distortion pedals

[@?,*???&?]

the Millenium Overdrive. Just awe-inspiring. Kicks pretty much anything else's ass.

...then you haven't heard the ReezaFRATzitz...

[Catoogie]

MXR Microamp. You want louder you'll get.

[djdrake13]

yo
check out danelecto pedals. i have an older one from around 96.. but if they are still makin them like they used to it should melt your face. mine is thick, its the only way to describe it.

[Meriphew]

My two main distro pedals are an MJM Blues Devil (E-cue was right in saying it's a better TS type pedal) and a Marshall Guv'na (original black one, not the new silver one). I'd also recommend checking out the Tonebone distro pedals.

[E-cue]

There's a 'metal' session guitarist I work with on and off that uses the TS for sustain (which is very common out here) and the Blues Devil for the 'pain'.

I've only used the black Guv'na. What is the difference?

[covert]

I find the best distortion sounds come from a very very clean amp, and a pedal, the muff ussually, or a DOD classic fuzz, with everything turned up all the way up. Sick buzzy biscuit tin fuzz... yay!

I have pretty much the opposite experience. To my ear the best distortion sounds come from a properly driven amp. Pedals usually lack dynamic response.

[covert]

I find the best distortion sounds come from a very very clean amp, and a pedal, the muff ussually, or a DOD classic fuzz, with everything turned up all the way up. Sick buzzy biscuit tin fuzz... yay!

I have pretty much the opposite experience. To my ear the best distortion sounds come from a properly driven amp. Pedals usually lack dynamic response.

[covert]

I find the best distortion sounds come from a very very clean amp, and a pedal, the muff ussually, or a DOD classic fuzz, with everything turned up all the way up. Sick buzzy biscuit tin fuzz... yay!

I have pretty much the opposite experience. To my ear the best distortion sounds come from a properly driven amp. Pedals usually lack dynamic response.

[covert]

Sorry for the triple post above, had a nasty glitch.

Now let me get this a bit more straight. What the ttaurisb is after is essentially to use a pedal to add the equivalent of a channel switch to his rig. Something to push the sound louder and harder for parts of a song, over a basic decent sound. The answer for this may well not be a distortion pedal, but any combination of clean boost, EQ, and/or compression with boost. For that matter, adding a volume pedal and turning the amp up a cpiple of notches might work really well.

[ttaurisb]

Sorry for the triple post above, had a nasty glitch.

Now let me get this a bit more straight. What the ttaurisb is after is essentially to use a pedal to add the equivalent of a channel switch to his rig. Something to push the sound louder and harder for parts of a song, over a basic decent sound. The answer for this may well not be a distortion pedal, but any combination of clean boost, EQ, and/or compression with boost. For that matter, adding a volume pedal and turning the amp up a cpiple of notches might work really well.

that's a good suggestion which actually gives me a funny and kind of ironic idea. if I did something like that, I could use the Ratt pedals lack of volume to my advantage. I could turn my amp up a bit, turn the pedal on, but with a bit lower volume than the described issue (which is to say matching volume is top volume) and use the Ratt as the clean tone.

I'd also thought to turn the volume off entirely on Ratt pedal and using it for a kill switch (think dj transformer action)

I think it's funny that the only two uses I can think of for a distortion pedal at least this particular one), is not as distortion.

[Lazy_Q]

It seems he really wants a pedal that takes his current overdrive and make it different somehow. My first thought was a Z-Vex Machine, as it "cuts through basic overdrive" like a chainsaw would cut through mama's apple pie - in mr Vex's words this pedal "basically sounds horrible. It's primary purpose is to cut through. But like a wild man with a machete, it is not nice." My first thoughts are usually knee-jerk reactions, but I digress.

My next, more reasonable suggestion was an EQ pedal, which I've found reccomendations for the tone jam GE7 (boss pedal) Sniper mod at various guitar-tone-geek websites. This would work well if it was sufficient to change the distortion characteristics of the amp by way of the input signal, and would be a solid addition to a set of pedals regardless. This might also be a good pedal in addition to a TS9 or a Big muff, as there's all sorts of fun sounds that can be had by modifying the input signal to a pedal.

[Meriphew]

I've only used the black Guv'na. What is the difference?

I've only ever used the black one as well, though I've spoken to lots of people who mistakenly picked up the newer silver Guv'ner. Most of them were very disappointed in the sound of the silver Guv'ner (I think it's actually called Guv'ner II).

[Isolation]

i recommend a Digitech Bassdriver...it's what i've got and i love the hell out of it, i can get the nastiest sounds out of it and it usually sells for $120 on musiciansfriend.com, but i got it for $80...well worth it and i highly recommend getting an adapter for it...that thing eats batteries like old people eat pills...the overdrive on it isn't too swift until you really get down and start playing with the settings on the pedals, i also have a Crate BX-100 bass amp which has 8 EQ levels on it, i usually switch those around until i get the amount of overdrive i want out of it, but what the pedal is really great for is its fuzz and distortion which can sound even meatier...i'm gonna buy a $100 compressor here soon so i can model my sound even more so i can get a more bottomed-out effect for my bazz...i love low crunchy tones...