Bare Knuckle Pickups Forum
Forum Ringside => Guitars, Amps and Effects => Topic started by: Bob Johnson on August 11, 2008, 05:33:06 PM
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Hi Guys,
I'm taking this opportunity to ask you what are your favourite Gain / distortion effects / stomp boxes and which ones you think are cr@p. This is all aimed at producing something that's better / more usable than anything that's out there now with new / better features. I value your accumulated experience so hit me.
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Most stock boxes suck and even more the digital ones. Some are just amazing for the price, like the Bad Monkey.
I haven't met a pedal that can match the hughes & kettner Tube Factor yet. The only problem with the TF is that you can't match the output levels of the two modes, but there's a mod kit for that.
So what's so good about it, you might ask. Well, first of all it has a great tube tone and second, it's versitile. You can use it as a clean boost, mid boost all the way to a Marshall Super Lead on max and everything in between.
Oh, I almost forgot. This thing is easy to use. Only three knobs and two switsches. And it's built like a tank and you don't have to worry about beer being spilled into the tube compartment.
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I LOVE my Analogman SD1/808. The circuits are so similar, and they're probably the two most popular overdrive circuits out there; there's no reason that you shouldn't be able to switch between the two modes in one pedal. Fantastic.
The thing that pisses me off most about lots of pedals is how difficult it is to get the bloody battery out the battery snap.
Oh, and another thing I really like is a feature in my Fulltone Fat Boost; you crank the "tone" pot all the way and it's removed from the circuit entirely. Awesome.
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My current favourites are on my board and they are:
ZVex Box of Rock - great low gain crunch, a bit bassy and a bit biting but very nice
Xotic BB Preamp - awesome mid-gain tones, very smooth and flexible
Original Marshall Guv'nor/MI Audio Crunch Box - they sound very similar and I chop and change them. Great JCM800 gain tones
Maxon OD-9 - my favourite Tubescreamer type and used to boost all of the above
What I didn't like:
Blackstar HT Dual - coloured my tone too much
Marshall BluesBreaker II - too mushy and ill defined
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One question I forgot to ask(there'll be more); does the character / tone of your guitar come through? If it does is this desirable if it doesn't is this an issue?
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My favourites are:
D*A*M Drag'n'fly - 60's style fuzz that get's on very well with wah's (unlike most fuzzes).
HBE Power Screamer - Tubescreamer-a-like. I like that this pedal starts at very low levels of gain to give more versatility.
Diceworks Muff Diver - which is for the wall of sound, big muff kind of thing. A great sounding vintage Big Muff clone with a switch that I actually use. The builder claims to have discovered the mods that Cornish made to David Gilmour's Big Muff in the 70's and you can switch the pedal between stock 'triangle era' muff or 'cornish mod muff'. Sounds like marketing nonesense to me, but both modes sound great, the standard side grittier for Jack White style distortion and the cornish side is smoother.
Didn't like so much:
Keeley Java Boost - for it's tendency to pick up French radio. :x
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Likes:
Barber Direct Drive, Fulltone OCD, ReezaFratzitz.
Dislikes:
Line 6 Crunch Tone/Uber Metal, Boss DS-1, Marshall pedals, and Morley volume/distortion box pedal.
One question I forgot to ask(there'll be more); does the character / tone of your guitar come through? If it does is this desirable if it doesn't is this an issue?
I think that's a reasonably big issue to people who are at least semi-interested in tone (like most members here).
And I think versatility is an important point for me personally. I'm much more tempted to shell out £100+ for a pedal if it can cover a lot of sounds. Although the flip side of that is that some pedals try and be too versatile and end up as a bit of a mess. So if it does have a lot of features and tweakability, ALL the sounds have to be usable.
:)
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I play everything through my T-rex Alberta. It's a tubescreamer style pedal but it doesn't colour the tone except adding some harmonics and a slight midboost. But the midboost is a lot smoother than all the other models I've tried. Turn the gain all the way down and you've got a completely clean signal but with more harmonics than when it's off.
If I had to mention three pieces of gear that are most important for my tone, it's the stone pick, my BKPs and this pedal.
