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sounds better...whatever...you can paint it any color you want its still the same crappy pedal...the 30 cents worth of outdated junk opamp is a insult to your hundreds of dollars worth of tubes....get a wah pedal with a boost or heck just get a delay pedal instead....one of those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