output pickups. (Battery clip died somewhere along the line too so now it's strictly used with wall warts).

Both of my vintage tube amps ('61 Fender Showman & '64 Gibson GA19RVT Falcon) are non-master models so to get any dirt at lower volumes, I need to add something for that special crunch. Through the open back Gibson, it requires tweaking with an EQ pedal but sounds great through the Fender (running into a 4x12 Yamaha cab) by itself. No true bypass and I hear a bit of dirt even when the pedal is kicked out, but okay for most live apps.

Switch sometimes is unreliable but haven't had too many problems.

N/A

I play in a variety cover band, and it's sound lends itself to most of the material we go through. I've played since 3rd grade, almost 32 years now, and I've had a vareity of other tone machines including a Foxx Fuzz/Wah with an octave doubler (sounds similar to a Mayer Octavia) that goes well with the Hendrix we play. If the DOD were gone tomorrow, I'd have to go and find another used one immediately, because nothing else is quite as sonically versatile. My favorite feature is that even though the thing is only working in one mode, it's virtually indestructable. Tried it against my brothers Boss OD pedal; he likes his, I like mine, 'nuff said.

EZ! gain knob (distortion), level knob (volume), switch (on/off)...review is for both vintage (1980-ish) and the reissue (2005-ish) i love both...use them together as my only effects in signal chain-usually the vintage one set at 10 o'clock gain and 12 o'clock level-gives a nice slight tube overdrive edge to my amp-and use the reissue set at 4 to 6 o'clock gain and 10 to 11 o'clock level for leads and harder overdriven sounds

10+++ clean, clear gain, nice biting distortion or softer overdriven tube amp sound-no muddiness or grating fake distortion sound-excellent.i use strats thru TWO of these (one vintage-one reissue) and into a 64 fender vibro-champ, clean biting signal chain, no bs-pure guitar sound-excellent for blues, bluesy rock/hard rock sound-not for extreme metal heads--UNLESS used in conjunction with other distortion pedal.

my vintage one has been used and abused for quarter of a century-recently got reissue-same great sound-both will last another half century or more

??? who knows-simple tough construction makes support unnecessary

i play bluesy/spacy rock-great overall rock sound-very tube like sustain/gain/distortion-smooth as silk-playing since 1979-use many guitars-mainly 3 strats now-also using danelectro/ibanez/hohner lp copy/tele/various 12 & 6 string acoustics/ukes/basses/accordion/flute/bongos/harmonica/loop machine/--whatever... i use the 250 overdrive with many instruments-including vocal tracks-great sounding unit in almost any application. got the reissue after seeing the price to buy another of the originals-and i was not disappointed-also a great sounding unit-tried other vintage/new distortion units-some good some bad-this is my fave. steal this and i kick you in the nards and steal it back. these boxes, along with my vibro-champ and my strat is MY SOUND.

2 knobs what do you thing

I use my dod308, with a ibanez js1000 in and marshall dsl 50w 4x30 vintage cab.
I also use a boss ns2 noisegate as it can be noisy if you add to much gain. My setting is Volume = max and Gain = 3.
It sounds awesome very warm tube sound.
The reason i bought this pedal is that i like yngwie`s sound but i also want more power and clean sound so i bought a dsl 50 with 2 channel one with very warm clean and one overdrive channel the dod works perfect with the overdrive channel it makes it go insane and sound tubey.
The ibanez is perfect in the setup coz it can split from hum to single coil when i play clean and has a great fender neck and great tremelo i can play all kind of music with this setup.
I Love my setup anyone touch it i will kill them

will still work after many generations build as a tank.

will never need them as this think works forever

Cool pedal if you want to boost you tube overdrive.

Dialing in bad sounds is impossible, for me anyway it was not usable unmodded: I disassembled it, soldered out the Switch and drilled a hole for an LED, then I installed a 3PDT Switch to keep the LED out of the original schematic. I also changed the DC-connection to a boss-style one.

Simply great, sometimes less is more, very good way to boost a JCM 800. Mine is a Reissue made in China with a 4558 JC in it, I was surprised, this chip is only mentioned in Schematics of YJM308 Units up to now?a lot of people think this IC is one of the best, as used in Tube screamers, Boss SD-1 and several other great Pedals.

Well, I use it with Ibanez RG Guitars as first effect in my chain. Followed by  Dunlop DB-01 Wah  MXR Doubleshot Distortion  JCM 800 2210  (effects loop: Boss NS-2, Boss CH-1, Boss OC3, Nobels DD-800)  Marshall 1960AV

I can easily change the volume on the unit (big knobs can be turned with the foot!) so I can use it to alter my rhythm tone or for leads. It delivers a rich harmonic content (presence on my amp between 6 and 7) boosts the upper mids and the overall volume, and adds some dirt, depending on the gain settings. I really need it for the great vintage tones that my setup missed before.

There should be no Probs, the sensitive Parts I replaced by parts of known quality and resoldered anything that looked week, but this was not really necessary.

n/a

Highly recommended, the reissues are not that bad as some people try to tell us. They are cheap and easy to modify, if you really do not like the sound, but I can not imagine that, if you know that the OD 250 is a vintage overdrive and if you know what an overdrive should do.

You have two knobs, gain and level. I use it in front of fender champ.
I usually crank the champ to 5 and use the pedal to adjust my gain. Its really clean and pristine and breaks up at the right point. You can just dial in he creamiest distortion with both a tube and solid state type amp. Ive been trying to find a good overdrive for a while.
THIS IS IT!!!! This Is a good tone!!

Im using a champ or a Marshall combo(bluesbreaker).
A fender strat or a jazzmaster.This pedal is quiet.
I live in NYC and there is a lot of interference and this
pedal still is quiet!!!!!. I have used it alone and with an overdrive and it sounds insane. You can nail any sound, its a full bodied warm sounding overdrive.

sounds good works well. The pedal is metal and feels solid. Can pack foam inside if you want for the battery.I thinks these are great.
can take it when packed in a full bag.

This is equivalent to the boutique pedals today because they are limited in numbers and frankly the workmanship is of top quality.
Ive had many overdrives, Its a good sounding o the ear distortion.
doesnt color your sound too much, enhances all the dynamics of your guitar.

2 knobs. If you can't figure it out you need to be a bass player! ;-)

This is where it gets fun.

My chain consists of a tele>wah>1982 RAT>small clone> pb&j echo> fender hotrod deluxe.

I originally wanted this as a boost, but when I tried this it made me chain sound like crap. I tried it in every position in my chain and blah.

