Punk distortion pedal

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Lkoz91

Lkoz91

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I've got a fender hot rod deville 2x12 amp that sounds awesome with clean, but obviously the crunch doesn't cut it for the genre my band is playing. I've been using a boss DS-1 distortion pedal but I'm not entirely happy with the tone. Looking for the standard punk distortion that you know and love (probably not, its a hated genre haha).

Anyway, just curious to see what you guys have to say about other pedals out there. I never strayed far from the boss pedals so I know relatively nothing about them. Used to have a line 6 and was happy with the effects on it but this deville isn't cutting it and the DS-1 doesn't give me the tone I'm looking for. It seems to be either too muddy or have way too much treble with no in between. I guess I'm just looking for more options in the pedal without pushing it to the metal zone to get the eq knobs.
 
There is no "punk pedal", and if you actually listen to punk, you'll hear that damn near every band has a different guitar sound. So you're gonna have to be less generic and more specific. Post up a youtube clip of a band you wanna sound like.
 
Greg_L said:
There is no "punk pedal", and if you actually listen to punk, you'll hear that damn near every band has a different guitar sound. So you're gonna have to be less generic and more specific. Post up a youtube clip of a band you wanna sound like.
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exactly. do you mean the Green Day pedal, the Blink 182 pedal, or the Avril Lavigne pedal?
 
never heard a punk band use digital anything on guitars

kinda counterintuitive, eh?
 
Lkoz91 said:
Fair enough, I'm looking for that almost "digital" type of distortion.

The Story So Far - High Regard - YouTube
I love the guitar tones on this album.

NoFX is another good example of the distortion I'm looking for:

NOFX American Errorist - YouTube

I'd love to get that low end with the chugs while still having a treble sound when open strumming. If that makes any sense.
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There's nothing special about those guitar tones. I love NOFX and listen to them all the time. You can go to their website and see their gear. Guitars and amps. That's about it. NOFX uses MESA's. That other clip sound MESA-like too. You got the wrong amp, son.

Also Hefe from NOFX plays a tele and Melvin plays a Les Paul. That huge contrast in tone is part of their sound. Listen to live NOFX and you can really hear the difference. That clean-ish articulate but overdriven picking that drives most NOFX songs is Hefe's tele.
 
Really afraid you were gonna say that. My logic when buying the amp was that it has a great clean channel as well as that wonderful fender reverb so I thought I'd use a pedal to get the distortion tone I wanted.
 
Lkoz91 said:
Really afraid you were gonna say that. My logic when buying the amp was that it has a great clean channel as well as that wonderful fender reverb so I thought I'd use a pedal to get the distortion tone I wanted.
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Yikes, that's backwards logic. Distortion pedals suck. If your amp can't make the sound you want, get a different one. You need a Mesa, Orange, or a Marshall 800/900. Something like that. Something that will get nasty by itself.
 
Having said that, if you are really playing punk, embrace what you got and make it work. Forget a pedal and crank that Hot Rod till it screams. Most early punk was done with similar amps. Punks couldn't afford full stacks and collectible guitars. They used junk and made it happen. You have a good amp, it's just not good for what you wanna do. But make it your own. Listen to the Dead Kennedys. Listen to East Bay Ray's sound. It's a reverby twangy surf sound, and no one on earth would say that DK wasn't punk as fuck, unless they're stupid.
 
My favorite punk rock guitarist of all time played a 1970s Yamaha jaguar knockoff out of a peavey 5150 with the gain all the way up and lots of treble.

Anyway, I don't know if there is a pedal solution to your problem. I agree with what you're saying about the Fender hot rod deville's sound: they have a great clean channel. The distortion lacks crunch. You might simply have the wrong amp.
 
Greg_L said:
Having said that, if you are really playing punk, embrace what you got and make it work. Forget a pedal and crank that Hot Rod till it screams. Most early punk was done with similar amps. Punks couldn't afford full stacks and collectible guitars. They used junk and made it happen. You have a good amp, it's just not good for what you wanna do. But make it your own. Listen to the Dead Kennedys. Listen to East Bay Ray's sound. It's a reverby twangy surf sound, and no one on earth would say that DK wasn't punk as fuck, unless they're stupid.
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Haha I agree completely but we write more of a tight punk sound like the later nofx stuff as opposed to the the low fi sound you're talking about. I guess I just need to experiment, maybe just turning down the dist on a metal zone or just getting an eq pedal to add to the DS-1.
 
Try a basic overdrive pedal. It's not really a distortion pedal per se, but it kind of simulates boosting the signal to push the amp harder.
 
Greg_L said:
Try a basic overdrive pedal. It's not really a distortion pedal per se, but it kind of boosts the signal to push the amp harder.
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Any suggestions to look for with those? Would you pair that up with the DS-1?
 
The Boss Overdive is an old standard. I'm not a pedal guy, so someone else may have a better suggestion. I'm more of a plug in and rip kind of guy. I hate pedals. Actually, I'm more of a drummer kind of guy. :D
 
Greg_L said:
The Boss Overdive is an old standard. I'm not a pedal guy, so someone else may have a better suggestion. I'm more of a plug in and rip kind of guy. I hate pedals. Actually, I'm more of a drummer kind of guy. :D
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Haha funny you say that, I'm a drummer but I'm writing the songs so I'm playing guitar and singing in this band because quite frankly, I wouldn't want someone else singing my songs! I'm gonna take a trip to guitar center and try this thing out though, thanks for all the help!
 
Greg_L said:
no one on earth would say that DK wasn't punk as fuck, unless they're stupid.
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Well, intentionally inflammatory musicians (i.e. punks) might.

I suppose they could be stupid too.
 
Greg_L said:
Maybe. But usually even the snobbiest punk rock elitist likes DK.
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donkeykong.jpg
 
I use to have this pedal and I liked it

top_M.jpg


I just use an HT-Dual now, but I'm not really going for that type of tone recently...
 
arcadeko said:
I use to have this pedal and I liked it

top_M.jpg


I just use an HT-Dual now, but I'm not really going for that type of tone recently...
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I currently use this, and I hate it...BUT...it has a lot of range. if you can't get a sound you like out of it, you're doing something wrong.
 
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