BOSS overdrive compared: BD-2 vs SD-1 vs OD-3

The Blues Driver is the odd one out in this group and the reason the group is worth comparing. Its gain comes from discrete stages rather than from clipping diodes inside an op-amp's feedback loop, so the frequency response stays flat through the mids and the top end stays open.

The practical consequence is dynamic range. It responds to how hard you pick and it cleans up substantially when you roll the guitar volume back — more so than either of the other two here.

The cons: no mid hump, so it is a poor lead boost, and it will not tighten a loose overdriven amp because it does not cut the bass that causes the problem. At 20 mA it also draws twice what the SD-1 does, which matters only on a very tight supply.

BOSS describes an asymmetrical clipping circuit, which means the positive and negative halves of the waveform are treated differently and the result contains even-order harmonics a symmetrical circuit does not produce. Whether you hear that as warmth is subjective; that the circuit differs is not.

It shares the Tube Screamer's mid-forward shape while being noticeably less compressed, which makes it the most useful of the three as a stacking pedal in front of another drive or a dirty amp channel.

The cons: it is not transparent and does not pretend to be — the mid hump is the whole point, so it will not sit invisibly under a clean amp. Like all three, no adaptor is included and it is buffered rather than true bypass.

The OD-3 sits between the other two in character and above both in low-end content. On a bright amp or a thin-sounding single-coil guitar that extra weight is exactly what is missing, and it is the most immediately satisfying of the three on its own.

It is the least specialized of the group: it neither stays out of the way like the BD-2 nor focuses the mids like the SD-1. For a player who wants one drive pedal that sounds good without thinking about it, that is a feature.

The cons are real and BOSS publishes little to plan around. No current-draw or impedance figures are published for it, unlike the other two. And the extra low end that helps a bright rig is the thing that turns a humbucker into an already-dark amp to mush.

We are not picking this one, because it is not in the category. The DS-1 is a distortion: diodes clip hard to ground, the result is consistent regardless of picking strength, and there is no low-gain setting where it behaves like an overdrive.

It sits in the same enclosure, at a similar price, on the same shop wall, which is why it lands on this shortlist. If what you want is grit on top of your amp's own sound, this is the wrong pedal and any of the three above is the right one.

If what you actually want is a distinct distortion voice, it is a genuinely good pedal with one design quirk worth knowing: the single Tone control scoops mids as it brightens. The distortion roundup covers it properly.