Just for grins I set my amp to clean and used the 250 by itself and it screamed! It has become my main dirty sound.

It has a very late 70s hard rock sound to it, with great overtones.

THIS IS NOT A METAL PEDAL.

This pedal is like a steel brick. It will survive more than you can.

The only thing that bugs me is that the pots are soldered directly to the circuit board.

Again, this is an overdrive and not METAL ZONE type of pedal.

For $30 bucks the tone on mine can't be beat. It works with my amp to get great tone instead of being an "effect".

I hear that these are hit and miss so your mileage may vary.

Two knobs, a footswitch, and a school-bus yellow casing.

I'm reviewing the vintage 80's yellow box version. NOT the Reissue.


How easy is it to get a sound out of it? I'd say EXTREMELY easy.

This thing sounds so damn good it's not even funny. I got it in the mail, thanked my FedEx man, and plugged this thing in. I was simply blown away. Nothing I've ever owned even has come close.

I pulled out my vintage Boss SD-1 (with the JRC whatever chip), plugged it in, and all I got was the same results. Noise, noise, and more noise, topped by flabby unresponsive ugly sounding overdrive. And this was the vintage version, which is (supposed to be) 10x better than the Taiwanese Reissues.

I plugged the 250 back in and said, yep, this is the one alright. I'm keeping this one. The SD-1 is going on the auction block.


Two weeks later, I recieved a Danelectro Daddy-O. That pedal rocks so hard. But it doesn't even touch this beauty. The DOD 250 just has something, I can't explain...but let me try.


There's two knobs, right... that's all you need.


With the gain at about 10 o'clock, you can get some buttery smooth clipped clean amp tone. Turn it to about 12 o'clock, and you have a mild Zepplin overdrive. Go to about 2 o'clock...now you're in AC/DC territory. Anything above that, you've got some seriously thick Overdrive/Fuzz mania type thing going on.

The level control also works as a tone control...it's like two in one. With the level down, the overdrive is bottom heavy, and with the level up, things brighten up a bit. But it still controls the overall volume. Amazing!


...This thing just rocks.

Oh heck yeah! This thing is made out of solid STEEL! I would let a toddler play crash cars with it and a Boss, and it would be interesting which pedal manufacturer would win!!!

Footswitch seems a little less sturdy than the rest of the box though. It's still sturdy, just not like the rest of the chasis.

Nope.

I can't explain how great this pedal sounds. It's like AC/DC meets Led Zepplin meets Eddie Van Halen meets Zakk Wylde all in the same box!!!

I seriously can't justify keeping my other overdrive pedals at all. The SD-1 is definately going up for sale, and my Danelectro Daddy-O is probably going to go on the auction block too. I've owned several overdrive and distortion pedals. Nothing even touches this yellow-jacket.


I've heard horrible things about the reissues. Don't even touch those things. All you're going to get is trouble and some earbleeds with those hunks of junk. If you're going to buy a two-fifty, here's one statement of advice :


BUY A VINTAGE ONE!


They're the ultimate guitar tone in a box. Oh yeah, I forgot to mention, I use a Fender Stratocaster with this. I'm sure it works even better with humbuckers.

God Bless Ya!

Two knobs. As easy as it gets. Reissue model(s) [I'll explain, I promise :)]. 'Nuff said.

This is the trickiest part of reviewing this pedal.

The first time I tried this effect, I knew I had to have it. I played through a beat-up floor model, into a cheap Peavey with a cheap Peavey Strat copy with a bridge humbucker. To my absolute amazement, I got instant AC/DC-ish tone. Very Marhsall-like. So I had to have it.

But the store didn't sell me that particular DOD 250 OD. Instead, I got a fresh, new one from the front of the store.

Bad, bad, bad, bad, bad idea.

I took the new 250 home, and tried for months to find what I heard in that other box. Strats, Teles, LP's...single coils, humbuckers, P-90's...nothing mattered. The tone of the thing completely sucked. After about six months, I finally gave it away after a gig where I couldn't stomach trying to baby-sit a good tone out of the effect. It was always raspy, buzzy and thin (like a mutated fuzz box that never grew up and sprouted fuzz). Not at all like the floor model.

So I give that floor model 250 a 10 ranking (wish I had insisted on that one, it was long gone two weeks later).

I give the one that I actually owned a 2 (I'd give it a 1, but since the thing actually engaged and wasn't totally broken, I'll be charitable).

I'll average 'em and give it a 6.

But be very wary of these things. Consistency doesn't seem to be their strong suit.

As bad as the box was I took home was, it being reliable wasn't the problem.

Never contacted the company.

I play blues, rock, jazz, folky stuff, and most recently Django Reinhardt-style gypsy jazz. Been doing it for about 11 years. Have 15 electrics (Fender -- Strats and Thinline Teles, Godin, Gibson-copy, a Dean archtop, and a few other odds and ends) and four amps (Fender, two Peaveys, Vox), 5 acoustics (Tacoma and Seagull steel strings, old La Mancha and Yamaha classicals, and a "Kent" archtop -- which I can't find any information on), and a ukulele.

I've been playing more acoustic lately, but I still love a big-old fat assed distorted electric guitar tone.

I'm in no hurry to get another DOD 250. I bought a Zoom Power Drive on a whim, and was blown away by it. I always hated Zoom's cheap-o plastic stuff, but the PD kicks major ass. They've been discontinued, so if you can find one I recommend buying it (and no, the clean boost isn't as good as a Klon, but at 1/5 the price, it's darn good at impersonating it, and the extra gain is a nicer benefit, too).

As for the DOD, if you can find a good one that gives you that Marshall-y tone, it's not a bad investment. But for the one I bought, I wouldn't take it back if you paid me to. Since there are good ones, though, I'll give it the same rating as for sound quality.

There is only 2 knobs. Gain and Level. A blind person could figure it out.

This pedal is absolutely brilliant. Enough said. But just for the heck of it I'll go into more detail.
I use this with and Agile Ps-900 and a fender blues jr.(most of the time). The agile is just like a schecter by the way.

This pedal is not noisy at all. If its noisy with your setup, then you need new cables. I can turn it up as loud as i would ever need for a concert and it isn't too noisy at all.

The only person i know that uses this pedal is Mike Einzinger of incubus cuz im a huge incubus fan.

This is a really good overdrive and/or booster for your amp. It is good on light and heavy settings. The only thing you might notice is the slight bass boost when its in your setup so you might want to bypass if it really bothers you.

