# Good distortion PEDAL?



## bogoboy (May 21, 2006)

I have a line 6 distortion mod. and the "Heavey metal" distortion doesnt cut through and the "classic" distortion is a pile of crap.
I am using a sg special faded and a fender twin amp. I need a good metal distorion pedal that will cut through and a good "classic" distortion, my price range is about $200 for each pedal, any suggestions?

Son of Bogoboy


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## SCREEM (Feb 2, 2006)

try a proco RAT, personaly I prefer boost/overdrive pedals.


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## iggs (Apr 6, 2006)

E-mail Scott at:
www.axeandyoushallreceive.com

Tell him your setup and what you're looking for and he'll suggest a few, Scott knows his pedals!!!

I love my SubDecay Blackstar ... great Metal distortion but has to be played loud ... sounds a bit raspy on bedroom levels but once you crank the amp up, it just screams. It cuts very well in a live setup with a loud drummer and a 2nd guitar player.

Diamond Fireburst is a switchable Fuzz/Distortion pedal but is (IMHO) the best "Soldano SLO in a box" pedal I've heard.

For "classic" dist/od sounds I'd suggest:
SubDecay Stupid Box
Xotic BB PreAmp
MI Audio Crunch Box (a bit noisy but tons of gain and EVH type tone)
Fulltone OCD (some love it and some hate it ... depends on your setup)
Cusack Screamer (I have the Screamer Fuzz and it's awesome!)

BTW ... Keep in mind that ultra-saturated type of "metal" sound will never cut well in live situation because
more gain = more compression and
less mids = less "cut".


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## david henman (Feb 3, 2006)

iggs said:


> E-mail Scott at:
> www.axeandyoushallreceive.com
> Tell him your setup and what you're looking for and he'll suggest a few, Scott knows his pedals!!![/IMG]


...i agree. he has a stunning collection of stuff that cannot be found at most retailers. plus, his prices are amazingly fair. 

-dh


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## Chito (Feb 17, 2006)

Try the Radial Tonebones, either the Classic or the Hot British or even the Trimode if you want to have both. Another one that you might want to look into is the Fulltone OCD.


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## okcomputer (Jun 19, 2006)

I'd definitely give the following a try:

ProCo Rat
Marshall Shredmaster
Diamond Firebird
Danelectro Fab Tone
EHX Metal Muff
Lovetone Brown Sauce


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## CocoTone (Jan 22, 2006)

http://www.mjmguitarfx.com/

Buy Canadian. It also helps that his stuff is some of the best I've ever tried in 35 years of playing. His London Fuzz is the best germanium fuzzface clone I`ve ever had. I also use his Blues Devil, which is a very high quality TS808 clone with true bypass. All components are matched, and hand assembled. I'm ordering one of his Vibe units. Can't wait to play some Band of Gypsys riffs!!!!

CT.


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## Accept2 (Jan 1, 2006)

If youre not afraid of racks, look into a good rackmount preamp. There are some preamp pedals on the market, but so far none of them have the controls that a good preamp will have. Some cheap but great preamps for metal include the ADA MP1; ADA MP2; Kitty Hawk Quattro; Peavey Rockmaster; Rocktron Pro GAP; Rocktron Piranha; Rocktron Voodu Valve. A few are over your budget of $200, but include more than just a preamp............


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## david henman (Feb 3, 2006)

Chito said:


> Try the Radial Tonebones, either the Classic or the Hot British or even the Trimode if you want to have both. Another one that you might want to look into is the Fulltone OCD.


...i have both the hot british and the trimode on my board. kinda pricey, but i haven't found anything i like better.

-dh


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## traynor_garnet (Feb 22, 2006)

I would honestly start by looking at your amp. A twin is a far cry from a heavy metal amp and really isn't that great for classic rock. That amp is made to be loud and clean!

If you must play fender, why not go down in size to a deluxe. That may give you the overdrive you are looking for and you could add a decent distortion pedal on top of that for heavy stuff. Or better yet, look into the old Laney stuff if you want a heavy amp.

