Guitarists! Versatile Distortion Pedal Suggestions please?

[T-rex]

Hey guys,

I have a Moviola URS, I am ordering a Vox Pathfinder today and also have access to a Fender Blues Junior. I am looking to get a decent versatile distortion pedal, nothing crazy expensive. I am leaning towards a USA Big Muff, as that is the one distortion pedal I have actually played and liked it's sound. But I am looking for suggestions on something that will give me the widest range in dist. sounds for recording. I do pretty much everything except metal, nu-metal.

Any suggestions would be awesome!

[mjau]

I really, really love the Subdecay Liquid Sunshine because of its versatility. It can get the light, barely driven sound, and when you crank it, it gets thicker and more saturated. Should be under $100 used.
On the cheap, the EH Double Muff can get a Neil Young scratchy distortion thing happening.

[kayagum]

My personal faves:

Menatone Red Snapper
Fulltone OCD
Proco "You Dirty" RAT (germanium)!
Zvex Fuzz Factory
SIB Varidrive
VoodooLabs Sparkledrive.


If you specify what you're after, I can be more specific of what I like and why.

[lyle76]

i like my Fulldrive 2 - though it's more of an overdrive than outright distortion...

hey kayagum - how does the OCD compare to the fulldrive?

[kayagum]

how does the OCD compare to the fulldrive?

The fulldrive is overdrive: the OCD is distortion. Not a smart-ass answer- it's the truth. OCD has more bite, a spikier waveform, more low-end, and a little more throttle. I'd pick it as a lead pedal.

[jaguarsg]

Hey guys,

I have a Moviola URS, I am ordering a Vox Pathfinder today and also have access to a Fender Blues Junior. I am looking to get a decent versatile distortion pedal, nothing crazy expensive. I am leaning towards a USA Big Muff, as that is the one distortion pedal I have actually played and liked it's sound.

the Little Big Muff sounds loads better to me than the USA Muff, which is way too smooth for my liking. if that's the tone you're going for, i'd suggest trying out as many Muffs as you can. some do sound better than others.

the best Muffish thing out there, besides the old, old Triangle Muffs is the Baja Tech Da Moaf.

the Danelectro Fabtone is also in the muffish family. it has that stupidly insane gain amount of the Metal Zone but with the tonality of a Muff. great for post rock stuff but it cleans up pretty decently, too. nice controllable feedback.

pedals always sound better thru tube amps. unless it is a Rat; they even sound decent thru SS amps!

[mjau]

the best Muffish thing out there, besides the old, old Triangle Muffs is the Baja Tech Da Moaf.

Oh hell yes. Love mine.

[T-rex]

Man, thanks for all the great suggestions guys.

Kayagum, I don't know what I want since I am mainly a drummer and not guitar player, but I really like to screw around on guitar and like having a lot of options for recording. I know no one pedal will do it all, so I was looking for something as versatile as possible. Honestly, I love two guitar sounds - early brit rock ala stones and the guitar sounds on Superdrag's Head Trip In Every Key album. Pretty much those two sounds are what I really dig.

Also, this was kind of answered already, but what is the difference between overdrive pedals and distortion pedals?

Baja Tech Da Moaf sounds interesting. I have to go google that now. . .

[curtiswyant]

The ProCo Rat is pretty much the best thing ever. For $50 you can't go wrong.

[creeping justin]

check out the boss blues driver. most versitle pedal I've heard. We use it on every song we record. other pedels it's up against are tube screamer reissue, big muff, rat and some digitech thing with a morph knob. the blue drive does really well with the lower gain stuff, but it can get pretty distorted. sounds really sweet on bass too.

[segaface]

check out the boss blues driver. most versitle pedal I've heard. We use it on every song we record. other pedels it's up against are tube screamer reissue, big muff, rat and some digitech thing with a morph knob. the blue drive does really well with the lower gain stuff, but it can get pretty distorted. sounds really sweet on bass too.

I've been rocking the Analogman Boss BD-2 Super for the last few months, and I love it. SO versatile.

Andy

[kayagum]

I know no one pedal will do it all, so I was looking for something as versatile as possible. Honestly, I love two guitar sounds - early brit rock ala stones and the guitar sounds on Superdrag's Head Trip In Every Key album. Pretty much those two sounds are what I really dig..

That's why most of us own multiple pedals. Actually, getting 2 decent and not-so-expensive pedals (one overdrive for rhythm, one distortion or boost for lead) will definitely get you set up. All of the suggestions so far are solid.

Also, this was kind of answered already, but what is the difference between overdrive pedals and distortion pedals?

I'll let the electronic experts on this board explain the mechanics, but from a tonal perspective, overdrive tends to have a little less bite and can do the "in-between" lightly driven sounds. Distortion tends to have more bite, more grainy and more aggresive in general. Fuzz tends to be more creamy and amorphous, but also very cool for lead tones, and bass lead tones.

There's a lot of overlap, and probably no substitution to trying them out for yourself. It's very much personal preference and YMMV.

Have fun- you're going to have a blast!

[T-rex]

One last thing. Anyone used the electro-harmonix LPB-1? Is it your basic overdrive pedal (it's listed as a boost pedal)? It sounds like right now an overdrive pedal may be more what I am looking for and sine the OCD is out of my price range I was wondering about the EH. For $40 new it's almost hard NOT to buy.

[KennyLusk]

The "Tubester" is incredibly versatile and has amazingly sturdy and rugged build quality.

[;ivlunsdystf]

The ProCo Rat is pretty much the best thing ever. For $50 you can't go wrong.

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