The distortion pedal - why are they still so popular?

[SirJackdeFuzz]

Re: The distortion pedal - why are they still so popular?

* Because, somewhere out there, there IS a booteek builder that WILL build you a pedal with the sound that is in your head.
(...Black Arts Toneworks did that for me !)

* Unless you are a world famous guitar player - almost no one will build you a custom made amp with that tone that is in your head.

* And lastly - NO AMP can produce that fuzz tone in my head. Sadly, only a pedal can give me that !!!

You're definitely wrong on the last two - there are plenty of amp builders that will build you exactly the amp you want, even if it's a retarded incest amp baby.
Perhaps there aren't as many custom amp builders as custom guitar builders, but there are plenty out there that will take anybody's money, not just the money of rock stars.

Also, there are more than a few builders doing fuzz in their amps - Electric, Dunwich, Hovercraft, and I believe Wizard amps as well. Bonus - the last three will build you whatever amps your heart desires.

I did say, 'almost no one' . . . meaning there are a few, but the BIG guys, Mesa, Marshall, Orange, Vox, Peavey, Soldanao, and, and, and, will not build me (as a nobody) a custom made amp.

YES, the smaller guys, will, and can, build me something i want.

We have a booteek amp builder on this side of the world that is currently looking into the Electric MVU 120 amp circuit (with some of my ideas thrown in there too) so that he can start with my one-off build asap !

[Robert Delahunt]

Re: The distortion pedal - why are they still so popular?

So I ask - why are there still so many people buying distortion pedals? Enough to remain the most popular effect by a ridiculous margin.

Because it's about choice. With a distortion pedal, I can make almost any amp sound like I want, with the right pedal. I can put a Metal Mayhem in front of a clean amp and get wicked stuff, but not sacrifice my cleans. I can also own like 50 pedals if I want and have 50 different colors of distortion that I can use to paint my songs.

There is never going to be the perfect way to do anything, and musicians are all very different and very creative. More choice is better than less choice.

[TimmyPage]

Re: The distortion pedal - why are they still so popular?

Two reasons for me. Firstly, I've moved to a completely different country, all of my amps and most of my guitars are still in Canada. This means that, at most gigs, I use whatever backline they can provide me with or else I'll be stuck with a Roland Cube. Now, the clean channel of most amps is okay for me but I have a pretty specific sound in my head when I think about distortion. It's better for me, like wahwah said, to find a little pedal that does 'my sound' that I can carry anywhere and get my tone no matter what kind of backline I have.

Secondly, and this is the jimmy rustler. I used a modelling amp's take on a Plexi for a long while, made a bunch of recordings with that model. When I went to actually buy an amp, I was looking in the plexi range but I found that the modelled plexi actually had a lot more gain, and a different gain structure than an actual plexi. I found, after a while of testing amps and pedals, I found that the gain structure I liked the most was in the Wampler Plexi-Drive. I could put it on any amp and get 'my sound'.

I'm still cripplingly depressed that I left that pedal in Canada.

[Dr. Vegetable]

Re: The distortion pedal - why are they still so popular?

I usually prefer amplifier gain/distortion to anything I can get out of a pedal. But getting a good sound from an amp requires more dialing in than it does with a pedal. And then quickly switching to a different sound can be tricky if you don't have a 13-channel amplifier. So for me it is about being able to preset the controls on various pedals, and then switch them in and out while I'm playing with a single stomp.

So why don't I just use a POD or some other all-in-one digital contraption? Too much work to dial in all the combinations I would want. It is much easier to just step on the boxes I want for a particular song.

TL;DR - I'm lazy and I like toys.

[JeffB]

Re: The distortion pedal - why are they still so popular?

Cos I do not like complicated amp circuits 99% of the time..

Single channel NMV amp. Pedal for boost, roll your volume for clean.

I suspect I am not alone.

[TimmyPage]

Re: The distortion pedal - why are they still so popular?

I think the Hot Wheels/Star Wars/Ninja Turtles kids grew up and parlayed that toy addiction into their adult hobbies. You could consider it a separate hobby from music at a certain point.

This is a big deal too. I know a tonne of pedal heads, guys who only really play guitar as a means to play with a vast collection of pedals, synthesisers, ring modulators etc and have no intent to really... play music with them or join a band. Not that theres really a problem with that, I mean, playing with pedals can be a lot of fun.

[Securb]

Re: The distortion pedal - why are they still so popular?

The true answer for me is because no amp will give me the range of tone I can get from my pedal board with out using a modeling amp. I have 3 overdive stomps on my board two analog and one digital. My amp is set very clean and natural. With my board I am able to color my tone any way I want from classic Fender overdrive to a screaming British tone and everything inbetween.

[DeadandBuried]

Re: The distortion pedal - why are they still so popular?

They're cheaper and more easily transportable if you can't lug your amp around, and can give you a variety of tones.

Personally like some others I prefer amp distortion all the way, cos a clean channel with a pedal to act as the dirty sound is something I've never liked.

I will use an overdrive to add some low end boost to the dirty channel on a good amp though, such as the 6505+.