Not trying to put down your gear. Twins are great, but they may not be great at doing what you want it to do.

Just a thought
TG




bogoboy said:


> I have a line 6 distortion mod. and the "Heavey metal" distortion doesnt cut through and the "classic" distortion is a pile of crap.
> I am using a sg special faded and a fender twin amp. I need a good metal distorion pedal that will cut through and a good "classic" distortion, my price range is about $200 for each pedal, any suggestions?
> 
> Son of Bogoboy


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## Accept2 (Jan 1, 2006)

Twins are good for metal. I use Roland JC120s for metal, and they are the cleanest amps around. You should also consider the OCD pedal...............


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## bogoboy (May 21, 2006)

traynor_garnet said:


> I would honestly start by looking at your amp. A twin is a far cry from a heavy metal amp and really isn't that great for classic rock. That amp is made to be loud and clean!
> 
> If you must play fender, why not go down in size to a deluxe. That may give you the overdrive you are looking for and you could add a decent distortion pedal on top of that for heavy stuff. Or better yet, look into the old Laney stuff if you want a heavy amp.
> 
> ...


I have to agree with you, the twin is not a metal amp, however I think it makes more sense to start with a clean sound and distort it (with a pedal). I don't think you can make a distorted sound - clean. You're also right, the Twin is great amp (for the money) and with the 25-100 watt switch etc it's versatile for a clean tube amp.


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## Baconator (Feb 25, 2006)

*amp change +1*

I'd agree with the guys suggesting a different amp. I had a music man 212 for years and with a rat in front of it I could get decent distortion out of it, but it's not even the same ballpark as a marshall, boogie, etc. Since twins tend to sell used for 850-1000 depending on year, condition etc. you should be able to sell it and get an older boogie like a mark III for possibly less than a high end distortion pedal. There's a Mark III for sale at 12th fret (12fret.com/used) for $950 and that is a pretty damn nice amp for the coin - you'd never be short on volume or distortion with that amp.


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## malcolm (Aug 14, 2006)

*fender twin*

if i was you i would hunt down a reverend drivetrain overdrive pedal ..i have a twin II and the rock sound with master volume on full and adjusting the drivetrain volume according to room size is incredible...have tried every pedal on the market twice and the drivetrain beats them all...of course that is my opinion...lol...Bon Scott Rules !!!!


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## SCREEM (Feb 2, 2006)

get a 5150 amp, ya don need a stinkin' pedal


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## Jeff Flowerday (Jan 23, 2006)

Accept2 said:


> Twins are good for metal. I use Roland JC120s for metal, and they are the cleanest amps around. You should also consider the OCD pedal...............


I love my OCD, I'd definately consider it a heavier OD, not quite full out metal. It's what I use for my heavier sound, and then for heavy lead I boost the OCD with the Klon, the Klon will cut through anything.


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## nine (Apr 23, 2006)

m9-guitar is on a spamming spree! :banana:


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## Robert1950 (Jan 21, 2006)

nine said:


> m9-guitar is on a spamming spree! :banana:


Man: Well, what've you got?

Waitress:	Well, there's egg and bacon; egg sausage and bacon; egg and spam; egg bacon and spam; egg bacon sausage and spam; spam bacon sausage and spam; spam egg spam spam bacon and spam; spam sausage spam spam bacon spam tomato and spam;

Vikings: Spam spam spam spam...

Waitress:	...spam spam spam egg and spam; spam spam spam spam spam spam baked beans spam spam spam...

Vikings: Spam! Lovely spam! Lovely spam!

Waitress: ...or Lobster Thermidor a Crevette with a mornay sauce served in a Provencale manner with shallots and aubergines garnished with truffle pate, brandy and with a fried egg on top and spam.

Wife: Have you got anything without spam?

Waitress: Well, there's spam egg sausage and spam, that's not got much spam in it.

Wife: I don't want ANY spam!

Man: Why can't she have egg bacon spam and sausage?

Wife: THAT'S got spam in it!

Man: Hasn't got as much spam in it as spam egg sausage and spam, has it?

