The DOD Yngwie Malmsteen Y308 Preamp Overdrive Brings Leads to Life.

I never thought I would be interested in DOD overdrive pedals. I have used Ibanez Tube Screamers and Boss DS-1 pedals in my arsenal for some time now. I actually heard this pedal from a friend of mine who is a big fan of Yngwie Malmsteen. He is as much a fan of Malmsteen as I am of George Lynch. He informed me that in a video George Lynch put out he mentioned that he uses a DOD 250, which is what the DOD YJM308 is based off of.

Back in the 1970's when hard rock and heavy metal were really starting to come into its own the overdrive that several top players used was the DOD 250. If you can find an original one of these it will typically cost you about $200. Yngwie used the classic pedal in his sound and DOD approached him about a signature pedal. This is how they came about making the DOD Y308. I have personally seen his set up and he does actually use this pedal, so you know it has to help him rock out.

The Pedal is built very sturdy featuring a medal casing and footswitch with plastic control knobs. The gain knob controls the amount of overdrive and the level knob controls the level of the pedal as to how loud it makes it. This enables some flexibility in your sound. It has your standard line input and output and a spot for the 9v power supply. The DOD pedals do not take the standard 9V power supply. If you use a daisy chain to connect all of your effect together you will need an adapter piece. One spot makes them and they are not very expensive. If you purchase their daisy chain kit you will get two adaptors that will fit this pedal. The DOD YJM308 can usually be purchased for less than $40. I bought mine on Amazon.com for like $30.

Overall the pedal is fairly quiet, but you will get more noise than with most Boss or Ibanez distortion pedals. I use a noise gate and have no issue. You want to insure the noise gate is after the DOD YJM308 or whatever distortion you use. This way a vast majority of the unwanted sounds will be eliminated. It has a very classic sound when you use it on its own kind of like late 70's Marshall Amplifiers. If you use it as a boot you can get a much fatter a crunchier sound.

I have been using one for three months and people who hear me play really seem to like the tone I have with my guitar set up. I personally use this as a boost in my set up. I will run it in front of all already overdrive amplifier with 20-30%. I set my DOD YJM308 with the gain at about 80-90% and crank the level to 100%. I do this because it allows me to play a slightly clean tone without having to turn off the overdrive on the amplifier. When I switch to a part requiring overdrive I simply click on my DOD YJM308 and play the part. I play pretty high gain. If you are looking for a lower gain setting like a Lynyrd Skynyrd or Boston sound I would recommend putting the gain at about 50-60% and the level at 50%. Another thing you can do with this pedal is use it just for solos and switch it on an off during your solo and rely on your amplifier for the rhythm parts of the song.

Overall I really like the pedal and it much more affordable than most pedals in the same category. It is also very durable as my tech has dropped mine a couple times. The only thing I do not like about the pedal is that there is no on off light. This might not seem like a big issue to some people, but I really like a light that tells me when my effects are off and on. Other than that I will rate this as a very solid pedal and I plan to keep it in my pedal board for a long time.

Sources and to purchase.

http://www.dod.com/yngwie/yngwienew.html

www.musciansfriend.com

www.guitarcenter.com