Best Stomp box distortion for blues?

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dragonworks

dragonworks

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what are you using.
I bought an older tube works, a black one with low and high etc. It just don't cut it.
 
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if you want jimi's kind of sound you should go with the Dunlop arbiter fuzzface
 
im pretty sure that i spelled arbiter wrong..... i dont know how to spell it
 
A million different flavors of distortion... what one are you after?

A
 
for blues...OK

To start with, if you are using more than a smidgen of distortion, you are using too much.

Blues tone comes from tube amp tube saturation. Its a clean amp (no pre-gain), turned way up...you get alot of singing sustain , without the "gazoo' artifacts you get from ANY distortion device. Plus, you get the dynamics (a louder note with more sustain when plucking or poping a string for example) without the compression of a distortion device (kills the subleties of your playing)....you also get a clean sound when you turn the guitar volume knob down to half way also. Its a very touch sensitive type of distortion...you should be able to play clean for the most part, but, get some saturation and sustain when you really dig into into the guitar.

I have never, in my entire musical career, seen that kind of distortion come out of a box or pedal....at a lower volume level
Its just not out there IMO.

Thankfully, I have a pretty much sound proof room to cut guitar tracks in....I can crank that fender amp way up and use no effects. You just ain't going to get that out of a pedal.
Sorry, I know thats not what you wanted to hear, but its the truth.

I do have a blues driver, for gigs I can't turn up on. Its pretty good, but, like I said, there ain't no substitute for sheer tube amp volume.

Thats where the blues guitar tone is.
 
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jimistone said:
for blues...OK

To start with, if you are using more than a smidgen of distortion, you are using too much.

Blues tone comes from tube amp tube saturation. Its a clean amp (no pre-gain), turned way up...you get alot of singing sustain , without the "gazoo' artifacts you get from ANY distortion device. Plus, you get the dynamics (a louder note with more sustain when plucking or poping a string for example) without the compression of a distortion device (kills the subleties of your playing)....you also get a clean sound when you turn the guitar volume knob down to half way also. Its a very touch sensitive type of distortion...you should be able to play clean for the most part, but, get some saturation and sustain when you really dig into into the guitar.

I have never, in my entire musical career, seen that kind of distortion come out of a box or pedal....at a lower volume level
Its just not out there IMO.

Thankfully, I have a pretty much sound proof room to cut guitar tracks in....I can crank that fender amp way up and use no effects. You just ain't going to get that out of a pedal.
Sorry, I know thats not what you wanted to hear, but its the truth.

I do have a blues driver, for gigs I can't turn up on. Its pretty good, but, like I said, there ain't no substitute for sheer tube amp volume.

Thats where the blues guitar tone is.

I been playing guitar for 40 years, I am quite aware of this.

That is the problem with this distortion box, if I add just hair I can't get the volume. Anymore distortion and the volume goes up but I can't stand the distortion.
My 40 watt super is to loud when cranked. Smaller amps when cranked sound great but then you cant get the clean sound at the highter volume. All the on board distortions and master volume tricks sound like shit.
I used to just crank my amps but that is just unacceptable anymore.
The one I am using now is a "Real Tube" by tubeworks, but it has the problem described above. There was a time when I just used two amps with a splitter.
A high power ampeg VT22 with lots of headroom for a nice clean sound and a fender pro cranked for overdriven tone, with a splitter between them to switch back and forth. Maybe I should just go back to that setup now with smaller amps.
 
i'm using a boss blues driver into a 79 fender princeton reverb. it works pretty well. i turn the volume on the fender up to just before it starts to overdrive. then i use the blues driver as just a level boost leaving the gain at zero. this way when i stomp the pedal i'm just boosting my signal into the amp and overdriving it from there. its not perfect but it works well. and the princeton reverb is small enough that i won't kill anyone with the volume
 
Marshall BluesBreaker II ... best pedal I've ever bought ... and close enough to the real thing for a hacker like me!!! :D:D
 
If you really want a pedal, maybe the MXR Distortion +. At low gain it can be nice for some bluesy work. Definately not a tube amp, but there is also that other pedal I had.......the Budda Phatman. Now that was a pedal. Two 12ax7 tubes built for smooth overdrive. Pricey, but worth every penny IMO. I really, really regret selling it.
 
I concur with jimistone.

With that being said - Ive got a Mesa Boggie V-Twin pedal for all those other times, and it works like a charm. Its my little tube amp in a stompbox. I usually keep it on the clean setting and the 2x12ax7's overdrive themselves at loswer volumes than my amp - so I get it all. Its a beautiful thing. Great tone too. I love the tone outta my reverbrocket, but the clean mesa vtwin sound is just as nice (imho).

Mesa V-twin on ebay

Hope you find what your looking for.
Todd
 
jimistone said:
for blues...OK

To start with, if you are using more than a smidgen of distortion, you are using too much.

Blues tone comes from tube amp tube saturation. Its a clean amp (no pre-gain), turned way up...you get alot of singing sustain , without the "gazoo' artifacts you get from ANY distortion device. Plus, you get the dynamics (a louder note with more sustain when plucking or poping a string for example) without the compression of a distortion device (kills the subleties of your playing)....you also get a clean sound when you turn the guitar volume knob down to half way also. Its a very touch sensitive type of distortion...you should be able to play clean for the most part, but, get some saturation and sustain when you really dig into into the guitar.

I have never, in my entire musical career, seen that kind of distortion come out of a box or pedal....at a lower volume level
Its just not out there IMO.

Thankfully, I have a pretty much sound proof room to cut guitar tracks in....I can crank that fender amp way up and use no effects. You just ain't going to get that out of a pedal.
Sorry, I know thats not what you wanted to hear, but its the truth.

I do have a blues driver, for gigs I can't turn up on. Its pretty good, but, like I said, there ain't no substitute for sheer tube amp volume.

Thats where the blues guitar tone is.

Yeah but if you want to play at that venue again you have to turn down the volume, hence the need for a pedal or a smaller amp.
The only time I have ever had my Fender Twin at full volume was one Sunday morning after a neighbour had kept us up all night with a party that finished at about 7am. I gave them about 45 minutes to get to sleep and trundled the Twin out to the fence, pointed it at the bedroom and gave it shit. As you say the sound is awsome at that volume. Sure cured the party bit too.
Clive
 
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