Vikings: Spam spam spam spam... (Crescendo through next few lines...)

Wife: Could you do the egg bacon spam and sausage without the spam then?

Waitress: Urgghh!

Wife: What do you mean 'Urgghh'? I don't like spam!

Vikings: Lovely spam! Wonderful spam!

Waitress: Shut up!

Vikings: Lovely spam! Wonderful spam!

Waitress: Shut up! (Vikings stop) Bloody Vikings! You can't have egg bacon spam and sausage without the spam.

Wife: *I don't like spam!*


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## nine (Apr 23, 2006)

I'd just like to point out that I've trademarked "spampage" so if any of you want to use it you have to mail me 25 cents. :tongue:


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## hammerface (Nov 21, 2006)

I picked up a Digitech Black-13 a couple months ago and I really like it. I'm using it with a solid state Crush 30R amp and it gives me a great, thick and chunky 90's thrash sound. It has 7 preset models based on Scott Ian of Anthrax's sounds throughout the years. 

If you liked that era of music (Testament,Anthrax, Metallica, Megadeth, Slayer, Exodus, Overkill, etc.) you'll like this pedal


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## cale0906 (Apr 15, 2006)

*pedals*

I like the Reverend DriveTrain for OD and V-Stack Classic for OD to Distortion !!


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## Warren (Mar 2, 2007)

Pedals these days can make a Twin sound however you want. In fact I play through the House Twin at a jam and the Blackstone sounds great through the clean channel.

My Blackstone Appliance, works great on any clean channel to give a Marshall and/or a Black face sound. (not a gain OD, it's all crunch)
http://www.blackstoneappliances.com/

There's this one for a more Mesa Boogie sound:
http://www.g2d.co.nz/sounds.php?Action=Play&MediaID=5

And this for all out Buckethead monster distortion:
http://www.jeverman.com/ud.html

And as recommended earlier in the post Scott at AxeAndYouShallReceive can give you a few other recommendations.


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## dolphinstreet (Sep 11, 2006)

A fantastic distortion pedal is the Maxon SD-9. It is true bypass, great sounding and very versatile if you play with the tone knob. It has basically made all my other OD/Distortion pedals obsolete (although I still use a Bad Monkey on my pedal board for laid back bluesy stuff).


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## zdogma (Mar 21, 2006)

dolphinstreet said:


> A fantastic distortion pedal is the Maxon SD-9. It is true bypass, great sounding and very versatile if you play with the tone knob. It has basically made all my other OD/Distortion pedals obsolete (although I still use a Bad Monkey on my pedal board for laid back bluesy stuff).


I had an SD9 and wasn't so keen on it. The build quality was good and the pedal was quiet, but with my guitar/amp I found it a bit too fizzy and compressed, and I could never seem to get the tone knob to work for me. I mainly use a Hermida audio Mosferatu now, its pretty good.

I guess everyone has different tastes.


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## SkunkWorks (Apr 12, 2007)

iggs said:


> E-mail Scott at:
> Diamond Fireburst is a switchable Fuzz/Distortion pedal but is (IMHO) the best "Soldano SLO in a box" pedal I've heard.


Actually the best SLO in a box would probably have to be my Soldano GTO Supercharger all tube pedal, because that's what it is... the SLO overdrive circuit built into a pedal. It's too bad mine isn't getting any use since I bought my Avenger which also uses the SLO overdrive channel circuit. I guess I got my GTO just in time last summer because they are out of production, at least for the time being. Guess it would be wise to hang on to this thing :wink:


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## Lemmy Hangslong (May 11, 2006)

I use my Supercharger GTO as a lead boost for my Soldano Hot Rod 50. I run four Sovtek reds in the preamp of the HR50 and two Tung Sol 12AT7 in the GTO... I love this set up.

