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Distortion pedals


Kaizen

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Well, I only read your original post... you never posted a price range, which makes it almost impossible for anyone to help you, the person before me also priced something out of your range.

But srsly, a tube amp. You'll never get that big fat rhythm tone that you hear on records from a pedal, especially if you're not using a good amp

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Guest davetherave

Depends what type of distortion your after, personally I use a boss OD3 for crunchy rhythm and a Boss DS2 for full on distortion. If you combine the two you get sustained solo sounds. But it will also depend what amp your going into and what pickups your using.....

cheers

Dave

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Yeah I used my mates DS-2 but it seemed like it would be more use for a lead guitarist. Was looking for something with a little more crunch and a little less high end? Might give an OD3 a bash. Theres a shop down the road from me with all the boss stompboxes set up, so ill go give it a wee shot at some point.

Cheers for the help!

x

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I prefer overdrive to out and out distortion these days. My Tubescreamer will never be redundant in my set-up. Best pedal i've ever bought. I prefer the whole meaty sound to a fizzy mess.

I have used other od/distortion pedals and own a Hughes and Kettner Warp, a Marshall Jackhammer and a US Big Muff as well but the Tubescreamer is great. The only other one that gets any use really is the Warp and it's a fairly meaty sound as well.

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i've always had a problem getting a set up, with distortion pedals, that i'm happy with. i have always used my DS1 as my main tone ie. crunchy chordy stuff but i'd like a boost on this for solos etc or even for just volume boost to be honest coz that is the only draw-back with the DS1 in my opinion.

whenever i try different combinations to this aim the tone will always just totally change and become pish.... any advice?

on a happier note though i got a Tubescreamer for my crimbo this year and i think it's fucking brill!

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I've got a Rat (which is probably the fattest/meatiest decent sounding distortion you can get for a decent price). The problem with the rat is that anything under 3 o clock (filer is the wrong way round) is fizz and although over that you get a nice sound, it lacks a lot of top end.

I stick my TC overdrive in front with the filter set just over half way and the distortion at about 11. Clears everything up nicely, even on my piece of shit, twangy as fuck, solid state amp.

So basically distortions by TC Electronic The Rat2, Maxon/Ibanez Tubescreamer are pretty good. I've heard that the Marshall Jackhammer does a decent job for 35 odd quid too. I try and stay clear of boss pedals, there is just sooooo many of them i wouldn't know what to go for. I just don't think you can produce that many different distortion pedals and make any of them sound any good.

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A jeckle and hyde does a good enough job and it's like 3 pedals in one box. you can pick them up quite cheap on ebay etc.

What I've found over the years is that if you have a dist pedal and kick in a od for a lead, as long as the od pdeal is set a quite a low gain setting, and the vol set high, this gives a good boost for solos etc. If you do it the other way round, then it mushes out IMO. It's also important to get the amp set right. he same with the gain.. If the amp gain is set too high and you kick in a dist set on high gain....mush city.

Mix and match you pedal and amp setting until you get the sound you want.

As I said a J&H work great for me. I set the red channel at around 12oclock gain, and 11oclock vol and the tone to suit my tastes. then kick in the green at the same time for solos, normally set at 12 & 12 It blasts through no problem. DSL50 head set on cruch channel with gain a 10oclock and vol to suit.

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On a similar subject, anyone tried the MXR Zack Wylde overdrive? Thoughts?

It's nothing special if memory serves me well. Just a pretty standard OD with a name plastered on it.

I was going to mention my adoration of the slightly mental Trex Mudhoney, but Jan Deal would probably yell at me as it's really more a fuzz box. Tsk.

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got a lne 6 pedal that does the crunchy rythm sound also does screaming lead ...built in noise gate..the works....only thing ......doesn't do it for me

pedals will give you all sorts of sounds ...but sound is personal...i just bought a new valve amp ..does everything the pedal does.......cost 85 from R & B 3 months ago........yours for 50...

try as many pedals ....things that you can...to get your sound....i even have an 18 behringer flanger on my pedal board.....good luck finding your sound

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I might be getting a hold of a line 6 amp head if the paul-shand gets back to me to confirm, so i reckon i will wait and see if i like the sounds i can get out of that and then just use the footswitch instead if i do. If not, the search begins again lol.

Ta for all the help!

x

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It's nothing special if memory serves me well. Just a pretty standard OD with a name plastered on it.

Ah okay, cheers! I just remember the Hot Cross guitarist using it infront of amp distortion and as a kinda inbetween for clean and full-on distortion. I fancied something similar. I suppose any good OD pedal could be used though - you're almost certainly paying a hefty amount for Mr. Wylde's name.

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I've got a Rat (which is probably the fattest/meatiest decent sounding distortion you can get for a decent price). The problem with the rat is that anything under 3 o clock (filer is the wrong way round) is fizz and although over that you get a nice sound, it lacks a lot of top end.

are you kidding? or have you got an out of spec rat? the rat, i've owned two through the years, is the thinnest fizziest sounding distortion i've ever used.

don't get me wrong, nothing wrong with that, its good for a jeff beck cutting blues tone..

i'm guessing your perception is based on the rest of the rig, which solid state amp do you use? what kind of guitar?

dont want to state the obvious, but when comparing distortions i set the amp to clean with flat eq and start from there.

I was going to mention my adoration of the slightly mental Trex Mudhoney, but Jan Deal would probably yell at me as it's really more a fuzz box. Tsk.

yep the mud honey is pretty damn good. i use it in the rhythm part of my rig, but it is pretty decent at lead stuff as well. cut the gain and it can make a decent od pedal. the mudhoney is supposed to be T-Rex's answer to the tubescreamer (i think i read that on their site once) but with more gain... the tone control on the mudhoney also has a lot of authority and high frequency boost...

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I might be getting a hold of a line 6 amp head if the paul-shand gets back to me to confirm, so i reckon i will wait and see if i like the sounds i can get out of that and then just use the footswitch instead if i do. If not, the search begins again lol.

Ta for all the help!

x

I would advise against the Line6 Amp. They are ok, but if you're seriously thinking about an amp head you'd be better looking at a 2nd hand valve amp.

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are you kidding? or have you got an out of spec rat? the rat, i've owned two through the years, is the thinnest fizziest sounding distortion i've ever used.

don't get me wrong, nothing wrong with that, its good for a jeff beck cutting blues tone..

i'm guessing your perception is based on the rest of the rig, which solid state amp do you use? what kind of guitar?

dont want to state the obvious, but when comparing distortions i set the amp to clean with flat eq and start from there.

really? like i say, if you turn the filter up too high it gets really fizzy, but i would never have said thin. My tele has one of the twangiest neck pickups i've heard and it manages to get it quite chunky.

It is a budget option though, if i was going to shell out i would be looking at the likes of Tonebones/trex maybe even damage control pedals. get what you pay for an' all that.

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