# Oh Holy Hell Is This Fun - Dirt Pedal Shootout



## keto (May 23, 2006)

Been on a bit of an orgy of dirt lately. Decided it was time to pull the board apart, separate the dirt, fire up the Hiwatt and wail away. The kids are away doing there thing, and the wife is tolerant, so it's PRETTY LOUD DOWN HERE IN THE BASEMENT :rockon2:










I don't know that there are any losers in this group, but I'll give a little rundown.

The Dunlop JH Fuzz Face, well, that's probably the one I won't keep and may list here soon.....it crosses territory with the (not shown) Captain Coconut2's fuzz face, is not quite as flexible tonally, and takes batteries only - besides which, I don't have space for it even if I wanted it on my board. 

Red Snapper - excellent very low gain boost, very clear if set up right. Can be set up more gain and/or more compressed if desired.

Swollen Pickle - Big Muff clone, definite keeper. I have about 3 very different very usable settings for mine.

Marshall Jackhammer - this one is finally on the cut-line, after many years of yeoman service. The distortion side sucks but the OD side does a very good mid-drive. EQ'ing can be a bit of a PITA, it does have a certain amount of scoop that's hard to dial out....but it also sounds good, as with lots of gear, the louder it is the better it sounds! Also stacks with other drives and fuzzes EXCEEDINGLY well. Nah, it stays.

HBE Dos Mos (white box with red knobs, below the JH FF) - been in love with it since I got it a couple months back (posted here at the time). 2 channels of +35db boost each, clean up to 1/3-1/2way up the dials, very nice grindy overdrive beyond that. Stacking ch1 at about 1/3 and ch2 at about 2/3 is AWESOME. Word of warning tho, this pedal is LOUD, getting the good dirt into a whisper volume amp turns out to be quite loud. I strongly suspect the circuit is related to a treble booster circuit....no tone controls tho there is an internal trimpot to reduce treble. I don't find I need to adjust it, but I like a bright cutting tone.

Danelectro Cool Cat Drive V2 - picked this up yesterday at L&M for $40, just on spec alone, thinking I don't really care if I flip it and lose $20. Tried it last night at very low volume (P90's into a Vox) and high-ish volume (son's Les Paul into a fairly gainy Marshall), didn't like it much. Today, with a Tele into the Hiwatt, well NOW WE'RE TALKING. Yet another pedal where the right combination of tools and volume makes me sit up and pay attention. There's an internal dipswitch for 'lo-fi & hi-fi', the lo setting is more subtle roaring Marshall-ish tone, flip the switch to hi and it's more into JCM800ish territory, sharper with more high-mids. I like the lower setting, it fits a slot for me.

ProCo Rat - got this today from TraynorGarnet and kksjur I've been playing since 1993 and never tried one HOW THE HELL DID THAT HAPPEN. This thing SMOKES thru the Hiwatt, hard rock - punk heaven, great feedback, great string definition, crisp and ROCCCCKKKKKKKK. I.will.never.part.with.this.pedal. I did not know that the 'filter' is like a treble cut knob, as you roll higher you lose top end and gain compression. So, it has it's own special diversity, tho I like it more open sounding and distortion maxed.

So there you have my ham-handed basher's opinion. Think I'll go make some more noise.


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## Greenbacker (Mar 29, 2007)

Awesome! I've often thought of trying a red snapper.


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## Were We Brave? (Oct 29, 2009)

That's some nice dirt to choose from, but the main rig itself is quite a sight. And I LOVE those sunburst double-bound Teles...


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## mhammer (Nov 30, 2007)

keto said:


> ProCo Rat - got this today from TraynorGarnet and kksjur I've been playing since 1993 and never tried one HOW THE HELL DID THAT HAPPEN. This thing SMOKES thru the Hiwatt, hard rock - punk heaven, great feedback, great string definition, crisp and ROCCCCKKKKKKKK. I.will.never.part.with.this.pedal. I did not know that the 'filter' is like a treble cut knob, as you roll higher you lose top end and gain compression. So, it has it's own special diversity, tho I like it more open sounding and distortion maxed.


I've made myself a couple of Rats to spec, and with mods, and I like it. Maybe not as much as some other pedals, but that's more a function of how well it fills a role that I don't normally turn to.

The Filter control is really more a function of Proco trying to make a pot with the wrong taper more usable. The taper should probably be reverse-log, but if you take a regular log-taper and wire it up in reverse, you get the same thing as reverse-log, only going backwards. It actually has NO effect on dynamics whatsoever, so I'm not sure what you're hearing. Still, I too am a fan of the muffled growl it is capable of.

The secret to the Rat is that it asks for far more gain from its chip than the chip is or battery able to supply. We're talking in the thousands at max gain/drive. Nice and chunky, though.


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## Thames (Oct 19, 2009)

where are the clips


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## copperhead (May 24, 2006)

i find that if you got a pedal that you cant really find that great sound break out the tele ,tube screamers sounds great with a strat or a humbucker guitar like a lespaul i got a boss bd2 it sounded too fizzy with a strat even after modding it with the h2o mod which made it alot more transparent just didn't sound that good .before and after the mod it sounded great with the tele for a little growl .. i been keeping a eye out for those 2 dano pedals the drive & the transparent overdrive i want them as well :rockon2:


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## keto (May 23, 2006)

copperhead said:


> i find that if you got a pedal that you cant really find that great sound break out the tele ,tube screamers sounds great with a strat or a humbucker guitar like a lespaul i got a boss bd2 it sounded too fizzy with a strat even after modding it with the h2o mod which made it alot more transparent just didn't sound that good .before and after the mod it sounded great with the tele for a little growl .. i been keeping a eye out for those 2 dano pedals the drive & the transparent overdrive i want them as well :rockon2:


I've been thru 4 TS's, including most recently a Bad Monkey and an Analogman modded TS9DX. Hate hate hate hate hate them, but then I'm not much of a lead/line player and do acknowledge they sound better there. So, the BM stays around, gets used occasionally if trying to find a sound for a recording, or as a clean boost into another pedal....tho it's off my board now, use other stuff for that including MXR 10 band EQ, Red Snapper, even compressor.

Tele is indeed what I use about 70% of the time, Mira 25%, and Strat the rest.

Clips, well, it's been busy around here and I've been either busy, uninspired, or waiting on my kid to play some drums for me LOL. Sooner or later.


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## erikm5150 (Mar 3, 2006)

Thanks for sharing your reviews.

Did you ever try a Dano drive V1? how does it compare to the V2? I have the V1, curious about the V2.

And I too, after 20 years of playing, have never had a RAT.
WTF??!?! -- i think is it definitely time to try one!


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## keto (May 23, 2006)

Dunno if you saw this vid, gearmandude does a heads up of V1 vs V2 (also does the Transparent OD V1 vs V2 in another vid). http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uNvxq9FZANo I haven't myself played a V1. I got a Transparent OD V1 yesterday, but don't get to play it as wife snagged it to give me as a stocking suffer in 2.5 weeks hwopv


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