Mods are expensive, i say go for the fulltone ocd, thats a sick pedal, and it's smaller than a boss pedal

Hard to find one, maybe, but you can check out the reviews of Musician's Junkyard's "Junkyard Screamer" on Harmony Central. I am fortunate enough to live close-by and I have one of these gems.....It IS the real deal.... The Holy Grail of pedals, IMHO!

If you're looking for something inexpensive but very good, I suggest the Digitech Bad Monkey. You could probably find one for $25-50. It's a very nice pedal for the price and to my ears sounds very much like a classic Tube Screamer.
I've got a Keeley Modded Boss Blues Driver that I love. It's the most transparent overdrive pedal I own. It sounds exactly like your guitar with minimum breakup to fuzz break up. When you get into the higher levels you begin to get into a very fuzz pedal like sound. Low to medium levels give you a very nice transparent tube overdrive type breakup. I have a Boss Super Overdrive SD-1 that I think sounds pretty good as well. Very TS-9. Except in very extreme gain levels where there is some bleed into the clean signal.
I also have the Robin Trower Fulltone pedal. Thats one of my fav's. I think it's capable of a wider range of tones as well as the ability to increase the gain past the abilities of the Fulltone OCD. It's tranparent to a point but you do get a mid coloring to your sound.
I do have a "Brown Sound" Analogman modded TS-9. It has the chip that was originally in the TS-808. This is also a very tranparent pedal. However this pedal adds a slight bit of mid freq. while to my ears the Keeley BD-2 adds almost nothing.
I have to say to each there own when in comes to pedals but these are my favorites: Keeley Mod BD-2 and the Fulltone Robin Trower OD.
I suggest you try out what you can. If you've got money restrictions on what you can try I would try out the Boss SD-1 or the Digitech Bad Monkey pedal. They're cheap and everything I have heard and know about those pedals is good so go for it.
Hope this helps.
Russ

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'08 Amer. Dlx. Strat, '98 Amer. Std. Strat, '10 Squire CV Tele Custom, '96 Seagull S+6 Cedar
Deluxe Reverb RI, Tweed Blues Jr., Champion 110, Champion 600, Mustang I, Line 6 Vetta

I play Duncan Designed Humbuckers for the most part, so my results may differ from the Fender single coils, however.....

I own two TS-9's, a Boss FBM-1, a Boss DS-1, a MXR m-133, and a Seymour Duncan Twin Tube.

I never use the DS-1 any more. It is noisy and has too much drive. I also think it sounds harsh.

The MXR m-133 is actually a 'clean boost' and only affects overdrive of a tube amp the way an increase in volume would. It is great for what it does, however.

The Seymour Duncan Twin gives two separate drives, one 'mild' and the other more distortion. It a great pedal, but costs $220, is much larger than a Boss, and uses an 18v AC power supply.

I probably favor the TS-9 more than any I've tried, but the Boss FBM-1 is a close second. The Bassman is more 'bassy' (it's target is to sound like a bassman amp and it does a reasonable job of doing just that) and can be adjusted to give slightly more drive than the TS-9, but can also be set to give a bluesy OD.

Best bet is to go to a music store that has a pedal setup and try all they have. Take your own guitar and use the same or very similar amp. If you are going to buy without trying, TS-9's are probably the most popular/common OD pedal made.

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The quintessential sound of 60/70's R&R:
Fender Tube Amps
Gibson Guitars

I think your best bet would go and checkout a bunch of OD pedals and pick the one you feel you connect with.

After trying a few - I went with Fulltone OCD and have not regretted it.

I found the best OD pedal is the Digitech Bad Monkey. Go to OLDTONEZONE.COM for a OD pedal comparinator. Good stuff!

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"Epitaph on a blues musician’s tombstone: “I didn’t wake up this morning”" Davy Knowles


facebook.com/313DBC

i haven't actually played thru one, but this guy uses an Okko Diablo OD pedal that I've been drooling over:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m20gNB-YyDQ&feature=related

he also sells a ton of vintage guitars that he demos on youtube first...he is an absolutely stellar player, ive been learning some of his stuff to improve myself. his video of a 67 Casino made me go on an epic Casino-hunt that ended up finding the best guitar i've ever played...i had to sell my Strat to get it, but don't worry...I'll be getting a new one soon enough

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Gear list:
2004 Epiphone Casino
----Peerless, USA electronics
2001 "Firewood" ES-335
----USA electronics, Gibson and DiMarzio PAFs
2001 Cort NTL20 Jumbo Acoustic
2007 Hofner Copy
Vox AC4TV/V112TV
Voice
Fingers
Cowbell