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...

You have to unscrew the bottom to replace the battery. A stupid design in this day and age.

I traded a Voodoo Lab Sparkle Drive for this because I found that the Sparkle Drive had a bright EQ setting when on, even with the tone knob right off. This pedal was the opposite. Dark and bassy sounding....and no tone pot to try to adjust it. I want an overdrive that sounds similar to what the amp would sound like cranked up, or what it would sound like with an extra gain stage, but without having to actually turn it up. I use a Telecaster thru a Blues Junior and being a one channel amp I need an overdrive for solos and raunchier songs, but without a huge volume leap. This pedal was useless since the EQ characteristics were nowhere near the sound of the amp when the pedal was turned off. Pointless in a live situation. If I set the amp so the pedal was usable then the amp was set wrong for playing clean.

Dunno...sent it back.

Our band does weddings and pubs and we do a variety of music. I've gone thru aload of gear in the past few years and my main requirements are quality, simplicity and reliability. I now prefer teles thru a Fender tube amp with few effects so I can be ready for whatever song we get called on to play. I have a Boss SD-1 superoverdrive, which works well, and I tried an old Ibanez ST-9 supertubscreamer which was amazing, but I tried these Voodoo Lab overdrives because of the true bypass they have. Blues Juniors don't have effects loops and pedals degrade the tone of the amp slightly, I've found. But, if the tone of the pedal when on is noticably different than when off then it's useless to me.
Having to unscrew the bottom of the unit to change batteries is ridiculous and to me is a sign of an incompetent design team.
I sent the pedal back.
Voodoo Lab has been put into my list of 'never again' companies.

You don't have to be a rocket scientist

Kramer Nightswan -> Voodoo labs overdrive -> All valve amp (12AX7 for each channel followed by 2 12AU7s then a pair of 6L6s) -> 2X12 cabinet. My amp is really a bass amp with a tonestack modification and a slight gain mod. It needed some extra distortion so I built this pedal from a schematic on the internet. I play blues, classic rock and metal and this pedal doesn't dissapoint anywhere. I set the distortion on about 3/4 (or I set close to full and use the volume on my guitar to control how much) or a bit more for metal and the volume on about unity gain. The amp does the rest. For the perfect sound the amp has gotta be pretty loud about 1/2 volume. I can get anywhere from Metallica or Randy Rhoads to Clapton or Led Zeppelin. For practising leads that sound alright at low volume I chuck a compressor before the VL OD. Don't know about noise since I made mine.

Don't know since mines a home brew

A beaut pedal if there aren't other weaklinks in your setup (e.g. a transistor amp or crap guitar). Perhaps a 3 band tone control predistortion would allow yet more varieties of sound. I don't think this is a big shortcoming though.

This pedal, as everyone else has illustrated, is easy as pie to use. Two knobs, volume and gain. Some have complained about the battery - you have to remove 4 screws to replace it. Well, I play with a Voodoo Lab pedal power unit at home and practice, so batteries are really only a concern for me at gigs. I test my batteries now and then and it hasn't been an issue. I'd take this assembly over the cheap plastic battery cover found on DOD pedals any day. The Boss pedals provide an OK battery setup, I suppose. I bought this pedal used and didn't get a manual with it, though I don't think I'd ever need one.

this little guy usually sits in front of my Mesa DC5 head with Marshall closed back 212 cab or my Rivera R55112 combo. My primary guitar is a Les Paul, though I also play it with a Tele, Strat, Ibanez USA Custom, and Vintage LPJr. The sound with the gain cranked is great... a gritty, raw overdrive sound which is just what I was looking for. Think Replacements or Clash. Very un-tube screamer, which is fine with me. Running a nice mid-gain crunch through the Mesa head, this pedal drives it up to a raw growl that can't be beat... very different from the lead channel on the Mesa, which is somewhat more balanced and smooth, the pedal makes for a ruder and more aggressive sound, which is what I was after.

I've only had it for a few months but it's been great and reliable. if my other Voodoo Lab pedals (tremolo, analog chorus, pedal power) are any indicator, it should last a long time and be very durable. I've gigged with it several times - no problems. I don't bring a backup.

Never had to deal with VL - perhaps an indication of the quality of their products. I've heard they have very good customer support though.