It's made purely of metal. Enough said. I dont see how anyone could possibly break a guitar pedal. Iv'e seen someone intentanlly throw a guitar pedal at the ground and it did not break (wouldn't try it though).

Didn't deal with them. No reason for me to.

The best overdrive iv'e ever heard? Whats this???? ONLY 30 BUCKS!!
WHAAAAA????? If you for some reason don't like it, send it back, no harm done.

Great pedal. With only 2 knobs it is very easy to get a great sound from.

How this pedal sounds depends highly on the guitar you use. With a Strat or Tele and the drive up around 2 or 3 o'clock you get a nice breakup which is great for blues or old school rock. But this pedal truly comes alive with humbucking pickups. With my Iceman or PRS I can get as much gain with the drive at 10 o'clock as my strat does at the 3 o'clock position. With the Strats single coils turning the gain up past 3 o'clock produces a little too much treble for me, but it doesn't really do this with my guitars that have humbuckers. All in all a great sounding little pedal that responds really well to the output of your pickups and covers the whole clean, blues, rock spectrum. I am using a Fender Super-Amp and this pedal makes it sound like a late sixties or early seventies Marshall which is exactly what what I was hoping it would do when I purchased it.

This pedal is built like a tank and should last many years of use. Also it is very easy on batteries if you don't want to use an adapter.

Never had to use.

I have used a Tubescreamer and a Boss OD and I like the sound of this better, especially with humbucking pickups. It really is like a stack in a box, especially if you use a tube amp. And for the price you just cant beat it.

2 knobs..der...too difficult for me

This pedal sucks. Here is the deal, I use overdrive pedals mainly by setting the volume all the way up and the drive pretty low, then putting it in front of a cranked tube amp. With this pedal it's almost like the drive control also doubles as a tone control..at low settings its very muddy and as you crank the drive there is an increase in treble until it is shrill and harsh at the highest setting. Sure there is a point in between that isnt too bad but by then the signal is too distorted to use as a boost (unless you're trying to get nothing but noise).

I'm returning it.

Don't know

Maybe it works better as a stand-alone overdrive/distortion, I dont know, but for what I use it for it's a piece of crap. Still looking for something that TRULY DOES NOT alter the sound of your guitar pickups or amp.

KILLER TONE! TRANSPARENT TONE, even better. I bought this because I like my YJM308 DOD pedal so much. This is not better just a little different. 2 knobs it's beyond simple to dial in. If you need a manual for this pedal, sell all your gear now.

I run this in Front of my Bluesbreaker & Ampeg V50H. This pedal with a good compressor (DOD Milk Box or Boss CS3) for solo's is all you need for Killer Rock Tone. Like AC/DC, Smithereens, Cheap Trick, Wilco. This is not a Stomp Box/Distortion Pedal & will not work as one. Run it in front of your Amp as a Preamp. I have never heard better tranparent sounding Preamp pedals than the YJM308 & 250 Preamp. A Tubescreamer, BluesDriver or other Distortion/Overdrive Pedals can't & won't get the tone these 2 pedals can, believe me. Rather than Mod your Amp try one of these pedals it will be the best $40 to $70 you ever spend. Smooth Overdrive.

Built solid. I do use it without a back up.

Never had an issue with a DOD pedal. Hopefully I won't.

I play Rock - Buzzcocks to Redd Kross to Beat Farmers. Been playing 27 years & counting. This pedal rules for what it does. It has one great quality it overdrives amps. I've tried & owned most overdrive pedals over the years, none can do what this 250 Preamp & YJM308 can do. I'd pay a hell of a lot more for this pedal if I had to. It won't screw up your tone like other pedals. DOD 250 Preamp is a steal at $39 brand new.

relatively easy

heres the story.... i use a yjm 308 which to me sounds very much like the grey 250,s (vintage) with a marshall 900 head and strat, with hs-3 pickups, i decided to get a yellow 250 for a backup, it sounded quite bad, very warm, not enough drive because when these pedals are turned up past 2, o,clock they sre very noisy, it did have some similarities to the malmsteen box but i sold it the first day i had it, it didnt have the same smoothness, i opened them both up and found exactly the same components except for the drive pot (2b) 500k and a resistor.

depend on it.

get the yjm 308 instead, it has a much better range
and the 250 is very crumbly on the neck pickup, it was good for rhythm playing in the bridge posi

Terrible, really. So many presets, algorithms. Wat to hard.


Ermm, not really, 'Gain' and 'Level' They do exactly what they say in the tin.

One thing that struck me when reading these reviews before I bought this preamp was that none of them are from bassists. This pedal is huge in the bass world becasue it doesnt lose any low-end and provides a nice, sweet, subtle overdrive. I have an EHX Big Muff which is great for really over the top (think Muse bassist Chris) but this provides a much subtler tone. For reference my setup is:
Ibanez SRX500 > EHX Big Muff > DOD FX250 > Boss FX6B > Boss NS-2 > Peavey MAX750 with 410TVX Cab.

Its a metal box, two knobs and a switch. Not a whole lot to go wrong really. I just got it last weeks.

N/A

Works great in my original rock band. Think everything from Maiden to Offspring type music.

Simple two knobs. If you can't figure this one out check yourself into the local idoits clinic. Very easy to figure out.

There is not much noise added with this pedal and that is good. The effect is great depending on where you put it in your chain. You would think being an overdrive that you would want it first but it is more of a cross between an overdrive and a distortion. Really it is an overdrive and soft clipping but seems to sound better near where you would put your distortions. If you run it alone it is not all that strong of a sound. It does boost the signal qwith a little added grit and you can use it for things alone, sounds good. It really sounds good with another overdrive in front of it, like a TS-9. In this case it is really good, possibly great. I was pleased that pick harmonics sounded good with it and it retains it's high end well, doesn't compress he sound like a lot of overdrives do. It is a little flat sounding and doesn't have a lot of balls on the low end but both are very minor and you'll only notice if your real anal. All in all very good sounding. I'll give it a 8.

Looks like its built well. The box it's in could knock you out if it hit your head. Inside the board is connected to the back of the two pots (knobs) and that is how it is mounted. Kind of chincy but the board is not that big and I can't see it being a problem. One thing that I don't like is that the battery just kind of floats around in the box. It's not attached to anything and it could bump up against the footswitch. Seems to me like that may short something out but it hasn't caused a problem for me yet. Also, I normally run it with a power supply so it's not an issue. It looks like the only thing that really could go wrong with it is the stomp switch as with every pedal. So it's built well and strong. I give it a 7 only because of that floating battery. I scares me a bit. Maybe some velcro on the inside would ease my mind.

