byoc wrote:
Better is a matter of opinion when it comes to distortion op amps because you actually want distortion. This would be less subjective if you were asking about clean boosts. The 741 a good op amp for distortions. There are other op amps that are supposed to be low noise, but that really won't make any difference in this application. If you want less noise, the best thing to do would be to add extra power filtering.
byoc is right, when you kick in the distortion, you won't be able to hear a difference between different op amps in a compressed type of distortion box like a MXR Dist+.
But if the price difference is something like $0.06 between the two, for me it sorta becomes 'why not?'. A lower noise op amp might have a little less background noise when you weren't playing, or maybe not. A good pin-compatible replacement for a LM741 would be a TL071. And if you're able to change the circuit layout around to use half of a dual op amp, you'd have more options.
I'm currently working on a bass overdrive with several different clipping options and for some of them I'm looking for basically a clean drive at a light playing level where it only overdrives when you really dig in on some notes, or for example on the chorus. So there I'm going to upgrade from a TL072 (dual version of the TL071) to a NE5532A, which is used in a lot of pro mixing consoles, and which cost a whopping $0.21 more. The Grayhill rotary switch is $16.12, ouch, so what's a few more centavos on the semis...
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