Electro-Harmonix East River Drive Classic Overdrive Pedal Reviews

Stunned and excited describes my response from the very first chord strummed... Given that this was designed and spec'd by Analogman, Mike Piera, I was expecting it to be good.... but, wow.... such incredible articulation and note separation! The mids were just right, no spike here, just rich harmonic content to make your notes bloom and sing... I've wanted this pedal for some time and a great friend decided I'd waited long enough and gifted me one hahaha... A truly genius & inspiring pedal... I've been building amps for going on 20 years and have also dabbled in building/mod'ing pedals for some time now. Do yourself a favor get this pedal and have fun making music with it! I know I'm having fun!!

This pedal in my opinion is just as good if not better than a tube screamer and it costs less! Works great for my uses going from tones that are gentle to Djentle.

If you are looking for a tube screamer pedal that cuts through the mids well, fattens your sound and responds to dynamics, this is the best pedal for you. It's everything you can expect from a tube screamer and more. Don't let its price fool you, it's on par with the most expensive overdrives.

I first found this on line with comparative review of SRV-ish drives. After hearing the side by sides with others, I decided these were the tones I liked the best. Plugging it into my gear, I am even more pleased. If you like that snappy, slight crunch that is directly responsive to how you play this is your pedal. I especially like it with a single coil and love how the most subtle of fingering or picking differences allows you to add or subtract impact and gives a wide variety of tones. Highly recommend!

This OD unit gives your sound a "luscious creaminess". It is the cherry on the top of your sound.

Like all EHX pedals, the East River Drive is excellent. A great take on the TS.
Best Pedals + Best Prices = EHX

Was looking for a simple not-too-expensive overdrive that would fit in my guitar case for use at rehearsals, jams, practice and studio work when I didn't want to bring out my Boss ME-70 processor. I watched a lot of demo vids and chose the East River from Electro Harmonix. VERY HAPPY with my choice! The sound is warm and smooth and especially good when used in front of an already slightly overdriven amp. It doesn't have the mid bump like the Tube Screamer and I'm fine with that. Tho I usually use a 9V power supply the pedal only draws 6mA so the battery should last a long time according to Sam Hillman at Sweetwater.

I like this overdrive. I use the EHX Soul Food as a treble boost to push this drive into an almost clean amp. The East River Drive and the Soul Food stack nicely for a great hard rock sound. I have the Soul Food drive knob set at 7:00 and the East River drive knob set at 2:00. The combo has a nice crunch with minimal noise.

For the cost of this pedal, and the quality of the tones you seriously cannot go wrong. Yes, it's not going to blow away or match those boutique pedals BUT it's close and it'll let you know whether the green overdrive is for you. I found out it's for me, and I'll have this pedal for years. Buy it.

I really didn't expect this kind of performance at this price point. Amazing tones from this little green monster. Does everything my TS808 used to do, and more. From a nice clean boost to downright dirty, this pedal has it. This has become my "always on" pedal.

I have the TS9. I did one of the mods that adds the JRC4558. I have never been thrilled with it. Just kind of "fizzy" to harsh. Muddy. And the excessive mid-bump. Just not my cup of tea. I use it with a Deluxe Reverb. I bought this to replace the TS9 (and the Soul Food to replace a Boss BD-2).

The ERD turned out to be the "Blues Driver" pedal I have always wanted. It took about 30 seconds of using it before I ripped the BD-2 off my pedalboard. The sound is very transparent. The overdrive is quite smooth. It certainly sounds more like an overdriven tube amp than a pedal. It is not the least bit muddy. I don't sense much of a mid bump with this pedal, but I am running with Gain set to about 11 o'clock only. Push the gain a bit harder you have excellent Classic Rock tones. Great...but this was supposed to replace the TS9, not the BD-2!!

I mostly used the TS9 to stack into other pedals for leads or just a little extra push. I never really used it by itself (as I didn't care for the sound of it). The ERD, in this case, is a wonderful alternative to the TS9 and it stacks beautifully into other pedals and yields rich, singing sustain without changing the character of the pedal you stack it into.

I had planned to stack ERD into the Soul Food but found I much prefer the Soul Food stacked into the ERD. The bonus is that both the ERD and the Soul Food stack wonderfully stacked into my MXR Distortion III or Rat 2, yielding of course fairly different sounds. So, by itself the ERD can be very bluesy sounding (how I have it adjusted anyhow) and is excellent for stacking into other pedals.