Overall, this is a great pedal. Built to the highest quality specs - Simple to use, barebones. Not for real knob tweakers, but for people who want a basic gritty, great sounding OD pedal, it can't be beat. If it were stolen, I'd probably get another one.. I compared it head to head with a good number of pedals in this shop (mostly used). Many Boss and DOD, Guyatone and other misc. This was by far the best at nailing the sound I was looking for.



I experimented with it as a boost pedal today, just trying to use it to boost the volume and gain of the lead channel on my Mesa, but it didn't do the trick (not that it's supposed to). It gave a bit of gain boost, but no noticeable volume. That's just as an aside though, I'd use an MXR Micro Amp or something for a boost if I really wanted it.



Regarding the light, I guess it would be nice to have it on there, though it's just another thing to use battery power and to introduce unnecessary interference noise into the circuit. I can tell when it's on most always.

It has two knobs, one for volume and one for gain. One input, one output and an on/off switch. This is real easy to use, but there are some disadvantages:

- To replace the battery you have to remove four screws at the bottom, it doesn't matter as long as you use it at home, but it's not all that great if you have to replace batteries during a gig.

- The volume and tone knobs are so big that you easily hit them with your foot when turning the pedal on/off.

I have a Fender Standard Stratocaster, a Fender 'custom' Vibrolux Reverb, a Fender Hot Rod DeVille 212, an old Mars tube amp and an Ibanez TS-9. I play mostly blues in all different styles, from Muddy Waters to SRV and Gary Moore for instance.

It has lots of volume and is very usefull as a boost. It has quite some gain too, not enough for Metal-freaks, but enough for blues/rock guitarists. The gain starts to sound really harsh when you turn it all the way up, some find this useful, some don't. For me, I don't like it. The overdrive is very transparant, it doesn't color your tone like a lot of other OD pedals do. I've used it for a couple of days running in front of my amps, and I noticed that it sounds better on the DeVille or the Mars, though I like the Vibrolux much better than the DeVille or the Mars. It just doesn't seem to work the way I want it to work with the Vibrolux. It either sounds too harsh or too dark (the lack of a tone-control doesn't help). It might have to do with the 10" speakers in the Vibrolux, or the design of the amp.

After messing around a bit with my amps and different settings I placed the TS-9 in front of the VooDoo Lab Overdrive, I put the gain from the VooDoo Lab all the way down, and the volume around 10 o clock. This way I use the VooDoo lab as a boost when I want to crank my Vibrolux a bit more and it seems to work this way, I get a nice singing lead tone, although it still darkens my tone!

It has a true bypass so your tone doesn't get coloured at all when the pedal is switched off.

I've read on some places on the web that this pedal is a copy of the DOD 250 preamp/overdrive pedal, which is used by Yngwie Malmsteen.

You could kick this thing around, set it on fire, let your dog have a crap and a pee on it and it would probably still work. I don't recommend that you try this though!!
I would definatly gig without a backup.

I've never dealt with them.

As I said before I play mostly blues, this pedal is a good match for this type of music, though it is just not it for me. And besides that it doesn't seem to work with my Vibrolux no matter what I try. It does work when I use it as a booster after my TS-9, that way I get a nice singing lead tone which can be usefull.

I've tested lots of overdrive pedals in the store, including a TS-9, a Boss OD-3, SD-1, a Vox Valvetone, Marshall Bluesbreaker and Guv'nor, some Dod pedals and some others that I can't even remember.
This pedal belongs to one of the best I played on because of the true bypass, and because it lets your amp's and guitar's tone come through.
The overdrive itself doesn't color your sound, but the pedal does darken the tone (this, of course, depends on your own setup), if you know what I mean.

