Best Distortion for $100 or less

[Butch Snyder]

I have a Boss SD-1 and DS-1. I also have a Visual Sound Route 66. I use the comp side of the Route 66 all the time. I'm primarily a Telecaster player so I like what it gives me. I keep the OD side on all the time too, with the gain all the way down. Keep my tone cleanish but with a little girth to it. I change out the SD-1 and DS-1 a lot. The SD-1 is a great pedal but not really a distortion. The DS-1 is a good distortion but very dated-sounding. I keep the tone way down because it can downed fizzy. I'm looking for something I can use on more Rockier gigs where I need more gain that the SD-1 can deliver. One of my all-time favorites is the DOD Overdrive Preamp 250. I had one of those in the early 80s. It was the first pedal I bought.

I know some serous cash can be spent on pedals and I would like to keep this at or under $100.

[Securb]

If you need more gain the BOSS Mega Distortion has plenty on tap and has great EQ.

[Butch Snyder]

I guess maybe I should go into what kind of tone I'm after. I'm a product of the 80s and it's difficult for me to get out of that. That said, I like a lot of the following:

1. Neal Schon - Frontiers, Raised on Radio, and Trial by Fire
2. Steve Lukather - Most stuff from Fahrenheit and beyond. The DS-1 can do that stuff pretty well.
3. White Snake - John Sykes' tone from the Whitesnake album is killer.
4. Night Ranger - Love the tones from both Jeff Watson and Brad Gillis

I know if I had a Mesa Boogie, Marshall, Soldano, Bogner and the like, it would be cool; but I don't. I use my Fender Hot Rod Deluxe. I get by with that pretty well.

[Securb]

I still recommend the Mega Distortion if you're looking for more gain. You do not need to dime it. I have my Dacyrus High Gain distortion at about 11 o'clock. Sometimes, people drive the Ferrari at 20 mph in the school zone. You don't always have to open it up. That being said, if you like the DOD 250, it is the same circuit as the ROSS distortion and the MXR D+; from what I understand, there are some slight differences in the input capacitors. I have all three; the ROSS seems to be the mildest of the three, while the MXR seems to have the most gain and balls. They all have the same character. With that in mind, the reissue MXR D+ seems to be grainy. You don't have to go all the way back to the 70s script logo, but the 80's block logo pedals seem to be a bit more creamy.

[Chistopher]

Buy a Rat, it's a very simular circuit to the DOD 250 except with a lot more gain out of the op amp and the bass clips a lot less. If you do, I would recommend getting a used MIA "flat top" unit. It can be had for under $100 and it's more durable than the modern Chinese ones.

[Supernautilus]

JHS Series 3 Distortion pedals can be had at well under 100 bucks now. I’ve never tried one but they seem to be popular. From what I’ve read they are basically RAT clones with a few tweaks.

Then there’s the Wampler Phenom, which you can also get for under 100 bucks. Again, I never tried one but I own several Wampler units and they are all killer.

[Chistopher]

Yeah, it's definitely a Rat clone, the gain switch appears to be a simple swap between stock clipping and LED clipping (a la Turbo Rat). It's not a 1:1 clone looking at the schematic, but you'd have to try it out to know how different it is. It's kind of sad that I have most of the component values on a Rat memorized

[Securb]

I should also mention the Dirt Clod. It has a diode clipping (MXR, DOD) and a chip mode (Tube Screamer), it is fully analog but has digital switching and midi. There are Tons of EQ options, and it is a smaller footprint on your board than you would expect with all of these options. They were going for $270, but Decibel 11 is selling them for $99, brand new with a 3-year warranty. I have one I love it.

The Decibel Eleven Dirt Clod guitar effects pedal is a fully analog overdrive distortion pedal featuring 10 memory presets. Whatever music you play, the Dirt Clod provides a wide range of distortion sounds with two styles of clipping in addition to variable mid and high controls. You may easily save presets and recall as needed by accessing two different presets side by side —or use the Dirt Clod bank mode to scroll and select your preferred presets.

Full MIDI capabilities allow the Dirt Clod pedal to be used with the simplest MIDI controller for automatically recalling presets or bypassing the pedal. MIDI expression pedal data can control any of the Dirt Clod parameters in real-time, allowing you to adjust your distortion while playing and giving you ultimate control.

https://decibel11.com/product/decibel-eleven-dirt-clod-overdrive-distortion-pedal/

[donaldr]

I guess maybe I should go into what kind of tone I'm after. I'm a product of the 80s and it's difficult for me to get out of that. That said, I like a lot of the following:

1. Neal Schon - Frontiers, Raised on Radio, and Trial by Fire
2. Steve Lukather - Most stuff from Fahrenheit and beyond. The DS-1 can do that stuff pretty well.
3. White Snake - John Sykes' tone from the Whitesnake album is killer.
4. Night Ranger - Love the tones from both Jeff Watson and Brad Gillis

I know if I had a Mesa Boogie, Marshall, Soldano, Bogner and the like, it would be cool; but I don't. I use my Fender Hot Rod Deluxe. I get by with that pretty well.

Brett Kingman was doing a review of the MI Effects Super Crunch Box distortion (I think it's more than $100).

For the tone you are looking for I would check for an AITB pedal more than just a distortion pedal. I recently looked at the Carl Martin Plexi Tone Single (but it's more than $100), Pete Thorne has a good demo on YT. You can then decide if it's the direction you want to take or not.