What's your fav distortion/overdrive pedal?

[M.Brane]

I'm pretty much convinced that most stompbox users are unwittingly using them primarily to cover up the fact they can't play that well. Nothing in the world buries flubs like a distortion stompbox.

LOL! Sorry, but I must completely disagree with this.

If anything having a saturated tone will make wrong notes stick out more. I guess it all depends on how you run it though. I get my tones from the guitar & amp. I just use the stomp box for added saturation. That's why I like the TS-9. If set properly it doesn't screw with my tone

 

[bongolation]

> If anything having a saturated tone will make wrong notes stick
> out more.

My point is that if you get anything like the right note, distortion will cover everything else.

It covers bad right-hand/left-hand synchronization, inconsistent picking, misfretting and soforth. It covers up an amazing amount of terrible technique. This is just a fact. Try it.

My own opinion is that if you want to play guitar, don't touch an effect or even a tube amp until you can sound good all the time on something like a Telecaster into a squeaky-clean solid-state amp. A rig like that will show every single technique error you make and throw it square in your face until your nose bleeds.

You can bury a ton of slob technique under the compression, saturation, distortion and the rest of it, and all these bedroom warrior types using all this stuff since they first started playing probably have no idea how bad their technique really is.

Drop 100% of the effects and distortion and play squeaky-clean for a week and see what you think about your playing then. It will be a very humbling experience for a lot of players...whether they'll admit it here or not.

 

[M.Brane]

I grew up playing a Strat copy with weak pickups through a '76 Super Reverb.

Didn't have any other option besides clean.

 

[64Firebird]

I get all of my tone from the amp, I turn it up loud enough so that it just starts to break up. I use the stomp box only once in a while to give the tone a litle more bite, so the high notes really screem or for a little more gain. Also, my amp is very old and doesn't have a master volume, so to get that sound at a low volume a stomp box is the only option.

About it covering up for mistakes, I was once playing a song and I made what I thought was an awful mistake, but after the song every guitar player in place wanted to know what it was I had done and told me how cool it sounded. I wish I could remember what it was I'd done. Mistakes can be a good thing.

 

[toyL]

my fav is a sovtek big muff pi--like rattling big heavy chains; my 2d fav is the danelectro fab tone--a bit restrained, with very precise/level presence--very smooth distortion no matter how you tweak it's bass or treb knobs.

 

[overseas]

Electro-Harmonix Linear Power Booster The Second (LPBII). Not actually a distortion, but it does a great job of pushing the amp into distortion and often ends up sounding way better than a lot of regular distortion units.

Bruce in Korea

 

[Lopp]

More comments than favorite:

SansAmp GT2: Kind of a stomp box because it has a footswitch, but actually more like a emulator. Excellent tones!

Boss MT2 MetalZone: Tons 'o distortion to cover up my mistakes.

Ibanez TubeScreamer TS-9: Great in front of a tube amp to push those first tubes over the edge.

ProCo Rat: Ditto.

Boss DS-1 Distortion: I have no clue why people like these. I have one and I think it sucks ass. I only have it because I needed cheap distortion in an emergency situation and it was all that was available. Somebody please tell me what's good about this pedal.

 

[M.Brane]

The key to the DS-1 is to use it sparingly. Just a little added edge. If you crank the drive up it does sound like ass, especially if your amp tone isn't happening.

 

[rocky outcrop]

rats

I have had a rat disto box for 15 years and i love it in conjunction with my musicman rd112. I also love the turbo rat for bass.I have no hearing and I'm also a drummer so I guess I had better get lost big time right about now

 

[Lopp]

The key to the DS-1 is to use it sparingly. Just a little added edge. If you crank the drive up it does sound like ass, especially if your amp tone isn't happening.

Dammit. Now I've gotta try to find mine to hear it again.

 

[Doug H]

There can be only one...

Boss DS-1

All pedals are a drag IMO. Some are good to drive into an already distorted amp to top the sound off a bit. Utltimatally the tone get's too busy and loses dynamics. The DS-1 is the best "problem solver" I've ever tried.

What's good about it? It just adds gain and stays out of your way.

 

[TamirE]

well, i think that the best distortion stomp box is my amp's foot switch actually - if you have an amp with a good tone you don't need an "external" distortion...

other than that, i like the ibanez tube king. it has a nice mellow overdrive that turns into a "sweet" distortion. but it depends... sometimes you want the "fuzz sound" (roger mayer, fuzz pedals, big muff sometimes), and sometimes the "over-saturated" mid-scooped death-metal drive sound (metal zone stuff..) that you can't get with this pedal exactly.
so the best idea is to try pedals and go with what your ears tell you...
the DS-1 has a tendency to sound too "sampled" sometimes, IMHO... i mean that you lose some of the experssion when you try to get a good distortion sound from it.

I like my amp's distortion. for rehearsals i take my POD (i rehearse in different rehearsal rooms, too much amps to study...). I sometimes use a Marshall guv'nor 2 when i need that "dirty" but not too heavy rock distortion or a mild over-drive.

 

[powderfinger]

Route 66 overdrive and compressor

 

[64Firebird]

well, i think that the best distortion stomp box is my amp's foot switch actually - if you have an amp with a good tone you don't need an "external" distortion...

I have an amp with a great tone! It's a 1964 blonde 50w Fender Bassman 2x12, but it dosn't start to distort until it's at about the same volume as a 747 taking off. This is a LOUD amp! I've never turned it up past about 4 at a bar gig. To get a little crunch and make the high notes scream at a dencent level, I need some kind of stomp box.

 

[M.Brane]

I use the Scott Ian approach with my JCM head. I've got a preamp box called a "Demon". It's a funky little pedal, almost looks home-made. All it has is a gain knob and a foot switch. I run it at about 2:00 into the JCM with the pre set to 7. Major crunch with tone for days. No distortion/OD required.

 

[weatherbill]

Ibanez tube screamer is da bomb!!!

Man, I've had a few of em, but I guess it's all in the tone you're trying to achieve.
I personally like the Jerry Garcia,grateful dead/Trey Anestasio, phish tone. The TS-9 gives me this kind of tone. It's a really clean overdrive and has that clean retro tone.
Now, if you're into a sound like incubus or some other modern band that all sound alike, you might try a rat pedal or one of those cheap multi effects stations, like that cheapo GNX3 digitech multi everything station I bought for $500 a few months back.
I traded in all my pedals, but not the tube screamer. I always knew to keep that baby, but got some pedals back from consignment after seeing the cheapo digitech for what it was.