The broad church of blues lead guitar incorporates a pretty wide range of tones. There’s BB King’s sweet-as-honey clean sound all the way to Gary Clark Jr’s fuzzed-out mayhem.
Most blues players, however, prefer an edge-of-breakup overdrive to just about anything else when it comes to blues leads.
Top 3 - Blues Overdrive Pedals
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Generally, too much distortion is going to obscure the dynamics and touch sensitivity that is the bread and butter of great blues playing. Too little and you don’t get the compression and sustain that makes lead lines truly sing.
The sweet spot, in my opinion, is somewhere in the middle. I often think of Stevie Ray Vaughan or John Mayer as proponents of great overdriven blues tone, although I’ll happily concede that Gary Moore’s Still Got The Blues high-gain approach still gives me goosebumps!
My Favorite Overdrive Pedals for Blues
1. Boss BD-2 Blues Driver
Boss’ blues-focused take on the SD-1 circuit makes no apologies for what it is and what it does. It even looks like a Super Overdrive painted blue! The Blues Driver is one of the more divisive pedals among guitar players, but I’m a fan.
BOSS BD-2 Blues Driver
The basic idea here is light drive, adding a little color and compression to a tube amplifier. No more, no less. It won’t send an already-cranked amp into Zakk Wylde territory. It will, however, warm up a Fender-style amplifier’s clean tone and give it the necessary preamp push to really make it sing.
The Blues Driver really shines in two use cases: firstly, as a foundational overdrive for gain stacking. This is for those who want a basic drive tone for rhythm playing, and even more drive for leads.
The other way to use this is as a lead gain/boost, adding a touch of grit and power to a clean tone. In this scenario, it works best in front of a clean amp right at the edge of poweramp saturation.
I found that, as an always-on drive, it reacts very nicely to my picking technique. Playing with my fingers or more softly yields sweeter, gentler sounds. More furious picking distorts harder, and offers more aggressive tones. It’s very reactive, and cleans up nicely when I roll off my volume knob for less gain, Jimmy Page-style.
The gain on tap here is relatively tentative: it doesn’t work its magic at higher gain settings, preferring everywhere below two o’clock to my ear.
Those who want more gain and sustain from this pedal will be thrilled by the BD-2W, the slightly beefed-up brother to the Blues Driver, which emulates famous pedal builder Robert Keeley’s legendary BD-2 mod.
Overall, the Blues Driver is a flagship bluesy drive for any genre of music that demands blues leads. That includes, of course, uptempo blues playing, but I’ve happily deployed it after a compressor for dirty country playing, too! It’s a popular, affordable pedal that could be at home on any board.
2. J. Rockett Blue Note Select
The Blue Note is an excellent all-round overdrive, especially for the precise demands of blues playing. I’ve heard it described as a Tube Screamer clone, but to me, apart from its slight midrange hump, it’s pretty far removed from Ibanez’ famous little green box.
J. Rockett Blue Note Select
The Blue Note’s drive style actually reminds me more of the old Marshall Bluesbreaker, especially as played by Eric Clapton during his time with John Mayall. Since I’m a documented fan of British-style drive and saturation, I really like this pedal.
The first thing I noticed about when trying out this pedal was just how sensitive the controls are. The gain settings can all sound pretty good, and if it gets a little fizzy or muddy, some tweaking of the Tone and Fat knobs is all it takes to tame the tone.
The low end of the gain staging here is nicely tight, and even allowed me to mess around in Drop D.
Its responsiveness to picking attack is a major selling point here, and it smooths out very nicely upon a simple roll off of my 335’s tone knob.
I wouldn’t call this overdrive transparent at all: it has plenty of character, and is all the better for it. Players looking for a smoother drive might want to look elsewhere, but for me, the Blue Note is an excellent overdrive for higher-octane blues lead playing.
3. Marshall BluesBreaker
Before the Dirty Little Secret and myriad clones of the “Marshall in a Box” circuit, there were actual British-made Marshall amplifiers. The first one to really turn heads, particularly when deployed by one Eric Clapton, was the Marshall BluesBreaker.
In the 90s, Marshall issued the BluesBreaker pedal, aiming to capture the old early-60s British blues tone in a box, and this excellent stompbox is a reissue of this very vintage circuit.
Marshall BluesBreaker on my pedalboard.
For the uninitiated, this is a Marshall overdrive. It does one thing, it does that thing very well, and it does nothing else. Gary Moore used a Marshall Guv’Nor on Still Got The Blues, which in my opinion is one of the finest blues tones ever recorded. Putting the BluesBreaker, lower-gain sibling of that famous pedal, in front of a tube amp, yields similar results.
