Searching for the right Distortion

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killmachine

New member
Ok.... I've been in search of the right Distortion pedal for a long time......I thought I had found what I was looking for when I got the ProCo Rat

Since I've not liked it.

Background: Play loud noisy heavy music, Gibson SG with good Dimarzio pickups in it, Fender 63' band master recently retubed with JJ's and biased, 4x12 Marshall, various other effects. Lot's of dynamics, lots of style changes ranging from latin, jazz, and obviously heavy....

Biggest influences right now:
Converge, Dillinger Escape Plan, The number twelve looks like you, Helmet, Ion Dissonance, Hum, Refused, etc


The rat was sounding good for a little while but really lacked any definition, and was pretty muddy. I tried some crappy Boss Metal Zone through the rig and it had that tiny sound to it ... no good, through the 12" practice amp exactly what I would want.... most recently I even tried one of those danelectro "black Coffee" distortions, which came out pretty well but absolutly NO sustain in the least bit which left any lead lines dead. My guitar player got a MXR DIMEBAG which we all laughed at, but in the end it won out.

Any suggestionssss, I'm sure most will say the amp could be swapped. But I love my amp and thought about changing it but it's been use since 64 in the family and nobody we've ever played with ever had one.
 
Distortion pedals are all going to lack one thing or another. I have found the modded boss pedals to be pretty good. I have an Indyguitarist modded DOD Supra Distortion that is pretty good. A lot of pros use a modded DS1. I dunno, I hate distortion pedals over clean amps. I like the amp to overdrive itself. Ya know tube saturation!
 
Yeah due to the amp model obviously that's not possible. The other guitar player has one of those new B-52's and couldn't get what he/we were looking for from anyone of the overdrive settings.
 
Between two DOD distortions, a Boss Blues Driver, and a Studio Distortion Stompbox (wherever that comes from...), I usually get the tones I'm looking for.
Or I just plug in and turn it all the way up.
 
Ibanez tubescreamer would be your best bet TS-1 or if you can't find that the TS-9.

Either that or find a good amp with the distortion already to your liking, for your type of music I would say look for a Mesa Boogie Dual Rectifier. (Botch used it.)
 
Metal Zones are crap if you have no clue how to tweak them. I was on the search for distortion bliss until today, when after trying out an original Russian Big Muff Pi and hating it, I decided to give my MT-2 another try. Took about an hour to tweak it and BAM, the magic settings for my amp. Now I'm running my distortion as BD-2 > MT-2. It sounds beautiful. I wouldn't shun the Metal Zone until you spend some time trying to get good tone out of it. It's not like other Boss pedals where you basically just hook it up, turn a knob, and go. If all else fails, get a GE-7 and use that for your tone shaper.
 
timthetortoise said:
Metal Zones are crap if you have no clue how to tweak them. I was on the search for distortion bliss until today, when after trying out an original Russian Big Muff Pi and hating it, I decided to give my MT-2 another try. Took about an hour to tweak it and BAM, the magic settings for my amp. Now I'm running my distortion as BD-2 > MT-2. It sounds beautiful. I wouldn't shun the Metal Zone until you spend some time trying to get good tone out of it. It's not like other Boss pedals where you basically just hook it up, turn a knob, and go. If all else fails, get a GE-7 and use that for your tone shaper.
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Tims got it right. You have to sculpt the sound depending on your distortion requirements...as a general rule, id filter the mids, boost lows and highs. I use a Super Overdrive into a DS 1, then run that through a Graphic EQ Pedal with the lows boosted and mids cut. If I wanna kick the mids back in, I'll switch to a Crybaby mid-sweep.
 
Depends on your budget, either a good tube amp or if you are looking at pedal and stomp boxes, check out the Line 6 DM4. I hate Line6 gear but this pedal is built to take punishment and it generates some damn fine tones. If you can afford it check out a Mesa Boogie Triaxis, there are a massive variety of tones available all with that burning tube feel BUT it's expensive and it requires a good poweramp.
 
killmachine said:
Any suggestionssss, I'm sure most will say the amp could be swapped. But I love my amp and thought about changing it but it's been use since 64 in the family and nobody we've ever played with ever had one.
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Did you ever wonder why nobody else played one? ;)

You need a different amp. Get a different amp and just sit that one on the stage as a dummy or something.
 
Blah, I love that amp... it's done well in the past. I just completly revamped my setup within the last six months, so I basically was starting from scatch as far as effects and whatnot. The processor I was using had good tone for the distortion but as far as the effects and signal to noise ratio it was complete shit....So the current setup I have is nice, and even the Proco Rat I was using regularly is still a good sound, just not exactly what I'm looking for, I need something that will put it over the edge.

The Metal Zone I've tweaked and tweaked and tweaked again, and so did the other guitar player....

Thanks for the suggestions I will be checking in....I did catch a Electro-Harmonix Metal Muff. It seems to have some good reviews on MF and even the chinsy sound clips really don't sound that bad. I may give that a try. Also I may try that Dime Distortion that the other guy has it seem to do good for him.
 
killmachine said:
Blah, I love that amp...
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I don't understand how one can say that he doesn't like his tone, but also insist that he loves his amp. Sounds like you love your amp for the wrong reasons....

Oh well, best of luck ;)
 
Geeeeze,
buy a virtual amp & plug in head phones. You've already thrown the baby out with the bath water - change the bath tub next.
 
I think you're thinking about this the wrong way. Solid advice has been given in saying you need a tube pre to get your output tubes saturated. However, remember that this is a Fender. They thrive on clean tone throughout high volumes, so you're going to have a problem almost no matter what getting your tubes saturated enough to get what it sounds like you want. Example: that EH pedal was exactly what I was looking for when trying at Guitar Center. I played through a Fender combo that I thought was somewhat comparable to my main amp because of its tube configuration. I overloaded that thing as much as possible and it SOUNDED like the output tubes were saturated. Apparently they weren't, because as soon as I plugged the pedal into my amp, it sounded like nothing but fuzz. Your main issues at hand are point of saturation, and the input gain your amp has. If your point of saturation is very high, you're going to have trouble getting your tubes to saturate (if you'll be able to do it at all). I have never touched said amp, but I've played on enough Fenders to know that they are not the right amp if you want a gritty tube sound. I believe they also have low input gain, so your signal when it hits isn't going to be as loud as needed to saturate earlier, which is only going to lead to having to dime your volume on your post and possibly pre-gain.
All that crap said, I'd recommend picking up a new amp. Sovtek MIG150Hs are notorious for being killer heads for higher gain stuff and are louddddddddddddddd. I'm hoping to acquire one soon. :) Good luck.
 
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