On the hunt for a new Distortion pedal...

[Loserchief]

title basicly says it all.
I've been changing several points in my gear and i now want to get some classy distortion pedal. i currently opwn a Line 6 Über metal and a Boss DS-1 and i had a marshall jackhammer for some time but not anymore. All of them were good reliable pedals but were lacking at some point. The Line 6 has gain beyond any boundaries but can sound fake sometimes. The DS-1 jsut sounds a bit weak and emotionless at times. And the Jackhammer was abit to vintagey for me.
So now i'm looking for a new one that can do the trick better than my former ones.
A pedal that really caught my eye is the Rocktron Silver Dragon(two channels with a 12AX7 tube in there). The clip on their homepage sounds killer and the overall reviews on HC sound cool. So if anyone has experience with it please share it with me.
Otherwise i'm open to suggestions. i considered the Vox Bulldog(also a tube in there) but it goes out of my budget. Same goes for the Fulltone stuff.
Keep the pedals coming!

 

[jeremy]

Re: On the hunt for a new Distortion pedal...

ive tried those vox pedals with the tubes and i didnt think they were all that great. the new duncan twin tube pedal may fit what you are looking for if you want tube tone.
the most economical thing would probably be to have your ds1 modded.

i havent tried the silver dragon

 

[Nightburst]

Re: On the hunt for a new Distortion pedal...

The Silver Dragon is a great Distortion pedal!
I bought it so can use it as an OD to boost my amp and as a Distortion for the times I play through a SS amp. It's quite versatile and has a huge bottom end! It'll sound good no matter what amp you're playing through.

It's rather noisy and I have some feedback issuses but that might have to do something with it being 2nd hand. I'm having it checked and modded soon to make it less noisy and to get more flexibility out of the gain control. I'd like it to clean up a little better with the gain backed down.

It does light crunch well but this pedal really shines when playing with high gain, I swear that few pedals will get you that 'recto in a box' sound.
Don't worry if that's not your cup of tea, you can shift the clipping signal with a control knob to get a sharper/blunter kind of distortion. The unit is rather scooped in it's eq but you can always dial in more mids from the amp.

The pedal has 2 channels: first one is claimed to be an all tube circuit but there's a LED behind the tube to make it look like it's glowing more. It does glow but very lightly, my guess is that the pedal uses the tube as a clipping section or something. (I'll leave that to the experts since I'm just starting to learn the basics of pedals and modding) Nevertheless the pedal does sound fuller/warmer than my other SS od pedals (which I have modded to sound fuller/warmer).
You can dial in light crunch to Distortion and everything inbetween. Control layout is simple: Bass, Treble, Gain, Volume.

The 2nd channel adds a SS gain stage over the ''tube'' circuit to make it more 'edgy' and 'heavy' sounding, this is where you'll get brutal metal sounds out of it or it'll function as a good solo boost. You can control the way the distortion is generated with 'intensity' (amount of SS clipping you add) and 'breath' (which acts as a bright control).

Anyway, I'll see if I can record you a quick clip, it sounds much better than the soundclip from the site. (Then again I changed the tube)

 

[drpietrzak]

Re: On the hunt for a new Distortion pedal...

I like the Silver Dragon. It is the only pedal that has stayed in my board over the last year.

 

[fretburner]

Re: On the hunt for a new Distortion pedal...

does the silver dragon come with a 13-volt 220v adaptor? or do you have to purchase that separately?

 

[Jonny R]

Re: On the hunt for a new Distortion pedal...

Another good option is the G2D Morpheus.

www.g2d.co.nz

 

[Loserchief]

Re: On the hunt for a new Distortion pedal...

@ Jeremy: getting the DS-1 modded is something i just can't justify money-wise. I got the pedal used for 20€ and it's beat to hell now. getting it modded would include shipping it around and paying for the mod itself. It's just not worth it on a pedal in the condition it is in imo. But thanks for the idea.

@ Nightburst: Thanks,cool review. Made me want a Silver Dragon even more. A clip would be way cool and very apreciated.

@ fretburner: The Dragon comes with the adaptor included.

@ Jonny R: The Morpheus sounded quite cool but clip-wise i liked the Dragon more and i can get a dragon for far less than those pedals(no need to import it from NZ). Thanks anyway.

