What's the best distortion pedal out there?

C

chapelhillbilly

New member
Hey all,

So I have a great home made cabinet that a friend gave me and a Crate BX-200 head. I don't want to go buy a new "guitar" amp head since this one works and sounds great for a guitar. The only issue is that there is no distortion. I'm hoping to find a distortion pedal out there that has a good classy Marshall type sound to it. I'm playing folk/rock music and some songs call for distortion so those "metal" sounding distortions aren't an option.

Does anyone have any recommendations?
 
Marshall sounding distortion? Try a Marshall Pedal - Guv'nor, Bluesbreaker II, or an original Blues Breaker if you can get hold of one for light-medium overdrive, Jackhammer or the old Drivemaster for medium-heavy sounds.

Those boss ones can be cool, but they take a lot of experimenting with to get a decent sound...
 
I played thru a guys' Guv'nor last week and was quite impressed with it ...... a very British sound.
Curious about the Bluesbreaker ...... what's the comparison between it and the Guv'nor?
 
For folk/rock - you might want to look into some "overdrive" pedals. The tend to be a little tamer and less gritty than distortion pedals.
 
The overdrive pedals can sound better at first, but can sound kind of dull. The drive pedals give you a bit more "expression" in my opinion in the long riun, but are a lot harsher and sometimes seem completely useless, especially with a bad amp combination.

Solution, unfortunately, grab a bunch and find one you can use. I like the classic Boss DS1, but it's not really a "punch in for a great sound" pedal, it's more a "I don't get sick of it after playing through it for an hour" kind of pedal, and it's useless with the wrong amp. I'm sure there are better pedals out there now, hopefully I'll watch this thread and get some ideas.

The problem with some really good sounding pedals is the tone is usually contrived and doesn't let your playing breath in the long run, but they can ace a quick lead in the middle of a song.

Best practise is to use some kind of simlpe pedal to add just enough garbage to the signal to beef up whatever that you get a decent tone between the amp and the pedalcrunch you got coming from the amp.
 
I like the Marshall Pedals as well.

I usually go for the distortion in my amp.

But I have found the Digitech Screaming blues to be very versitale, for its low cost.
If you have more to spend, try the Vox cooltron Trebble Booster, its and ac30 in a box IMHO:)
 
Doug H said:
The overdrive pedals can sound better at first, but can sound kind of dull. The drive pedals give you a bit more "expression" in my opinion in the long riun, but are a lot harsher and sometimes seem completely useless, especially with a bad amp combination.

Solution, unfortunately, grab a bunch and find one you can use. I like the classic Boss DS1, .
Click to expand...
which is a good example of "try stuff out and find what works for you" because everyone has different taste.
To me .... the DS-1 (yes, I have one) is the absolute nastiest worst sounding bees-in-a-can pedal that any company has ever made in the history of pedals!

I'm not discounting that it works well for you so that just further emphasizes your advice to grab a bunch of pedals and try them out to see what you like.
 
I would suggest finding a tube distortion pedal if there are any still made like the Tube Works or Dean Markley Overlord pedal. The newer stuff is probably good too since the technology has changed since the tube pedals were out. Something like a pocket POD might work for you. Behringer makes some inexpensive pedals they just introduced fairly recently that might be worth checking out.
 
THX1136 said:
I would suggest finding a tube distortion pedal if there are any still made like the Tube Works or Dean Markley Overlord pedal. The newer stuff is probably good too since the technology has changed since the tube pedals were out. Something like a pocket POD might work for you. Behringer makes some inexpensive pedals they just introduced fairly recently that might be worth checking out.
Click to expand...
ooh ,, I forgot about the tubeworks. I have one I got from Dragonworks and that's a great pedal. I wonder where I put it ...... think I need to break it out for some gigs.
 
Check out http://www.g2d.co.nz/

Their Custom Overdrive is one of the sweetest rock drives I've played through. Very responsive, nice definition etc

I talked to a tech guy I know and he took one to his dentist who x-rayed the components because they were covered in epoxy so you cant see what the circuitry is. He said it is based on a Rat II but with some clever modifications.

Whatever they've done it sounds good ~ worth a listen if you can find one.
 
Lt. Bob said:
To me .... the DS-1 (yes, I have one) is the absolute nastiest worst sounding bees-in-a-can pedal that any company has ever made in the history of pedals!
Click to expand...

Truth be told that's a fair assesment.

I've been married to this pedal since I was 16, it's the only pedal I can stand for more than half an hour. If it's really the only source of drive in the chain you have to find the balance between not feeding in too much gain and get the tone control just right to keep that rock hard bottom end at bay without adding too much scratch in the process.

But you're wrong tho, the DS-2 is the nastiest worst sounding can of bees pedal ever made lol. They moved what can happen on the bottom end to the mid range, but you can't get rid of it.
 
Doug H said:
Truth be told that's a fair assesment.

I've been married to this pedal since I was 16, it's the only pedal I can stand for more than half an hour. If it's really the only source of drive in the chain you have to find the balance between not feeding in too much gain and get the tone control just right to keep that rock hard bottom end at bay without adding too much scratch in the process.

But you're wrong tho, the DS-2 is the nastiest worst sounding can of bees pedal ever made lol. They moved what can happen on the bottom end to the mid range, but you can't get rid of it.
Click to expand...
Oh man ...... then I've got to get a DS-2 ....... I don't use them on stage but I love horrible pedals just for fun.
 
look at the Ibanez Tue Screamers

Alot of people swear by the old Ibanez TS 808 pedals. They are considered a benchmark of sorts for the distortion pedals. You can even go better and get them modified by analog man, or Robert keeley. both of their websites have soundclips that you can hear them. Pretty awesome stuff!! You can get them direct or on ebay alot of the time. But they are fairly spendy because of the demand for them....Hope that helps!!

JasonBird
 
If you are talking about recording in my opinion get a line 6 POD.

I am a blues rock guitar player and have been playing close to 40 years, I also build my own amps and guitars.

I was impressed with the sound of the POD on some recordings. You have to tweak it to find the sweet spots but they are there.

They even have choices of Cab types..........

It can be used with the AIR switch straight into the board or DI box or into the amp by setting the amp for a clean sound and using the POD to emulate different amps.

Yeah, if I could I would use one of my guitars or better yet a 59 Les Paul or explorer through a 60's Marshall or Fender amp with some tube mics. The POD seems like the closest thing to it.

Cost wise you could end up buy a few different pedals to get different sounds that the POD probably already does.

Believe me, I'm no fan of fake sounding digital crap.
 
JasonBird said:
Alot of people swear by the old Ibanez TS 808 pedals. They are considered a benchmark of sorts for the distortion pedals. You can even go better and get them modified by analog man, or Robert keeley. both of their websites have soundclips that you can hear them. Pretty awesome stuff!! You can get them direct or on ebay alot of the time. But they are fairly spendy because of the demand for them....Hope that helps!!

JasonBird
Click to expand...

Exactly what I was going to say!!
TS is just awesome. Got my turbo modded by analog man and I absolutely dont go anywhere without it
 
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