Never talked with them

I play rock and blues and this thing works well for me. Let me just say that I have an Expandora as well and with the TS-9 running into the DOD they sound almost identical! I say almost because the Expandora has more bass and overall texture. But it's hard to tell them apart really. For the money this thing is a great value and it is very much worth it. I would buy another if it were lost in a second. Really it is more flexible that the Expandora becasue alone it can give you an edgey boost but when driven with some other pedal it goes into distorton mode. I would not say that if you could buy only one pedal that this one is sould be it but, if you have a few others already it is really worth trying out. Does it help you make misic? Well if you sucked before you bought it you still will. Can you play into it? Yes you can use it to add to what you already have. The best part is that it is fun becasue when you buy it for $34.00 you don't expect it to be the greatest thing on earth so there is none of this, "Holly crap I just shot my wad on this thing so it had better be good" stuff. My advice is buy it because it is a a real value and a very good sounding pedal.

Real easy to use. One button two knobs.

This is the yellow reissue. I owned the original yellow one years ago. This new reissue sounds like crap. When bypassed I still get distortion on the edge of my clean sound.

My old one lasted years. This one lasted minutes. I'm sending it back to MF.

no need

This pedal used to be the basis of good tone. Unfortunately I feel that because it's manufactured in China for less than a dollar it's not up to par. I own or have owned a ton of new and vintage gear and have been playing for over 25 years. Maybe I just got a bad one but I don't thi9nk so as I tried one at GC for the hell of it and it sounded like crap too.

Its as easy to use as a guitar pedal

Well, heres the tricky part I am using this pedal as part of a recording setup. It seems to really react well to the character of vintage single coil pickups. Really, Really well. I dont know how it would be if it were the only thing in the chain but it adds an edge to my vintage mustang that I cannot find in another pedal. My guitar sounds great by itself so does my amp - the DOD makes them sound better not worse

I play straight ahead rock and this thing fits the bill. I have so many distortion pedals and this is the only one I feel I absolutely cant do without.

o.k. here goes, it is really easy to get a sound out of it. that is basically cause it only has 2 knobs, level and gain.

i use a pretty simple rig, my gibson faded sg, dunlop crybaby, dod yjm308, this dod 250, and a marshall avt50 head and marshall 4x10 cabinet w/celestions. i only use this pedal as a booster to overdrive my overdrive channel and it does that great. i love the sound of it pushing my marshall, it is really transparent as far as not adding any color to my sound. i bought this pedal after having the yjm 308(my favorite overdrive pedal)as a backup. i will say the 308 does have more gain and the highs are better. what i like about the250 is that the bass is there which is great for some of the stuff i play. they are both fantastic values and i look no longer at sd-1's or tubescreamers. my favorite bands are kiss, sabbath, guns and roses, and any good guitar rock.

this thing is made out of metal. i would use it without a backup.

n/a

i mentioned some of the bands that i like but here are a few more, ratt, ac/dc, dokken, tesla on the old end and disturbed, theory of a deadman, saliva on the new end. if it were stolen or lost i would get another one. i love the simplicity of it and the fact you don't have to have your guitar tone or sound compromised. great value.

2 knobs. 1 switch.

Mine is a yellow reissue pedal. I'm using it with a Fender Strat and a 79 Pro Reverb amp. I have a few other pedals that I use occasionally (a Big Muff, a Rocktron Vertigo Vibe, a DanEcho).

I won't say that this is the "best overdrive in the world", but it's EXACTLY what I was looking for. It works perfectly with my amp. I used to have a Lab L7 solid state amp and a Tube Works Real Tube pedal. That gave me a pretty good sound. But when I switched to the all tube Pro Reverb, the Tube Works OD sounded weak and lifeless.

So I tried a bunch of pedals, including an Ibanez TS-9. The DOD 250 really gave me the best sound. I might get hate-mail from tubescreamer fanatics, but I like this pedal more. It doesn't boost the midrange and cut the bass. It just adds overdrive.

I haven't noticed any noise yet, but I haven't played a gig with it yet.

It's about as solid as a stompbox can get. I've used dozens of DOD pedals over the years, and the only problems I've ever had have been with the footswitches. luckily- this one has a heavy-duty metal stomp switch, instead of the plastic ones DOD usually uses.

I'd gig with it without a backup. But then again, the only backup I ever use is an extra guitar.

No idea. It looks simple enough to repair.

I play Surf with my band, and everything else at home. I've been playing for 20 years. I've used tons of pedals, and I wish I'd found this one earlier. If it were lost or stolen, I'd find another one.

My only complaint is with the AC adapter jack. It's an 1/8 type, rather than the standard Boss/Ibanez barrel plug variety. I'll have to track down a special adapter for it. But I'll gladly do this, because you need to remove 4 screws to change the battery. It's a minor gripe, but there it is.

This is the re-issue DOD 250 preamp overdrive yellow pedal with the metal switch and two knobs for volume and gain. Very easy to use.

I have this re-issue along with a vintage DOD FX-50 overdrive preamp that I bought new in 1982, and the new Malmsteen DOD 308 overdrive.
This re-issue 250 has more volume output than my vintage FX-50. The Malmsteen 308 has more gain and treble than either pedal. Theres no compression, just adjustable clipping and volume boost. Goes from totally clean to raunch crunch. Great pedal at a great price. Forget about those overpriced overrated boutique pedals- they are for idiots who cant play the guitar to begin with.

Built DOD tuff! I still have my 1982 pedal in mint condition!

Actually DOD e-mailed me back with a list of dealers in my area when I complained to them about the total lack of availability of the DOD 250 and 308 pedals in the major music stores.

This DOD 250 and the Boss SD-1 are the two best bang for the buck pedals ever made. Nothing will ever change that fact- both pedals were first introduced more than 20 years ago. Classic design and sound. DOD 250 rules the world. The DOD 250 does a terrific crunch and boost and is very transparent, and has a big bass response. Perfect for adding sustain to an overdriven amp, or for adding some warmth to a cold amp like a quality 1980's solid-state Fender or Roland Jazz Chorus. I own a vintage Fender Strat and a 1980 Gibson Les Paul Standard which I play into the new 15 watt Class A Crate tube amp.

This unit is pretty straight foward Two knob configuration. A level and gain control is it. Sounds easy but you never know if its on unless you try a chord because there's no LED. Mines in a pedal board with power supply so I don't have to disconect cable from input to save battery life, so LED would be nice since MXR hase them on there reissue,s My new dyna comp sits rite next it to rub it in.