The ERD is quite a bit "brighter" than the TS9. I run the tone control at 9 o'clock and that is bright enough for me. One would have to crank the tone on the TS9 to about 2 o'clock to get the same level of "brightness." For the ERD I see this as a plus as you can get the top end clarity you want without having to crank the tone so far and start to mess up the mids.

So the ERD replaced my BD-2 and Soul Food replaced my TS9. The inverse of what I had planned, but the end result is both more flexible than I anticipated as the sound is much better than hoped for!! Happy, very happy!!

I'm blown away at this little guy! I had a TS9 Tube Screamer for years until it stopped working on a roadtrip. Picked this GRD up on a recommendation from a friend, and I haven't looked back since then! In my opinion, it's better than the Tube Screamer. It's really customizable, and you can add that extra little drive sound without it being overpowering. I use it in praise and worship music, mostly, and it's great! That, combined with the awesome price means you should definitely get this if you're in the market for an overdrive pedal!

Ordered both the ERD and Soul Food through Sweetwater. Kept the ERD and sent back the Soul Food. Guess I'm more into TS clones than Klon klones. Both are great sounding pedals and great values, but the ERD just sounds so much more creamy and meaty. You really can't go wrong, especially if you're after a bluesier tone. It works great as a straight-up boost as well, but I wouldn't call it an absolute clean boost tone, but that's OK. It just sounds perfect for what I'm after.

This is an absolutely incredible transparent to mid gain overdrive. Its easily the best TS based pedal I've ever used, including many well beyond its price. The ERD just has the mojo. It sounds almost exactly like an 808, but with a hair more low end to my ears. The little bit of added bass/low mids really thickens things up, when being used as both a boost and stand alone drive pedal. I use it mostly as a boost (gain 0, volume max) into an already saturated Orange Tube Amp. Modern Orange amps have an incredible distorted tone, but its a tad fuzzy and loose and spongy in the lower end. The ERD tightens it right up with a dash of compression while still retaining more of the bass than a standard ts. It instantly turned my amp into a tight metal machine. It makes all my palm mutes very percussive and cutting (with a chuggy bass underneath), while your leads have endless sustain, and sound sweet and singing due to the upper mid boost. I use it in front of my clean channel on the edge of breakup already, and usually dial the gain in around 9-11 o clock, with the volume wide open, and it gives you that sweet clean yet crunchy blues sound in spades. You get an incredibly dynamic drive at these lower settings too, lighten up on the pick attack and get cleaner, and the heavier your hand the crunchier things get. Gives you that sweet singing, compressed yet dynamic blues sound, and at next to nothing.

I had to replace my TS9 (Tube Screamer) recently. I got this based on some recommendations. For the price, it has blown me away. I personally think it's even better than the TS9. Very user friendly and good overall. I'd definitely pick this this one up.

The best overdrive I have ever tried at any price. Extremely dynamic and touch responsive. Crisp and bright and clear without ever being edgy or shrill. EH strikes again!

I really like this overdrive. I have a TS9 and I think the tone I get from this one is better. I put a J Rocket Audio silver archer in front of it as a clean boost and use it with a Princeton reverb reissue. It sounds great. Very useful for classic rock overdrive. The price is too good to be true. This is not a cheap, low quality product. I can't wait to get more EHX effects.

i have two other overdrives, a zen and a mojo, and for the money this is the one i leave on almost all the time, i play strats primarily occasionally a semi hollow and the tone of this thing at band volume is amazingly sweet, has a beautiful singing quality that is not easy to put in words but evokes the quality of the lead lines emotions, for 80 bux, unbelievable. EHX knocks it outa the park with this one. i do run it through an old bandmaster reverb head or a bassman sometimes

This is the gain pedal for clean freaks like me. The East River Drive puts a nice edge on everything without going all splatter gainey. This is truly a positive addition to my gear.

buy one now. for the first time ever i am seriously considering running two of the same pedals on one board. It stacks incredibly,tonal variations are glorious... ive tried hundreds of ODs and this is my number one by far now. over pedals that cost 4 times as much

LOVE IT!!!!!!!!

