[Closed] Guitarists - overdrive/distortion pedals?

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And crank the amp up.*

Never tried one but seems like a good idea

I use a TC Electronic MojoMojo. Doesn't do huge gain but it gets a nice Marshall crunch. Really quite cheap at the moment, which is annoying as I paid full whack not long ago.

The Blackstar pedals are very good. Personally I'd go for one of those, or another valve driven pedal. Ultimately a Mesa Boogie V-Twin but they are highly sought after and not cheap. I am a valve snob. Try as many as you can, with your own kit. Ask your local shop if they'll do a try at home session with a few?

From personal use, i am a fan of the MXR Distortion+

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I tend to buy the pedals that the artists I like use purely because those are the songs i tend to play.......in this case, I blame Bob Mould of Husker Du/Sugar

But that's just me

EHX soul food. I got the bass one. It's pretty transparent as it's based on the Klon centaur. It works well as a clean boost as well as an overdrive. It's like it just gives you a bit more of your amp. I also like my modded boss od3 but it's not a high gain pedal. Can't remember what it was like stock, but both are well under £100.
If you're handy with a soldering iron, hav a look at jeds peds, or fuzz dog. Decent clones of boutique pedals for no more than £50. Could get a Klon clone, or maybe a crowther hot cake clone, or a harmonic percolator whilst gaining some knowledge as to how they work. Once you've built a couple, you could start to get hold of broken pedals on eBay for knock down prices and repair or modify. Quite often there isn't much wrong with them.

My BiL is the demo guy for Boss UK. Does loads of vids on you tube, I Imagine they're on Bosses channel. I'll ask him tomorrow after we've recovered from Glastonbury

I'd a loan of my brothers EHX Big Muff Pi for a while there, add that to the EHX Pog2 and Boss Compression Sustainer and that was all the peddles I needed(well I'd like a cry baby or something in there too mind)! 🙂 I shall be borrowing them for a longer period next time!

Saying that though, I'm preferring software effects these days, just purely for the editability of them, post recording. Still playing around with the demos though before deciding what set I want to purchase. Obviously if you are playing live you want peddles.(I'm not)

I've got both the maxon 808 and the eh big muff. Both are great pedals.

Depends what sound you're aiming for.

skaifan - Member
EHX soul food.

I had the metal muff aswell btw, I wasn't a great fan as i'm not into metal, but if you were it'd be perfect.

Had the electric mistress aswell, but I wasn't too keen at the time, but it would have it's uses, just a flanger basically.

The digitech hothead and hotrod are good, and also cheap. Really liked my hotrod for milder tones, it got a wee bit fizzy for higher levels of distortion though

The big muff and the soul food are completely different beasts. Big muffs do not do subtle. I got 4 different big muffs, my favourite being a black sovtek. Being mainly a bass player, the ny big muffs don't have the bottom end. My favourite is a clone I built based in a version 2 rams head big muff, with altered cap values for a better bottom end. The soul food with the drive turned all the way down, is nothing more than a clean boost, but with the drive cranked up, is a lovely creamy overdrive. It doesn't have a tone of its own so much. It's more that it seems to give you the sound of your amp but with more balls. Great pedal.

What kind of sound it the OP looking for?

Crowther Hot Cake is what you need 100% the dog's

Get the Blackstar pedal.

skaifan - Member

What kind of sound it the OP looking for?

Thanks everyone, lots to go at.
🙂

As to the sound, I'm willing to try anything, within reason.
The amp is really clean at the low volumes I use it at - I'd like to be able to get a decent overdriven blues tone, something crunchy for playing classic rock and something a bit wilder for punkier/metal stuff.
The Behringer was good at that just overdriven, bluesy valve thing but turned to mush if you lit it up.

As I say, I've a bigger Vox Valvetronix amp which has lots of modelling options.
Too big to cart around though, and I really like the simplicity of the little amp/pedal combo.

So, something versatile that will still let the sound of the amp come through.
Prefer something that I can power from my existing 9v power supply rather than something that needs it's own mains feed.

Have read a few reviews, MXR Super Badass might fit the bill.

Houns, thank you, I'll see if I can find those vids.

This is when a man needs an ibanez tube-screamer. Slightly over budget delivers on tone 🙂

It will actually make the fret board come alive

I love my Russian big muff and my old band mates RAT.
They'll do anything from distorted to very distorted.

