Voodoo Lab Overdrive

Two big knobs. Dail in your dirt then set you level.

This is a unique pedal that has attributes of tube overdrive, distortion and fuzz. Not really another pedal that it reminds me of. It is a boutique version of the old grey box dod overdrive/preamp 250. I don't have any experience with that box but I know that yngwie malmsteen uses two in his rig (not my style, but I do respect his prowess).

This pedal likes p-90's, fender size single coils and fender or vox style amps. Not a good choice for humbuckers in my opinion. The gain knob has a massive variety of saturation and it does something at every point in its range.

My impression is that this pedal makes a single coil through a twin sound like a les paul through a marshall stack (roughly). The sound can get super thick and saturated with great harmonics. It does retain your guitar tone pretty well. You can tell what guitar your playing and which pickup is selected. I don't agree that it is too dark. It just has no mid hump or artificial highs (unlike most overdrive pedals). It responds pretty well to playing dynamics. Doesn't rob your bass (in fact maybe adds some). Chords ring through, in fact this is hard to beat for rhythm guitar.

Good build.

These will probably be a collectors item in the future. It really is an awesome box and I would replace it.

The lack of tone control could be a problem for some but I like it; keeps the tone raw and pure. If you like dirt boxes that are hard to pigeon-hole like ibanez overdive II, and maxon DS-830 you will probably like this one.

Very easy to use. Two controls, level and gain. no eq. you have to unscrew the bottom plate to replace the battery. bad design, but for me it didnt matter because i use a power supply.

My setup looks like this:

Fender Tele w/hot rails > Boss TU-2 > Boss NS-2 (in loop)> Digitech Bad Monkey > <b>Voodoo Lab Overdrive</b> > Boss TR-2 Tremolo (end loop) > Boss GE-7 Equalizer > Line 6 Echo Park >Peavey Classic 5 4x10 -or- 1978 Fender Bassman 10

the overdrive wasnt noisy. it was, however voiced really dark, and with no eq to dail it brighter. It was also kinda muddy. All in all it didnt sound that hot with my setup. It was alright as a booster, but again, it was too dark for my taste.

Its pretty tough. Its older too, not sure how old. I would gig without a backup. Its a pretty simple pedal.

Never dealt with voodoo lab.

Its a cool pedal for some stuff. I play ambient/indie stuff so i suppose i could find a place with it in my set, with the eq after it i suppose. i was going to buy one from a guy on guitargeek.com, but it got lost in the mail or something. i agreed to buy it without ever trying it and i would have been happy with it. i dont know where im gonna find another one though, apparently they are kinda rare.

if you dig a darker sound, its for you. it can get muddy with higher output pickups, so i dont suggest using it with high output pickups like hot rails.

2 knobs: volume and gain.
With gain all down (min), you can use the pedal as a booster.
As a booster it worth all the money you spend.
The gain knob turn up the overdrive.
You have to pay attention to the knob. When you play you can affect them with your foot if you 'attack' the pedal with enphasis.

It's big, in sound, creamed with peak scrap which sounds really explosive. The mid notes are beatiful to ear, maybe just a little 'not so open' as you would like. This pedal is not a versatile Overdrive. To this field, something like SD-1 should result more useful, but you have to undestand that the sounds you get from Voodoo Overdrive are all BIG.
Warm, cool as you want they shoul be. Without any other triks like boosters or something else.
If you have a Valve amp, a good guitar with a beatiful soundy wood you like this pedal because it adds more color to your sounds, your tone will be always up, always cool.
BIG. This is the correct word.

It depends on what you do on stage. I like the sound I get from this pedal. I don't have a backup but I use this as a 'reliquia' from another era.
I depend on this. My sound depend on this. But my sound depend from other things too.

N/A

This thing is good enough for me. I think it's good enough for all.
If you find it and you like to collect pedal buy it immediately. It's something you should try before you die. If you don't collect pedals and want something not so vintage and more versatile, look something else.
This pedal it's simply to use but you get the sound it gives. If you like ok, if you don't like remember that you have only 2 knobs. No tone to trick with and change things.
I think this is a good way of act for a pedal but I don't know if it is THE WAY a pedal would act.
It doens't have the led? Wow, great. No use for the led, you must be with your ear open. No problem. Led it's of no use in this thing.

