I used to have about 6 OD pedals

[catnine]

 A  Boss blues driver , a re-issue tube screamer , a big daddy  an OD-2

 Then one day I set them all out and tried each one and found there was not really much difference so the only one I kept was the Rocktron Austin gold . It was more transparent and it was not a full of crunch sound but just a easy OD pedal .

 the only thing I am not trilled about on most of these is the cheap pc mounted jacks . There has to be a way to replace them with switch craft . Has anyone tried this . I looked inside a bit but there is not a lot of room but there has to the a way.

[thermion]

my name is thermi and i'm a pedal junkie...
it's a little tricky to do since many pcbs are printed with very thin copper traces (easy to lift off the board) but if you have room you can pull the board, remove the pcb jack from its solder pads, install a classic jack, and run flying leads over to the board. careful now.
i carry a few diverse drives: maxon OD808, eh graphic fuzz, way huge swollen pickle, and duncan twin tube classic. i was picky to make sure no two pedals were too similar.
never tried the austin gold - what's it like?

[catnine]

my name is thermi and i'm a pedal junkie...
it's a little tricky to do since many pcbs are printed with very thin copper traces (easy to lift off the board) but if you have room you can pull the board, remove the pcb jack from its solder pads, install a classic jack, and run flying leads over to the board. careful now.
i carry a few diverse drives: maxon OD808, eh graphic fuzz, way huge swollen pickle, and duncan twin tube classic. i was picky to make sure no two pedals were too similar.
never tried the austin gold - what's it like?

 The Austin Gold to me compared to the others I mentioned did not have that real wide open driven breakup that sounds very close to a distortion pedal . it really seems to just add gain and not change the tone of the amp and it has a bass control so you can dial back on lows if the lows breakup too much.

 I could not really tell much difference between the blues driver and the tube screamer or even say there was any other than the blues driver seemed a bit thicker sounding .

 For me I didn't need so much drive like the blues driver or tube screamer so the Gold allows the full sweep of the drive pot without going overboard . It adds it does not give.

[thermion]

have you tried the eh linear power booster? simple, cheap, and probably right up your alley. i bet you'd dig the zvex super hard on, but it's boutique pricey. i found the linear power booster does a pretty good SHO impersonation for the $.
the zvex box of rock is killer too (and no, I don't know zach!).
happy hunting.

[chrisa]

 the only thing I am not trilled about on most of these is the cheap pc mounted jacks . There has to be a way to replace them with switch craft

You might have "cheap" jacks in your gear.  I don't know.  But all plastic PC mounted jacks are not cheap.  Some are well made.  By completely eliminating the hookup wire from the jack to the PCB you can even improve the sound.  "Cliff" makes some great jacks.

Open frame jacks also have a safety issue.  If some wire breaks and touches the exposed 1/4 plug then to have high voltage on the guitar strings.  Yes you can ground the jack to the chassis but no one does this any more, even Fender uses fiber isolation washers and "star"grounding to combat hum.  The Cliff jacks isolate the plug from any failed part.   When you design something for sale to the public you really have to think about failure modes.   (Like the gas tank in the old Pinto.  It works well, until you get rear ended by a truck.  They did not think about failure modes, things should fail in a safe way.