what distortion pedal do you use?

[dr.ona]

o.k...here's the deal.
i've been buying dist. pedals trying to find that certain sound.
you know...nirvana,weezer,foo fighters.
it seems that the pedals i end up "taking back" are too "dirty" sounding.

what dist. pedal did kurt cobain use?

actually....what pedals did he use for all his sounds?


thanks!!

robert

[Keegan]

I used to have a Boss DS-1, now I have the MT-2....I want my DS-1 back =) I made the change in high school years ago when anything louder was better. Now my tastes have changed/refined, and the MT-2 is a little to "metal" for me, has quite an edge to it.

If you want to know what kurt used, check out www.kurtsequipment.com
I beleive they cite the DS-1 and DS-2 as being the primary distortion units.

You're amp/guitar/pedal combo are going to have huge implications on the final sound though, it is not just the pedal that will produce the results.

[Rodgre]

Weezer and Foo Fighters.... I just plug straight into an 80's Marshall JCM 800 for that and there you go.

Nirvana, well there are a couple of tones going on there, but the story goes that he used a Sansamp pedal for some of those tones.

From the descriptions of those three bands, it seems that you want a dense, but not overly fuzzy tone.


A Big Muff is hard to beat, especially for some Weezery vibes, but might be too over the top for you.

A Marshall Jackhammer has a good JCM800 style drive, as does a Rat. The trick with the Rat is to turn the filter down around 3 o'clock to tame the highs.



Roger

[flanneljammies]

it seems that the pedals i end up "taking back" are too "dirty" sounding.

I know what you mean...

I really like the old Chandler Tube Drivers. (The tube you use in REALLY makes a difference. Try as many 12AX7s as you can -- some sound really crappy and some sound pretty average. Find a shop that will you let you try them all out. Even individual tubes of the same model from the same manufacturer can sound totally different.) The newer Tube Works versions aren't too bad either.

The old MXR Distorition + are really good too, especially for warmth and power.

I've always used an old beat-up Ross Distortion to instantly generate bite and feedback on top of whatever other dist. boxes I'm using. I think of it as my "lead" pedal as opposed to me "rhythm" pedal.

[superluminalmagus]

The Sansamp line of products sound excellent.
Mesa amps will also yield that type of sound.

In my experience, use the pedal to drive the amp over the top. Use as much amp gain and distortion, particularly in the power amp, as much as possible before using a pedal to get your gain.

[theBlubberRanch]

I just turn up the amp.
Anything else is just an imitation.

[KennyLusk]

An immitation of what?

[Devlars]

An immitation of what?

Of an amplifier being overdriven/ distorted. Though there are obviously so many variables that having different pedals is much for economical than having 5-10 different amps to take with you and plug in for a show or recording. Personally I use the Boss OS-2, it sounds great and is very versatile. Though I would like to get the Blues Driver and use the OS-2 as and "lead" guitar distortion/overdrive unit.

[Red Rockets Glare]

taken from the blessed site of www.GuitarGeek.com

[Rodgre]

An immitation of what?

Of an amplifier being overdriven/ distorted. Though there are obviously so many variables that having different pedals is much for economical than having 5-10 different amps to take with you and plug in for a show or recording.

I'm going to veer off topic, sort of, but while I agree that the best overdriven guitar tone is most often coming from a guitar straight into an amp (and you know how much I love pedals) I also understand electronics enough to know that a lot of those amps with heavy distortion tones are basically just putting a distortion pedal circuit, solid state or tube, into the preamp. Circuit-wise, it's really similar to having a pedal circuit plopped right there on the board.

I'm referring to amps with channel switching hi-gain channels. They may be tube-based, but they're still just a distortion circuit.

Now, if you're talking about plugging into an AC30 or a Deluxe and cranking it up, that's another story

Roger

[exit2studios]

I really like the Nobles OD-1...the green ones.

[JGriffin]

I second the Chandler Tube Driver. I have a rackmount one that I've used pretty exclusively for the last ten years. The amp is either a Silvertone 1484 piggyback or a QSC power amp into a Marshall 1960 slant cab.

Part of the appeal of the Chandler, of course, is that I got it new at a going-out-of-business auction for $25.

[theBlubberRanch]

An immitation of what?

Now, if you're talking about plugging into an AC30 or a Deluxe and cranking it up, that's another story

Roger

And yes, that is what I'm talkin' bout!

But yeah, the distortion pedal is pretty convenient for getting different tones.

[Devlars]

An immitation of what?

Now, if you're talking about plugging into an AC30 or a Deluxe and cranking it up, that's another story

Roger

And yes, that is what I'm talkin' bout!

Ditto

[Devlars]

taken from the blessed site of www.GuitarGeek.com

The only thing that bothers me about Guitar Geek.com is for as much detail as they pay attention to, they always show the cables going into the pedals backwards. They have the output going into the guitar and the input going out into the amps.....PAY ATTENTION GUITAR GEEK!

Sorry I'm a bit of a neurotic.