overdrives for stacking

[Singlebladepickup]

ssbs mini is probably the perfect thing

Agreed. Gigantic range of gain, a lot of volume so you could use it either to punch something else downstream or use it stand alone for anything from light overdrive to howling fuzz/distortion.

The mini is really great, and it stacks well with Fuzzhugger's Algal Bloom fuzz. The are pretty similar voices (depending on SSBS settings), but the Fuzzhugger's gain settings start closer to where the Mini's ends. I used the Mini for lower/medium gain and kicked on the Algal Bloom after the Mini when I needed to kick it up a notch. Good note definition but still fuzzy and aggressive. If I turned bias settings down on both, it sounded like a synthesizer.

[Gavanti]

As other have said the SSBS Mini is very good, flexible, and relatively inexpensive used, and a clone of a Benson Preamp or Hudson Broadcast would also be a good inexpensive option. I prefer both of these to the Mini for stacking. Timmy is a classic stacker as well, or you might consider one of the Catalinbread foundation overdrives, like the Dirty Little Secret or the SFT.

[ElephantDNA]

DOD 250 is solid. Timmy is solid.

[shoule79]

I’ve played with stacking a lot over the years, some of my favorites:

ZVex Box of Rock
Tubescreamer/SD1 family of pedals (love my Plumes and Fulldrive
Klones (Archer in my case)
Boss Blues Driver
Blues Breakers (Morning Glory in my case)
MXR Distortion +
DOD 250
Rat - most of the above sound great feeding into a Rat
Fulltone OCD - has better luck with this as a second stage OD

Also, a compressor into a Distortion + as a boost sounds godly.

[sessylU]

My board used to be a Klone, a Timmy, an OCD, a Dirty Little Secret and a Saltbooster. All set up to add just a little bit more gain (like, say 120% of unity). Then I could pick and choose which to use to get loads of different flavours of drive, from subtle, glassy tones right up to silly, raging drive.