Bare Knuckle Pickups Forum
Forum Ringside => Guitars, Amps and Effects => Topic started by: badgermark on November 02, 2007, 08:23:29 PM
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I need a new distortion pedal, right now I use my Big Muff exclusively, but need something a little tighter. On a budget though, so nothing extravagant I'm afraid.
Basically want something tight, not too metal but will work will with an amp's clean channel. Mainly used for a 'standard' distortion sound. Not necessarily high gain, looking for a nice CHUNK sound when palm muting. Definatly looking for a distortion sound though. If that makes sense.
Open to suggestions, and I'm willing to mod/build my own. Gives me an excuse really. Thinking of a Rat, MXR distortion+ or maybe a modded ds-1.
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The Rat will serve you well. They are nigh on indestructable, too.
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I use an MXR Distortion+ to push the amp, through the effects loop, not to distort it. It brings out the best qualities in the amps natural tone, and if you have a Marshall I couldn't recommend one any more, they are just perfect. I'd liek to get a Rat myself, and if you're looking to add some filth, thats the best bet :)
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The clips of the Rat I've heard gives that big rough Airbag sound, something my muff gives me in spades. Anything out there that will give me a really controlled yet rocking tone?
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The clips of the Rat I've heard gives that big rough Airbag sound, something my muff gives me in spades. Anything out there that will give me a really controlled yet rocking tone?
consider the MI Audio Crunch Box !!
Check out the excellent clips by PJH - http://www.soundclick.com/bands/pagemusic.cfm?bandID=761668
(scroll down to "crunch box sample" for perhaps the best one.
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Chunky palmmutes on a budget?
If i were looking for 1 pedal just for the occasional 'metal mood' i would go for the Digitech Metal master since it has more then enough distortion and its so very easy to get a reasonable sound out of it.
The rat is also a great distortion and better usable for a variety of sounds IMO.
Other really cheap metal destortion units:
Boss HM-1 Heavy Metal
Arion SSM-1 Metal Master
DOD Death metal
The boss and arion were used alot for 80's metal. The DOD is the most bottom heavy distortion i have ever heard.
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Protones body rot.
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Henk I have a Boss HM-2 and it's rubbish. Good palm muting on the bass strings, horrible on the high notes.
I'll have a look around and try shizzle out before I spend my cash. The Crunch Box looks interesting, don't know where to try them out though.
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The clips of the Rat I've heard gives that big rough Airbag sound, something my muff gives me in spades. Anything out there that will give me a really controlled yet rocking tone?
consider the MI Audio Crunch Box !!
Check out the excellent clips by PJH - http://www.soundclick.com/bands/pagemusic.cfm?bandID=761668
(scroll down to "crunch box sample" for perhaps the best one.
I will second the Crunch Box, I think it sounds great. I sold mine as it sounded too similar to the distortion on my Laney so it was a bit useless for me really. I would definitely buy one again if I had a clean fendery type amp.
Keeley Rat is another good one, I've had one for years (bought it off HJM on here), it sounded great through my Fender. With the distortion up too high it can get too fuzzy, but heres a clip of it just slightly fuzzy on chords-
http://www.mp3lizard.com/download.cfm?id=24170 (middle position on my LP for the lead bit and then bridge pickup for the chords).
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The Blackstar range looks pretty interesting :)
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Soundcontrol have the vox bulldog at £49(was 129 I think) at mo...the clips seem good
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The Blackstar range looks pretty interesting :)
If anyone hasn't heard my Blackstar HT Dual clips (basically it's a two channel HT Dist), check out this thread - http://bareknucklepickups.co.uk/forum/viewtopic.php?t=9821&highlight=blackstar .
It's a great, versatile pedal (and relatively cheap in the UK !).
Alan
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the HT is cool....if I wasn't skint think I'd buy one
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You guys are awesome, was talking about the vox bulldog last night, clips on youtube weren't inspiring though. Shall have a wander into sound control today and have a nosey.
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Damn I want one of these Bulldogs now. They actually sound pretty decent though I'm not sure exactly how much the valve really does.
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Damn I want one of these Bulldogs now. They actually sound pretty decent though I'm not sure exactly how much the valve really does.
Its a gimmick.
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I tried out the Vox Bulldog, and a couple of other ODs/Dists in the same range, and i thought they were pretty good. One of the shops on Denmark st has a chain of them set up on one of the walls that you can try out.
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Damn I want one of these Bulldogs now. They actually sound pretty decent though I'm not sure exactly how much the valve really does.
Its a gimmick.
Yeah without a transformer in the pedal it's highly likely. But the pedal still sounded good, and for 50 quid I can't think of anything better for metal.
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Henk I have a Boss HM-2 and it's rubbish.
The HM-2 is really bad i agree, but i was talking about the 80's HM-1 which is quite different. Still i suppose that there are way better stompboxes on the market which only would cost a little more.
Actually the HM-1 is nothing more then an upgraded version of the DS-1. Many who would try it today would scratch their head and say 'whats heavy metal about this?" :?
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Damn I want one of these Bulldogs now. They actually sound pretty decent though I'm not sure exactly how much the valve really does.
Its a gimmick.
Yeah without a transformer in the pedal it's highly likely. But the pedal still sounded good, and for 50 quid I can't think of anything better for metal.
It's not a gimmick, I was asking myself the same question some times ago and asked a tech about it. He said they used a very clever way of running the tube @ low voltage and still having it sounds good. They use the same tech in their Tonelab and it works REALLY well. I have a SE and I concure :)
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Damn I want one of these Bulldogs now. They actually sound pretty decent though I'm not sure exactly how much the valve really does.
Its a gimmick.
Yeah without a transformer in the pedal it's highly likely. But the pedal still sounded good, and for 50 quid I can't think of anything better for metal.
It's not a gimmick, I was asking myself the same question some times ago and asked a tech about it. He said they used a very clever way of running the tube @ low voltage and still having it sounds good. They use the same tech in their Tonelab and it works REALLY well. I have a SE and I concure :)
Well if you dudes like it than thats cool. I still think its a marketing ploy.
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For 50 quid they can use all the marketing they want :lol: I thought the pedal sounded great. Though again it was a loooong time ago...
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Any closer to making a decision?
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At 50 £,i tried to get it but they don't ship internationnaly ! :cry: What a shame...
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E-H Metal Muff is another option for chugg-chugg metal on a budget...
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well thought I'd give one a try for £50 so will do some clips when I get one
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Think the crunch box has my vote, shall get hunting for a try of one in the very near future.
Thanks peeps.
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So I tried the keeley Ds-1 and a MI audio Crunch Box, and the Keely won. Bought myself a 2nd hand DS-1 and a load of capacitors and went to town on that bad boy.
One lovely green LED and a seeing eye mod later and I'm a happy camper. Rock.
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What difference in sound did the Keeley and the Crunch Box have? The only complaint I had about the Crunch Box was that it wasnt quite as tight as I wouldve liked.
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Yeah the Crunch Box was kinda loose, and a bit on the treble-y side. Plus it was tiny, I could see me destroying it with my size 11s...