Behringer Overdrive Distortion OD300 - Basics Of Overdrive

Finding a cheap distortion pedal that offers a good sound you can actually use for live performance isn't something that's easy to run into these days. Therefore, we often tend to discard many of those budget-friendly products because no matter how cheap they are, you still can't really use them for anything, so why bother buying useless things in the first place. Anyhow, OD300 from Behringer is one of the few models we believe certainly won't give you any headache and actually present you with a rather solid performance at a pretty low price. Let's see what this guy is about! Features The pedals comes in a cute pink plastic casing, featuring one In and one Out jack. In runs on a single 9V battery or via standard adapter, which is not included in the mix. While some folks tend to bash the plastic design, we think that it does the job pretty well. Sure, it's not as sturdy as metal editions, but as long as you treat it right there's nothing to worry about. And seeing that using plastic was among the key factors for making this stompbox so cheap, we believe there's nothing to complain about. In the rest of the mix, the pedal features a LED status indicator, four control knobs, a large on/off foot-switch, a light weight of 11.7 ounces, and a total size of 2.8 x 2.1 x 4.8 inches.

Control

As noted, we're looking at four knobs. Pretty basic stuff, easy to grasp, details below: Level – This knob determines the level of overdrive that's infused into your sonic output. The more you increase it, the more OD effect and less of your clean guitar sound will you get in the final mix. Tone – Used to adjust the color of overdrive. The more you crank it up, the darker and stronger the tone becomes. Drive – This knob is essentially a gain control, and the more you increase it, the more gain-driven, fuzzier and dirtier your sound will be. Mode – This control is used to choose between lighter overdrive mode and gain-heavy distortion regime.

Performance

While you shouldn't expect a top-level sonic bite from this thing, we believe that the tone of OD300 is solid enough to be used for live shows. It's pretty natural, warm and thick, and there's enough versatility in the box to cater to players of a variety of genres. It can tackle the blues, but it can also go full-on metal. For the listed price, which is pretty low, you'll be getting a heck of a deal.

Conclusion

Overall, this is possibly the best cheap overdrive pedal out there. It can measure up against items that are twice more expensive, which was a pleasant surprise for us. We are always suspicious when dealing with budget friendly OD pedals, and are usually more likely to give them a thumbs down, but this one is an exception. Therefore, highly recommended for beginner and intermediate players, a nice thumbs up from here! For more info about the Behringer Overdrive Distortion OD300, click here. For more Overdrive Pedals Currently On The Market, click here.