This is a quite good pedal, though it could have been better. I'll keep it and use it but I won't buy a new one if it would get stolen.
I wish it had a tone control though..that would have been a LOT better and that could have changed this pedal from quite a good pedal into a great one. Another thing I miss is a LED to see if it's on or off. If you use it as a boost and your ears get used to the volume you're playing on you sometimes don't know anymore if it's on or off.

two knobs. as with all pedals, this will depend more on your ears than anything else. i find myself constantly tinkering with my settings, i keep the gain at about 9 o clock usually but sometimes volume at 12 and sometimes at 4 and anywhere in between, but if you can't turn two knobs something's wrong. the only problem is no led light

i run an epiphone sheraton II through a crybaby 545 through the voodoo lab into a boss bf-2 flanger and into a fender princeton 112. it is absolutely silent in bypass, unlike most pedals which seem to leave a hint of sound, and when on is perfect. it doesn't affect the tone at all, it simply boosts it. i usually play in drive channel all the time, and then the pedal will give you a perfect boost to keep yer volume the same when you hit a solo. when the amp is clean and you hit this thing, it blasts the amp off the face of the earth. i can go from a soft acoustic volume to a thumping ear bleeding type sound. absolutely brilliant

very dependable. it seems solidly built, and i would definitely gig without a backup. in addition, i've had it for 3 months and have never needed to change the battery, i got it from veneman's and they have batteries in all their pedals as soon as they arrive, and i've never even looked at what battery it is. so even though they are difficult to change, you won't need to often

this is a very good pedal, it has really really improved my opinion of my sound. as a lead guitar player, you always hate playing on yer own and all of a sudden losing 40 decibals when you quit playing chords and go into a solo. no such problem anymore. it also keeps the sound defined, and doesn't interfere with my tone. very good pedal. i play mostly straight rock, such as oasis, the beatles, led zeppelin, but i think all that is pretty much unimportant as this pedal would work with any style of music. NOT A DISTORTION, IT'S AN OVERDRIVE

super easy 2 knobs, volume and tone. the worst part is that is has no led and for that i take away 3 points. i know this may seam severe but of all the times this thing has messed with me due to no light i will take out my revenge here.

ok now that i have vented about the led i can say it is a good sounding pedal. i use it with the volume at 12 and the gain at 9 or is it the gain at 12 and volume at 9. humm i cant remember. oh well either way i use it with a flanger and my 72' reissue strat in the 4th pickup position to get this cool sound. it ads just a little boost and just a little bite. the other sounds this thing makes sound good but are not really for me.

like a tank. i would go into war with this and my big muff. and would slay the enemy with them (maybe im telling too much).

never talked to them but have heard good things from others

great sound for the price. id buy one again if i lost it. but man i wish it had that led.

very easy to use,manual sucks,but don't really need one.just 2 knobs output & gain

i am using a fender lone star strat & ibanez strat copy,with a fender blackface deluxe.not to noisy,great clean boost sound + a wide range of overdrive/distortion sounds.i use it alone with the blues band,or combine it with my H&K tube factor with the rock band

have owned it 3 months,no problems,seems soildly built,no backup needed

i play blues/rock fits well here,very good sounding simple,analog overdrive pedal

Just plug in and go. There are only two knobs (volume and gain), and one on/off footswitch (true bypass). There is no on/off light indicator. Simplicity at it's best.

I run a Yamaha SG2000, Carvin TL60T and US MASTERS (strat) into a Carvin MTS tube combo. I usually play with the gain set at 45-50% on the high gain channel, and needed a pedal to (transparently) push the gain to 100%. The Voodoo Lab O/D works very well for this application. There is minimal coloration to the tone at lower to moderate settings. Putting the gain on the pedal past 4 o'clock starts to add a bit more treble than I care for. Overall, very pleasing to the ear.

Very sturdy. Looks and feels indestructable.

N/A

I've been playing for over 15 years, and play primarily hard, bluesy rock. I compared this pedal to a Boss OD3, Daddy-O, Tech 21 Tri-OD & XXL, and an Ibanez TS5. All of these units colored the tone too much. I ended up going with the Voodoo Lab, which was my main overdrive pedal for a while, although I eventually ended up going with a Stamps Drive-O-Matic for a little more versatility (and a little more $$). If you want a good, natural overdrive sound as an extention to your amps tone, go with the Voodoo Lab. For this use, this is the BEST overdrive available today for under $100. If you want versatility, look elsewhere.

This thing is simple. 2 knobs, volume and gain, do it all. Very intuitive.

I play an American Deluxe Fat Strat through a Hot Rod Deluxe. The overdrive allows me to get a tube driven sound at low volumes. What I particularly like is its ability to allow distortion for both chords and notes. I tend to play gain at 50% and when I want more, kick in the amp's overdrive, which gets warmed up quite a bit by the pedal. I also like the true battery bypass when it's off. Very clean & quiet.

