not *another* distortion pedal thread!

G

guymanperson

New member
please help! im pretty sick of constantly not having the right pedal for the right amp. im looking for a quality overdrive/distortion to put in front of my DRz. my keeley SE DS1 sounds reasonably good on all my amps and is my fav thus far but still sounds "pedal like" know what i mean?, that sort of lower register hiss and shudder?

(i dont play metal of any sort)
pedals ive tried :
-reverend drive train II ( ts 808 style od. sounds awsome on the amp it was intended for lacks presence and "hair" on others. gets lost in the mix.)
-turbo rat (unnatural over-the top fuzz distortion, but good at what it does)
-tone bone hot british (thought this was going to be salvation in a box... this pedal sounds like listening to thin lizzy through a crappy radio and then milking it to your amp. has no presence. has basically one gain setting. sounds wicked awsome through a solid state amp. i tried this pedal through a fender twin as well as all the amps below and could never get what i wanted out of it) i am skeptical of tube driven pedals

im looking for a natural and open sounding "crunch" with awsome harmonics, moderate amounts of gain and good string clarity... if that helps at all. my fav distortion sounds are on wilco albums and The Last Waltz DVD

im looking at the Fulltone distortion pro and the fulldrive2 ... any other suggestions? which FT pedal is better? im leaning twords FD2, i will entertian any price range of pedals as long as they work on 9v adapter (our rehersal space is running out of plugs)

thx alot guys sorry for the long post
 
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Re: not *another* distortion pedal thread!

If your Tone Bone sounds bad, you need a different or a new tube in there. I know tone is subjective, but the pedal has plenty of presence.

Buy a Banzai Cold Fusion or a G2D pedal... both are better than the Fulldrive 2 IMHO, however... the Fulldrive is a nice pedal.

Perhaps it's your setup. The jazzmaster and telecaster have single coils so that might be why you aren't getting the drive or the girth that you might get from humbuckers. If you don't like either one of those three pedals, give up the guitar (those three are basically the best around) or just shell out money for an amp that provides distortion.
 
Re: not *another* distortion pedal thread!

id love to give the tonebone another chance but i bought it brand new only 5 months ago and dont see how it could need a new tube.... but il try that . im considering a G2D Classic or custom, what sort of power adapter does it require?

on the pickup topic my guild has a set of 59's btw
 
Re: not *another* distortion pedal thread!

I had problems with the tube in my hot Brit. I have a sovtek in there sounds plenty awesome to me. Though, I'd still like to have a Mesa Road King *smiling fox*
 
Re: not *another* distortion pedal thread!

I highly recomend the G2D pedals! I have the Morpheus pedal, probably a bit over the top for what you are wanting but there classic overdrive or custom pedal would suit your needs perfectly.........
either pedal you'll buy and "never" sell!

Heres the website for all the info in depth.

www.g2d.co.nz
 
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Re: not *another* distortion pedal thread!

the morpheous isnt my style but im still impressed by its sound clips! i cant decide if i like the custom or the classic tones more though
 
Re: not *another* distortion pedal thread!

I just got Barber's new pedal, the LTD, and it may be what you are looking for. All the way up, it sort of has one foot in Thin Lizzy territory and the other in tweed territory. My opinion is based on only twenty minutes or so of use, so I may be able to tell you more later. There are clips on Barber's site and a bunch of info on both the Gear Page Forum (that seems to be down a lot lately) and the Musictoyz.com forum. At least to me, it seems more like the "American" version of the Direct Drive's "British" flavor.

Good luck! You might want to try that Musictoyz forum as it has mucho stompbox discussion.
 
Re: not *another* distortion pedal thread!

The G2D's run on ya standard 9 volt battery, or minijack 9volt power supply.
 
Re: not *another* distortion pedal thread!

the LTD looks nice but seems to lack serious drive also it needs an seperate adapter, however i think i am going to order the G2D classic and see how it works out if not il return it and take a closer look at the barber pedals partucularly the SS drive which sunded cool as well

thx for the help guys :)
 
Re: not *another* distortion pedal thread!

guymanperson said:
id love to give the tonebone another chance but i bought it brand new only 5 months ago and dont see how it could need a new tube.... but il try that . im considering a G2D Classic or custom, what sort of power adapter does it require?

on the pickup topic my guild has a set of 59's btw
Click to expand...

In regards to your Tonebone Hot British pedal you may want to consider trying a lesser gained tube. Mine came stock with a JJ ECC83S and I swapped that out with a JJ ECC81. I'm quite sure that's the tube I put in mine. Whatever tube is the step down from the 83S, that's the one I used. The distortion was'nt so over the top and I like it much better now. A lesser gained tube will also give you more treble but because there is so much variation with the pedals active EQ I've never had a problem.

Disclaimer: Inside the pedal it says to use a 12AX7 tube ONLY!! I e-mailed Radial a few times before I tried the other tube and never got a response from them. I thought, well, let's see what happens. I've been using my pedal with the lesser gained tube for about a year and so far no problem. If you decide to try this you might want to call Radial yourself.
 
Re: not *another* distortion pedal thread!

What version of the Drivetrain II do you have? There's a couple official mods that I think would remedy your issues with the pedal. I bought one right before they discontinued them, and I like it. It's kind of a cross between a TS-808 and a Boss SD-1 IMO.
 
Re: not *another* distortion pedal thread!

guymanperson said:
the LTD looks nice but seems to lack serious drive also it needs an seperate adapter, however i think i am going to order the G2D classic and see how it works out if not il return it and take a closer look at the barber pedals partucularly the SS drive which sunded cool as well

thx for the help guys :)
Click to expand...

You won't regret it.

I own a G2D classic, and it is fantastic. The custom is great too, and more versatile, but after a/b-ing the two at a shop, the classic just sounded more amp-like and raw. After a while, the custom sounded more and more like another fuzzbox, whereas the classic had marshallized the test rig very nicely. I especially recommend it if you like old low to mid gain marshall tone. Real balls in a box.

You can put a transparent overdrive in front of it if you want 80s high gain brown sound tone, or a tube-screamer in front if you want to go Eric Johnson 'violin tone' or older boogie tones, too.
 
Re: not *another* distortion pedal thread!

I've only played the Classic once, for about an hour in a shop.

The one word that sprang to mind?

Marshall
 
Re: not *another* distortion pedal thread!

I have a G2D Custom Overdrive and can't recommend it enough!

When buying the pedal I was torn between either the G2D Custom, G2D Classic or G2D Cream Tone. Eventually I went for the Custom Overdrive because it seemed more versatile than the other 2.

Just my opinion....... :)

Craig
 
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