Distortion pedals

[570ex]

Ive always used the distortion straight from the amp i use (Marshal 50DFX) and found it to be fairly sufficient, but an awful lot of people use distortion pedals/stompboxes, are they really much better? My friend has a Vwah which also comes with a few distortion settings, but to be honest i am not impressed with them at all, can anyone give me advice in this area?

[TwilightOdyssey]

Re: Distortion pedals

Depends on what kind of sound you're going for. I like the sound of a mildly distorted guitar being kicked into a thick, gainy sound with an overdrive in front of it, old-school style. Some guys like using full-on distortion in front of their heads, and some guys use one or the other for total buzzsaw attack or solo boost ...

[some_dude]

Re: Distortion pedals

I have a cool little box that throws out some lo-fi distortion that sounds like your speakers are blown.

Now, if I started getting that lo-fi speaker blown sound outta my cab and tube amp, I'd start sh*t'n bricks.

[Multi]

Re: Distortion pedals

I have a really cheap behringer gm110 and like, and even that , i think i just like the amp's own distortion better than the distortion from a pedal. Although my experience with pedals is limited. (they say you can't expect a pedal to make your amp sound like a million bucks if your amp is crap, but why would it make it sound a 10 dollar one? XD) I just use a boss sd-1 for a boost with the level all the way up and the gain like at 1.

The only reason i even have a distortion pedal is so i can go from clean to distorted, since this amp doesn't have a footswitch. I have a boss mt-2(this is for sale! *end shameless plug) and a ds-1, i don't really like either more than the distortion already on the amp, but i gotta use them for the clean->distorted songs.

I'm mostly just a bedroom player who hasn't played on a lot of different gear or knows a single thing about 'tone' (seriously, wtf is 'smooth, warm, digital, raunchy, crunchy, thin, and brittle supposed to mean anyways? ), but I'd imagine if you spend a thousand+ bucks for an amp, you wouldn't put a 50 dollar pedal in front of it for distortion ;o

[y2stevo]

Re: Distortion pedals

Well some of the greats have uses $50 pedals before thier 1000+ amps...doesnt Steve Vai use A DS-1? others Use Modded MT-2's...but from the first post...i played a Boss v-wah(if thats what you were taling about) throught a Fender twin and i though the overdrive on it was very impressive...

[Naps]

Re: Distortion pedals

I like stomp boxes just for something different. I think my best sounds come straight from my amp, but after a while I like to change things up. Just like at a show, if you have the same tone all through the show (no matter how good it is) it ends up being a little boring. Haveing sometihing to change it up (and compare it with) is a good thing.

[BluesNRock87]

Re: Distortion pedals

i originally bought a boss blues driver (bd-2) cause my ss amp had crap distortion
than i bought a tube amp
props to boss, when i had my amp and pedal tweaked to my liking, i could notice a tiny difference, my brother and others couldnt (thinking live situation) - its a great little pedal, but having a tube amp makes a pedal that simulates overdriven tube crunch a bit superfluous.
i originally thought of selling the pedal, but didnt.
i think im gonna hang onto it, long run i may mod it, right now i may use it for a boost (though i could use my comp for that) or i may use it for a second overdrive, maybe a bit more gain, a bit less, or to be used for a real kick in the pants, crank it and use it with the amps overdrive.
depending on what i figure out, i will probably sell it for a different pedal, something i can use to "change up my tone a bit"

[59paul]

Re: Distortion pedals

I'm with T-Odyssey. I'm very Old School. I use a TS-808 in front of my Marshall's, too kick em in the rump. LOL

[Xeromus]

Re: Distortion pedals

I like my Vox Distortion Booster. Just pushes the amp enough to make notes sustain a long time and really be full and saturated. Doesn't color the tone much either.

[59paul]

Re: Distortion pedals

Yep Xeromus, that's the ticket !!!! Bet ya gotta super tone !!! ...

[Guitarist]

Re: Distortion pedals

Back in the days when I use to rely on my Marshall MG to shred, I would pack in a trio of pedals to get me that Metallica crunch. It consisted of:

BOSS MT-2
BOSS GE-7
BOSS SD-1

I set the MT-2 a little treble heavy, but with a thick bass and the mids keeping to a low, though not totally scooped. The mid frequency is at about 11/11:30 to get some serious crunch.

However, the unmodded MT-2 sounds a little sterile and flabby to my ears. So, I tightened that up with the GE-7. I set that at almost a V configuration. Keep some mids, just none enough to take away from that 'oomphing' bottom end, which is key for serious metal. Keep those high mids running, however, and remember to boost the entire signal by a few decibals (but not too intensely, for GE-7's tend to get noisy, as most boosters do). My advice is to slowly move each divider to find YOUR sound, but this is just a start.

The SD-1 simply gives the distortion more of a butter feeling. A little more cream on the cake, if you say. I, personally, keep the level relatively high while letting the actual drive pretty low. The Tone control is kept at around 11:30, to balance the bass-treble. This lets you hear and feel the boost, but still not lose yourself in the gain meltdown.

I hope this helps. I found this setup to be absolutely KILLER at bedroom, small gig situations. PM for any further info.

[Jonny R]

Re: Distortion pedals

I have to use a pedal because I play through a Fender Twin without a gain channel

I use a G2D Custom Overdrive, which is great because it has a solo boost channel as well as a normal gain channel. So I end up with 3 channels to use.

[570ex]

Re: Distortion pedals

Thanks guys, as im fairly satisfied with my current amp distortion and have a footswitch ill probably stick with it for the time being, thanks for all the information on teh various pedals though.