Khing


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## SkunkWorks (Apr 12, 2007)

KHINGPYNN said:


> I use my Supercharger GTO as a lead boost for my Soldano Hot Rod 50. I run four Sovtek reds in the preamp of the HR50 and two Tung Sol 12AT7 in the GTO... I love this set up.
> 
> Khing


Ya I'll have to try my GTO through the Soldano... just haven't really had a need to do that yet since I just use mine for recording and any lead type stuff in my tunes gets recorded in a different take on a different track so I just tweak the amp to taste for a separate overdub.

Was wondering if you find using different tubes with the Soldanos really makes that big of a difference. I have an article of an interview with Mike himself where he says that different tubes in Soldanos won't even make a discernable difference to the average Joe... that the single most thing you can do to change a Soldano's tone is to try different speakers. I can't speak for that first statement but can definitely vouch for the second... in fact that is true for any amp.

Hey are you a member of the Soldano forum? That's one of my hangouts too.


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## david henman (Feb 3, 2006)

...i have become a huge fan of tube-based distortion boxes, like the radial tonebone series. 

-dh


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## I_cant_play (Jun 26, 2006)

now that you mention tube based stompboxes. I was just wondering is that just a gimmick or does the tube actually add preamp gain to the amp. Cause a lot of distortion pedals seem to add a kind of solid state artificial sounding distortion.


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## dolphinstreet (Sep 11, 2006)

zdogma said:


> I had an SD9 and wasn't so keen on it. The build quality was good and the pedal was quiet, but with my guitar/amp I found it a bit too fizzy and compressed, and I could never seem to get the tone knob to work for me. I mainly use a Hermida audio Mosferatu now, its pretty good.
> 
> I guess everyone has different tastes.



I find you have the turn the tone knob down pretty much all the way. For me, it's a very dynamic sounding pedal and not compressed in its sound. 

I just got a new pedal today, made by a friend. It's a fantastic pedal but it doesn't seem he is going to make anymore of them - too time consuming.


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## SkunkWorks (Apr 12, 2007)

I_cant_play said:


> now that you mention tube based stompboxes. I was just wondering is that just a gimmick or does the tube actually add preamp gain to the amp. Cause a lot of distortion pedals seem to add a kind of solid state artificial sounding distortion.


It's actually no different than having a tube preamp gain stage in the amp. But be aware that an actual overdrive channel in an amp is usually voiced different than a clean channel... so a tube pedal going into a clean channel on an amp will probably have different overall color of the frequency spectrum that's produced.

I'll give you an example...
Before I bought my Soldano I tried out the new Epiphone So-Cal 50watt tube head. I didn't like the loose flabby boingy bottom end of its overdrive channel so I ran my Soldano GTO tube pedal into its clean channel. Although this worked way better for the quality and tightness of the overdrive, I didn't like the voicing of the amp's clean channel which is voiced for, well, clean tones. The best sound I got from it was by running the pedal into the overdrive channel and turning that channel's gain down as low as possible while still getting at least some volume out of it but trying not to use the amp's actual distortion. This worked out ok but I thought if it takes my Soldano pedal to make the amp sound good, I'm just going to double my budget and get a used Soldano head... that's how I ended up with my Avenger.


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## I_cant_play (Jun 26, 2006)

that's interesting. I woulda thought it was another gimmick or something. It almost sounds too good to be true. So "in theory" you could have a "Mesa distortion" pedal, run it through a mesa dirty channel with minimum drive and have it sound identical? That would be quite neat cause then one could get a head for classic rock tones for example like a plexi-ish kind of tone and then when you need metal distortion put an additional pedal in front to add preamp gain over the power amp gain that's already there due to the amp. 

