Distortion: transparent vs. brown

Re: Distortion: transparent vs. brown

wahwah said:
Somebody should have told Hendrix, SRV, Beck, Blackmore, Gilmour, Gallagher (Rory, not Noel!), Brian May, Trower, Clapton, Gibbons and Moore that. They should have listened to the "purists." Who would have guessed that all of those guys got it wrong?



Cheers....................wahwah
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TOUCHE! :beerchug:

Hey, different strokes for different folks.

It's all good in the end :D
 
Re: Distortion: transparent vs. brown

Wow, some good responses. I think transparent was an unfortunate word. I used it because that's how the pedals in question are often described. I'm having a hard time with words here... you can have a distortion, either amp or pedal, that doesn't color or excessively modify the sound, yet inextricably distorts it. Like what the guitar would sound like if it was distorting by itself. Like the distortion character is natural component of the sound, and not an artifact glued on top. The closest I've ever gotten is with lead 1(MKIIC+) on my Boogie Quad pre. Or, I guess, the Matchless DC-30 I got to try once. Hmmm... I guess those aren't pedals.

@Majestic: You did indeed open my eyes with that statement. I've always loved low output, clear pickups, but never really realized all my heroes did as well.

@Rid: Speaking of marvelous tones, that pedal you sent me passes the test. It's the smoothest, most natural highgain pedal I've had the pleasure of playing.
 
Re: Distortion: transparent vs. brown

When I use a distortion pedal I use it to have a completely different sound than just amp distortion, a different distortion channel altogether. I rarely use any pedals through my amps, not because of some amp religion as Rid has claimed, simply because I enjoy the tone of their regular distortions.
 
Re: Distortion: transparent vs. brown

@Rid: Not so high gain?? At 2 my guitar is already feeding back and sustaining. At 10, it would make Dimebag proud. That thang is mean! I really like the boost side as well. It'll pretty much melt anything I plug it into.
 
Re: Distortion: transparent vs. brown

I find the Visual Sound Jekyll & Hyde to be a transparent hi gain distortion pedal. I think it sounds great. I can get VH II to Godsmack out of it. I can hear every note in a complex chord. There is no fizz. period. Then again, I don't consider the J&H to be a booteek pedal. but I do consider it to be a kick ass platform for distorted tones from a clean amp. Just MHO.
 
Re: Distortion: transparent vs. brown

ParameterMan said:
@Rid: Not so high gain?? At 2 my guitar is already feeding back and sustaining. At 10, it would make Dimebag proud. That thang is mean! I really like the boost side as well. It'll pretty much melt anything I plug it into.
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What pedal is that?
 
Re: Distortion: transparent vs. brown

Dr.Mavashi said:
What pedal is that?
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Well, I'm not sure. It's some experiment in a Hot Drive'n Boost box. The little sticker says "Rectified OD". I "won" it in Rid's pedal giveaway way back when.

I keep meaning to upload a sound clip, but life keeps distracting me. When fed into a fender-style clean channel, it gets scary close to the Boogie mkII/mkIII sound.
 
Re: Distortion: transparent vs. brown

Clarity and transparency aren't the same thing, I like clarity, but I don't dig transparency if you have to sacrifice character to get it. I actually have an analog-man moddded Boss SD-1 (ts-808 specs, silver mod), that adds a really subtle sweetness and does something with the attack that I really like. But, overall, I agree with the brown sound philosiphy, and never thought about people as playing distortion rather than guitar. Interesting...
 
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