What Makes An Overdrive Transparent?

What is transparent overdrive?

Buzzword alert!

 

Of all the terms thrown around the guitar pedal circles, “transparent overdrive” is one of the most commonly used and abused. Unfortunately, many people use it in a way to proclaim superiority over other pedals or players. Forgetting that taste is subjective.

I think that every pedal is another tool in your shed. Each one has a specific purpose. That’s why most guitarist will have multiple delays or overdrives on a single pedal board. They all do something different, even if they’re in the same category.

I have a good friend who can take a cheap “bad” pedal and make it sound like a million bucks. I don’t know how he does it, and I wish I had his ear and intuitions. It’s an example of the gear not really mattering if it’s in the right hands.

So as you read this, try not to think about “better”. Think about transparency in an overdrive pedal as a different tool to achieve a different outcome.

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What Are Transparent Overdrives?

The goal of a transparent overdrive is to emulate your amp being pushed to, and past, breakup. It doesn’t add anything in the way of EQ to your signal. Just clipping to get overdrive. It's your tone with a little more dirt.

And that’s essentially it. The point is to accentuate your existing signal by providing gain and boost. This is perfect for lower gain settings. Though you can get pretty dirty with some of the transparent overdrives. For me personally, I think the transparency isn’t as meaningful in higher gain situations. My sweet spot is a step or two past breakup.

One thing to note is that Transparent Overdrives and True Bypassare two completely separate things. You'll often see then used together, either on the same pedal or just in the same buzzword context.

What Do the Knobs Do Then?

You might find it odd that a pedal exclaiming transparency has tone knob. While each pedal’s tone knob will have a different function unique to it, they all generally cut or boost a certain frequency. In general, if the knob is at 12 o’clock, it’s not doing anything.

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Are Transparent Overdrives Better?

Do you know what the most iconic overdrive (perhaps of all time) is? It’s the Ibanez TS-808 Tube Screamer. Blues, Country, and Metal players alike love it and swear by it. At least a quarter of all overdrive pedals are modeled after or inspired by it.

IMHO it’s not super transparent.

Which is a good thing. Pedals like the Tube Screamer add a desirable mid boost (on top of pushing your amp past breakup). Metal players love that mid boost and the extra gain they get (by adding output volume, not gain).

Blues players like Stevie Ray Vaughn used it to add modest gain to his clean tone.

Other non-transparent overdrives will add or cut bass, depending on the pedal.

But it all circles back to my first point. It’s not about being better or worse. It’s going to get you a different tone than xpedal will. Different doesn’t mean anything but different. It’s another tool in the shed.

And if you’re building a house you’ll need more than a hammer.

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What Are Some Great Transparent Overdrives?

There are some really great transparent overdrives out there. The Rock Stock Raven is a killer transparent overdrive. Some common and really popular transparent overdrives are the Rock Stock Raven, JHS Morning Glory and Wampler Tumnus.

Rock Stock Raven

 

JHS Morning Glory

 

Wampler Tumnus

 

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