Overdrive and distortion pedals, particularly vintage models from companies such as Ibanez (check out TS-808 tube screamer prices on Ebay), Boss (OD-1 very collectable), MXR, etc., have been very popular lately. One reason is of course primarily the tone that they offer. The other, is that plain and simply, they’re just built better than what you can commercially get today. I recently opened up an old MXR distortion plus and was impressed that it had not one, but four signed signatures on it, for testing and “signing off” on the unit during various stages of construction. You don’t often see that kind of care being taken when building pedals anymore. These days, it is about getting the bottom line (i.e. the cost) down to as little as possible. Even companies such as Boss that mass-produced many units since the ‘70s, did an excellent job and the quality was top notch while the pedals were being produced in Japan. Now, is well, another story.
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