Sound quality is great in some applications and not so hot in others but always seems to work best with the volume knob maxed and gain backed off between one and three oClock level, kind of opposite a distortion pedal setting, this took awhile to figure out. I bought it originally as a mate for my old 201 phaser that was my first pedal I ever bought as a kid in 1979! I still have it and it works great! I found one of the best uses for the 250 for me has been getting a great overdriven sound out of my Roland JC120 amp if you can believe that! and that,s not easy to do, I've tried several different distortion's and the 250 give's the JC a convincing crunch(very little sustain)and a pro-co rat for heavy drive,that the dyna comp,small stone, and dan echo and the amps effects(chourus/vibrato,reverb)and I'm very happy with this set up. very versitile. I play Classic Rock in a cover band that only plays a Dozen or so gigs a year but this is a very simple set up and the 250 gave me a sound I was missing.

Well if it lasts as long as my old phaser then look out you can't kill it. I switched recently to a small stone phaser only because it,s more versitile sounding and I had some problems with that so.

I never try customer support I just grovel at my local music store

It,s inexpensive, classic looking, and sounds good for certain things gives my hummbucker equipt guitars some punch through a JC and I like that! Could be a missing link for some folks looking for a edgy overdrive!

Very easy to operate...turn two knobs to dial in volume and overdrive.

My 250 is the YELLOW one. Don't know about the grey one but I bought mine in 1981...22 years of use and it's still rockin!

This pedal was not meant to be a SHREADER-METAL, BALLS TO THE WALL pedal...but simply a nicely made overdrive pedal that will function nicely with tranny or tube amps.

Works better, if not best, with tube amp.

As above...you can really make MOST guitars sing with this pedal by using it through a TUBE AMP! It sounds really good if you are running a 15" cab...you get a nice mid and heavy bottom...add a tweeter or horn and your ears could possably bleed!

This pedal, as any pedal, WILL NOT sound the same on every amp so I can understand some of you not liking this pedal but try learning as much as you can about tube and tranny amps, how pickups work and
Knowing your guitar! All at once...everything will come togather and you will be amazed with what you have learned.

I prefer mid-range and some bottom for rythym...change some capacitors in your guitar so you can get better control over your tone. Makes a huge difference when using most pedals.

Sounds good with single coils (depening on your brand) but in my experience it is much BEEFIER using humbuckers or a combination of s/h.

I really like the SATURATION that this pedal is capable of producing usin tube amps but I barely overdrive my original signal by turning up the gain and adjusting the level on the pedal...then turn up the gain a bit so I have a good lead sound when turning my guitar tone toward the treble side then back off the tone for playing rythym.

MURPHY'S LAW RULES!

ALWAYS have a backup...guitar, amp, pedal or two, cables...and TOOLBOX!

Never needed em.

I am 48 years old...been playing since I was eight. I bought this pedal in 1981 and have been using it since then along with other pedals.

I have played pop, rock, southern rock, classic rock, blues, meatal, and a bit of country and this pedal will fit in just about anywhere.

Been there...done that...have used many brands of pedals, amps, guitars over the years.

I have a good sized home studio with items I have collected over the years and have a very good selection of guitars, amps, pedals, PA gear, and other FX...

If my DOD 250 were lost or stolen I would look for another one.

I'm a happy camper with this pedal.

Two knobs. It's straightfoward.

It does nothing but add thickness and/or volume, depending on how the knobs are set. It doesn't mess with the tone. It is not a miracle-working pedal. It requires a tube amp to do its thing, since a lot of the texture it creates is just from simply pushing the gain going to the amp.

Mine is grey. It must be 30 years old. It runs, but lately it's been cutting out here and there. I'll drop it off and have it fixed.

N/A for a pedal this old.

I bought this to replace the mxr micro amp i used to use for loud parts, solos, what-have-you. the micro amp was stolen. i'd probably still be using it if it weren't. This pedal can push the amp like the micro amp did, and then there's the option of an overdrive sound from the other knob. Since it's getting on, I checked out the Z-Vex Super Hard On. It sounds great, but I couldn't give a comparison without having tried the two side by side. If my pedal can be fixed, it won't be replaced. If not, I'll buy the Super Hard On. Change can be good.

easy to use, use your guitar and amp tone controls to get your sound.

Excellent. I get just what I want with it. Kind of reminds me of the treble bosters from the 70's. I play a Gibson Flying V with Dimarzio Tone Zone and Air Norton Pickups and a 62 U.S. Vintage Fender Strat with Lace California Specials. The effect itself is very quiet! I play through a Peavey 25 Bravo with a Celestion Vintage 30.

You could probably not hurt this thing

Never dealt with DOD

I play Blues, Classic Rock and now I'm getting into STP and Pearl Jam, so this pedal gives me what I want. I'd defineatley get another one if it were lost or stolen.

plug it in , tweak the knobs, out of the box it sounds like crap

This was one of the reissue, I had an original one and it actually sounded good, the only reason I bought it was a "frankenstein" science project pedal to goof around with. Heres what I did to it--- installed a 3PDT switch wired it for true bypass with LED and pulldown resistor (1 meg) Replaced the clipping diodes with assemetrical clipping diodes (LED)arrangement and switched the output resistor to a 1.5K. and now it's on my pedal board and sounds amazing for medium drive, solid not splatty without any EQ coloration, It sounds better than my Klon for adding a bit of dirt.

It's a cheaply built production pedal in a box that could survive nuclear war. It's circuit is the same as almost of all the small drive pedals from the 70's and is a great platform for Mad Experiments. Just be careful soldering new components cause the printed circuit board will peel, be prepared to patch with wires. I like the way you can loosen the pots and unplug the board to remove it. I may even rebuild a whole new board with real good quality components to see if it sounds better.

what do I need them for?

There's so much info on the net on building pedals and this is a good one to start with for a science project. I was lucky because after a few experiments I got it to sound pretty good. (I like my pedals to sound like the tube amp cranked and no transistor fizz or midrange treble or bass bump) This creation does just that. my 300 dollar Klon does'nt although as a clean boost it's killer.

2 knobs keep it simple, unless you're actually looking for a decent sound. Then it gets complicated (see below).

I was really disappointed with the DOD 250. I tried my Casino and my Strat through my AC30 and Fender Twin, and was unable to get a decent overdrive sound. As a boost it was fine, but turning up the gain knob resulted in a sound very similar to the pull-out boost on my Twin. . . and I *hate* the overdrive on the Twin.

