NPD DBA Interstellar Overdriver Deluxe

[MC3]

This may be a long and boring read, so you've been warned

I had been somewhat searching for an overdrive that gave me a bit "more" of my amp and did the stuff I liked but none of the stuff I didn't. I have dabbled in the TS and Blues Driver worlds a bit but they just never felt right, for some reason. For a year or so I was using a ZVEX Super Duper 2-in-1 and it somewhat worked, but sometimes the top end with that pedal was a bit much with my AC15, and I also didn't love that both boosts were controlled with 1 master volume at the end of the chain.

I then had slowly been looking around for the best thing. I considered a Zvex Box of Rock ran at lower gain, but that was still a bit too Marshall-y for me. Through a lot of research and talking to some users on here, I had narrowed down what I was going for to two different pedals: DOD's Looking Glass and the DBA Interstellar Overdriver. I was pretty close to pulling the trigger on the Looking Glass, probably because it was cheaper and easily available, but I was browsing through Gumtree and I saw a beaten up DBA Overdriver Deluxe listed for around the same price as a regular one. I talked to the seller and we came to an agreement, and here we are!



I am currently away from home for a bit of school, so I don't have my amp and regular guitar, but just a Boss Katana Mini and a cheap-o squier strat I got for $80 that I'll sell before I head home. I actually had to go buy another cable to play this thing because I wasn't planning on buying any pedals here , so I had to wait a few days to actually give it a play.

Even with the lil Katana, I absolutely love this thing. The "overdrive" side on the right does the thing I was looking for, and the "deluxe" side on the left is crazy versatile. Another drive, a "thin" drive, a couple fuzzes, a bass drive (not too sure how to use this one, a crazy tremolo, etc. I've even had a bit of luck running it as a clean-ish boost after the overdrive, or by itself. I cannot wait to play it through my guitar and amp at home in a band setting with my friends. Super stoked

[MayTheFuzzBeWithYou]

That sounds like an odyssey!

Glad you found THE THING for you! And I really hope it works with your other amp and guitar(s) as well!
I was once eying with the regular version of these but still haven‘t played one!
The Deluxe is tempting too... but the price... so you really got lucky!
I already got their Super Fuzz War and the Echo Master & Echo Dream 2 - so I know how sick & awesome their pedals are!

[somanytoys]

That’s very cool, I’m glad you like it and got a good deal in it.

I bought one of the regular ones when they first introduced the volume knob version, like 15 years ago, but even with the volume knob, it always seemed like it only did one thing. It did it well, but it was a little much for practical use for me, so I sold it recently.

I’d imagine the deluxe is way more versatile, you’ll probably enjoy that a lot, especially since you’re already liking it with secondary equipment.

Congratulations.

[MC3]

Cheers! I'd def recommend giving it a try, like somanytoys said, it does really only do one thing, but I think it does the one thing really well. I did really get lucky on the price. I would've been happy with the original version with how much i paid. If I had unlimited money, I would buy an echo dream 2 right now. DBA stuff (to me) is just really fucking cool haha.

I do agree the regular does only one thing. Luckily it happens to be the thing I was looking for. Since you are one of the resident Vox guys around here, have any experience with in through them? I would definitely recommend the deluxe, I have found all but the crazy oscillating fuzz useful.

[cpeck]

I had one and absolutely loved it. It was stolen (along with my entire live rig when our van was stolen), and I replaced it with the normal version since I used it in a rack based system and didn’t use the second footswitch. To me, it’s kind of the ultimate Jazzmaster overdrive. Despite having no tone knob, it seems to do exactly what I want in almost every setting. Congrats.

[somanytoys]

Cheers! I'd def recommend giving it a try, like somanytoys said, it does really only do one thing, but I think it does the one thing really well. I did really get lucky on the price. I would've been happy with the original version with how much i paid. If I had unlimited money, I would buy an echo dream 2 right now. DBA stuff (to me) is just really fucking cool haha.

I do agree the regular does only one thing. Luckily it happens to be the thing I was looking for. Since you are one of the resident Vox guys around here, have any experience with in through them? I would definitely recommend the deluxe, I have found all but the crazy oscillating fuzz useful.

Not sure if I had the Voxes before I sold it, but I did use it with my Laney VC30, sort of Laney's class A version of an AC30. It sounded good, I actually tried a friend's IOD on it before I bought mine, and it sounded really good, which is why I bought it. It wasn't that I didn't like the pedal, it's just that I've bought so many newer pedals, I've been trying to sell some of my older pedals off.

[secretroutines]

Glad you're liking the IOD! Those pedals are so underrated. I love my IO! It's just the regular master volume one, but it responds to my playing really well. Idk about it only doing one thing, setting it up to let the pedal produce most of the gain seems to give the best results when you back off.

I'm also surprised no one ever mentions how LOUD they get.

[somanytoys]

That’s exactly why I bought the one with the volume knob when it came out. It’s a beast.

Pedals that do mainly one thing extremely well are not a bad thing.

[tune_link]

Just chiming in to say that I bought an Interstellar Overdrive (the two knob master volume version) because of this thread. I absolutely love it. I had been using an EQD Dunes for my main OD pedal doubling as a clean boost and this does the same thing but far far better. I was truly surprised at how loud it is and how good the range of tones you can get from it are with only two knobs. Mainly it does seem to not color the tone massively, more like it takes JM pickups and just enhances a lot of the frequencies you'd want to hear anyway. I'm keeping the Dunes for now (kind of using it to stack and provide a different shade of OD next in my chain).....but anyway THANK YOU to all the OSG posters here for convincing me to try this thing. I had written off DBA after having an Apocalypse and not liking it too much (sounded great on my own but with the band no setting would cut through).

Like OP, mine was pretty beat up but I got it for about $70 which I would consider a steal with how much I'm enjoying it.

[somanytoys]

Congratulations, that’s really cool! It’s always nice to get a pedal that you really love.

[MC3]

Just chiming in to say that I bought an Interstellar Overdrive (the two knob master volume version) because of this thread. I absolutely love it. I had been using an EQD Dunes for my main OD pedal doubling as a clean boost and this does the same thing but far far better. I was truly surprised at how loud it is and how good the range of tones you can get from it are with only two knobs. Mainly it does seem to not color the tone massively, more like it takes JM pickups and just enhances a lot of the frequencies you'd want to hear anyway. I'm keeping the Dunes for now (kind of using it to stack and provide a different shade of OD next in my chain).....but anyway THANK YOU to all the OSG posters here for convincing me to try this thing. I had written off DBA after having an Apocalypse and not liking it too much (sounded great on my own but with the band no setting would cut through).

Like OP, mine was pretty beat up but I got it for about $70 which I would consider a steal with how much I'm enjoying it.

Just now seeing this, glad I was able to help in some way (maybe?). I'd be willing to bet that the one knob version would do anything I could ask of it, just one side of the deluxe works so well, I couldn't really ask for anything else. for 70 bucks that sounds about perfect to me