Thanks for the info


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## SkunkWorks (Apr 12, 2007)

I_cant_play said:


> that's interesting. I woulda thought it was another gimmick or something. It almost sounds too good to be true. So "in theory" you could have a "Mesa distortion" pedal, run it through a mesa dirty channel with minimum drive and have it sound identical? That would be quite neat cause then one could get a head for classic rock tones for example like a plexi-ish kind of tone and then when you need metal distortion put an additional pedal in front to add preamp gain over the power amp gain that's already there due to the amp.
> 
> Thanks for the info


Well sort of. What I did with the Epi was just because I had no other choice and had to get creative to make it sound good. My Soldano pedal through the clean channel was too dark if I remember correctly. The reason I put it into the overdrive channel was because I knew the overdrive channel was voiced for, well, overdrive. And the reason I backed off the gain on that channel as far as I could while still getting at least some volume out of it was so I could be using the smooth tight bottomed distortion of my pedal and not the loose boingy bottomed distortion of the amp's channel. But bear in mind that the actual tone will vary quite a bit even with an amp's own gain channel depending on where it is set... so my dialing it almost all the way down really put it into more of a thin tone zone. Luckily this amp also had a contour knob associated with its overdrive channel to further vary tone from thick and dark to thin and bright, so I was able to compensate for being dialed more into the thin sounding area . Again, not an ideal situation and not something I would recommend doing as a desired rig setup. Like I said, if it took doing all this to make the amp sound good it wasn't worth it and I took it back.

For the same reason, I don't think your Mesa example would work out well as far as comparisons go... again, you'd be dialed into a thinner sounding range of its overdrive channel. The higher you crank the gain on the amp the thicker your actual tone will get too.

But that last thing you said I think would work quite well with a tube pedal up front... an amp like that would probably be voiced in a way that would sound really nice with a pedal of any kind up front. I've taked to a few guitar players in some popular pop punk and alternative bands who are using older 70's era Marshall Super Leads which don't have a lot of gain by themselves but they stick something in front, usually a modded Rat (Ratt?) pedal. Sounds pretty sweet on the albums and those aren't even tube pedals. Hell, even Zakk runs a Boss distortion in front of his Marshalls which I seem to remember are just JCM800's.

Mesa makes a decent all tube pedal, the V-Twin or something like that, that I'm sure would sound killer into an old Marshall Super Lead or a JCM.


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## thecornman (May 13, 2007)

You could always try the Digi-tech Grunge pedal. If you can get past the name of this pedal you will find that it does a better metal distortion then the pedals the have metal in their name imo. This pedal can make any amp sound like a metal machine and can give you more low end thump then you could ever dream of. The other bonus on this pedal is it will only set you back about 60 bone which isn't a whole lot.


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## Wild Bill (May 3, 2006)

*"It's the exact same thing, only different..."*

Just a cautionary .02 for those looking for a tube overdrive pedal and wondering about how much "tube sound" this will add.

I've seen some pedals out there advertising that they use a tube but they cheap out by using a a simple power supply circuit that only puts a few 10's of volts on the tube plates. This saves them bags of manufacturing costs and makes the whole contraption smaller and more compact.

A full size power supply will be heavier and take up more room.

You can run a 12AX7 or whatever on that low voltage but guess what? It won't deliver much of the sonic benefits of a tube.

It's called "starved plate" mode and it's done in some hifi circuits. Once again, who wants a "hifi" boost pedal?

It's simply misleading and the poor sound might lead some to believe they shouldn't bother with a tube pedal when a good one might have given them sonic heaven!

It's on a par with putting one tube in the preamp of a solid state amp and claiming great tube sound. One prominent name in the market is undergoing a class action suit in the States for putting in a 12AX7 and not even wiring it up! They put an led lamp behind it to make it look like the tube was glowing!

I must admit you couldn't ask for better tube life, 'though.

Anyhow, just FYI.
:rockon:


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## violation (Aug 20, 2006)

Wild Bill said:


> One prominent name in the market is undergoing a class action suit in the States for putting in a 12AX7 and not even wiring it up! They put an led lamp behind it to make it look like the tube was glowing!


I remember reading Behringer did that with one of their preamps, rofl.


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## Lemmy Hangslong (May 11, 2006)

Originally Posted by KHINGPYNN
I use my Supercharger GTO as a lead boost for my Soldano Hot Rod 50. I run four Sovtek reds in the preamp of the HR50 and two Tung Sol 12AT7 in the GTO... I love this set up.