I can see why people like this pedal, but it just doesn't work for the sound I'm going for (see The Kinks, Link Wray). It is, to my ears, very sterile sounding.

Seems to be built fine. I don't plan on using it too much anyway. . .

Haven't dealt with them.

sarcasm:Has the most gizmos and features I've seen on any pedal[/sarcasm]

Only has a Gain and Level control, but it gets the job done.

This thing sounds good when I run it after my Morley Distortion pedal. I played with it for about an hour last night trying to get the right sound I wanted (not just the pedal, I was messing around with the EQ and gain on my amp too). This thing sounds amazing when I run it on the Lead channel on my 5150, it gives heaven-like distortion.

Built solid, I changed the battery because the guy at the shop told me that it came with crappy batteries. From the looks of it, I'd gig with it without a back-up.

I've only had this thing a day now but I haven't dealt with them and don't plan to either.

I realized I could've gotten this pedal for about $25 less over the net, but I am just tired of buying things over the internet. Everytime I buy something it takes so long to order and I had having to keep calling up places asking if they shipped my order yet. Anyway, this pedal is great and if it was lost or stolen I'd congratulate them on stealing such a great pedal, then beat them senseless with it because it's built so well, and then tell them to buy their own. This thing is the greatest overdrive pedal I've ever used and from what I've heard there's a few mods I can do to it to make it sound even better. BTW, this is the Yellow Reissue version.

this is the simplest thing i've seen since toilet paper.
2 knobs and a switch.there is no LED indicator, but you don't need one. you KNOW when its on. i just wist there was an easier way to change the battery.(you have to remove the back).

this is the not old-ass grey one. its the yellow re-issues.but at least its not the the YJM308(a new Yngwie Malmsteen 250 replica).

i cant get a bad sound out of this thing. i' ran strats,a warlock, a jackson, gibson, and even my ovation through it. my amps were a crate 100 watt tube, marshall valve state, the new marshall atv, and a 10 watt practice amp.

it works really well by itself, and even better when used with the high gain channels on my amp. the only "problem" i came across was trying to use it on the practice amp. i blew the 10 inch speaker in about 45 minutes. but hey, that just shows you haw much gain this baby can dish out.

its a tank. indestructible. im looking for a bigger one to use as a nuclear fallout shelter. this pedal was made before my mom graduated high school, and it still works PERFECTLY.

i've never had any reason to deal with them.

i play ROCK. Rhodes.Malmsteen.Hammett.Smashing Pumpkins. ive been playing for 7 years. if this was stolen, id go buy another one, find the guy that stole my first one, and beat him sinceless with the 2 of them.

i wouldn't get rid of this pedal for anything.

Ease of use? it has 2 knobs Einstein.
bought second hand.
however it gets an 8 here for not having a led.

The guy that claimed it sounded like crap in every possible way probably was hearing the crap in his ears. come on. it drives so well. i know that "did you even think of replacing the battery" sounds corny but that's how dumb and based-on-nothing reviews are born. no offence.

Very nice subtle drive, it's safe to say that it blows away its price. I mean that. Money wasn't exactly much of an object when I was looking for a drive pedal.

Imagine a solid brick of metal.
then imagine it breaking down.
hard to imagine? Thats my point.
Even the cable plugins lock tightly.

this is the only DOD item I own and so far I haven't needed any customer support.

I wish it came with a led to check if it's on or off. that's all. it's a keeper to which is a good thing. *looks at his pile of 14-years-gathered guitar junk that just sits there being useless*
lot's of distortion pedals on that pile tho. this is just a keeper along with the mesa sound that I will always love. not sure how it goes with the marshalls. have yet to try.

This box is underrated. Please read this through if you are looking for exactly what I use it for: a pre-amp boost.

Its simplicity is probably what makes it nice. A gain knob to set the amount, a level knob to set the blend (or, if you REALLY use this just for overdrive, its a volume knob)

I do not advise this as a single drive. It's really nice as one, but I'm a perfectionist and if I wanted a drive I'd probably use my fulltone. Not perfect either, but damn does it get close.

I use this to boost a particular Mesa distortion. The distortion has great character and is possible "the" distortion for me, all it lacked was balls. Basically, this DOD box is a pair of balls. And then some. It really boosts the sustain and punch, and, to my greatest surprise (especially when looking at the cost of this box) it didn't even slightly change the sound character itself. With so many of the more expensive tools, you pay more only to get options you don't want in the end. It was advised to me by a local guitar dealer as "sounding great" so I gave it a try. I'm rather happy to see this thing NOT end up on my pile of useless expensive garbage.

Oh, and for those that love dirty cleans, man, this subtle drive makes a clean cut through like crazy! Perfect amount of break-up. All in all, this is a matter of taste and opinion, but I bought this thing expecting only a little, but it serves its purpose indeed.

I'd rate it a 9 but some guy in this section decided to rate it a "1" (come on, not even my 20 year old 15 watt starter amp deserves a flat 1), I'm guessing this is just to downrate rather than giving an honest exact rating. The most horrible thing I've ever reviewed got a 3.

Anyway, back to the facts.

Basically, this DOD box is a pair of balls. And then some. It really boosts the natural sustain and punch, and, to my greatest surprise (especially when looking at the cost of this box) it didn't even slightly change the sound character itself. With so many of the more expensive tools, you pay more only to get options you don't want in the end. It was advised to me by a local guitar dealer as "sounding great" so I gave it a try. I'm rather happy to see this thing NOT end up on my pile of useless expensive garbage.

Oh, and for those that love dirty cleans, man, this subtle drive makes a clean cut through like crazy! Perfect amount of break-up. All in all, this is a matter of taste and opinion, but I bought this thing expecting only a little, but it serves its purpose indeed.

I wouldn't be prepared to pay MUCH more for this thing as it is not really stand-alone equipment, but some items out there just don't need to be expensive to pull their own weight. Please note that I almost NEVER choose products by pricing, I take what sounds best to MY ears. Matters of opinions.

I hope you other reviewers can appreciate this, rather than posting worthless reviews like "how can you possibly say it's good, are you stupid or something". No I am not stupid thank you. I think after doing studio work for 19 years I know what "sound" is.

It's an iron box! Two plastic knobs, who cares. I don't see this breaking anyday... Standard Boss/Ibanez reliability on most older DOD's.

Not dealt with.

Nice.

However, NO review I write comes with only positive things hehe so here goes: the power input jack sucks monster c**k. Pardon me for my language, as I am not bothered by it (it's a standard jack thats used to power it, rather than an adapter plug) cause I got adapters with switchable plugs, but I can imagine lots of people getting frustrated by any kind of not-so-usual cable/power specifications on any kind of gear.