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I like my BB Preamp a lot, it's great for low to mid-gain sounds. It's rich, warm sounding, doesn't colour the tone when it's off, works really well as a solo boost and can give a different overdrive sound from the one produced by my amp (a Mesa 5:50 Express). It also works equally well with humbuckers and single coils.
I also liked the Blackstar HT Dual, particularly the pot that allowed you to go between US and Brit sounds. On the downside, it was bloody bulky! I should also point out that I didn't own it for long, because for some reason it made an awful noise whenever I switched on my wah pedal when running through it. I did like the sound though.
I didn't like the ZVEX Box of Metal though. Just waaay to much gain to be useable, far too fizzy and the noise gate cramped my playing style too much.
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Barber LTD - Nice if you have a good basic amp tone and want some hair on the sound. Really transparent and solid
Boss SD1 - cr@p in its basic form but with a few internet mods you can have an 808 for £50
BB Plus - I don't own it (yet) but was blown away in the shop. Smooth and transparent, very versatile
HT Dual - Very useful pedal but bulky for pedalboards and stamps its tone all over yours
Russian Big Muff ( the green one) - Great fuzzy distortion, not transparent in the slightest and bypass is awful
That's all I know about although MI Audio have a good range that is well priced.
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I have grwon rather fond of my Visual Sound Jekyll & Hyde- the Jekyll more than the Hyde. Gereat controllable drive and does not take away from the tone of the guitar. I like it just on rather than too much drive. Worthy of consideration.
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i've been using my byoc mighty mouse set to overdrive clipping recently, sounds amazing. What i want is a chunky sound, that retains the character of my guitar through a amp set pretty clean. It should still sound like the same guitar when swapping from clean to dirty. Not a fan of most overdrives, none that i've played have satisfied my need for a big bottom end. Take from that what you will you dirty minded cretins.
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I have tons of od pedals, from an original TS808 to a HBE Power Screamer to a Award Session JD10 to an EH English Muffn - at the moment I favouring a Monte Allums modded Ibanez TS7, it just works and it was cheap. The Session JD10 is worth a look to.
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Mighty mouse BYOC
HT dual...has its own sound and stamps it but I like it
Vsoud J&Hyde am lovin this(new to me though)
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I actually hate most of the boost pedals out there, but then I'm one of those guys that loves smooth, clean sort of tones. I find most pedals roar too much for me, and I don't lust for crunch like most people do. I guess that means I'm more of an OD guy than a distortion guy... but I don't get on with the character of tubescreamers, so the going is tough.
The pedals I have really liked have been the Subdecay Liquid Sunshine (an extremely smooth, sweet, and harmonically rich overdrive), and the Skreddy Screwdriver (smooth and articulate, but with a fuzzier edge at the upper gain levels, and with a more useable and much louder clean boost). I ended up selling the Liquid Sunshine to keep the Screwdriver, not because the Screwdriver sounded better, but (ironically) because the Liquid Sunshine sounded too much like my tube amp's drive, so it was a bit redundant.
The Skreddy Top Fuel is a great distortion pedal, and at those rare times that I feel like distortion, I'll whip it out... but it's really there more for when my metalhead friend comes around, haha. More recently, I was interested in the NOC3 Firefly and Pure Drive, which seemed like smooth and versatile drives, but I was really underwhelmed by the ProGuitarShop demos, so now I don't know :(
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I actually like all of my drive pedals except for one (Rocktron Rampage).
Here is my descending order of preference for the pedals I own:
Xotic RC Boost (not a drive pedal but this one was on most of the time)
ZVEX Box of Rock
Fulltone OCD
MI Crunch Box
Diamond Drive
Fulltone Soul bender (depending on the amp it pushes, it can be higher up the list)
Marshall Guv'nor original
Now my current problem is that I bought an Axe FX and they are all useless, but it's really hard to say goodbye to them beloved pedals ...
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Bob, I think it depends hugely on what amp you are playing into, and also whether you are using the amp clean or dirty.