I was looking for a very specific type of overdrive . I wasn't looking for one to use as a standalone overdrive. I was looking for one that mainly I could use as a lead boost, over an already overdriven channel. But I wanted one that didn't drastically change the sound of my amp, just one that thickened up the sound, boosted the volume, and allowed it to cut through the mix better. While I was at Sweetwater I tried out all of the new drive pedals from Electro Harmonix. I tried the Soul Fool, Hot Tubes Nano, The OD Glove, and the East River Drive. For me the East River Drive just fit the bill perfectly. Once engaged it boosted my volume, fattened the sound, added some upper mids that will make my sound really cut thru, but didn't darken the highs, or make the low end disappear. By itself it gives a very warm musical drive for blues or light rock. But primarily its best use is as. A boost for an already driven lead tone. A close second was the OD Glove. It sounded awesome! By itself it had much more gain and a more powerful distortion sound. But for a boost it compressed everything a bit too much. It just didn't sound as natural as the East River. If I needed a stand alone drive unit I would have gotten the Glove. So for me the East River Drive was just what I was looking for. And at this price its a no brainer!

This pedal stacks well with my Earthquaker Devices Hoof Fuzz or with my amps dirty channel. It also sounds great on its own and the tone knob really allows you a nice range of sounds. Keep in mind though that this pedal is a lighter OD, which is exactly what I was looking for. It has become a key part of my pedal board!

For the price, I was a little skeptical, but the sound clips I listened to online sounded too good not to give it a try. Wow. I can't emphasize enough how great this pedal is! I have owned a TS-808 and sold it because I didn't like it. This pedal blows the TS808 away at 1/3 of the cost! Works excellent as a clean boost (lots of headroom) or a light-medium gain overdrive. You really can't go wrong with this pedal. If you want to get into heavy overdrive/saturated tones, I recommend the Glove from the same series of pedals, but I imagine that the two would work well together too. For the price, it's a no brainer. Buy it.

I saw this overdrive go on sale...and since I have an insatiable need to collect drive pedals I thought what the heck...at this price...practically no risk. Then when I got it and test drove it...I was blown away!! This pedal agrees with almost all my amps...and plays well with most pedals! It has great definition and focus and a very savory character! I LOVE THIS PEDAL! It's built like a brick and has instantly become a key pedal on my board.

Perfect pedal for light crunch to creamy blues and classic rock. If you play metal then this pedal wouldn't fill the bill. Designed as a TS808 clone, it gives you that classic overdriven sound that made the original TS 808 so famous. I'm on my second pedal. I should say that it's built well but I use this pedal exclusively so with that kind of use, things will go bad but to its defense it took over 5 years before I bought my second pedal. I've looked at more expensive pedals but just keep coming back to the east river drive. The tone control is very active so you can brighten up humbuckers or tone down single coils as needed. Very musical. The switch really clicks so you know it's on or off. Try one I think you'll like it!

The tubescreamer is one of the classic overdrive sounds, so when yet another variety of tubescreamer comes down the pike, it's easy to not get excited. However, EHX's East River Drive pedal is an OD pedal to scream about. Building off the JRC4558 chip, the East River Drive harkens back to the old school Ibanez TS808 and TS9 pedals. It's a pedal that can easily go from a boost to crunch to almost fuzz-like attack. Not precisely for the metal crowd, the East River Drive is best suited for low to mid-gain style overdrive not wall-leveling distortion. However, it's tones can easily rock the house if needed. It sizzles with single-coil pickups and sings with humbuckers. From an aesthetics perspective, the graphics on the pedal itself and the metal construction are also very attractive and well done. Add true bypass switching and value pricing, the East River Drive becomes a truly versatile and incredible OD pedal. A true winner.

not long ago a neophyte in a posting was asking about a "pedal". i responded there is no such thing in guitar effects. each company has its own distinctive vox with colour and nuance....and such is the case with East River Drive. i own a number of ehx effx--their distortion / overdrive boxes are like sonic wines for the ear. this box sounds great on its own but recently i started putting the ehx crayon before it and i love the sum total of the parts.

it imparts a fine line of grit to my strats. on my epi les paul an even more gorgeous tone--think james gang a la joe walsh 1969.

great sound from ehx and great service from sweetwater via Dan Overstreet

I had been reading a lot about the East River Drive (ERD) pedal and it sounded like it might be a good solution to my issues with the TS-9 I had been using for years. The TS-9 is great, but IMO I found its tone to be somewhat muddy. The clips I had seen on the ERD seemed to indicate a broader, clearer tonal palette than what was possible to get from the TS-9. Considering the great price on the ERD, I figured I'd give it a shot. Bottom line: the TS-9 is off the pedal board. With the ERD you get all the great OD you'd expect from the TS-9, but with much better tonal qualities. Plus, I did not realize, until using the ERD, how much the TS-9 colored the sound of my guitars. With the ERD, your guitar sounds like your guitar on a clean setting—just overdriven. With the TS-9, the natural tone of the guitar is changed somewhat, IMO. So, if you're looking for this kind of classic OD sound, this is the pedal to have.