However, I do wish ALL gear had this same power input jack, since it plugs in very tight! But then again adapters are adapters. Still not a bad idea to make plugs that actually don't fall out by itself. Mesa, are you reading this?

very easy to use,but it sucks all the way!

I play 15 years and have a lot of good quality gear.To be honest,i bought the 250 yellow re-issue,because it was cheap.My main gear consists of a Gibson L.P. st.(P 90-neck p.u. and Rio Grande BBQ bridge)played over a Laney L.C.50(2-channel all tube)or a Peavey deltablues 2-10(equipped with Weber alnico sp.)My back-up guitars are Lag ROXANNE (French quality l.p.sound without the ridiculous price)and an Ibanez AM-200(fantastic 335 model).So,trying to play jazzy,to heavier blues(Robben F.,Andy Timmons,Carlton,...)i got the sounds i wanted.But,i wanted to overdrive the clean channels with a pedal,as i thought it would go quicker with the same, or at least a comparable sound quality.Guys,what is wrong with you?This is THE WORST O.D. pedal i have EVER heard.Do you all have no ears? It sounds sharp,synthetic,shitty,...I first thought i had a broken-one,so,i got another one,the same CCCRRRAAAAPPP!!! After that desillusion,i informed some musicians what they use,and besides my amps o.d.,i am using now an S.I.B. varidrive ,whitch sounds like heaven.O.K. it was more expensive,but it is o.d. from T.S.808 till full boogie-sound,impressive!Although i read H.C.-reviews before i buy stuf,and most of them are accurate,i really DO NOOOOOTTT!!!! understand all these people giving these rates.BE CRITICAL!!(you pay,its your right to obtain good stuff for your hard earned money!)

I never use it again! I guess it is reliable

It puts a garbage to shame

It is hard NOT to get a good sound out of it...its a perfect clean boost, which is mainly what i use it for...

i have it first in my distortions on my pedalboard... i'm running wendler electrocoustic guitar> Boss Volume> Dunlap535Q wah> DOD 250 Preamp> Boss Ds1> Jacques Fuseblower II > '74 Maestro Stage Phaser> Marshall Supervibe Chorus>Boss Bf2 Flanger>Danelectro Dan-echo Analog delay>Guyatone MD3 digital Delay> Ampeg SJ-12R tube amp....sometimes i use the preamp 250 to boost the piezo on my guitar ( its passive), sometimes i use it to kick in the other distortions for long feedbacked notes

the sucker is 25 years old, i got it at goodwill at the same time that i got the maestro phaser, for a buck apiece..

this little hunk of lead is irreplaceable..REMEMBER this is the GREY one, dont know anything about the yellow ones...

Well, it's pretty easy to use...can't argue with that!

I can't really complain about the sound quality...it certainly does what it says it will! Nice creamy overdrive, blusy breakup or mild distortion. Not a lot of gain on offer, but then, thats not what it's for. Very transparent tone, which in my opinion is very important. I didn't spend a fortune on a great sounding amp so that a cheap ass pedal can come along and ruin the wonderful tone!
I mainly use a 57 reissue Strat with Kinman noiseless pickups (incidentally, the best single coil pickups in the world!). This goes into a Fender pedal Stage tuner (CRAP!) the DOD250, Boss Blues Driver, Zoom PDo1, Dunlop Univibe and Boss RV3 Digital Reverb/Delay.
All these pedals are run throught the effects loop of a Boss PS5 Power supply and footswitch which lets you bypass all your effects for pure amp tone with one switch...cool! My amp is a Vox AC50.
I use the DoD for a nice crunchy rythmn tone and it's great for that. The blues driver is used for clean boost and the Zoom (gain on 10)is used for a thick mild distortion. if I need more gain I jump on the DOD and Zom at the same time and hold on to your undies cause off we go!! Very blusey and rocky (not metal!)

Well it's reliable enough, solid, simple (kiss!)keeps going and does it's thing, so I can't really fault that, but I do have a couple of problems with it, I'll elaborate below!

Who knows, never contacted them!

Unfortunatly, I live in a place where the music stores are small and do not stock a huge variety of equipment(Hobart, Tasmania), so most stuff you need you have to order and once you've ordered it, you're pretty much stuck with it! For this reason, I bought this pedal based on a magazine review and the reviews posted here. I wanted a transparent pedal to help me get into crunch territory without huge volume and this pedal certainly does that. The problem I have with it is this, firstly, the switch is a piece of crap! When you turn it on at anything like stage levels it makes a huge CLUNK sound that my amp and speakers (and bandmates and ears) don't like! Second, it has no on/off LED! A real pain in the ass in a live performance situation! Third, for some bizarre reason, the power suppy jack is on the LEFT side! Unlike just about every other pedal on the planet which has the jack on either the top edge or right hand side! The problem is that if you use some kind of daisy chain power supply (like me)you can't plug it in cause the plug won't reach!! So, it's back to battries! Oh, also, the power supply has it's own kind of plug so you have to use a DOD power Supply (that sucks!)Oh, and the battery compartment has four bloody screws to get into it so don't forget your screwdriver!
Consequently, because of this complete lack of thought for the end user, I have modified my pedal! I Installed a cool blue led, moved the power jack to the top edge and changed it to a boss type jack and put a decent quality switch in it with rubber washers between it and the casing to isolate it...now I have a great pedal!!
I wish reviewers in magazines would mention things like this as I doubt I would have bought the pedal had I known about it's short commings! Maybe the DOD ad on the following page of the magazine had something to do with this ommission! Oh Well, you pay your money and you take your chances! Anyway, my rating...hmmm 5 before the mods, 9 after.

easy as.

i use this in partnership with a boss overdrive and assorted other effects. i think this pedal is best used (for me) as a gain boost in conjunction with other O/D units, as i found the gain past 1 o'clock on the dial to be harsh and brittle WHEN USED ON ITS OWN. its first in the chain, then boss OD2. the boss gives me a good warm break up sound that i use for rhythm and i use its tone knob to match with the tone of my clean sound. if i want distortion i then run the 250 thru the boss, so the 250 simply is pushing more gain thru the chain without affecting the tone (or volume), and the boss then warms the distortion up nicely. used this way, i get lots of distortion without an overbearing sound inflicted the rest of the group. very cosy setup,that, and i believe thats what this unit was designed for, cos it doesnt have much tonal character of its own. thats just the way i found it to be with my les paul/fender amp combination, good luck to you if you dont. So the boss controls the overall O/D TONE, and the 250 merely pushes more GAIN thru when i need it. Good & cheap, and im glad it doesnt have a tone knob cos that would make things more complicated, and would colour the tone un-necessarily as well as make it more expensive.

no probs yet

ive played blues and other stuff for 12 years, mostly use just a slightly broken up sound with reverb/delay/tremelo and distortion every now and then. ideal for its purpose. too many tone knobs in your chain make your tone suck.
a simple, useful tool for adding gain without taking away from your other effects. i would get another. i dont like the effect on its own, but thats not why i got it, and dont use it as such.