Built like a tank. I think it's gonna be around a long time.

Haven't used them. The manual invites calls if needed, but how can you screw up something with only 2 knobs?

I love the sound of this! And I got an incredibly good price on it, so no matter what, I can't complain. Only 2 issues 1) To change batteries, you have to undo 4 tiny phillips head screws. I can see those getting lost in the dark! 2) Would be nice to have a light on it to let you know when it's on. But then, if you can't hear the difference, I guess you shouldn't be using it!

Like the rest of people say, only two knobs. I can't even remember if mine came with manual, but I didn't think I needed one anyway. No rating for this part since there is no need to say "this is good" or "this is bad". It was good for me, but how about you? By the way, it's pain in the butt to change batteries. You gonna have to unscrew the bottom panel and screw back it on when you are done.

Alright, I had this pedal a couple of years ago and got lost in somewhere. Anyway back then, I was playing my custom build strat through Twin Reverb. This pedal fatten up the sound greatly. When you are setting your gain less than maxed up, it seemed like it got a little muddy, and same thing can be said about using this pedal as a booster. I remember wishing it to have a tone control knob to add little bite, but this pedal has very thick and warm sound. When I was experimenting different sound for blues and Hendrix sort of sound, I used to have Ibanese Tube King before this pedal for boost (no gain and maxed out level) and had just about enough gain and level on this VL Overdrive. Since Tube King had three band EQ on it, I could boost up any frequency, it helped to clean up the sound of this pedal. Or other times, I had Tube King set for overdrive, and had this pedal for boost. When this pedal used as boost, now that's some huge sound you can get! Of course, it was set no gain, max out level. I thought this pedal was capable of clean boost without coloring the original sound (except for making the original signal so fat). I can't remember exactly now. I'd say, it depends on how you use it, this pedal can be very versatile, and of course, great sounding pedal.

Metal casing, tough. Very funky design on it, too. I could rely on this. I had no trouble all the time I had it.

Never dealt with them.

Very versatile, warm and big sounding overdrive pedal. Back then, I was playing a lot of Jimi Hendrix type of music, and this pedal could produce very "overdrive like fuzz" sound with boost of Tube King. Smooth sounding thing this pedal is. I lost it and I couldn't afford any pedals for a while. And I'm playing blues now, and I don't use any pedals, so I wouldn't buy it again, but not because it's a bad pedal, because I have no need for any pedal anymore. The best suggestion would be to go to music store and check it out yourself. I think this is a very good pedal.

Volume. Gain. If you can't figure it out then you probably bought as a gift. There's a relatively useless manual included that I lost but don't miss at all. I have a love/hate relationship with the giant knobs. On one hand if I'm playing at home in socks I can adjust them with my feet, conversely, it is so easy to kick them and throw off your settings.

I play it with a korina Epiphone Explorer usually through a smallish Yamaha amp. This pedal is a great, warm overdrive. Nothing more, nothing less. I played a bunch of different pedals in stores looking for nice warm OD, and this one beat out a bunch of Boss models (Super Overdrive, Blues Driver and a couple others I forgot) as well as an Ibanez Tube Screamer and a Danelectro DaddyO. This is the best vintage OD sound in its price range (that I played at least)

It looks really well made, nice heavy duty switch and the like

Never dealt with them

If you want classic tube overdrive in this price range, you need this pedal. Otherwise look around. It does one thing, but it does it well.

Volume and Gain Controls are pretty straight forward. No "on" light, though. That is a major blunder in my opinion. I mean c'mon! First of all it's nice to know at a glance if the thing is on, and secondly (and let's be honest) who hasn't turned off the room lights and savored every red, green and yellow light on every piece of gear they own!! For $90 I'd like to get at least one light to add to my collection!

I tested it using an Ernie Ball Silhouette and a Godin strat into a Fender Hot Rod Deluxe. I came to the conclusion that there is basically one setting that worked for me: Gain all the way up, and volume at about 25%. It sounds awesome this way, but I couldn't find anything else that useful out of it. There is something that kicks in at the highest gain settings that adds a little top end and sweetens up the tone a lot.

