Overdrive/distortion + eq?

[simpleobserver]

I've been thinking that i need an overdrive/distortion with an eq section, something like the guvnor or tonepad's overdrive pro.  I've been thinking the od pro is the one for me, but i'm definately looking for a low gain dist.  Something more tubelike.  Does anyone have any other suggestions?  I'm sure i can just add an eq section like that to any od/dis, can someone exlain how that works? 

[sault]

You're basically talking about adding a tone stack on to a distortion pedal. An example of the most common one is on the Overdrive Pro already - the FMV (Fender-Marshall-Vox) tone stack - that's the section after the shunt cap, C7, in the Overdrive Pro's schematic.

http://www.tonepad.com/getFile.asp?id=38

Probably the easiest way to customize it would be to download Duncan's Tone Stack Calculator and play around with it (if you have a PC). Otherwise, you can always SPICE/PSPICE/LTSPICE it.

Might want to check out this page, has a good overview of tone stacks.

http://amps.zugster.net/articles/tone-stacks/

In general passive tone stacks will suck some signal (insertion loss, it's called), so often it's not a bad idea to amplify a signal with a reasonably low output impedance before you put it through the tone stack, and follow with a buffer (high impedance input). In the case of the overdrive pro, the IC provides amplification with a low output impedance, and the Q2 buffer provides that high input impedance.

[simpleobserver]

Thanks for the info!

[runmikeyrun]

I highly suggest using sockets for any components in your tone stack... makes changing caps and resistors a million times easier!