Khing 

SkunkWorks replied... Ya I'll have to try my GTO through the Soldano... just haven't really had a need to do that yet since I just use mine for recording and any lead type stuff in my tunes gets recorded in a different take on a different track so I just tweak the amp to taste for a separate overdub.

Was wondering if you find using different tubes with the Soldanos really makes that big of a difference. I have an article of an interview with Mike himself where he says that different tubes in Soldanos won't even make a discernable difference to the average Joe... that the single most thing you can do to change a Soldano's tone is to try different speakers. I can't speak for that first statement but can definitely vouch for the second... in fact that is true for any amp.

Hey are you a member of the Soldano forum? That's one of my hangouts too.

Hey SkunkWorks I find that different tubes make a difference but the Tung Sol 12AT7 works well in the GTO as a clean boost/slight dirt boost which is how I use it. I find that the 12AX7's allready in the HR50 have more gain on tap than I regularily use. 
I set the gain at about 4-5 on the amp using the high input and tweek the GTO for lead boost... what I do is drive the signal a little with a slight gain boost and a raise in overal volumn ( clean boost ) and set the tone control to as close to the origional signal as I can get... gain 12 o'clock, tone at 9 o'clock and output at 3 o'clock. 
As for Mike saying tubes effect the amps tone very little... I would question that. Orcoarse the tone stack and preamp cct has a lot to do with it as too does the power amp cct and the output tranny but the tubes do effect the tone. I believe what he is trying to say is that the average listener may not hear the differences as they will seem subtle but the guitarist with a ear for tone will hear the smallest change and other average changes will seem monumental.
As for spkers changing tone... most definetly bro... 
Cables are a big influence on tone aswell.

No I have not been to the Sldano forum but I'm gonna go check it out right now... thanks.

Khing


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## Michelle (Aug 21, 2006)

Wild Bill said:


> ..............One prominent name in the market is undergoing a class action suit in the States for putting in a 12AX7 and not even wiring it up! They put an led lamp behind it to make it look like the tube was glowing!..............


That is absolutely nuts! What is it now with this world that fantasy is reality and vice versa?
Time to take the red pill...


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## PaulS (Feb 27, 2006)

Just found this one in the closet, forgot all about it. It acts as an OD or a Distortion and does both great. Hard to find them anymore. It's back on the board....








[/IMG]

Morley JD-10


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## Wild Bill (May 3, 2006)

*"Makers, takers and fakers. There are no other kinds!"*



Michelle said:


> That is absolutely nuts! What is it now with this world that fantasy is reality and vice versa?
> Time to take the red pill...


Hey Michelle! There's always someone to sell snake oil, and someone to buy it!

Wanna buy a solid state rock and roll amp?:tongue: 

I remember seeing transistor radios in the 60's that did something similar. Somehow the marketing suits figured that the more transistors in a radio the more likely someone would buy it over another one.

So they'd put extra transistors in, all leads soldered to one land on the board!

A 12 transistor radio, where only maybe 8 did anything!

The sad thing is that it worked! They sold more radios.


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## david henman (Feb 3, 2006)

Wild Bill said:


> One prominent name in the market is undergoing a class action suit in the States for putting in a 12AX7 and not even wiring it up! They put an led lamp behind it to make it look like the tube was glowing!
> :



...i hope that's not radial.

i have the trimode and the hot british. they definitely did something right. i have never been able to get this kind of response, sustain and dynamics from a solid state pedal.

-dh


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## Guest (May 16, 2007)

david henman said:


> ...i hope that's not radial.
> 
> i have the trimode and the hot british. they definitely did something right. i have never been able to get this kind of response, sustain and dynamics from a solid state pedal.
> 
> -dh


My guess is Vox. I heard the tube in their ToneLab units was lit from behind by a red LED.


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## Michelle (Aug 21, 2006)

Wild Bill said:


> ..............
> A 12 transistor radio, where only maybe 8 did anything!
> .............


Yeah, I remember those days, I only had 6 transistors and that cheesy earphone and leather case, my brother had 8 transistors, bugger!

I definitely have more transistors now.  I think.....yeah, I do


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