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Best distortion / boost pedals?

Ed Rafalko

Les Paul Forum Member
Joined
Jul 15, 2001
Messages
6,287
I've been 'duded', 'Aced', 'cheifed','Pal'd','kided','striped', and 'Spampy'ed, but I've never been Spudded.;)
 
O

OldCrow

Guest
Old Tube Driver + any fuzz

First, let me say that I do not agree with Speed Metal.
I run two amps, a Deville 2x12 for clean, and then via
an A/B switch box a 71 Marshall 100 wt. The band I'm
with is all over the place and requires I go from completely
clean to dark as hell, and all shades in between, many
times in the same song. In short, to limit your opinion to
"must have this or that" is counter to the open approach to
tone that is really what we are all here for. A stomp box is
just a tool to create tone, and there are to many musical
variables to ever state absolutes about what should or should not be in your setup. In my setup, which is used in the real world, I may need to jump from clean to brown on the Fender, before
going a little darker with the Marshall in the first song of the set.
In order to pull off a Jazz to Hell tone in such a manner, it requires adjusting settings on amps, stomp boxes etc...
to accomplish it in real time, live.

Wow, that was a paragraph. So, now to the point.
I've got three overdrive/distortion boxes on my ridiculous but neccessary pedal board.

Old Chandler Tube Driver - This is one of the older models that has the wall cord with it. Nice spongy effect with a 12au7 tube.
I use this one when I want a "little more" on the Marshall.
THis one is good for bringing out what is already starting to
happen with a good tube amp. Really a transparent as possible
boost with just enough overdrive edge if needed.


TS-9 w/808 mod Ibanez - Can go to Fender or Marshall, but mostly this one creates a mid level overdrive on the Fender which
I've set to go all the way clean in most cases without effects.
TS-9s deliver a good mid-range punch, but I've heard others
on the web state that they seem to lose a little of the bottom end
when compared to other overdrives. I cannot confirm this as I've
got mucho low end via the cabinet/speaker combos I'm running.


Boss Fuzz - This is an old caked up pedal that mimics a
Big Muff distortion. I really think that using a straight up Fuzz
pedal in conjunction with a good overdrive pedal will give you
all the distortion colors you'll ever need. THis one is suppossed
to be just like an old Big Muff pedal, so that is the best I can
point you to. I tried a bunch of fuzz pedals before I picked this
one up, and the Big Muff fuzz tone is what I really liked. Big
about says it all.

My setup is unique in that I play in a quirky band that requires I go big to small to ?? almost every tune. At first coming from a bar band where I was a "guitar+chord+amp" guy, I balked at the notion of using all of these gadgets. I now realize that if you are willing to invest the time to learn to control them that effects can really provide dynamics in a live situation that could not be attained any other way. I have the absolute best rock amp available (IMO) with the old Marshall, and the Deville sure ain't shabby for a clean tone. With these immaculate tone bases I use effects to twist them to even more bizarre tone worlds. The idea that an overdrive or fuzz pedal is a result of poor or inexpensive equipment is a product of musical "blinders" if you ask me.
















pedal board.
 

becks bolero

New member
Joined
Jul 15, 2001
Messages
1,810
I kinda like the original tubeman pedal.....you could pick one up used fairly cheap. <$100 I'd think. lots to tweak on it too.
 

slammintone

Well-known member
Joined
Jul 19, 2001
Messages
2,003
I don't usually bother with O/D pedals however, for the times when I'm not able to crank up some power amp dirt I bought a Marshall BBII Bluesbreaker overdrive and find it extremely versatile and great sounding, depending on which amp and at what volume I'm playing at. With my Bluesbreaker RI amp, I use the pedal with the amp no further than half way up. On my buddies 2203 marshall, it sounds hellaciously good all the way up and PUMPS through his vintage cabinets. This pedal does a mild AC/DC crunch very effectively and also gets down and dirty into the realms of thrash and heavy metal quite easily as well. No nasty hardness or hash anywhere in the tone spectrum. The Marshall Guv'nor and Jackhammer may be even more cool, haven't got around to checking them out yet. 95% of the time I don't use any pedals whatsoever.
 

soldano16

New member
Joined
Aug 1, 2001
Messages
3,043
Fav pedal

It took me a while to find a great pedal but I swaer by the Boss SD1 (Mine are the original Japanese ones - I haven't tried the Taiwan ones but some people say they sound different)

The trick is to keep the drive really low and run the level about 35-40%. That gives a really nice push to the tone.

I use the pedal with my Soldano's and my Super Reverb and it sounds great with both.

Other pedals I had tried but gave up on were

TS9
Marshall Govnor
 

Dystrust

New member
Joined
Jul 16, 2001
Messages
14
I agree with Ed Rafalko

I don't think a pedal should be needed for your rhythm sound. If you use a pedal for this, you need an amp with more gain, though exceptions do exist. Randy Rhoads used an MXR Distortion + through Marshall SLs and that sounded great. Anyway back to the topic. My favorite boost pedal is the Boss GE-7. I boost the level to get the extra gain/volume I need and then adjust the EQ to help it cut through. The EQ shape I use is like a tent with the peak at 800/1.2K.
 
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