It will actually make the fret board come alive

Indeed, the hardest part of playing with a lot of gain is muting the strings you're not playing.

Modelling amps are the future. I use a Mustang IV because it had the cleanest start point. I tried a Cube that had fatter heavy tones but nothing clean enough for country, and a Vox that was a bit thin whatever the setting. The Fender Fuse software is excellent.

Agreed, when I bought my gold top I was both delighted and frustrated at its ability to pass on every nuance of my playing. Some days the old epi was much better!

CaptainSlow - Member
I've got both the maxon 808 and the eh big muff. Both are great pedals.

There you go...

How are you with a soldering iron? http://tagboardeffects.blogspot.co.uk/

I tend to buy the pedals that the artists I like use purely because those are the songs i tend to play.......in this case, I blame Bob Mould of Husker Du/Sugar

But that's just me

Not just you 🙂

Bob Mould has a lot to answer for.

I had an original tube screamer. Sold it for £250 over EBay to some Swedish bloke, I never thought it was much cop to be honest. I fed it into a 64 AC30 TB before you blame the amp. You can blame me all you like 🙂

If I was buying now I'd look for the Blackstar.

I loved my tubescreamer. Didn't actually use it much but I bought it for IIRC £3, 808 modded it and sold it on fenderforum for about £150. Cheers Ibanez!

Hmm. I can't remember the name, I had one that was absolutely lovely, a massive 5-sided box (like a rectangle, with a triangle under it), basically an overdrive and a distortion box combined into one with independent controls and switching. Anyone know what I'm talking about? Only other thing I can remember is Danny McCormack used one as a base overdrive.

my current favourite is 2 Digitech bad monkey in series

However, I have a joyo ultimate drive you can have for postage

I loved my tubescreamer. Didn't actually use it much but I bought it for IIRC £3, 808 modded it and sold it on fenderforum for about £150. Cheers Ibanez!

They are still one of my top 'boot sale bargain' searches. Even battered old ones fetch good money if they work, and most can be coaxed back to life with a little care.

If you're any good with a soldering iron you can do a BYOC tubescreamer for pretty cheap and it's way more rewarding than buying a pedal. Plus you can do your own design on the case.

I liked the MI Audio Crunch Zone I had for a bit, great marshally sound.

My friend Tom makes custom pedals at reasonable prices: http://peregrineeffects.tumblr.com/
(He's British but currently lives in NYC - sure he'll post to the UK if anyone is interested.)

Boss SD-1 Super Overdrive is a great little box - much underrated. May not quite cut it at the more mentalist end of the scale, but they're cheap enough that you could add something else to cover that base.

Hear a lot about Ibanez Tube Screamers, but to me the Sonic Distortion was the better pedal. And a much nicer shade of green. I had a few of those old 9 series Ibanez pedals BITD when they were worth nowt...

Despite what many say, a Big Muff *is* capable of subtle, it's generally owners who aren't. Just keep those knobs below 12 o'clock (apart from tone - they muddy up pretty quick) and maybe back off the guitar volume control a touch.

Marshall Guvnor? Useful little box, but probably silly money these days.

MXR Distortion+ is a good wee beastie. I note the one pictured in redsox post above is on Bob Mould settings too... 🙂

Zvex box of Rock works for me too, clean boost and drive, and the outsider a double muff but it has to be first in the chain

Any reason why it has to be a single pedal?

I bought a used Yamaha FX550 complete with its multi footswitch for about £55 on Ebay a couple of years back. Ok, it's 90's, and multi effects, but with digital delay/flanger/chorus/compression/eq as well, it's a flexible bit of kit, if perhaps a bit old hat.

Certainly it's predecessor the FX500 I had that I gigged with about 18 years ago made the village hall come alive....

I've been using a Boss DA-2 for a while and really like it

I was never a fan of tubescreamers - I found that with a mid heavy AC30 there was just too much midrange going on. I'm running a Visual Sound Open Road alongside a Fulltone OCD (v4). The visual sound does a really nice subtle drive, to a pretty damn good Marshally crunch when cranked.

has the TS9 and OCD been suggested?

I reckon an ocd is out of the price range. Great pedal though

Blackstar - absolutely!

Boogie... even better, but I haven't seen one for sale in a very long time.

That said - love my original 80's Guv'nor. I haven't tried it against one of the new ones, I suspect they are at least as good (and probably cheaper).