Distortion Pedals

[davidd]

I need more distortion/sustain. There, I've said it.

My current setup is pretty simple, a tele plus a boss super overdrive and Reverb (TBC) and then either a vox AC50 or a hughes and kettner tubmeister 18 combo.

In the olden days (early 80's) I would run another distortion into the super overdrive before an analog delay, then into the amp.

The old distortion has been lost though so I thought I'd look round for another one.

There are so many on the market now, and I don't have the time or patience to waste several hours trying them so I thought I'd see if you lot could help me narrow the field a bit..

So, top picks folks. Nothing over £100..

And any recommendations for a reverb? I'm currently watching a couple of boss rv5's

Cheers

D

[singlecoil]

Ibanez Tube Screamer has been much loved since it first came out, seen plenty of people using it live to good effect.

Bit over £100 though, I see having Googled it

http://www.gak.co.uk/en/ibanez-ts9-tube-screamer/3...

[davidd]

singlecoil said:

Ibanez Tube Screamer has been much loved since it first came out, seen plenty of people using it live to good effect.

It is a great thing, but I have overdrive covered with the boss

D

[Tom_C76]

If you're even vaguely competent with a soldering iron, have a look at the Build Your Own Clone stuff. Absolute bargain for what you get in sound at the end, I'm not great at wiring and built their Triboost without any problems.

Their 250+ might be what you need. Only £47 too.

[davidd]

Aha, interesting. They have a shredmaster clone...... I could get all Jonny Greenwood with that..;)

[gazza285]

Best one I've tried and bought recently was the Joyo Ultimate Drive. Available for £25 off EBay. I was definitely surprised by the quality of the effect, I doubt you'll get better value anywhere.

[Dr Z]

Get yourself a RAT. It's the Tubescreamer of distortion.

Another option is the MXR Distortion+ M104.

You may need to spend a bit more than £100 if you need a decent distortion with EQ adjustment to suit your amp voicing.

[davidd]

Interesting, I was thinking about mxr, the problem is that they have so many bloody variants!

I also thought about a visual sounds jekyll and hyde as supposedly that is pretty much a TS clone and a shredmaster clone.... I just don't know any one who has one for an honest comment.

D

[Justin Cyder]

Dr Z said:

Get yourself a RAT. It's the Tubescreamer of distortion.

Another option is the MXR Distortion+ M104.

You may need to spend a bit more than £100 if you need a decent distortion with EQ adjustment to suit your amp voicing.

Seriously thinking of this. I love my TS9, but when all's said & done, it's an overdrive. I went with a Big Muff Germanium for distortion & I find the overdrive feeble & the distortion muddy.

Rat's come in different flavours don't they? Not knowing too much about them, is there any particular one to go for?

[davidd]

We need a distortion comparison.... Come on someone..;)

[singlecoil]

Would not most music shops allow you to try out some pedals? I can't see it being very likely that what someone else likes with their set-up is going to be exactly to your taste.

[davepoth]

I'm going to go a bit left field - grab yourself one of these:



I know it's not actually a distortion, but take a close look - the slider on the right is for level, and gives a 15 dB boost if you ram it to the top. If the amp is set to be around breakup, and you already have an overdrive pedal, you can use this to tip it over the top and get a screaming lead tone. You can add a bit more treble too if needs be.

[Crashy]

I have a little Zoom 505 II, picked up on Ebay for £20 5-6 years ago and hand on heart, I think it's brilliant. Can basically get nearly any sound I want from the presets and with a bit of mucking about, there's an infinite number of sounds you can produce. I usually run from the guitar to a Dunlop Cry Baby then then Zoom, then the amp.

I ordered a Zoom G1XN today, £35 on Ebay. Seems to be more or less the same thing but with a built in expression pedal. Can't wait for it to arrive

[davidd]

singlecoil said:

Would not most music shops allow you to try out some pedals? I can't see it being very likely that what someone else likes with their set-up is going to be exactly to your taste.

You are right, however I'd like to have a short list first . I still feel bad for spending time in one recently playing with amps and then not buying one!

[davidd]

I took a punt on a boss od-1 last night on the bay, £20. The plan is to see if it gives me what I want and if not then add the keely mod kit to it.

We shall see..

[bennyboysvuk]

davepoth said:

I'm going to go a bit left field - grab yourself one of these:



I know it's not actually a distortion, but take a close look - the slider on the right is for level, and gives a 15 dB boost if you ram it to the top. If the amp is set to be around breakup, and you already have an overdrive pedal, you can use this to tip it over the top and get a screaming lead tone. You can add a bit more treble too if needs be.

That's in my live setup, but I don't find it enough to increase the boost and sustain all that much on a semi-dirty channel. It certainly boosts an already well overdriven channel nicely though.

[Dr Z]

Justin Cyder said:

Seriously thinking of this. I love my TS9, but when all's said & done, it's an overdrive. I went with a Big Muff Germanium for distortion & I find the overdrive feeble & the distortion muddy.

Rat's come in different flavours don't they? Not knowing too much about them, is there any particular one to go for?

Yeah, fuzz like the big muff offer a different flavour of distortion: kinda out of control, less defined/focused but HUGE sound. Can be difficult to dial in, in a band context and the sound is an acquired taste but if you can harness it, it can sound massive.

I think RATs can get in to that fuzzy territory too but you have to go in to extreme settings to get there. I would think your standard RAT2 pretty much would do nicely...these are popular enough pedals that if you don't like the sound of it or can't dial it in for a good sound with your guitar/amp setup then you can always put it on ebay or something for not much loss.

Couple of other options are the TC Rottweiler/Dark Matter and the Marshall Bluesbreaker (you'll be surprised at how it thickens up the tone and the amount of gain you can get out of it, if your amp is already at the edge of breakup!).

[Justin Cyder]

Definitely need something tougher. This is a clean amp (actually a Boss JS-8 E-Band on dry signal) with my Tubescreamer dialled up to about 9, Hardwire DL8 on the delay & my Red Fasel modded Crybaby.

Needs a boost on the solo part for sure, hide all the mistakes.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vK_4Rnt5-Mg

[davidd]

Justin Cyder said:

Definitely need something tougher. This is a clean amp (actually a Boss JS-8 E-Band on dry signal) with my Tubescreamer dialled up to about 9, Hardwire DL8 on the delay & my Red Fasel modded Crybaby.

Needs a boost on the solo part for sure, hide all the mistakes.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vK_4Rnt5-Mg

I've just had a look at your youtube uploads. Some great stuff on there, I just need to watch it when I can have the sound up!

[Fantuzzi]

Im not much of a gear junky, but Ive had a Digitech DF-7 its got clones of 7 famous(ish) pedals, from classic pro co rats, overdrives to boss metal zone 2 to muff fuzz.

Im not sure of the tone you're looking for, but for the money they are rather good given the diversity of the choices.

Music radar did a top 50

http://www.musicradar.com/news/guitars/the-42-best...

http://www.digitech.com/en/products/df-7-distortio...

Edited by Fantuzzi on Tuesday 6th August 18:08

Might have been mentioned but what about a boost pedal.

Oh just cus theyre sexy check out red witch 7 sisters...Just want one cus theyre so cute little things.

Edited by Fantuzzi on Tuesday 6th August 18:09