What is the worst med-gain distortion pedal out there ?

[SirJackdeFuzz]

We always ask what is your fav ? . . . or, what wil go best with ABC-amp, and, and, and.

But lets swing it the other way 'round.

What would you say is the ugliest/worst sounding dist. box out there.

Excl. Fuzz boxes & those High Gain Metal Zone type pedals, and and and !

So, to your ears what do you dislike the most ?

 

[Inder_Cine_Mann]

Re: What is the worst med-gain distortion pedal out there ?

I hated the Boss Mega Distortion. Played it for 5 minutes thru a Class 5 (an amp that handles pedals very nicely)

I dunno, sounded dull and boring

 

[TwilightOdyssey]

Re: What is the worst med-gain distortion pedal out there ?

The worst one is the one that will not give you the sound you need when you need it. Price, brand, etc, are all subjective and irrelevant.

 

[PFDarkside]

Re: What is the worst med-gain distortion pedal out there ?

Boss OS-2! Blech!

 

[dominus]

Re: What is the worst med-gain distortion pedal out there ?

The worst one is *any* of the medium gain pedals out there. They just don't have enough distortion for what I need.

 

[everdrone]

Re: What is the worst med-gain distortion pedal out there ?

fifteen years ago I was using a multi-fx pedal from boss called the ME-30 into my solid state practice amp. It did the trick for my style of spaced out effects laden metal, but ya that really lacked tone!!!

now for home quiet jam use I use my recabinet IR impulses and either:

1) my keeley modded proco rat distortion into my tech 21 oxford pedal orange amp modeler

or

2) amplitube rig

nothing beats my ORANGE THUNDERVERB 50 RIG FOR ME THOUGH!!!

:headbang:

 

[SirJackdeFuzz]

Re: What is the worst med-gain distortion pedal out there ?

The worst one is *any* of the medium gain pedals out there. They just don't have enough distortion for what I need.

Fair enough

 

[everdrone]

Re: What is the worst med-gain distortion pedal out there ?

super high gain rigs? a good amount of times they are hard for the sound guy to mix and hard for guys with full stacks to dial in cause they get so excited about the fizz (no one on this forum ). I have seen a ton of extreme metal live shows, and a good amount of times I could not even decipher what if any notes the guitarist was playing really, just a fizz noise caught up somewhere in the drumming unfortunately

 

[Chickenwings]

Re: What is the worst med-gain distortion pedal out there ?

 

[hydro]

Re: What is the worst med-gain distortion pedal out there ?

Oh, Boss DS-1 easy.

Nasal, buzzy, sux tone, kills bass and really adds nothing good to compensate.

My bass player wanted to take it to the shooting range once I gave it up. I hear that people mod them and it really improves them, but I think I ended up actually throwing mine out since it was only worth about $10 used anyway.

 

[FuseG4]

Re: What is the worst med-gain distortion pedal out there ?

still have my stock DS-1...
there are is a relative "sweet spot" on the tone knob that cuts down on the fizzyness which is the part I dislike about the pedal the most. But it's a very narrow spot on the dial and it's of course gonna depend on the rest of your rig, your playing, and your taste. I can really see why the stock ds-1 gets a bad rap. It's pretty bad.
It's cool for one thing and one thing only (IMO), for a nasty grunge tone in front of a tube amp. I don't think the pedal is good if you want anything "refined" sounding at all. Having the level knob set to boost the amp input is how I like it as my DRRI just won't give me those levels of crunch without a pedal. For me it was worth the $.
Sounds a lot better in front of my DRRI than in front of my OR15. The OR15 has plenty of gain by itself though so I don't use it there.

 

[MetalManiac]

Re: What is the worst med-gain distortion pedal out there ?

Without question the Bad Monkey. People who want to find a good cheap pedal rave about it, but its aweful.
I also had MXR Distortion + Custom shop and it was the worst pedal Ive ever heard....made the Mad Bunk-y sound like Klon Centaur.

 

[FuseG4]

Re: What is the worst med-gain distortion pedal out there ?

I had a Digitech Hot Rod distortion.

Imagine a proco rat, a ds-1, and a modded fuzz face in one pedal. Sounds OK right? Now add a morph knob that lets you dial tones that are a mix of those. Actually it's starting to sound rather useful.
Now add a cabinet sim for DI use. Still ok right?

OK now make it digital so you can't really run other pedals in front of it without sounding like ass. In addition to just making it digital, lets say we make it digital and fizzy, and messy/blurry. Related also to being digital, let's go ahead and let it eat batteries at a rate of 1 per 24 hours if you leave the lead plugged into the input. Starting to sound worse...

Let's make the cab sim very boxy.

Now just cheap out on the switch mechanism and there you have the worst one I've owned.

 

[Andrew Lamprecht]

Re: What is the worst med-gain distortion pedal out there ?

The Bad Monkey is good, the DS-1 is use-able. I actually got some great tones with it before, the hot rod is decent. I think it just depends on your rig.

 

[rashayritto]

Re: What is the worst med-gain distortion pedal out there ?

those 5 dollar (or something that cheap) DanElectro FAB pedals that came out some years ago. First pedals I ever owned when learning

 

[dr. ad]

Re: What is the worst med-gain distortion pedal out there ?

all of them.

 

[Phantasmagoria]

Re: What is the worst med-gain distortion pedal out there ?

This actually was my very first distortion pedal. The video is hilarious, but the truth is I never really remember managing to get it to sound anywhere near as 'good' as it does here...






Mine looked like this one though.. (they're the same thing, I think..)

 

[Jocelyn]

Re: What is the worst med-gain distortion pedal out there ?

I used to rave about the Bad Monkey. I still think it has nice tones if you are in a budget. I enjoyed using it, and still do. But I wont recommend it any more and I dont think it is fair to compare it to Ibanez TS. The casing is built well. The problem is inside. Mine all of a sudden does not go to bypass mode It either gets switched on or totally off. I guess you get what you pay for.

 

[JeffB]

Re: What is the worst med-gain distortion pedal out there ?

I like an old stock DS1. Gary Moores best tones ever were an old DS1 into his JMP and 800 1959s.

My modded DS1, a MXR Badass 78, drives me nuts. They have shifted the EQ and upped gain which makes it sound worse. I use it, but I can think of a bunch of pedals I would rather have in it's place.

 

[Johnny the Kid]

Re: What is the worst med-gain distortion pedal out there ?

Oh, Boss DS-1 easy.

Nasal, buzzy, sux tone, kills bass and really adds nothing good to compensate.

My bass player wanted to take it to the shooting range once I gave it up. I hear that people mod them and it really improves them, but I think I ended up actually throwing mine out since it was only worth about $10 used anyway.

That was my choice. For sure there are uses for nearly any pedal, and depending on what your doing depends on what you need. The Boss DS-1 does not add anything useful but sure as hell costs in tone.