While it took some years to properly define what an overdrive pedal is, they’re now an integral part of many guitar players’ rigs. And although, in its essence, a pretty simple device, overdrive pedals come in many forms today, some bearing a variety of controls. And an overdrive pedal with clean blend is just one of many options that you’ll find today.
What’s so great about these pedals is that they’re able to provide you with more tone-shaping options, often even without making things too complex. They’re also incredibly useful when paired with tube-driven amps that react well to overdrives and clean boosts. With that said, let’s dig in and see what are some of the best options that you can find today.
Our Top Picks
- Electro-Harmonix Nano Operation Overlord – This compact pedal brings much more variety than you’d expect from its size, with 3 JFET gain stages in its normal mode, which results in an almost tube-amp-like tone.
- JHS Moonshine V2 – With their Moonshine overdrive, JHS have kept things simple while still providing versatility with the “blend” knob and a so-called “proof” toggle. This pedal is mainly focused on pronouncing the low mids in your tone.
- T-Rex Møller 2 – One of the most underrated gems of the guitar world today. The “bass boost” switch adds some bottom ends to your sonic content and makes it sound almost as if you have a subtle octaver effect on.
- Voodoo Lab Sparkle Drive Mod – A fairly simple pedal with three basic knobs and only two additional controls. One of which is the clean blend, whilst the other allows you to choose between different distortion circuits.
- Way Huge WHE201 Pork Loin – A pretty soft overdrive designed to give just some sparkle, boost, and slight coloration when paired with tube-driven amps. This pedal is discontinued so you will have to keep an eye on the used market.
Contents
What is a Clean Blend Overdrive and Why Use One?
So what is actually an overdrive pedal with a clean blend? Essentially, this means that the pedal has an additional control that blends the clean unprocessed signal with the “dirty” unprocessed ones.
So this isn’t the same as your usual “drive” or “gain” control. In order to understand this, let’s go back a little and explain what overdrive actually is. I know I’m going on a tangent, but trust me — you’ll get it.
Overdrive is a type of distortion with soft clipping. Clipping is what happens when the clean signal reaches the limitations of your pedal. And soft clipping means that the process of clipping is not as harsh as with your usual distortion pedals, making it feel more like a tube-driven amp.
The gain knob, which controls the level at the input, will increase the signal’s amplitude and then push it to sound “dirtier,” so to speak. A clean blend control, on the other hand, will work with this “dirty” signal and the completely clean unprocessed signal.
So it helps you get the balance between the clean and processed tone. In practice, this can bring more clarity. The legendary Klon Centaur, for instance, did this same thing but with its onboard “gain” knob. On this pedal, the control works both as a clean blend and regular gain.
The clean blend control might not seem as important at first, especially if you’re using it for the first time. However, when paired with tube-driven amps, you get a whole different perspective. For the lack of a better word, it would let your tube amp “breathe” more while delivering that “organic” overdriven tone.
How to Give Any Overdrive Pedal a Clean Blend Option
What’s interesting is that, with the right gear and setup, any conventional distortion pedal can get this clean blend option. This might not be the most practical option in terms of room on your pedalboard, but it works and it can get the feature with your favorite pedal.
For this purpose, you’ll need either Boss LS-2 Line Splitter or anything that works the same way. But LS-2 is the standard so, honestly, that’s the best possible option.
The pedal comes with “A” and “B” loops, individual level controls for each, and regular input and output. You’ll need to plug your pedal into the “A” loop using the “send” and “return” jacks. As for the “B” loop, just use a patch cable and connect the “send” and “return” jacks.
Then set the mode to “A+B/Bypass” and you’ll be able to use “A” as the level of “dirty” in your tone while “B” will control the clean unprocessed signal. While you won’t have a singular control for a clean blend, it still gives pretty much the same effect. Set up the ratio of clean and processed signals and, when stomping on the LS-2, you’ll just engage your overdrive pedal with the set desired controls. Just make sure that your overdrive is always turned on.
