Looking for gain pedals is stressful.

Re: Looking for gain pedals is stressful.

Diego said:
Nope, I've got a regular Jackhammer. I don't like that you can't boost the mids, just cut them.
Also it could have a usable distortion side like you said.
Also I hate the cluttered controls. But it sounds amazing in front of everything I've tried with it.

A underrated pedal that IMO beats the crap out of every distortion pedal Boss has ever released.
Click to expand...

Ah I see, my rig is really mid heavy so I'd have to reason to boost the mids. There's a couple forum members that modded the distortion side to reduce gain and bass, but I haven't tried it yet. I agree, it's a beautiful pedal, and I picked it up for $30, which is the best part Haha
 
Re: Looking for gain pedals is stressful.

"Gain = the amplification of a signal, with or without distortion."
"Gain and distortion are related, but not the same"

Do you want extra distortion on top of the distortion the amp creates? (Fuzz or distortion)
Do you need an extra channel? (OD on the clean channel)
Same sound but louder? (Clean boost or a dual MV amp)
Etc.


Let's not forget to ask what gear you have and what you actually or specifically want to achieve.
It could well be that you end up with a totally unrelated pedal which allows you to achieve what you want. (An EQ pedal or sustain for instance or even a simple volume pedal...)


Related question:
What is the best car?
 
Re: Looking for gain pedals is stressful.

Gotta be honest I'm using dirt pedals less and less so I doubt this will be useful. Anyhow I was using an mxr gt-od into my amp clean, switching between the two for clean and drive tones, then using a Seymour pickup booster or the od, or both together for leads.

Now I am running the amp at a dirty clean/driven sound, using volume controls on the guitar for cleans and I much prefer the pickup booster for leads over the gt-od which I have barely touched for the past few gigs. After racking my brains trying different things I do prefer the simplicity. That said it may not work in all.applications, but then again I would opt for a twin channel amp over an od in those cases. Keep messing around, that's my advice!
 
Re: Looking for gain pedals is stressful.

Get an old Ibanez Metal Charger, snip clip diode 3 to 5.....that will improve the volume and range of that thing(almost the same as the old SM-9)....
Plus it is cheap, Japanese and proven to work for more than one year ;)
 
Re: Looking for gain pedals is stressful.

I found it. I found the one for me.

I was playing around in a store today, and I decided to try the one Wampler pedal I hadn't tried, the Velvet fuzz. Within about 5 minutes of plugging it in I decided 'yup, this is it, this is the tone I want'. I even played a few other fuzz pedals and other drives after it, but I couldn't shake the feeling I got from that one pedal.

Now.. it's just time to save up a bit. I'm actually unsure of if I want to buy it here in the UK at all, as its about 250 in Canada, and about 350 here with the exchange rate.
 
Re: Looking for gain pedals is stressful.

Tube based pedals, or preamp pedals that plug in the FX return of an actual amp. Even better tube based preamp pedals? AMT, ADA, Vox, ISP, Tech 21, maybe Bogner?
 
Re: Looking for gain pedals is stressful.

TimmyPage said:
I found it. I found the one for me.

I was playing around in a store today, and I decided to try the one Wampler pedal I hadn't tried, the Velvet fuzz. Within about 5 minutes of plugging it in I decided 'yup, this is it, this is the tone I want'. I even played a few other fuzz pedals and other drives after it, but I couldn't shake the feeling I got from that one pedal.

Now.. it's just time to save up a bit. I'm actually unsure of if I want to buy it here in the UK at all, as its about 250 in Canada, and about 350 here with the exchange rate.
Click to expand...

Joe Gore's fuzz pedal?
 
Re: Looking for gain pedals is stressful.

TimmyPage said:
I found it. I found the one for me.

I was playing around in a store today, and I decided to try the one Wampler pedal I hadn't tried, the Velvet fuzz. Within about 5 minutes of plugging it in I decided 'yup, this is it, this is the tone I want'. I even played a few other fuzz pedals and other drives after it, but I couldn't shake the feeling I got from that one pedal.

Now.. it's just time to save up a bit. I'm actually unsure of if I want to buy it here in the UK at all, as its about 250 in Canada, and about 350 here with the exchange rate.
Click to expand...
Happy to hear that you found one that works for you. Sorry to hear that it's that expensive. That said, now that you've found "the one", don't compromise for something else.
 
Re: Looking for gain pedals is stressful.

Let me know what you think of Kollmanation. It has definitely intrigued me and I'm biased towards amp gain. Kollman is a hell of a guitarist, easily one of my favourite contemporary players.

 
Re: Looking for gain pedals is stressful.

TimmyPage said:
I found it. I found the one for me.

I was playing around in a store today, and I decided to try the one Wampler pedal I hadn't tried, the Velvet fuzz. Within about 5 minutes of plugging it in I decided 'yup, this is it, this is the tone I want'. I even played a few other fuzz pedals and other drives after it, but I couldn't shake the feeling I got from that one pedal.

Now.. it's just time to save up a bit. I'm actually unsure of if I want to buy it here in the UK at all, as its about 250 in Canada, and about 350 here with the exchange rate.
Click to expand...

How was the BIG/TIGHT switch and also the pedals ability to clean up with the volume knob or playing dynamics?
 
Re: Looking for gain pedals is stressful.

zenmindbeginner said:
How was the BIG/TIGHT switch and also the pedals ability to clean up with the volume knob or playing dynamics?
Click to expand...

I will say that the playing dynamics aren't the best, I've tried fuzzes that clean up better than this, but I think that's symptomatic of the pedal trying to emulate the full signal chain of a fuzz into a cranked EL34 amp. It's certainly the best low volume fuzz I've ever tried though (doesn't get super raspy or farty at lower volumes). The Tight/Big switch was pretty cool, tight sounds kind of like a fuzz face and the big is more into some kind of Big Muff territory. I only had a few hours to play around with it in a store though, I'm going to need to do a lot of saving once I start working again to afford it, so your mileage may vary if you had the opportunity to take one home and mess around with it.

My girlfriend joked that by the time I've saved up I'll want something totally different so... expect this same thread in a month or two!
 
Re: Looking for gain pedals is stressful.

Just try the classics first: RAT, Distortion +, DOD 250, Tubescreamer, DS-1 for example.
Then decide which one's for you and decide wether you want it to have more options or not. For example the Earthquaker Devices White Light is based of a Distortion + and DOD 250, but has some more options that could be thing that you wish your original had.
Nothing hard about it, just have a solid battle plan.
 
Re: Looking for gain pedals is stressful.

I really like the sound of the Kollmanation compared to the Tube Screamer and Pandora in that vid.
 
Re: Looking for gain pedals is stressful.

I like the OCD, especially with an 18v power supply, but I use it mainly as a boost on my Boogie MkV. Btw, has anyone on here tried one of the Mesa pedals with the Mk series 5-band EQ sliders? Something like the Flux Five or Throttle Box w/EQ. Might be just the thing for the O.P.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top