The Voodoo Lab Overdrive is an extremly easy to understand 2 knob(volume and gain) pedal that sounds good as a stand alone overdiver/distortin, a great clean boost or as a boost for an already overdriven amp. The manual is very simple and to the point. they also had a five year warranty for it. I got this pedal brand new back in the summer of '96 .

Over the 9 years of owning this pedal I have used it with many different set-ups. I like it best thru el-34 tube marshall heads( various models i no longer have like super leads,900,600,2000 models) with a 4-12 marshall cab with vintage 30's.I currently have a 1985 50 watt 800 series channel switcher that is very brown and punchy sounding.I also get good sounds with solid state amps. I have mainly played strats, my favorite being my Tokai '56 reissue. The voodoo Lab Overdrive is an exact circuit copy of the origional DOD Overdrive/Preamp from '78. They are the grey one's that were only out about 2 years. These things are going for nearly 400 dollars on e-bay ! The first year of the second version (yellow)was identical in cicuit and sound.Voodoo lab did put in an additional gain stage and increased the clean output of the pedal.I can get very beefy sounds out of my bridge pick-up, but the other positions require me to roll back the volume a bit as the sounds get very big and bassy.That is my only gripe cause I have never heard a pedal this good. It has a very rounded natural sound that is not overly compressed and it works very well with yor guitars volume knob. It sort of makes almost any amp I have played through take on that fat mid to late 70's model cranked non master volume Marshall sound like on Thin Lizzy's "Live and dangerous" or UFO's "Stranger's In The Night". I'm serious. I am going to try out the Analog Man "mojo" modded DOD Overdrive/Preamp 250 reissue. He brings it back to exact chip and component specs as the origional grey ones.I think that voodoo Lab may have, by extending the clean boost range of the DOD circuit, brought on the overly big bassy sound on other pickup-positions. The V.Lab also uses a non origional spec chip that may or may not be better.Analog Man uses the 741 chip as specified by the origional schematic. I would be surprised though in all honesty if the origional spec pedal sounds better, but I will soon find out. The V. Lab sounds awesome with all other effects giving them all a more natural sounding effect.( I use phase 90, Ibanez flange, Tokai analog delay,old blue DOD envelope Filter 440, wha, and boss chorus).

I have used this pedal about as much as you could use a pedal in practice,rehearsal,and live situations. I have never experienced any problems with it. It has been kicked,dropped even a screw driver ( "vodka and orange juice" as brotha P. Stanley said ) spilled on it and it has never faltered.If the Analog Man "Mojo" mod DOD sounds better i'll be surprised if not I am gonna find another Voodoo Lab as a back-up

I have on occasion called the Digital Music Corp. They are very friendly and knowledgable people. They know their products very well ( even the ones they dont make any more like the Overdrive)As I said earlier they had a full 5 year warranty on this which I'm sure they would have honored. But like I heard someone else say " The best warranty is to make something that doesnt mess up " so in effect a warranty wouldnt be needed.

I have been playing for 23 years and consider Michael Schenker, Uli Roth, Gary Moore, Eddie Van Halen, Yngwie Malmsteen, Jimi Hendrix, Eddie Hazel,Carlos Santana and many other's as the best guitarist around. I have learned about tone, technique, and feeling from these guy's but probably play more like Hendrix, Hazel and Halen. I play heavy music with alot of groove. I try to employ as much exotic feel as I can(diminished,harmonic minor etc)to blues based funk rock. Strict composed melodic idea's do not come easy to me (I'm more of an off the cuff improviser)Thats why I have always loved Schenker, Roth and Malmsteen for thier beatiful melodies and exotic scales. I mainly use strats( in the process of putting a bridge humbucker in my fender with left handed tele neck)but have a gibson v, ala Michael Schenker.I prefer the 25 and a half scale length and 7 and a quarter radius necks of the origional style fender's though.I mainly play marshall's that have been "tweaked" a little but not altered to achieve a little more low end and a brighter clean sound. I love phasing, flanging and chorusing as well as delay and wha wha. The Voodoo Lab Overdrive has been a very important piece of gear to me and I really cant fault it much other than it getting a little out of control on the neck pick-up. If it were lost or stolen I would have to get another, and I also have high hopes for the Analog Man "Mojo" DOD 250. I also hear very good things about the Keeley Boss DS-1 Ultra pedal. Got to try that out as well.

Two knobs makes it easy to change settings. However, volume knob tapers way too fast and drive knob takes too long to get an overdriven sound. No LED causes some confusion about whether it is on or off.

