How many Drive/Gain/Fuzz/Distortion pedals do you use?

[PFDarkside]

On your main pedalboard, rig or setup how many drive pedals do you use? Overdrive, distortion, fuzz, etc. Not how many are in the closet or how many you connected one time to see what would happen, what is your typical setup and how do you use them? Genre might be helpful too, even though blues players and metal players both use tube screamers, the method may be a little different.

Currently I like to use three gain pedals. A lighter one that cleans up with guitar's volume control (King of Tone), a soft clip mid boost tube screamer style (Full Drive 2) and a fuzz (fuzz face style or Muff style) for singing, compressed leads. I have been leaving the low gain one on to serve as a tonal enhancer and slight volume boost for the lower output Strat pickups. I back off the volume for "clean", then layer on the FD for bigger distortion tones or leads, and the fuzz for big fuzzy leads or Hendrix style tangents. Lately I've been doing a lot of more traditional blues/rock and classic rock type stuff. All through either a Mesa or Fender PR.


You?

 

[JOLLY]

Re: How many Drive/Gain/Fuzz/Distortion pedals do you use?

I have 4 of them, but I rarely if ever use one. All of my amps are multi channel, and have plenty of gain on tap.

 

[GuitarStv]

Re: How many Drive/Gain/Fuzz/Distortion pedals do you use?

I use amp gain for blusey overdrive and a germanium fuzz face for anything else. I've had as many as five gain pedals on my board (seven if you count a boost and compressor) , but eventually realized that there are only a few sounds that I tend to come back to over and over again.

Between really learning your amp and using your guitar controls there are an awful lot of sounds you can squeeze out of most setups.

 

[Falloffthebonetone]

Re: How many Drive/Gain/Fuzz/Distortion pedals do you use?

I set the amp mostly clean but with a little break up if I dig in hard enough, then I have an overdrive pedal for when I need more for leads and dirtier parts. That'll be what I use most of the time, but if it I'm playing hard rock or metal or prog or something then I have another distortion pedal to use for leads and extra compression while I leave the overdrive on most of the time. Same kind of set up for bass actually. Usually use an OCD but I think I'm gonna replace it with a Sansamp Para driver. For distortion I used to use a DS-1 and I still like it, but I have also found the MXR bass di to be a really flexible guitar distortion too as well as an additional eq, even comes with a noise gate. It's odd now, but I am finding myself more and more inclined to use my bass pedal board with my guitar too.

 

[JeffB]

Re: How many Drive/Gain/Fuzz/Distortion pedals do you use?

Typically one. As a goose for leads.

However I love what the Echoplex Pre does at unity, below unity, and as a higher gain goose so I am considering buying one or two more to hit the amp in different ways.

I am also considering my first fuzz. But overwhelmed by the choices and not sure where to begin, so have been reluctant to purchase.

 

[guitfiddle]

Re: How many Drive/Gain/Fuzz/Distortion pedals do you use?

I only have one at a time, and vary which one I use by the amp I bring. I set up the amp for a bit of crunch with the guitar full up, and cleanish with the guitar volume down. The pedal with the guitar down is an alternate crunch tone, and pedal on with the guitar full up is for leads. I set the ODs up for a good boost, with a little drive thrown in for color.

With my Super Champ XD, I set the amp with the Marshall sim set for light crunch and run the volume on 6 or 7. I hit it with my compressor set with very little squash, but good boost. I don't boost it enough to make the amp's input or preamp clip, but the hotter signal makes its power amp clip more, and it just sings.

I have two ODs at the moment... a Danelectro Pastrami OD, and BBE Green Screamer. The danno has a bright tweedy breakup, and the BBE does just what it should. They both sound great, but both also sound best into my Pro Junior with it's volume above 6.

For a while I used two of the dannos set up for either crunch or lead, with an AB box to use for a channel switch. With my Boss ME-50, I'd set one whole bank dedicated to one OD sim, with three different gain/boost levels. First one would be barely boosted clean, then crunch, and the third for lead. Each bank used a different OD pedal sim, so I had a ton of sounds, but I don't need that many choices when, for me the guitar volume works just as well, so one is all I use these days.

