The overdrive/distortion thread

Myst and rain · #1 03-19-2008, 03:23 PM

Hi,

I thought it would be interesting to have a thread that's entirely dedicated to overdrive and distortion, in which you can share info about which pedals you prefer and why, how you've managed to get the sound you searched through the use of your pedals, etc. etc. It might be a cool thread in which we can share thoughts and info regarding this particular subject.

So here's what I use...

I have a Boss ME-6. It's a discontinued multiple effects unit, which has overdrive and distortion. There are actually five different ones in the unit. I use an overdrive which, according to the manual, simulates the warmth of overdrives found in tube amplifiers.

It sounds very good, but it doesn't have much 'power'. That's the word I'd use to describe it. What I mean when I say 'not much power' is that it doesn't provide much sustain, and it sounds kind of thin. It's not usable for heavy rock music. There's just not enough power, you know?

But when I use it in combination with a compressor, all of a sudden there's plenty of sustain, and it sounds thicker... It's a huge difference. The downside to this, however, is that when I lower the volume of my guitar there is noise, that drowns out the sound of the guitar eventually. But overall it's a very usable sound.

Here's my setup:

Guitar -> Whammy - > Wah wah -> Compressor -> Overdrive -> EQ -> Delay -> Amplifier

For now, this will do fine, but when I'm going to record music, I think I'm going to work on my setup a bit.

So that's what I use. I might add to this later.

Kind regards,
Alwin

Myst and rain · #2 03-19-2008, 03:40 PM

You know, I thought about getting one of these:

I thought it was a pedal, powerful enough by itself and that would have a large spectrum of sounds. I liked the idea of being able to mix overdrive with distortion. But the new Satchurator looks very interesting, as well.

Btw, you could click on the pic to hear sound samples of the OS-2.

Alwin

barbarelaxe · #3 03-19-2008, 04:50 PM

I use an Ibanez MS10 - metal charger. I had it during the 80's and purchased it again not long ago since I had good memories of it. It's not very high gain so when I want a lead sound I boost a few frequencies with a Boss eq.
Anyway I'm looking for something else now and I've narrowed it down to eithr one of the radial tonebone distortion pedals or sansamp GT2. I checked the tonebone sound samples on their website and they all sound almost the same to me so if anyone can give some input on that, it will be great. I'm considering the GT2 because I recently played with someone that is using it and was very impressed with the versatility and the overall sound. He was using a completely different guitar then me but still... so any input on that will also be appreciated.

jb4674 · #4 03-19-2008, 05:15 PM

I use a GT-Pro when recording and my JSX at home, so I pretty much have access to most Boss distortions.

Jimmy

Gudster · #5 03-19-2008, 05:34 PM

I personally mostly use Boss stuff.

OD-3 for light overdrive.
MD-2 for low tunings (though I'm out of that Drop B crap now and it is quite redundant).
And of course the trusty DS-2 for that Frusciante like lead tone.

Though I occasionally use my lead channel on my TSL.

ColinMmmmm · #6 03-19-2008, 05:43 PM

I've got an ME-50, but I'm preferring to just use my ZW-44 for distortion/overdrive with the ME-50 for delay/reverb/compression effects. I might just be crazy, but every time I try to mess around with the distortion effects on the ME-50 I end up going back to the ZW-44. I've also got a MXR double-shot which I bought a long time ago, but of the two channels I really only like the high gain one.

Myst and rain · #7 03-19-2008, 06:30 PM

Many of you guys are mentioning BOSS pedals.. Interesting.

barbarelaxe, now that you mention it, the EQ boosting frequencies is also part of my sound. I forgot that while I wrote the first post!

I've thought about changing amps, as well, btw. Maybe get a JSX combo and just use the onboard distortion, as I think that amp may provide me with what I need. But it's kind of expensive. So maybe I'll stick to my current 25 Watt amp, and use pedals.

Here's another interesting one: the BOSS OD-20. It's a twin pedal and has an enormous range of sounds!

http://www.bossus.com/gear/productde...64&ParentId=96

Alwin

CosmicDebris · #8 03-19-2008, 07:09 PM

I now use either a Boss Fender Deluxe Reverb Pedal, Boss Fender Bassman Pedal, or Scholz Rockman Soloist.

David McCarroll · #9 03-19-2008, 07:12 PM

Having owned almost all Boss pedals at some stage, they really don't do it for me - obviously purely a personal opinion as they sure do it for a heck of a lot of guys/girls.

After much deliberation I bought a Radial Plexitube - cool for super saturated sounds but not really much else (I am not a metal player BTW) - can't roll back the guitar volume to clean it up, and it gets very soggy when you try low/med gain settings.

After a while tolerating this beast, I had had enough - trotted down to Sydney's only Fulltone dealer to buy a GT500 - hated it, but totally fell in love with both the OCD and the Fulldrive 2 (MOSFET) - in fact I liked them so much I couldn't decide and bought them both - the OCD is a brilliant low/med gain overdrive, and where that trails off, the Fulldrive starts to shine - comparitively speaking, the Fulltone pedals are not ridiculously expensive, and at least for me, miles beyond the Boss bangers.

Having seen The Police twice on their recent tour, the next overdrive stomp box has to be the Lovepedal Eternity - Summer's sound live is stellar (of course a pair of Custom Audio 100 watt heads and four Mesa cabs probably helps.... along with being one of the finest guitarists ever.....) - trouble is, when you go to Lovepedal's website and listen to the tone clips -THEY'RE ALL SO DAMN GOOD! So I'll just have to grit my teeth and send Sean Michael my life's savings in return for a half dozen or so of his gorgeous stompboxes.

And I thought I was getting over it.......

David McCarroll · #10 03-19-2008, 07:15 PM

Oh yeah, I can't get rid of an ancient Boss DS-1 which has one sound I really like (drive full, tone zero), and a Voodoolabs Proctavia for the Hendrix style octave fuzz - horrible beast to play through, but a great sound nonetheless!

So that's, um, five distortion boxes so far on the pedalboard......

ColinMmmmm · #11 03-19-2008, 07:27 PM

Anyone own a Voodoo Labs sparkle drive? I'm thinking that'll be my next purchase . . .

shogun · #12 03-19-2008, 07:29 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by David McCarroll

Having owned almost all Boss pedals at some stage, they really don't do it for me - obviously purely a personal opinion as they sure do it for a heck of a lot of guys/girls.

took you quite a few to realize that eh? :P

David McCarroll · #13 03-19-2008, 07:32 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by shogun

took you quite a few to realize that eh? :P

..... never said I was bright .........:P

shogun · #14 03-19-2008, 07:34 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ColinMmmmm

Anyone own a Voodoo Labs sparkle drive? I'm thinking that'll be my next purchase . . .

I have one, what are u lookin for in a tone?

David McCarroll · #15 03-19-2008, 07:39 PM

Actually just slightly off topic - Boss DO make some really seriously cool stompboxes, but then discontinue them (CE-1 Chorus Ensemble being a case in point) - after seeing one of our local luminaries doing a gig where he had a Boss Vibrato pedal on very slightly for the entire gig (and being blown away totally by his sound), I trotted down to our local vintage pedal emporium - who had TWO - at $500AUD each! Gritted my teeth, said I'd be back Monday with the money....

Anyway, as this guy doesn't sell strings, I dropped into Venue Music (our version of GC, but 100 times less exciting) - they had the Behringer clone for a whopping $50 - sonically, I really couldn't tell any difference - and I can kill ten of them before I'll start wondering whether the Boss might have been a better deal.......