When you say "spongy" sir, what do you mean by that?
Spongy = Sag = Give = Maybe a bit less headroom = bit of compression happening at the start/front end of the note.
An overdriven guitar tone feels spongier than a clean guitar tone.
A distorted guitar tone feels spongier than a mildly overdriven tone.
Tube rectifiers feel spongier than solidstate rectifiers.
An overdrive juiced with 9v feels spongier than if juiced with 18v.
I don't know how else to describe it.
Which do you think would best suit Les Paul type guitars?
I've used a variety of overdrives with LP's with great results. What's "best" depends on how i'm using it and what music I'm playing:
For standard mid-gain / rock, stacked into my main Distortion or my amp's dirty channel I can live with any TS circuit.
For standalone ODs for blues rock etc my shortlist:
1. ARC Klone
2. Lovepedal E6
3. Fulltone OCD v.4
and some of the pedals i'm selling
4. MI Cross Over Drive
5. Maxon OD808X