 

[stevie_bees]

Re: How many Drive/Gain/Fuzz/Distortion pedals do you use?

I have 2 805 overdrives, one set for a nice dirty drive tone and the other used to give it a cleaner push, a Plexitone prototype for when I want to get my 80's on and a BMF Aries Fuzz (Muff clone) for my Gilmour-y lead tones. I do also use a SD Pickup Booster but more for balancing the levels between my McCarty and Legacy, and occasional dark bucker sounds with the Legacy.

 

[Little Pigbacon]

Re: How many Drive/Gain/Fuzz/Distortion pedals do you use?

I actually have a functioning pedal board right now, and it has four dirt pedals:

1.) Dan-O'-Lectro Cool Cat Transparent Overdrive
2.) Seymour Duncan Power Grid
3.) Rat II
4.) Ibanez MS10 Metal Charger

I mainly go for bloo-Z, crunch (both the Malcolm Young and the Dave Mustaine varieties), thrash, and teh shreddz. Often, one of these pedals will stand alone in front of a clean amp, though the Cool Cat and Rat are often run just a little dirty into a distorted amp for a more complex gain structure.

I could go for about four more dirt pedals (fuzz, TS-type, Bogner, Mega Boogie), but with the wah, chorus, and tuner I already have about as much as will fit on my board. I should probably boot the MS10 out in favor of a Bogner, but I had one of those when I was a teenager, so I'm on a nostalgia trip.

 

[TwilightOdyssey]

Re: How many Drive/Gain/Fuzz/Distortion pedals do you use?

I will have 3-5 pedals stacked up typically.

 

[Matt42]

Re: How many Drive/Gain/Fuzz/Distortion pedals do you use?

I always have at least 3. More often I will use four. It depends on the amp I'm using at the time. Generally speaking, I run:

Low gain, transparent OD, preferably something with a Tweed type of vibe.
Mid gain, OCD style pedal
Something for a boost. Sometimes this is a TS type, sometimes something more like an AC booster.
And finally, a Soul Food.

The low gain pedal changes depending on the amp, and with the right amp might disappear totally. The Soul Food also depends a lot on the amp, I've noticed that it doesn't gel with EL84s to my ears.

 

[AlexR]

Re: How many Drive/Gain/Fuzz/Distortion pedals do you use?

I've got a lot of dirt pedals.....but they are all for different flavourings. Some are set with lots of drive, others much less. I can stack them in lots of combinations depending on what guitar I am playing, but I've rarely got more than 2 (and usually only 1) on at any 1 time. My amp setup in completely clean too.

 

[SirJackdeFuzz]

Re: How many Drive/Gain/Fuzz/Distortion pedals do you use?

I have MANY, MANY . . . but i never use more than two at a time.

 

[IM4Tone]

Re: How many Drive/Gain/Fuzz/Distortion pedals do you use?

I have a number of amps and pedal boards. For non-channel switching amps, I always have two. One is a clean to mild OD (currently a Fulltone Fat Boost FB-3) and the other (a Wampler 57 Tweed) set for very crunchy to moderate distortion. These (coupled with a Mr. Black Deluxe Plus for Rvb. and Trem.) are my favorites through a 5E3 amp.

When I use a channel switching amp, I'll use only one and sometimes none depending on the characteristics of the amp.

 

[Agileguy_101]

Re: How many Drive/Gain/Fuzz/Distortion pedals do you use?

For a long time my my main board has been no smaller than a stuffed to the brim Pedaltrain 1. Then I upgraded last summer to a NYC Big Shot (PT Pro size) board, so I've always had room for plenty of drive pedals. I'll usually run 5 - at least three fuzzes and an overdrive or two. At one point, I even had three different big muff clones. At another, I had a big muff and two fuzz faces. Now, my big board is relatively balanced - I've got a Mesa Flux Five for my main non-fuzz dirt, and I've got four different fuzzes: a Sunface, a Tri/Ram Muff, a Scarab Deluxe, and a Trombetta Bone Machine. They all do very different things, and I have uses for all of them, but usually not in the same song, and never at the same time. It's nice to have the options in a jam setting though.

