Sophie's Choice

[dave74]

Have you tried the Earthquaker Devices Plumes?

No but I sure hear good things about them. On the other hand I've seen several on local or nearby craigslist ads, which doesn't always mean they're uneventful, sometimes just that there are a lot of them out there.

 

[AdrianSD]

Having just got the new black 40th-A SD-1 a couple months back I'll say this;

I like the fact it barely changes the tone with the knob set to around noon, and even if you set it anywhere between 9:00 and 3:00 it's fairly clear in comparison to the way most screamers add more midrange hump/character to the tone. It juices the feel and ease-of-play without changing the EQ curve as much. More of a broad gentle hump.

What I don't like is that it lacks output when ran in the clean-boost settings or close to them. (0-gain, level-max) With just a bit more output it would be one of the best overdrives for clean-boosting an already saturated amp that you don't want to change too much with the boost.

Yeah, I've actually found it sounds best in an overdriven amp with drive at 8:00. Needs maybe just a little bit more output.

 

[Sirion]

A Boss SD-1 is the only pedal I am using at present (to drive my SC20C). It sounds better than the BD-2 I bought some time back, but I suppose that one would do the same thing, so I can do without the SD.

 

[Securb]

Eventide H9. -I only use it for 2 songs.

No way in hell I could get by without mine.

 

[Metalman_666]

I'd pull my FullDrive 2 MOSFET. It's a beautiful blue and sounds amazing goosing my amp in a loud, live setting,

But I find the FatBoost 3 livens up the dynamics, and gets things nice n' greasy without the blatant mid hump

 

[Liam1963]

My Source Audio Gemini Chorus, love the effect, but could sacrifice it if I had to...

 

[formula73]

Wah.

 

[Aceman]

I could use the Fly Rig as my only rig. The distortion is a little intense for me, but I could get used to it.

Yes - that's nice, but can you REMOVE it from the board!

 

[ErikH]

Tech 21 really needs to make a Fly Rig with a U.S. Metal as the distortion.

Check out the Paul Landers signature Fly Rig. There's more distortion there than anyone should need.

 

[LLL]

Several years ago I got rid of a lot of pedals (15 or so) that were, quite frankly, the typical impulse buys.

And focused on getting stomps that had an important purpose/utility or ones that I would unquestionably use a lot.

So nowadays -

Probably my MXR CAE Line Driver/Boost.

I got it for the utilitarian aspects (good buffer and clean boost in one).

 

[AdrianSD]

Distortion is not a scalar quantity. It is at least a vector.

That's pedantic

 

[AdrianSD]

No its not. Sometimes people talk about a distortion being enough gain or not for a specific style of music, or which one has more gain than the other, as if the character and texture of the gain were not important. The harmonic relationship between the clean sound and the distortion is everything to me, and it informs character and texture far beyond the perceived amount of distortion or gain.

I'm not debating the scientific aspect it here, including the empirical approach to measuring what, how and where in the signal chain, speaker type, placement and what not. From this very perspective I consider it pedantic, what some people consider average others label as intense and the other way around. Very often moving 2-3 feet sideways makes a fizzy distorted riff sound sweet and full. Of course from this perspective the amount of distortion is not a scalar, but there's so much involved in measuring it as vector that the whole discussion becomes too complex.
Oh wait, I sound pedantic...

 

[Aceman]

You are both being sophmoric.