 

[Loserchief]

Re: On the hunt for a new Distortion pedal...

So my hunt is over now...got my Rocktron Silver Dragon today and i love it! So while i'm at it i'll combine my rave with a little review.

Built like a tank and probably not easy to destroy, maybe with a buzzsaw it could be easy but i'm talking about normal use here. Everything seems well manufactured and solid.Looks cool with the glowing orange led behind the tube to indicate it's on.
To clear up some misconceptiosn on Harmony central: The tube in there is running, integrated into the circuit and it will make a difference if you change it. Pedal had the same problem as my ibanez Valbee. The stock POS chinese tube made it sound alittle harsh and bland but swapping it out for a JJ ECC803s sorted that out and smoothed/warmed up the sound. Changing the tube is a pain since you basically have to take the whole pedal apart in order to do it.
True bypass without any coloration of the clean tone = nice
The Awaken channel basically is a tubescreamer with a 12AX7 tube to drive it(resulting in warmer sound with more bottom end than the original) and some additional gain reserves. Very powerful and warm sound with strong and tight bass. Very cool if you ask me.
Kicking in the additional slayer-mode is where it gets real funny. Engageing it will layer the tube sound with addtional heavy solid state distortion and will give you basically a recto in a box(nightburst's words from his review above are dead on). Over the top distortion with the same fullness and warmth, and the breath knob is actually very cool. It makes the distortion assymetrical if you turn it up and will produce more harmonics and such and also it gives everything a more in-your-face kind of attitude(great feature). if you really want it to you can get actual fuzz out of the slayer mode but more like ultra modern industrial fuzz that won't even remotely sound vintage(think a bit like rammstein).
Could need a bit more mids in the basic eq but that can be solved through the amps eq or another pedal. Unlike nightburst i don't even have the slightest noise and feedback problems.

 

[Gearjoneser]

Re: On the hunt for a new Distortion pedal...

Thanks for the review. It sounds like you chose the best possible tube for that pedal....the JJ ECC803S is JJ's best pre tube.

 

[Nightburst]

Re: On the hunt for a new Distortion pedal...

So my hunt is over now...got my Rocktron Silver Dragon today and i love it! So while i'm at it i'll combine my rave with a little review.

Built like a tank and probably not easy to destroy, maybe with a buzzsaw it could be easy but i'm talking about normal use here. Everything seems well manufactured and solid.Looks cool with the glowing orange led behind the tube to indicate it's on.
To clear up some misconceptiosn on Harmony central: The tube in there is running, integrated into the circuit and it will make a difference if you change it. Pedal had the same problem as my ibanez Valbee. The stock POS chinese tube made it sound alittle harsh and bland but swapping it out for a JJ ECC803s sorted that out and smoothed/warmed up the sound. Changing the tube is a pain since you basically have to take the whole pedal apart in order to do it.
True bypass without any coloration of the clean tone = nice
The Awaken channel basically is a tubescreamer with a 12AX7 tube to drive it(resulting in warmer sound with more bottom end than the original) and some additional gain reserves. Very powerful and warm sound with strong and tight bass. Very cool if you ask me.
Kicking in the additional slayer-mode is where it gets real funny. Engageing it will layer the tube sound with addtional heavy solid state distortion and will give you basically a recto in a box(nightburst's words from his review above are dead on). Over the top distortion with the same fullness and warmth, and the breath knob is actually very cool. It makes the distortion assymetrical if you turn it up and will produce more harmonics and such and also it gives everything a more in-your-face kind of attitude(great feature). if you really want it to you can get actual fuzz out of the slayer mode but more like ultra modern industrial fuzz that won't even remotely sound vintage(think a bit like rammstein).
Could need a bit more mids in the basic eq but that can be solved through the amps eq or another pedal. Unlike nightburst i don't even have the slightest noise and feedback problems.

Cool! Glad you like it! It's a geat pedal indeed, I agree about the tube changing thing but while I was taking it apart anyway I installed some blue led's for fun. Really nice! I don't have pics yet but will post them soon!
Does your pedal have the TI chip too? This is one of the best stock pedals out there and affordable too!
Clips coming up!