Preferred OD pedals for Model T

[elvis_bucklehorse]

Alright, here's one for you fellow early 70s Model T owners:

I gave up a dirty little 50 watt Traynor head for my Model T 'cause I was in dire need of VOLUME.  I'm pleased with the results on that front, but now I miss the crunchy natural tube overdrive the overworked Traynor used to give me.  So my question:

What's yer fave OD pedal/Model T combination?  Are those Fulldrive 2 pedals all they're cracked up to be?  TS9's?  TS808's?  Marshall Bluesbreakers?  I'm talkin' warm, smooth overdrive, as opposed to "sick" metal distortion here, of course.  Your feedback is muchly appreciated.

Cheers,

Ted

[guy tavares]

I would recommend a TS808 for that bluesy overdrive with that whoopy, howly mid, I don't know about the US, but in europe they are rare and expensive collector's items, luckily they are reissued by the original manifacturer who made them for Ibanez in the '70's, Maxon, the price is fair and the sound is truely authentic, never heard an overdrive like that, except that other special overdrive pedal: Maestro's parametric filter/overdrive designed by Moog, it's got a tone wheel to adjust the frequency, around 750 hz it's crazy! cheerio, guy

[Anonymous]

One of the things you can do with a Model T, is plug your guitar directly into the brite input.  Run a cable from the brite out jack into your pedal of choice, and then a cable from the pedal into the normal input.  Then mix and match to your heart's content.

On those occasions where I use one, I find it pretty hard to beat a real tube overdrive... the black footpedal one.  And I like not having to change batteries.

[etnieboy]

I was waiting for someone to say it. Tubeworks real tube overdrive.  Best pedal I've ever owned.  I run a mullard 12at7 in it into my marshall, yah i know this is about sunn's but for all intensive purposes this works. I have an older jcm 800, one of the single channels and it gives me all the crunch i could want or just a nice slight overdrive.  i picked mine up for 50 bucks with the mullard, so im sure you could find one at that price as well.  also no batteries, plugs straight into an outlet.

[Hop]

What about the Klon Centaur OD pedal?  I use one w/ a blackface Fender Vibrolux and Princeton Reverb.  Quite nice!  Sorry guys, I use the vintage Sunn equipment for my bass rigs so I can't comment on how the Klon works w/ a higher watt Model T for guitar.  The Klon Centaur is a real keeper though IMHO.

Hop

[Anonymous]

I'ma big fan of the ElectroHarmonix Big muff pedals.  I've used them in Fender reverbs and my Model T, and they go from a warm, 60's overdrive to total saturation.  My favorite is the old Ram's Head version of the Big Muff, but they're pretty hard to come by these days.  The black chassis one that's in current production is the better of the newer ones.  

For anyone interested, there's a guy in Maryland that makes incredible hand wired replicas of the Ram's Head, called the Sanford and Sonny BLUE BEARD FUZZ.  Well worth the $150 clams, and beer proof, to boot.
Contact him at with any questions.

[Anonymous]

Hey, y'all the last post about the Big muff was me.  D'OH!  I thought I was logged in...

[elvis_bucklehorse]

Thanks for the feedback, gents.

I'd never thought about feeding the Bright Out in the Normal In--that essentially acts as a gain boost into the normal channel then, right?  Say--do any of you know what those Outs were actually meant for?  They sound like flat-level, pre-EQ signals to my ears.  And how about the Line Out on the back?  What's with all the Outs?!

[Anonymous]

"Daisy chaining" amps from one head to another was a popular thing to do during the late 60s-early 70s.  The model input outs are a direct connection... where in the Marshalls there is an extra resistor to go through.

The line out can be used to drive any line level piece of equipment - say another poweramp or for recording "direct into the console" through a line level (not microphone level) input.