Electro Harmonix Hot Wax Dual Overdrive

Bought this as an additional gain stage to my pedal board (live rig).

I have it in the signal chain after a (hand-built TS9/808, both circuits) Tube Screamer clone. I set up my amps clean, just on the verge of breaking up when the guitar volume is wide open. I have the Hot Tubes on all the time with volume and drive at "12 o'clock", and this does not override my amps at all, but adds a tonal characteristics and a bit of "warmth" to the sound. I use the Crayon side, volume and drive at "12 o'clock", to boost the Hot Tubes for crunch.

Both Crayon and Hot Tube stack well with the Tube Screamer. Since Crayon is a full range overdrive (as opposed to TS), it compliments the midrange of Tube Screamer really nicely. For my money, I back off on the mids at the EQ-section a little when doing this.

However you set Hot Wax up (from a hint of overdrive to full on distortion), it always sounds musical as opposed to a lot of mid-range focused diode-clipping overdrives, which to my ear tend to sound really harsh (my opinion and my opinion only).

For the price, this is really, really good. The building quality is what you would expect from EHX. Ever since I bought it, it has been an integral part of my live sound.

I chose this pedal to save some space on the board, dual pedals offer more features in a more compact format. The left side offers a slight break-up of the clean signal, like plugging in directly onto a mixer. The right side sounds like a Tube Screamer kind of pedal, lots of sustain but still some clean sound coming through. Stacked together they sound a bit compressed, but good for a lead tone.
My only problem is that the two sides share an EQ, so if I set it the way I like the one side, the other sounds a bit too muddy or too shrill. Not a dealbreaker though.

This sturdy box have inside an amazing world of overdrive tones for you to explore and can really endure your feet!
Super easy to understand and to set it up.
Also, the combination of this to pedals is just perfect (you can use one at the time or both combined).
It works as a boost as well!
If you want two different types of overdrive, with the possibility to combine them, you should go for it.