High-gain distortion pedals: Why so sucky?

[JeffB]

Re: High-gain distortion pedals: Why so sucky?

Where I really notice the pedal-ness is playing the wound strings up into the 10th fret and beyond. Chords, single notes. Even the best high end pedals I have owned all get squirrelly in that region. Splatty, choked, undefined. My Bogner Blue was probably the best, but you can still hear and feel it even on that. That phenomenon totally drives me nuts with pedals as a gain channel.

This is why I prefer a really good boost on top of a tube amp or just a high gain tube amp.

 

[DrNewcenstein]

Re: High-gain distortion pedals: Why so sucky?

The only high-gain pedals I have are a Metal Zone and a Rat, excluding all the models crammed into the M13 (cuz that does so much more than just the one pedal type). I can get early Metallica lead tones with the Rat and MZ, and Master of Puppets rhythm tones with the M13's Big Muff. The high-gain models of the M13, like the ever-present Line6 "Insane" is just useless. It's....insane. Gobs of useless gain cascading into a wall of white noise. It was like that with the POD, it's like that on the AM-4, and if they ever decide to put out single-function pedals, it'll be useless there, too.

Back before I converted to racks, I ran a BOSS SuperOD as a boost into an MXR Dist+ and got very nice super-saturated bedroom tones. Simulating the same thing with the M13 (cuz you can do that) into a clean JCM800 and 2x12 cabinet at pest-removal volume, yeah not so much.

Then there was the Applause Super Distortion pedal that didn't need any sort of boost in front if it. Too bad it died before I got a "real amp" to run it through, but I get the feeling it would've turned to muddy farts with feedback and buzz.

 

[Guitaraxz]

Re: High-gain distortion pedals: Why so sucky?

many of them do suck. try a duncan paladium if you get the chance. im not a high gain guy but when i heard robben ford talk about how amp like it was, i had to check it out. it has a long ****ton more gain than i would ever use but damn if it doesnt sound and feel awesome. ive never enjoyed a high gain pedal as much or heard one that sounded so musical.

I had tried a Palladium, in a rehearsall, about a month ago. Came close but no cigar. It was missing something. Yesterday I tried it again, in a rehearsall, with 18V. Yeurecka!! That was it, 18 instead of 9V gave it that extra umff. The whole tone changed, more gain, less noise.

I used a Strat (and beleive me that aint my thing) with low gain YJM singlecoils (stacked noiseless pups). I used the gain at 2 O'Clock (70%) and the preboost at 8 O'Clock (just a smudge). It gave me enough gain to play Morbid Angel with no noise problems. The set was Strat-Palladium-Killerfloor Boost (more volume for the solos)-Marshall JCM800. I am sure that with a high gain humbucker one could get the same amount of dist with the gain at noon which would mean even less noise. I had no noise gate and no problemo, it was a great tone.

Duncan did a great job making a high gain low noise pedal, just make sure you try it out with 18 volts!

 

[jeremy]

Re: High-gain distortion pedals: Why so sucky?

i havent tried the palladium at 18v but i run my barber ltd at 18v and it sounds fantastic, obviously a much different beast but the change with going from 9v to 18v is dramatic. the catalinbred dls sounds ok at 9v but at 18v its a much more musical and touch responsive pedal. glad the palladium at 18v works for ya!

 

[Aceman]

Re: High-gain distortion pedals: Why so sucky?

Bah LPB. No single thing.

Sometimes it's the pedal (Metal Zone)
Sometimes it's the amp.
Sometimes it's the interaction between the two.

More often than not, I'll call out the USER. A lot of guys who know where to put their fingers on the frets know crap about where to set dials on the amp and the pedal.

 

[dave74]

Re: High-gain distortion pedals: Why so sucky?

I always have liked the sound of distortion pedals. Definitely a two-dimensional sound though, not a "feel" like a good spiked tube amp.

 

[jeremy]

Re: High-gain distortion pedals: Why so sucky?

thats actually what i like about the palladium. it feels like a good high gain amp

 

[Nostalgic Distortion]

Re: High-gain distortion pedals: Why so sucky?

I'm not really a "High Gain Guy" but the E-H Metal Muff Top Boost has a permanent place on my board. Like a lot of higher gain pedals the suckieness is all in how you use it. I keep the gain on it set reasonably low, usually around 9:00 & then I blend it with the tube break up from my amps.

It's trebliey and obnoxious & I could definitely see how a lot of people would call it another sh!+y high gain pedal but when you get it dialed in right it's amazing! It has great sustain & pinch harmonics are easily obtained, plus it stacks really well with a plethora of OverDrive pedals.....

 

[Diego]

Re: High-gain distortion pedals: Why so sucky?

I have nothing against high-gain boxes, but I think the sounds I go after in my head just don't come from a clean amp + high-gain dirt box.
I've tried lots of dirt boxes, and I always go back to trying light overdrive in my amp + big ass clean boost in front of it and BAM!
All my favorite sounds right there, and makes me wonder why I bothered fixing what's not wrong in the first place.

I think it all comes down to me not being a fan of "modern" high-gain sounds. I like high output passives and a bit of sludge thrown in.
Here's a great example:



Hard to get anything close to that from a clean amp + dirt box in my experience.