Lately, I've grown weary of having to take that gigantic 45lb board out anytime I want to jam, so I threw together a PT-Nano. It's just got the basics - a phaser, a delay, an overdrive, and a fuzz. I use it with my Egnater 45 on the plexi channel set to a nice plexi crunch tone. I roll back my volume knob when I want clean. I use my overdrive (Rawkworks Light OD, a Klon clone) for more gain, and I use my fuzz (Ramble FX Twin Bender or the Trombetta) for my fuzz tones. It's actually pretty liberating to only have two dirt pedals, it definitely lets me focus more on playing.

 

[Nostalgic Distortion]

Re: How many Drive/Gain/Fuzz/Distortion pedals do you use?

I use a Super Comp. if we are indeed counting compressors, a E-H Soul Food, that's mostly used as a clean boost but sometimes I'll turn up the gain for a Klon kind of grit, it's also been modified with Germanium Diodes, after that I have a MXR Berserker for heavy Overdrive that the Soul Food just can't deliver & finally a Metal Muff as my primary distortion pedal... Sometimes I'll swap out the Berserker with a TS 808 & the Muff with a MXR Fullbore Metal, depending on what amp or amps I'm using & also what music I'm playing @ the time? The Soul Food does a very good job of tricking my tube amps into thinking they are being played much louder than they actually are, so my other dirt pedals will sound better @ lower volumes? Many pedals, many applications for each of them! I also run a bunch of modulation stomp boxes, Flange, Chorus, Phase, Delay, & a Holy Grail so I have a couple of Buffers in there as well to deal with the tone loss from running such a long pedal chain!

 

[TwilightOdyssey]

Re: How many Drive/Gain/Fuzz/Distortion pedals do you use?

I use a Super Comp. if we are indeed counting compressors

Compressors add gain, so they should be counted, as should boost pedals.

My typical chain is usually:

JColoccia Horus > fuzz/drive 1 > fuzz/drive 2 > [modulation] > compressor > echo > boost

It takes a decent amount of work to end up with a tone that's still dynamic and touch-sensitive but also has harmonic richness. Here's an example of what I am talking about: in the clip below, the guitars are using the chain described above plus some other goodies added at the mix phase.



The intro guitar cacaphony is not me, it's a field recording I made at Guitar Center Union Square.

 

[uOpt]

Re: How many Drive/Gain/Fuzz/Distortion pedals do you use?

I have one for LP types (Boss turbo OD with turbo turned off), one for Strat types (BSM HS) and I use a Big Muff (forgot which variant) for the "singing".

However, my amps have as much gain as I want (Shiva, with the ENGL Blackmore probably replacing it) so pedals are not in that great demand.

 

[James Rock]

Re: How many Drive/Gain/Fuzz/Distortion pedals do you use?

5 in total - 3 fuzzes and 2 overdrive/distortions.
The fuzzes are a Joyo Ultimate Octave, A big muff clone and a Boss Hyper FuzzThen a Crazy Cacti OD and a Wampler Pinnacle. I mainly use the Boss pedal as a boost (has a gain boost mode) and the big muff and ultimate octave have pretty different tones. My amp is usually on the edge of crunch which works well with most of these pedals.

 

[Snake Aces]

Re: How many Drive/Gain/Fuzz/Distortion pedals do you use?

I use my amp gain or my big muff Π at the moment. I would consider adding the right overdrive pedal to my setup but I haven't found the right one yet.

 

[Myaccount876]

Re: How many Drive/Gain/Fuzz/Distortion pedals do you use?

I have two, but it is one or the other; I don't mix them. A treble booster and Scarab Fuzz. I would like to add a Bogner Ecstasy dirt pedal and then I think I'd be set. That way I'd have two classic old-school methods of dirt, and one killer, more modern method of dirt.