For example, I really like the OCD V3 into a Marshall-type circuit, but not into a Vox Top Boost circuit. I love my MI Audio Blue Boy Deluxe boosting an already dirt amp, or boosting another pedal, but it's generally horrible at providing the dirt into a clean amp.
But in general, some very special pedals that I have really enjoyed are :-
MI Audio Blue Boy Deluxe into a dirty amp
Zvex Box of Rock into a clean Amp
Jetter Gain Stage Red - into a clean or dirty amp
SPF Ego Booster - clean boosting a dirty amp.
All of these are very amp like in their own way, and clean up reasonably with the guitar's volume knob. They also let the sound of your guitar and amp come through, but just enhance it in their own way.
There is such a huge choice of pedals out there at the moment. Sometimes it seems a bit daunting to choose the right one. Good Luck !
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HT Dual again - I fall in and out of love with this pedal. I think that I'm coming to realise what it is - the red channel DOES colour your tone a little, but what Im finding is that the green channel is actually not a bad mild crunch/TS type pedal - particularly if the amp is cranked.
Waiting for an OLCircuits Orange Peel kit to arrive (http://olcircuits.com/olc_orangepeel.html (http://olcircuits.com/olc_orangepeel.html)). Quite excited about that, will give it a write up when I's built and tested.
Mark.
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Interested to hear the orange peel...not that I need another pedal...but
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I've been putting together a OLC Slow Century kit, all together but doesn't work. It's a pretty difficult build, especially since my PCB looked nothing like the one in the instructions. Oh and colour coded resistors are an utter badword when you can't tell the difference between red/orange and black/blue.
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That OLC site looks awesome. So many things to lust for :D I wish they made a DR103 pedal, though... well, I kinda don't wish that, because I'd have to buy it. Why are pedals so addictive?
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Thanks for all the input. My reason for asking is that I'm increasingly being asked to fit this type gear onboard guitars that I make and I haven't been very impressed by many, no, any of them. There's too much stuff out there for me to stay in touch with so an information gathering exercise like this is very useful in helping to develop our own circuitry that is designed to be installed onboard but can also be fitted in a stomp box.
Thank you all very much. :)
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Just had a look at your website Bob - nice guitars! And you're just down the road from me (I live just outside Rayleigh).
Mark.
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I know exactly what I want, but I can't find the pedal to do it.
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I know exactly what I want, but I can't find the pedal to do it.
enlighten us...
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Ah, right. I see the rest of that post went missing...
I want a pedal that gives a smooth, "flutey" tone, a stoner tone, for want of a better term, but, at the tap of a toe, regains grit and jagginess, without increasing in gain.
That being said, I've always been more of a "Run the amp until the valves start to bleed a little" kind of guy.
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I know exactly what I want, but I can't find the pedal to do it.
Tell me what you want and our guitar playing electronics wizard, Tom, will take a look at it! Maybe we can custom build something for you.
Cheers,
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I'm still waiting for my Bodenhamer Bloody Murder (how many months and counting? :( ), but as and when I get it, I'll post a review up here.
Roo
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seems like this threads almost finished... anyway, the three pedals i've been using the most recently are:
MI Audio Crunchbox - great fun, I also like it for late night time practise, sort of generic marshall distortion sound. fender single coils dont sound nasty through it either, which can happen on my marshall unless your very careful.
Xotic RC Booster - got it yesterday evening from twinfan, I think it will be become a favourite. best thing i found for boosting my marshall so far. other pedals work well in certain situations, but the four controls on this give it real versatility. i doubt i'll use my old favourite monte allums EQ much more. i wonder about the other pedals in their range.
Hilborne Fat TB - like this alot with low output pickups, gives a really nice ompf. Sucks for high output pickups, however this is where the RC comes in.
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I know exactly what I want, but I can't find the pedal to do it.
Tell me what you want and our guitar playing electronics wizard, Tom, will take a look at it! Maybe we can custom build something for you.