Ya gotta like this one! With all the TS variants out there, ya cant beat this one for the price/fun factor. I paired mine up with the Soul Food and it's opened up some sonic doors that I hadn't been thru before. Forced me to redo my board and now I'm a happy guy!

I bought this pedal a month ago and I love it,at first I was going to get OD GLOVE but than I tried out this one and immediately got it,it has a wide range of tone,anything from sharp''fuzzy''drive,-too-,nice crunchy clean,it also works great as a booster,my advice for you pedal-searchers out there, get something that suets You,this one does for me!

I've use this on several of my amps, i find it works excellent on two of my amps in particular. These are a 78 Fender Vibro Champ and, a new DSL15C. For good tone at low volume plug a ERD into a Blackstar HT-1 with a Highway One Telecaster and, have it on the overdrive channel. This might have a taste more low end than the TS808. The TS808 slightly edges it out but, only very slightly. Anyone looking for a killer tube screamer pedal on a budge should check this out!

Just received this pedal a couple days ago, it's a great compliment to my Boss Super Overdrive as this is a little less hot then the Boss. Hopefully will sound even better after I upgrade the pickups in my guitar.

Really nice versatile pedal. It has a nice rich, "creamy" tone.

I can't complain about the price and I guess it does what a green-colored Screamer is supposed to do. This is my forth EHX OD pedal - the East River Drive, for me, is a bit thin-sounding, compared to the others. A lot of bite, but not a lot of balls.
A "similar" EHX Hot Tubes, which I also own, is much more pedal (more interesting and more authority) for about the same money. I can get more out of the East River Drive by stacking it with another OD or Dist., but by itself....eh.....not much muscle.
That's my take on it.

Had this for a few days now and A/B compared against a TS808 and TS9. I would say this pedal fits right in the middle of those 2. Not as bright as the TS9, and more gain than the TS808.
The pedal still has that Mid Bump/Push which is a characteristic of "Green" Box pedals. What I do like about it is the note definition seems to be more defined with the ERD when compared to the Tubescreamers.
Also for the price...You can't go wrong! If your up on the fence about a TS808 or TS9 definitely give this guy a try for under $70...You can't go wrong!
Now my only reason for 4 stars and not giving it a perfect score is...It still can get that "fizzy" character when pushed hard. I know the TS9 has this also but was hoping Electro Harmonics would have fined tuned this. Not a deal breaker thou. Also NOT my go too pedal. It will earn a spot on the board as a mid-gain blues driver and will continuing testing on other amps I own.
SHOUT OUT to Myron my Sweetwater Rep for the EXCELLENT customer service as always!
Thanks Again!

Great overdrive pedal at a low price. The midtones are warm & rich. I like the tone & crunch of this box better than the Ibanez TS808. I like that increasing the drive does not affect the volume output like some of the other OD's I've used. It's small size fits well on my board. My only concern is having to remove 4 screws & the bottom plate to access the battery, since I sometimes leave the pedalboard at home and use just one or two pedals at a gig. A battery door would have been a plus, but for the price you can't beat this pedal.

East to dial in to your sound. So many over drives out there. Reasonable price for a overdrive that has a smooth glassy like reverb time while adding sustain. Not a bad od. Through a dsl40 c or cat or r this works very well. Would recommend and would but it again. Nice job electro harmonix.

Great pedal for the price, i use it to boost the signal on a tube amp and it gives it that extra bite.

Love the tone, a little brighter than a TS9 and more volume on tap. Allows you to dial back the drive then boost your preamp. Nice and quiet when engaged, very little hiss. Great pedal.

Compared with a tube screamer, i found it not as musical. for the price phenomenal pedal. After reading all the reviews i was expecting a little better. Im glad i purchased it and i would not return it. i have it on a small pedal board that goes with me to jams.

I bought this pedal after it won a shootout with four others on Anderton's YT site. It doesn't come close in my opinion to the Danelectro Roebuck I use regularly. In comparison the East River Drive is edgier and doesn't have nearly as much control as the Roebuck.

I have owned this pedal for about 6 months. I have only turned it on for probably 6 hours of usage. The sound is one of the best I've heard, but the hum when not in use is insane. Pick up a MXR pedal instead.