Somewhat noisy pedal. Volume tapers way too fast. Gain unity is at about 7 o'clock and it gets way too loud-too fast. Drive knob needs to reach about 3 o'clock before you hear the gain kick in and then it turns way too harsh from there. No tone knob means the sound goes from too bassy at low drive settings to shrill at high gain settings. Limited range of usable sounds.

VooDoo Lab stuff is generally solid, although they sometimes have issues with their switches.

They are really good about answering emails and phone calls.

The Sparkle Drive is MUCH better than this pedal. If you are looking for a warm overdrive this pedal is hard to work with. I tried a Strat and a Les Paul and had to make way too many settings changes on the guitar and amp to get a usable tone-you would never have the time to do all this on a gig.

I got this product in my search for something to give me a ballsy sound from the bridge pickup of my strat, which I was playing through a Fender Super 60 at the time. I found it to be a very limited effect that only does one thing but does that one limited thing very well. With the VL Overdrive gain set at about 2:00, and the amp set just slightly dirty, I would get a solid harmonically rich saturation from the single coil bridge pickup that pleased my ears very much. However, this thing was useless on all other settings on the strat, and also useless with humbuckers. The sound would be way too bassy ( no tone control) and if you cut back the gain, it would turnto mud as well. For a while, I used this for strat bridge and a Sparkle drive for all the other pickup settings. As I get older, I'm trying to simplify things and I didn't like having to use two overdrives for one guitar, so, the VL overdrive went to the HC classifieds, which is where I got it.

Like a rock!

I'm looking for one box that will take me from soft blues to hard blues to Led Zeppelin guitar sounds.That's all I want! The Voodoo Lab Overdrive came close to Zeppelin but crapped out otherwise. f you can pick up one cheap, it'd be worth experimienting with to find out if it would be the sound you're looking for. It really can kick some life into those thin-sounding strat bridge pickups.

Ease of use: darn simple- two knobs, no waiting. I am happier using this unit with a Strat or Tele rather than a Les Paul, as adds a darker flavor to the sound. I run controls @ roughly 7:00 and 4:00 for this. Backing off the gain and upping the Volume gets more a boost out of it, as opposed to overdrive.
Complaints: No LED, and 4 screw back as w/ the other revues, also, older Voodoolab pedals have the mini jack for the power source instead of the barrel jack, pretty near the defacto type these days.
In My pedalboard, the older Voodoolab pedals as well as vintage Ibanez pedals are hooked up to the One spot unit's daisey chain w/ their adapters. One more gripe- on older models, the pots turn very easily, and I have also changed settings inadvertainly by just stomping on the switch. Bought on e-bay for $60. no manual.
I'll eventually get LED's put into the older model Voodoolab pedals.

I play w/ a 62' R.I. Strat w/ Dimarzio HS-2 &3 p/u, and a Les Paul Premium Classic w/ Pearly Gates p/u. Ibanez Cp-9,Pq-9, TS-9,Cs-9, Ad-9, Voodoolab Sparkle Drive, Overdrive, Superfuzz, Microvibe, and Tremelo, into a Super Reverb or a Victoria Bassman.
Noisey not really, of course w/ that many overdrive/distortion devices in the board, they are each their own seasoning.
Nice cloning on Trower sound w/ Overdrive and Microvibe.

This unit has beeen working perfectally playing 2-3 gigs weekly for over a year. Since it's discontinued, I'd look for a replacement, but so far, no worries.

Any questions have been answered by pros, no issues here.
I will get LED put into this.

This works really well playing Blues& Rock, although it doesn't have a Santana liks sound to it, thats why I use several different type distorto units. I'd buy a 2nd one. I can really make an amp jump off the stage pumping this thing in maxed out setting. As soon as I get the LED in, I wont do that by accident!

two knobs. doesn't get any easier

I use a Strat to a Boss TU-2 tuner, Ibanez TS9 tubescreamer, then the Voodoo Labs Overdrive to a MXR phase 90, this goes to a mesa/boogie mark III head through an Orange 4X12 cab. I use the Voodoo labs for solo boost only. I dial in a little bit of gain to add extra sustain to my leads but I crank the volume to get a nice boost for my solos. works great. I give it a 9 because there is a little high end boost when you crank the gain to high but I don't go past 12 oclock so it doesn't effect me, but you should know that before you buy one. oh yea, it has true bypass which is great for what I use it for cuz it doesn't affect my signal til I step on it.

built like a tank. no problems. as long as you have a power supply for you pedal board, cuz it can eat up battery's if you have it on all the time

never had to call.

