Question:
I'm shopping for a few new distortion/overdrive/fuzz pedals and I'm curious what others are using now and what they think of them.
I've got a Fulldrive 2 and a ZVex Box of Rock that I love, but I'm looking for a fuzz and a nice heavy distortion pedal that is high quality and transparent (I know, hard to find).
So what are you using on your pedal board?
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What in the world is a "transparent fuzz"?
When I think of fuzz, I think of Big Muffs...
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I use amp distortion. Amp distortion is much better than pedal distortion IMO, if you have a decent amp.
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Well, there's only so many sounds you can get out of an amp... It's hard to think about what The Smashing Pumpkins would sound like if not for a Big Muff.
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Originally Posted by Rainer. What in the world is a "transparent fuzz"?
When I think of fuzz, I think of Big Muffs...
Yeah, when I said transparent I meant the heavy distortion, not the fuzz. I hate heavy distortion pedals that try to mimic the sound of a recording of a distorted amp if you know what I mean. I want a good high quality audiophile tone.
I use amp distortion. Amp distortion is much better than pedal distortion IMO, if you have a decent amp. I've been using amp distortion for years (Been using Marshals, Mesa Dual rectifiers, Rivera's, Orange Ac30's, THD's) What I'm really digging now is having a nice clean tube tone to serve as a base and then building on top of it with pedals. It's so much cooler to be able to have five different types of distortions at your disposal depending on what the song and situation calls for rather than having an amp that only gives you one distortion sound. IMHO
Answer:
I've been using a Visual Sound Jekyll and Hyde and a Danelectro Fab Tone. I fully understand with what you're saying about having a solid base and working from there, because that's what I've been working with. The Fab Tone has been a solid heavy distortion for me. It might be a bit too noisy for recording, but I've found ways to work around it in the live situation. It really isn't that much noisier than any other heavy distortions I've heard.
Are there any examples of what you're looking for in terms of "heavy distortion"? There's a guy in Europe that builds some interesting pedals. He's got one that's a heavily modified RAT style pedal as well as some other custom modified pedals included a Dual Rectifier pre-amp pedal that's supposed to sound great. His site is here: http://technophobia.co.nr/ He's got a decent reputation built over at the www.GuitarGeek.com forums.
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Yeah, when I said transparent I meant the heavy distortion, not the fuzz. I hate heavy distortion pedals that try to mimic the sound of a recording of a distorted amp if you know what I mean. I want a good high quality audiophile tone.
Yeah, I don't really understaind what you mean by that. Everyone will have their own opinion of what a good, high quality distoriton sounds like. What's your interpretation?
It's so much cooler to be able to have five different types of distortions at your disposal depending on what the song and situation calls for rather than having an amp that only gives you one distortion sound. IMHO
IMO, It's even cooler to have an amp that gives you great distortion and be able to also have five more different types of pedal distortions at your disposal, depending on what the song and situation calls for rather than having a pedal rig that only gives you pedal distortion sound, and no amp distortion/OD sounds.
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+1 for Visual Sound J+H. Very versatile pedal that can go from clean boost to tubescreamer type OD to a good hard rock sound to even some decent metal tones.
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Originally Posted by thesteve Are there any examples of what you're looking for in terms of "heavy distortion"? There's a guy in Europe that builds some interesting pedals. He's got one that's a heavily modified RAT style pedal as well as some other custom modified pedals included a Dual Rectifier pre-amp pedal that's supposed to sound great. His site is here: http://technophobia.co.nr/ He's got a decent reputation built over at the www.GuitarGeek.com forums.
I'm looking for something to do the modern type distortion sound for when we play stuff like SuperChik, Kutless, or that kind of stuff. I guess I'm looking for a mesa type sound. I'm using Fender amps, so I need something that is easy on the high end and not too dramatic either way on the mids.
I like the look of the technophobia stuff, but it's hard to get myself to order something that I don't know much about. Do you know any more about his stuff? Is there a place that I could look up more info before I buy one?
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I don't have any other contact with him other than GuitarGeek. I guess he is also over at thegearpage.net forums.
He does have an email address that he can be contacted at, but I really don't know a ton about him aside from interacting with him on the GG forum.
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Originally Posted by Rainer. Yeah, I don't really understaind what you mean by that. Everyone will have their own opinion of what a good, high quality distoriton sounds like. What's your interpretation? I mean a pedal that has a high quality sound and bypass. To my ears things like a Boss DS-1 have a very muddy undefined sound as compared with something that is hand wired and made from high quality components like a Z Vex or Klon. (try plugging in a Boss pedal and a boutique pedal and A/B them; you'll see what I'm talking about)
IMO, It's even cooler to have an amp that gives you great distortion and be able to also have five more different types of pedal distortions at your disposal, depending on what the song and situation calls for rather than having a pedal rig that only gives you pedal distortion sound, and no amp distortion/OD sounds. Which is why I'm looking into adding a THD Univalve to A/B into my clean combo's ...Though you'd be surprised at how good pedal distortions can be when you get into the good high quality stuff.
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I Just Bought an mxr distortion +. I love it but, i also dont like spending a huge amount of money on effects cause i just end up modding them anyways. Thats what I did with my TS9DX.
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I mean a pedal that has a high quality sound and bypass. To my ears things like a Boss DS-1 have a very muddy undefined sound as compared with something that is hand wired and made from high quality components like a Z Vex or Klon. (try plugging in a Boss pedal and a boutique pedal and A/B them; you'll see what I'm talking about)
Ah, so the bypass is transparent. Gotcha.