[thespricket]

Re: The distortion pedal - why are they still so popular?

I guess I do forget that most people who play electric guitar don't play in a band or gig.

That's just not the world I live in. Literally all the guys I know and hang out with who play are in all the bands that make up our regional scene. A high-wattage tube head and a 4x12 is pretty much standard issue equipment with these guys.

I mean, we all have little stuff we have at home for noodling around and such, but the real rig usually lives next to a drum set.

Now that I think about it, a nice little 22-watt or lower Fender tube combo and a nice OD like a Timmy or something would be really nice to have around the house....

Depending on where you gig and live you won't always need a half stack and those little 22 watt fellas work just fine. I live in Brooklyn and I've seen and played shows all over NYC and most players in this city rely heavily on pedals because they have to use whatever back line amp the venue or bar has. I have Blues Jr, even though I've yet to take it out I'm sure it will work for any venue I'll be playing any time soon. This may sound crazy but I managed to get a fantastic sound out of a crate 100 watt solid state amp with a dead reverb tank, using a boss ME70 with some verb, noise suppression, and a clean preamp model and my Plimsoul OD in front of that and it sounded great.


Guitar->pedals->amp

[wahwah]

Re: The distortion pedal - why are they still so popular?

I guess I do forget that most people who play electric guitar don't play in a band or gig.

That's just not the world I live in. Literally all the guys I know and hang out with who play are in all the bands that make up our regional scene. A high-wattage tube head and a 4x12 is pretty much standard issue equipment with these guys.

I mean, we all have little stuff we have at home for noodling around and such, but the real rig usually lives next to a drum set.

Now that I think about it, a nice little 22-watt or lower Fender tube combo and a nice OD like a Timmy or something would be really nice to have around the house....

That's all true, and I would add that some of the difference can also be style dependent. In my world, the 22 watt Fender and some nice pedals is the real rig, because large concert and line array systems easily turn that little amp into a monster. Since the musical styles I'm playing don't require anything crushing in terms of volume being produced on the stage, I can focus purely on tone, and on the lessons learned from years of playing through concert line array rigs. The few millivolts required at the FOH console do not require massive SPL at the source, and some extra reinforcement through monitors and sidefill can easily compensate for any size stage. You can see the likes of Jeff Beck taking the same approach, running Fender Pro Juniors as the only amps that are mic'd onstage. Through a line array, the end result to the audience is huge. Pedals and a clean amp suit this setup perfectly.

Heavier styles won't wear this approach, but only because the energy levels required on stage demand higher volumes at the source in a stage mix, and because it's really only fun to play heavier stuff that way. Agreed that it's easy to forget that there are so many different scenarios and approaches to playing guitar, outside of whatever scene we're used to.



Cheers.......................... wahwah

[LesStrat]

Re: The distortion pedal - why are they still so popular?

Because most of us don't play 100w multichannel amps in metal bands?








68

[jon the art guy]

Re: The distortion pedal - why are they still so popular?

There's something else for me, actually. I like the grind of distortion pedals with minimum amp and cab emulation. Nothing smooth about it. It's very, very hard to get that horrible sound from an amp unless it's solid state. even then the tone is going to be filtered through the speakers.

[sosomething]

Re: The distortion pedal - why are they still so popular?

Well, the 100-watt tube head in a heavy metal / rock band is my scenario, but I suspect it's not the only one in which a player wouldn't need or want a distortion pedal.

But I also see there are a lot of people for whom versatility and portability are really paramount advantages to getting most of your tone from pedals. That's perfectly valid to me.

I admit that I could probably get away with using a 50 or even 40-watt amp and be fine, but the tone in MY head (so to speak) comes from a 1999 Splawn Pro Mod and it is what it is. I'm very attached to that thing, almost like you would be to a sentimental guitar.

I don't really care about versatility of multiple distorted tones very much at all. I have the one I need and prefer. And I play in a 2-guitar band. All the nuance of various overdrives pretty much goes out the window once the rest of the band starts playing and the rubber meets the road.

[xxxplorer]

Re: The distortion pedal - why are they still so popular?

I chased od pedals to goose my 800 for years and spent way too much money always feeling 'meh'. Closest I got was a klone. I then just said a prayer and annoyed the heck out of Bruce Egnater and spent a month tweaking my amp and goosing it and $20 in parts later, I ditched all my dirt pedals (minus a fuzz face... That's different) and now get a crushing heavy sound straight in and the best part is I can jump all over the stage and not have to worry about having to be close to the lil booster pedal... AND my dynamics and feel are better... Plus... Less noise... More beer money and all the guys with 5150s and rectos are confused lol.

[gripweed]

Re: The distortion pedal - why are they still so popular?

I do not understand why so many players are so snobby about pedals. If you don't like them, taking up the friggin acoustic guitar and stop b***hin about them. Just make sure you give me all of the boutique pedals you own but apparently have no use for.

I don't care for firebreathing amps or super hot pickups. I also don't play metal. But I don't gig as often as all you road dogs do.