I play hard rock and funky chili peppers stuff most of the time. but I also love to jam Beatles and Hendrix stuff. I do NOT use this as my main overdrive...not that you shouldn't but I need a little more flexibility with my overdrive than just volume and gain, like I said I needed a volume boost for solo's and the 250 preamp thing this pedals got working for it does the trick, It adds nice sustain and it no hassel...except for the fact that there is no LED which drives me insane! but it's more reliable than the duncan booster and it's easier than A/B-ing another amp, so I put up with the lack of LED. I don't like to wonder about whether I just turned a pedal on or not, I usually have a couple beers before I hit the stage with my band and I HATE not knowing whether I just turned the damn thing on or off...so if you are a spacey musician that loses his mind on stage you may want to think about the NO LED angle to this pedal...that's my ONLY complaint I guess the sound and the volume boost make up for it.

Pretty simple Volume and Gain. Kinda hard to get lost with that. I like keeping the volume to a point where the pedal gets turned on it is just a touch of boost over my normal playing volume. The gain I run at about 1 o'clock.

using a Les Paul -> Vox king wah -> Tech 21 Comptortion -> VooDoo Overdrive -> Carvin VT 50 halfstack. Using the settings listed above, on the clean channel lots of crunch. Big, beefy, and round. Overdriven but still well defined. In the overdrive channel of the amp, the pedal delivers the smoothest, compressed, saturated tone I have ever heard. Think Gary Moore or Santana.

I've only had it a short time...no reference for an opinion.

Same as above.

I play a lot of blues and some classic rock. I've been doing this for about 25 years. I am very impressed with this pedal, more so than any of the other overdrives I've tried. This maynot be the holy grail of overdrives to some people, but it compliments my rig and style playing. I was a little aprehensive about the pedal since I bought it without hearing it (ebay) but it is the best $40 I've spent in a long time. One complaint...why in the world would VooDoo Labs spend the time and trouble to make a pedal like this and make you take off the bottom of the pedal to replace the battery. Something had to keep it from being perfect. Still a great value at $40.

Extremely simple. Gain & volume controls. Got the manual with it. Never looked at it. No real reason to. That would be like choosing the Jeopardy category "Months Ending in "Vember"

This overdrive is simply horrible. Very bland. No balls or definition whatsoever. Just a pedestrian fuzzy sound. ok if you've never tried out many other overdrives i guess, but just not inspiring to me in any musical sense. I tested this unit with my trusty 74 Les Paul Std. with humbuckers thru a newly restored 74 Fender Twin Reverb, totally redone & restored to black face specs with Celestion Vintage 30 speakers installed. The amp sounds amazing. This pedal really brought it down tho. Made me long for the days of my crappy plastic cased Arion Distortion. I'm a Marshall snob, so i've spent many years trying to duplicate the best Marshall-esque distortion sound while using an older Fender amp,(mainly for traveling ease so's i don't have to lug the half-stack around & it's hard to top the Fender reverb anyway) so now i finally know what works & pedal this aint it. I tested this unit against a Tech 21 Tri-od & an old Pro Co Rat pedal & they both smoked it in tone, balls & definition. I'll cut to the chase & inform y'all that the best distortion box ever made was the original Ibanez Tube King (with the chrome sided knobs, not the all black rubber knobs like the later reissues)I don't mind telling y'all this now since i just found me one for cheap on ebay & don't have to hunt anymore. I never should have sold my original one. Live and learn.

Yeah, i think this thing will last forever.(mainly cuz i can't see it ever being used?) if anyone has a hard-on for one of these, feel free to contact me at safeathome67@aol.com i'll make you a sweet deal on it.

Don't know, don't care. No wonder they don't make this unit anymore? If you want to check out lots of effects pedal sounds, go to www.buzzfox.com now that's interactive!

I play mainly blues based rock & roll (Thin Lizzy, Old Aerosmith, Frampton, & originals of that style)& have been playing for 24 years. There's so much gear out there & most of it is all hype. I have about 25 guitars (mainly Gibsons & Fenders)& about 12 tube amps (Marshall, Ampeg, Fender) & various effects & have learned alot over the years. If you can't go the vintage 4 input Marshall route, get an old Twin Reverb, have it serviced, put Celestion Vintage 30's in it & get an original Ibanez Tube King. You'll be ok. Have a safe day...