Haven't had it long, but the innards look well put together.

Absolutely useless manual. It's not as though is really needs one, but for $90 I would have liked a pretty picture or something. No maintenance problems, though.

I've been playing for 15 years, and I've heard a lot of crappy overdrive pedals. This pedal only does one thing, but it does it very well: a very vintage overdrive tone. If I had to describe it in one word, it would be: thick. With the settings as I described them, it produces a beuatifully thick and smooth overdrive. It can really make an already overdriven amp sing. A TS-9 is much more of a tight, crisp chunk. A Rocktron Austin Gold is more transparent and subtle. I bought it becuase the one thing it does is just what I needed. If you need something versatile, keep on shopping.

jIt doesn't get any easier than this.

Guitars used: Les Paul DC Studio, Gibson Blueshawk, '65 Epiphone Wilshire (modified w/Electra SMF humbuckers) Amps used: ADA Rocket 20R, '65 Silvertone Twin Twelve head w/Fender Bandmaster 212 cab The Voodoo Lab Overdrive pedal added a warm tube overdrive tone with a dynamic character. I compared it to an Expandora, a TS-9 reissue, a Danelectro Daddy-O, a DOD Integrated Tube, a Voodoo Lab Bosstone, an Ibanez Super Metal, a Boss Turbo Overdrive, a DOD Supra Distortion, and an In Line Effects Extra Distortion, all of which are capable of producing a good tone or two. The Voodoo Lab Overdrive was capable of maintaining its warm, distinct character with greater consistency than the others, when changing from one guitar and amp setup to another. It sounded especially good when using the bridge pickups with the gain backed off slightly (the gain control at the max position seems to add some treble). For me the sonic value of this pedal lies somewhere between John Fogerty's guitar tone on "Good Golly Miss Molley" (Bayou Country) and Billy Gibbons' guitar tone on "Francine" (Rio Grande Mud). I can get a great saturated tube sound at a lower volume without pushing the output tubes of either amp.

The first thing I do when I get home with a pedal is open it and check for quality of construction. The Voodoo Lab Overdrive is built to last.

No problems so far...

Some of my overdrive/distortion pedals sound fantastic when playing single notes, some sound great for playing chords. The Voodoo Lab Overdrive is the best at doing both that I have found so far for under $100. I

Very easy. Level and Drive controls. Adjustments are intuitive.

Boom! Excellent sound. This device combines much of the clean, tight bass and definition of a TS-808 with hefty grind, similar to a Rat. I play a G&L ASAT through a Marshall JTM615, and this pedal has enabled me to effectively double my available tones. The only pedal I've ever used that tops this is a Fulltone Fulldrive2, and only because it's more versatile, not because the tone's superior. Killer!

I don't know about this, yet. It seems very sturdy. The five year warranty is comforting, however.

Voodoo Lab aren't as well established as Boss, or DOD pedals, so I don't know how easy it would be to replace. (Of course, this box simply DESTROYS their pedals, sound wise) Voodoo Lab has a website, and has answered any of my e-mailed questions within 24 hours.

This is an excellent overdrive unit. An added bonus is the grind available, which is quite impressive. I was looking for that "little extra" to kick out the jams, and this little unit delivers the chimes properly. I am giving it a 9 only because I have yet to severely test it's durability.

Only two knobs! It doesn't get any easier. However, in my particular rig, I find the volume control to be both hypersensitive and positioned where my foot can hit it accidently when I turn the unit on and off. The manual is generic and useless--written by a drooling moron. How did this slip by quality control?

Based on the DOD 250, this pedal is great if you want to thicken your sound a bit, or overdrive your non-master volume amp (I use a Deluxe Reverb). Too blatty to use as a full on shred pedal. Too hard to dial in to use as a medium-crunchy tube screamer. Good at blasting yer amp off the map.

Very reliable. And it even came with an Eric Johnson approved carbon 9 volt!

If I have to speak with the person who wrote the manual, I may need an interpreter, so I hope I'll have no problems.

I'm less than thrilled. I suspect in a rig less bright than mine, it may sound better (maybe a nice Gibson/Marshall combination). Not the sort of thing you want to be switching in and out mid-song. If I had the bucks, I would have gone with a Fulldrive 2.