All you have to do with this thing is to plug in the guitar cord and set the two knobs until you get the desired level of gain and boost. Just as you would do with your amp.

I use a relic telecaster (alder neck/ash body) with a P-90/neck and a Bill Lawrence single coil on the bridge. I have tested the 250 with a '70 Fender Princeton Reverb with a Jensen 12" speaker and a '67 Vibrolux Reverb. I don't pay so much attention to the noise, because my setup is so minimalistic, but I have to say that the 250 is pratically noiseless. The important thing to me is that the 250 doesen't alterate the guitar/amp tone with compression, as usually do the distortion boxes.
I found out that the 250 tone is the same as the Princeton's at high volume, except for a beautiful light high frequencies cut that makes everything sound warmer.
The tone is really affected by the strongness of your picking, so you can play an entire tune with the 250 always on, adjusting only the guitar volume knob to get what you need.
I play electric old style blues, and the 250 is the only thing I needed to add to my guitar to get a warm and transparent tone.

I could use it as a weapon, if necessary. It's solid like a rock.

It is worth the expense. I think it is more transoparent than a ts9, and it is the right choise for a warm tone not so much distorted. I have been playing for 10 years, and play only old blues tunes, so I use only one tone, and the 250 is perfect for this purpose. I'd buy another one, if necessary.

They don't get much easier than this. Two knobs....pretty much self- explainatory.

I bought this pedal at Guitar Center in 1979 and have used it on everything from Marshall half and full stacks to dinky, solid state practice amps and it works great with anything. It can sould very harsh on full overdrive, especially if running direct into the board. Using it with any amp, it works great without coloring the tone.

This thing is probably the crudest ever assembled by any company. It looks like a high school science project on the inside, with the rough soldering and cheap circuit board, but this pedal had proved itself to be totally indestructible! Twenty years of use and it has pretty much outlasted every other piece of equipment that I owned. Unlike most other effects pedals, the battery lasts forever.

I have never needed customer support.

I don't use this pedal too much anymore, but when I did, it worked great for hard rock. It doesn't look like anything to get excited about, but it really is, in its simplest form, everything that you need in an overdrive pedal.

Easy?My cat taught ME how to use it!

I owned two of these gadgets back in '79.I orginally went to by an MXR
distortion plus.The dude said,"You must be crazy...check this shit out!!"When I did,I broke out in a COLD SWEAT!I was 2 dollars short,but
but he let me slide.The DOD preamp 250(original grey)had a sharp,but fat searing gain thats hard to beat.With barre chords or open chords all the notes ring through with bite and clarity(i.e.Chandler tube).It
was also very transparent when used as a boost.
To this day,a cranked Twin Reverb,DOD 250preamp and Cry-baby is THE SOUND I"M STILL CHASING!!

They lasted for many years without a glitch.

??? Should've gotten them repaired.Instead I sold them...WAAAAAHHHH!!!
I'm still kicking myself in the ass!

Before I got the DOD 250,I owned the EH Hot Tubes(too raspy).Then the EH Big Muff Deluxe(not enough clarity).I used the DOD 250's exclusivly
from '79-'86!My other guitar player bought one also.In the mid 80's I got into "SHRED".So I bought a RAT(NOT AN OVERDRIVE)which was very good.But I sold my DOD 250's to get another axe..."JEEZ"!
The new (yellow)250's have too much bass reponse and not enough bite for my taste.But I think I'll buy one and have it modified.I WILL NOT GIVE UP!! These DOD's are classics for sure!

No manual, if you can't figure out the two konbs you should be beaten over the head with a tack hammer. Sound is great, very bluesy on lower gain settings.

Using a '98 California Strat with Dimarzio Heavy Blues pickups and crankin it through a Mesa Boogie Mark IIC and a Fender Blues Junior. Only complaint is about the noise on the higher gain settings but that is typical of all distortion pedals

No problems yet and the thing is really old.

N/A

My style is very bluesy a nice rock edge to it. I've only been playing for about 3 and a half years, but I love the blues and have played a few of "great" boost pedals and I think this one might be one of the biggest secrets out there. TS-9's are weak and I think that if you want a good boost don't buy one they are overpriced and overrated. This pedal is my second favorite that I own because my Blues Driver is my favorite and probably the best sound for my setup and preferneces. My favorite part is the ease of use and the sturdiness that it is built with. This pedal is an awesome value for the money and I wish more people would respond.

Pretty simple, two knobs, Level and Gain..use your ears

This is as far as I'm Concerned THE BEST SOunding and feeling OVERDRIVE pedal for Tube amps, especially Marshall. It has awonderful bubbly tonal characteristic to it, very Yngwie! DOES NOT ALTER YOUR AMP SOUND AT ALL, just boosts the signal ..I play through TWO Marshall Heads, 78' JMP 50w and 81' JCM 800 100w, and I run an Echoplex through a effeects loop,from the guitar I go into MXR phase 90, DOD 250, Boss Noise Suppressor to the amp. Sometime I use an old Ibanez TS-9 after the DOD for different tones. I usually set the gain at 2 oclock and the Level at 11 oclock on the DOD. I play vintage early 70's strats with Hs-3's and YJM in neck. This a very pure Rockin tone if your into Purple, Yngwie, Van Halen, style. The only pedal that I think compares to this is Fulldrive2 (uncompressed mode) and MXR Micro amp (not as fat as 250). I have had this pedal since 81' and won't ever get rid of it.

The only time I had an issue wth this is the battery clip came off the wire and I had to solder it back...big deal! It's solid as a rock

Never had to deal

Awesome Overdrive if you're looking for the sound I described in the Sound Quality box. I'de buy it again, if I had it stolen or lost, however I wouldn't buy a reissue, because I thought my old original one sounded better, so I'de look for a old one. I wish it were quieter, I wouldn't have to run a Boss Noise Suppressor.