The Best Overdrive/Distortion/Fuzz Pedal

Andrew Lamprecht

Andrew Lamprecht

Minion of One
What is your pick for the best overdrive/distortion/fuzz pedal?

The pedal that can cover the most styles of music while still sounding great.
 
Re: The Best Overdrive/Distortion/Fuzz Pedal

One of each or one total?

One of each:

-OD: Catalinbread DLS.
-Distortion: MXR Distortion or Keeley DS-1.
-Fuzz: Not qualified to answer. Waiting for TGWIF to answer.

One total:

Catalinbread DLS.
 
Re: The Best Overdrive/Distortion/Fuzz Pedal

Just my opinion of course, based on my limited experience.

OD: Analogman KOT
Distortion: I don't really use a distortion, but the Fulldrive does what I need it to.
Fuzz Face style Fuzz: Analogman Sunface
Big Muff Style Fuzz: Skreddy Zero
2nd Big Muff Style: Earthbound Supercolider
Whacked Out Fuzz: Fuzz Factory
 
Re: The Best Overdrive/Distortion/Fuzz Pedal

What car works for you? ;-)

For me one of the following ...

Screw Driver
Fuzz Head
Huckleberry
Les Luis
Twin Tube Classic
Menatone TBIAC
 
Re: The Best Overdrive/Distortion/Fuzz Pedal

PFDarkside said:
Just my opinion of course, based on my limited experience.

OD: Analogman KOT
Distortion: I don't really use a distortion, but the Fulldrive does what I need it to.
Fuzz Face style Fuzz: Analogman Sunface
Big Muff Style Fuzz: Skreddy Zero
2nd Big Muff Style: Earthbound Supercolider
Whacked Out Fuzz: Fuzz Factory
Click to expand...


If the OP wants one of each, well, in that case, *I* would spend my money on these :

OD - T-Rex Mudhoney
Dist - Subdecay Liquid Sunshine / Radial Tonebone Classic
Muff style fuzz - big box EHX Big Muff / Way Huge Swollen Pickle
Meastro style fuzz - not sure
Fuzz Face style fuzz - Throbak Fuzz Haze
Super Fuzz style fuzz - Watson Classic Fuzz
Tonebender style fuzz - Throbak Stone Bender
Wacked Out style fuzz - Death By Audio Fuzz War / Barge Concepts BP-1


Good Luck !
 
Last edited:
Re: The Best Overdrive/Distortion/Fuzz Pedal

Easy now...

The Watson Classic Fuzz is nothing like a Fuzz Face...it's a near perfect clone of a univox Super Fuzz.

The Throbak Fuzz Haze is based on a Fuzz Face, but IMHO is not one of the best clones out there.

The Throbak Stone Bender is based (very loosely I might add) on a MK II Tonebender but due to all the mods done to make it more versitile it looses a lot of the MK II tone IMHO.
 
Re: The Best Overdrive/Distortion/Fuzz Pedal

the guy who invented fire said:
Easy now...

The Watson Classic Fuzz is nothing like a Fuzz Face...it's a near perfect clone of a univox Super Fuzz.

The Throbak Fuzz Haze is based on a Fuzz Face, but IMHO is not one of the best clones out there.

The Throbak Stone Bender is based (very loosely I might add) on a MK II Tonebender but due to all the mods done to make it more versitile it looses a lot of the MK II tone IMHO.
Click to expand...


I get what you are saying, but i never said they are the best "clone" within each genre, i mearly said that those are the ones I like and the would gladly spend money on !

I know JMI & ColorSound make great fuzz units with in those genres . . .


http://www.jmiamplification.com/

http://www.colorsound.co.uk/product_range.asp?typeID=27&catID=5
 
Re: The Best Overdrive/Distortion/Fuzz Pedal

Well, since Andrew hasn't answered the question yet...as far as is he looking for one or 3 pedals I'll do the best I can...

My fav OD is my Fav distortion pedal these days...the King of Tone v4 High Gain...it does OD and Distortion as well as a killer clean boost plus you can stack the sides for even more tones.

As far as a pedal that sold more as a stand alone distortion pedal the Box of Rock is mega impressive and also have a killer boost feature and I'm also quite fond of older Rat pedals.

If I want to use a more traditional OD pedal the AnalogMan TS-9/808 is really good and is as close as you can get to an 80's TS-808, or better for a LOT less $$$.

As far as fuzz pedals go I am a fuzz junkie but I always find myself coming back to a Fuzz Face...they just react to my playing in a very musical way and are VERY expressive...more expressive than any other fuzz pedal I've found yet.

As for one pedal to cover all these sounds a good Fuzz Face is my answer...if you run the pedal on full fuzz then use your guitars volume control you can get anything from clean to a Keef style grunt to a chunky OD tone to a hard clipped distortion then full out fuzz madness. All of my Fuzz Faces were modded by AnalogMan and do exactally what I am talking about. One of them is the high gain NKT275 and it offers even more shades of grit from cleanish to fuzzy...I have done jams and open mics with just a guitar an amps that the high gain Fuzz Face...I even leave it on all night and control ALL the grit from clean to mean with my guitars volume control.
 
Re: The Best Overdrive/Distortion/Fuzz Pedal

Andrew Lamprecht said:
I was just saying one pedal that could do it all. :D
Click to expand...

If you want a single unit that does OD/Distortion and Fuzz there are few...maybe none...

That Pigtronix Disnortion that looks cool but I hear it's not very good, however it might be worth a look.

If you can learn how to work it, a high gain Fuzz Face clone can do what you are asking...I suggest a Silicon version, either the new blue Hendrix FF from Dunlop or a BC108 Sunface from AnalogMan or if you want the Germanium tone and can handle the issues that come with a Ge fuzz the high gain NKT275 is killer and the UK/TI CV7003 is good also.

Working a Fuzz Face like this requires a lot of work from the player but it is possible...David Gilmour used a Fuzz Face for ALL his overdrive, distorted and fuzzy sounds for a long time.
 
Re: The Best Overdrive/Distortion/Fuzz Pedal

right now i've got two drive pedals which i use for any type of music. one is a modded Vox Satchurator and the other one is a Barber Dirty Bomb. at low gain, the Barber can sound sweet as well! then again, it gets great medium to high tones too. So my vote goes for the Barber Dirty Bomb.
 
Re: The Best Overdrive/Distortion/Fuzz Pedal

Right now I am using the following

MI Audio Crunch Box
Mighty Red Distortion


And like always my taste may change in a few weeks...
 
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