The Best Overdrive Pedals with Clean Blend
1. Electro-Harmonix Nano Operation Overlord
This compact pedal brings much more variety than you’d expect from its size. Nano Operation Overlord has three JFET gain stages in its normal mode, which results in an almost tube-amp-like tone. The tone tends to be slightly “grainy” overall, giving it that old-school kind of vibe. In my opinion, it’s a great overdrive for making your average solid-state amp sound more like an actual tube amp.
Of course, there’s the clean blend feature in the form of a “dry” control. You can easily add any amount of unprocessed signal, making the tone more “transparent.” Apart from that, there’s even an onboard 3-band equalizer, as well as a 3-way input level mode switch. Aside from its normal mode, you can use low and high-gain input modes. Essentially, this control helps you keep things under control with different types of guitar electronics.
On top of all this, there’s even a “boost” toggle which you can even control by using an external footswitch. All of these features make it more than just an overdrive but a versatile tone-shaping workstation.
2. JHS Moonshine V2
We all know that you can’t ever go wrong with JHS pedals. With their Moonshine overdrive, they’ve kept things rather simple while still providing versatility with the “blend” knob and a so-called “proof” toggle. The latter is a control that lets you choose between high-gain and low-gain modes.
The pedal is mainly focused on pronouncing the low mids in your tone. It gets more and more noticeable as you push the gain control higher. And, of course, there’s also the clean blend control, along with your usual volume, drive, and tone knobs.
What’s also worth noting is that the pedal comes with a voltage converter, turning your usual 9 volts into 18. As a result, the pedal offers more headroom and keeps the bottom ends tighter.
In my experience, it’s a really great pedal for tube-driven amps, especially American-style ones. Plug it into a Fender, something like a Blues Junior or a Princeton Reverb, and you’ll get some of the finest blues rock tones that you can imagine.
3. T-Rex Møller 2
I’d say that T-Rex’s Møller 2 is one of the most underrated gems of the guitar world today. This is an overdrive pedal with a clean blend function, as well as an additional boost stage that’s engaged with a separate footswitch.
Overall, Møller 2 is designed to bring your usual simple functions and layout without any advanced connectivity features. However, there’s also a “bass boost” switch that adds some bottom ends to your sonic content and makes it sound almost as if you have a subtle octaver effect on.
This rugged pedal in a slightly larger casing will also give you your basic controls. But you’ll also be able to precisely dial in the amount of the boost added to the signal. Møller 2 is famous for its neutral tone and it doesn’t add almost any coloration to your tone, which makes it a great choice if you just need something to boost your tube-driven amp without making things too complex.
4. Voodoo Lab Sparkle Drive Mod
While Voodoo Lab isn’t the most widespread mainstream pedal brand out there, their stuff should never be underestimated. As far as these clean blend overdrives go, the Sparkle Drive Mod is one of the best options on the market.
Again, we have a fairly simple pedal with three basic knobs and only two additional controls. One of these, obviously, is the clean blend. Meanwhile, there’s the “mod” switch that gives four distinct distortion circuits. Apart from the basic overdrive, you’ll also get “lead,” “rhythm,” and “high gain.” These aren’t just about the amount of gain boost and specific clipping types. You’ll also get some additional EQ curve tweaking that ultimately helps you completely reinvent your tone.
5. Way Huge WHE201 Pork Loin
Lastly, I’d like to mention Way Huge and their WHE201 pedal, also known as the Pork Loin. Yeah, this fine piece of gear is no longer produced. However, you can still find it online. And if you get your hands on one of these, I’m sure that you won’t regret it.
We have a pretty soft overdrive, as the “soft clipping” in its full name would suggest. We could say that the pedal is designed to give just some sparkle, boost, and slight coloration when paired with tube-driven amps. This is especially useful in combination with the clean blend control on it.
However, the pedal also includes a control labeled as “curve.” Affecting only the processed overdriven portion of the tone, it’s a pretty subtle control. At first, you’ll feel like you can’t even notice anything. But when you’re pairing it with a tube-driven amp, you’ll see that it affects the overall brightness and can even help you pronounce different pick attacks.
Overall, this is a pretty simple pedal without any unnecessary “bells and whistles,” so to speak. And from what I can tell you, Pork Loin is an incredible choice for all the blues rock lovers out there.