Tube Overdrive

[PlayerElectone]

I recently saw for sale on eBay at thing called a Tube Overdrive. It really didn't explain what it was or did.
I think it is made in Germany (but not sure).
I did a search on the forum, but it yielded no results of previous posts.
Does anyone know what it is or what it does?
Thanks

[cellery]

Well I actually have one so I can fill you in! It's pretty much what it says on the box; a tube overdrive preamp built specifically for organs.

It has two channels, similar to many guitar amps; a clean channel and a drive channel. The clean channel just has volume and gain knobs (the two left knobs) and a 'high' switch which gives the signal more oomph. The drive channel is made up of the gain and high, the other four knobs - volume, drive, trebble and factor - and switches labelled crunch, dirty, presence (more bottom) and extreme (real shrieky). By combining all these you can get all kinds of flavors of distortion, from a mild bluesy growl to a piercing metallic shriek like a cat stuck in a tumble dryer. Left bottom big switch switches channels, right bottom big switch is bypass.

It's really versatile, you can get tons of sweet sounds with it. I also like how it lets me play with an overdriven sound at home without having to pump up my organ and speaker volume to a level that makes the plaster peel off the walls and my girlfriend leave me. Downside is all those knobs and switches make it a bit unwieldy when you want to change sounds on the fly. Also it works with regular 1/4 jacks so using it with a proper Leslie'd take some work. I've also read here and there that when changing drawbar settings the distortion doesn't follow like it would with a regular overdriven Leslie but I've not really noticed that myself.

[PlayerElectone]

Wow! Thanks for the lesson in overdrive. It must be awesome if you want that particular sound.
I'm kind of a straight old Hammond guy, but this sure does pique my interest.
Thanks for taking the time to explain (and the added humor). :-)

[Tonewheel]

Tube overdrive

You might want to look at the Profkon (you can find a thread here on that topic). I installed one in place of the left lower cheek block on my 55 B3, and I like it a lot. There is a phase where the stock upper Leslie driver begins to deteriorate, and the grittiness is perfect. But then it blows and you have to get a new one.So I installed this passive distortion unit. It is small, wood-grained and the metal knobs, backplate and miniswitches are powder coated black, so it looks subtle. It takes a bit of work to release the manuals, lift them up, take out the old cheek block (store it in your bench!), fish the wiring down to the preamp, solder things, etc., but you can do this! If you are interested, and have one, I can give you the settings for the slightly gritty to Santana to Gimme Some Lovin' sounds. And it flips on and off so easily. The other thing I like is the large knob that can be twisted to take you from slight grit all the way to full but sweet distortion. What's great is that you won't blow your driver with this.Dave

[mrtip49]

Check out the Organ Grinder https://youtu.be/X3t4xyhdGRA

- - - Updated - - -

Check out the Organ Grinder https://youtu.be/X3t4xyhdGRA

[Goff]

You might want to look at the Profkon

Here is a lo-fi celphone clip to give you an idea of the ZD-1;
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B6v...ew?ts=56445054

[Tim_at_Jonas]

Sounds like a low pass filter would be a good addition.