Searing, white-hot lead sounds, especially on the bridge pickup of my Les Paul. Siren songs and sweet melodies on my neck pickup. Snarling, clear, sustaining overdrive for chords, and a nice cleanup with a roll off of the tone and volume knobs.
I actually tried running the BluesBreaker straight into the PA, and found that I could channel some pretty impressive Cream-style Eric Clapton tones, too.
It’s going to turn even a wimpy little Vox practice amp into a terrifying blues lead machine.
I don’t think the Marshall lead tone is for everyone. It’s a very distinctive sound, associated with key cultural moments from decades past. It bites and cuts through the mix in a way guaranteed to please guitar players and annoy keyboardists.
Despite all this, the Marshall lead tone is for me, and I appreciate the BluesBreaker for what it is. It’s a great pedal for any player who wants more sauce, more power, and more sustain than a typical light bluesy drive can offer.
4. JOYO Blues Overdrive (Bright Day)
JOYO’s pedals are always good value for money, and this is no exception. The Blues Overdrive is very affordable, and probably worth picking up just to try out at this price.
Joyo Bright Day Overdrive
JOYO promises two tones in this diminutive little box: vintage and modern. The vintage mode is really just a classic low-gain drive, just a little grit over a clean tone. It’s not much use at higher gain levels, but it’s not designed for that. It adds a touch of compression and saturation, although to my ear it’s closer to the 70s rock preamp saturation than the full-bore poweramp overdrive that I prefer.
The “modern” mode is considerably hairier. It actually reminds me more of the ProCo RAT than anything else, or more specifically, a tube amp with a RAT in front of it.
I tend to think of a blues overdrive as being smooth and creamy rather than the fizzy, fuzzy drive of a RAT. That said, it’s definitely usable in a blues setting, and certainly helped my 335 jump out in the mix.
For me, the JOYO Blues Overdrive sits in between the more polite drive tone of Eric Johnson and the rude mood of Stevie Ray Vaughan. It responds nicely to picking dynamics, and is certainly capable of delivering snarling distortion. At this price point, I’d worry about build quality and versatility: it’s small and lightweight, which isn’t exactly as reassuring as, say, the tank-like chassis of a Boss pedal. I’d worry about taking it on a long tour as my main source of drive, but for playing at home, or at venues near home, it’s a great pedal.
5. Keeley Blues Disorder
When I was a kid, I used to make “inventions” that were really just half of one object stuck to another. A broom with a mop duct taped to the other end stands out in my memory. Sometimes, I wonder if Robert Keeley sits around doing that with guitar pedals.
Case in point: the Blues Disorder, which offers both BluesBreaker and OCD style circuits.
Keeley Blues Disorder
Both circuits sound great. Blind testing, side by side, I can’t tell the difference between the Disorder circuits and the real deal, in either setting. Anyone interested in stacking the BluesBreaker and an OCD might actually just be better off getting the Blues Disorder and having some fun.
The response is distinctively amp-like. It compresses and sustains just like a Marshall Plexi. Adding or blending in the OCD circuit adds more hair and roar, taking the gain to the next level.
I found that it really fattened up my lead lines. There’s actually far more gain on tap here than most blues players will want to use. With the extra staging of the OCD style circuit, there’s firebreathing distortion that even Gary Moore might blush at.
The sound is undeniably cool, and it’s extremely usable at pretty much all gain levels. Even the light drive edge-of-breakup sound is awesome, responding faithfully to variations in my picking attack.
Overall, a great, versatile pedal, at a price point that I could happily recommend to any intermediate guitar player and beyond.
Still Got the Blues?
Blues guitar is all about expression. We’ve come a long way since Robert Johnson and Muddy Waters and their acoustic guitars. Electric, amplified blues guitar is a virtuoso genre all of its own, and it makes clear demands of players dipping their toes in the water.
While most guitarists think of blues guitar as relatively clean, it’s always valuable to have a range of tonal options available. Depending on the ensemble, a great blues lead tone can be clean and classic, or rowdy and raucous. It really depends on the show. Sometimes it depends on the song!
Fortunately, the best blues overdrives are very responsive to variations in technique and attack. When trying out an overdrive pedal for blues playing, I like to try softer lines, picking hard near the bridge, and rolling off my volume and tone knobs to see how the pedal reacts.
The holy grail, so to speak, of this tone, is to find a guitar pedal that reacts and sounds like an old tube amp, but at lower volume levels. Fortunately, this is easier than ever now!
Driving Blues Tone
From BB King cleans to Gary Moore distortion, there’s a blues overdrive for just about any player dipping their toes into the muddy waters of electric blues guitar.
Great blues overdrives are affordable, responsive, and, best of all, tend to be road-tested and are easily found on the pedalboards of the greatest players in the world. I think John Mayer alone might have played every item on this list!
With the right drive pedal, great blues tone is only a stomp away.