Cheers,
Are you serious? Custom build a pedal? Could you custom build a fuzz pedal that can go from warm 60's fuzz to God-like pound your face into the ground heavy fuzz with a custom knob that does nothing more than oscillation for crazy Matt Bellamy fuzz factory sound? ala ~2:27 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pt17DjHrz1w
I would be seriously interested in purchasing such a thing, no joke
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Recently got a Rothwell Heartbreaker. Quite a smooth creamy overdrive. Im really impressed though it seems better with humbucklers than single coils.
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Maxon OD808 gets a vote from me.
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The main thing that gets to me about any overdrive pedal I've ever played is the lack of top end detail and response, compared to a good amp's natural (or channel switched) overdrive. Only really talking about the real light, gritty, chime-y 'just pushed' blackface kind of sounds here - below Tubescreamer levels.
Recently I spent a good half an hour switching between a certain 'poor-man's-Klon' pedal (I'll get lynched if I mention the make!!) and the middle channel of my Twin with a Tele. Forgetting about the EQ differences between the two, the amp's overdrive was just a bit more responsive, with more detail, sparkle, and 'air' in the sound, which was obviously more noticeable the higher up the frequency you listened. The Fulltone OCD, D*A*M and Colorsound pedals I tried at the same time all had the same issue, no matter what was done with their tone controls. I guess at the end of the day this is, IMO, what makes a pedal sound like a pedal (in a bad way!).
So if someone could invent a light overdrive pedal that doesn't sound like what it is (a pedal!) then I'll be happy!
While I'm on the subject.... why have so few companies made pedals with control knobs that when turned all the way off or on, click into a different mode/feature? Like the Fat Boost mentioned, or the "Klon" type pedal used above that switches to a clean boost when the gain is wound all the way down? Or like one of the new Orange heads or the Matamp GT1 which both have master volumes that click to off/bypass when turned all the way anti-clockwise.
^ Someone should do that for the tone controls on amps - each control could be clicked to 'bypass' when wound totally off, giving the potential for 3 different levels of gain boost without any other visible knobs or switches...
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Boss SD1
T-Rex Alberta
Marshall Guvnor
these are good pedals and good prices that give good tone for good money in good spades of goodness with extra good toppings of goodies in goodness.
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So if someone could invent a light overdrive pedal that doesn't sound like what it is (a pedal!) then I'll be happy!
You should try the ZVex Box of Rock. Best light overdrive I've ever used. For slightly heavier sounds, the Xotic BB Preamp rules.
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The MXR GT-OD is becoming very popular. It is great as an overdrive or booster and has a more even EQ curve than the typical Tubescreamer clone, plus it is very quiet.
I also think it is cheaper than a Maxon or Fulltone.
Personally I however still use my Boss SD-1 and Digitech Bad Monkey. Together they cost me less than a new MXR/Maxon/Tubescreamer reissue and I think they both are excellent value for money.
BTW I rather bought an MXR EVH phaser instead of the GT-OD.
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Likes:
Bodenhamer Bloody Murder. It adds a certain warmth to your sound which I love. It's basically a tubescreamer but with extended bass frequencies, nicer mids, smooth high end but with a good amount of bite and the tone knob has alot 'more' than most other overdrives. Mines broken, so I'm going to have to send it back to Joe to get it fixed, I miss using it. Deffinately my favourite.
Boss SD-1. I've had one for years and use it now as a back up to the Bloody Murder. Cheap but great to my ears.
Keeley TS-9DX Flexi 4x12. I loved that pedal. It was so incredibly versatile and bomb proof. I may get another once I get some money in. Shame I had to sell it.
Dislike:
Boss MetalZone, utter piece of shite. No matter what settings I used it was fuzzy and lacked anything.
Boss Blues Driver, sounded very 'bland' to my ears. Nothing special.
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I've not actually played that many pedals. Would love to try a Zendrive or a Jetter.
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I have a Keeley modded SD-1 and love it. Have been using it for years, never needed anything else.
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Hello ppl...
I was looking for pedals and i found this stuff
http://www.jampedals.com
Check this out!I bought the Waterfall pedal and its just amazing!!I also spend some money for this miniamp!So cool
and it has fun... :)
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My faves at the moment are my Skreddy Screwdriver and my Greer Ghetto Stomp.