Gain/boost/distortion pedals/effects

[Bob Johnson]

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.

[Ratrod]

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.

[indysmith]

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.

[Twinfan]

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

[Bob Johnson]

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?

[Doctor X]

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

[sambo]

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.

:)

[ilÿti]

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.

[Simon D]

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.

[tomjackson]

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.

[38thBeatle]

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.

[badgermark]

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.

[Elliot]

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.

[sgmypod]

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)

[Fikealox]

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 :(