What's a good overdrive or distortion to use with a strat.

75lespaul

75lespaul

New member
Bone stock single coils but sometimes the tube screamer takes away the "tube" sound (modded TS7, sounds great for leads). I have a Carl Martin plexitone that sounds ungodly with humbuckers but single coils are tubby, rolly, anything you can say to describe horrible. Also have a Marshall Supa Fuzz but that's cool if I'm gonna do like some wacked out Hendrix or American Woman.

Any suggestions for a box that can give me a good rock--I know I won't get metal with stock strat pickups--distortion, if such a thing exists. I'm only recently going the way of the strat after years of humbuckers and I'm learning the ropes :baby:. Thanks everyone.
 
Re: What's a good overdrive or distortion to use with a strat.

Seems like most Fender players use more fuzzes than distortions...try a Big Muff Pi or a Tweak Fuzz or something.

I liked the way my Strat sounded with the stock singles and my un-modded DS-1 but it always sounded pretty thin and buzzy. Never too late to make that Stratty a Fatty and drop your favorite humbucker in the bridge...that way you can get your single coil on and switch to the bridge and overdrive that stuff...when i have my amp cranked, I use the singles as a clean channel and the humbucker as a distortion channel, and i'm chillin...

-X
 
Re: What's a good overdrive or distortion to use with a strat.

I find my G2D Custom Overdrive to be excellent when using single coils.

The keep their character, they're just Overdriven :D

If you want more info then their site is www.g2d.co.nz
 
Re: What's a good overdrive or distortion to use with a strat.

Pro Rat distortion will give strats some good punch. I've heard from posts that using a Duncan PU Booster and the new Duncan tweak fuzz is a great combo.

CoachC
 
Re: What's a good overdrive or distortion to use with a strat.

With the setup in my sig I can get some almost SG type sounds from my Legacy. In fact, using the wah 1/2 way and the J&H, I can do a passable Sweet Child 'o Mine on the neck pickup!! I can't praise the Jekyll & Hyde highly enough.
 
Re: What's a good overdrive or distortion to use with a strat.

I'm pretty in love with my Fulldrive 2. There are a lot of 808-type pedals out there, and all of them are a necessity for a strat player. The Fulldrive 2 is very versatile and has stellar tone. I put a lil' 59 in the bridge of my strat and between that guitar and the Fulldrive I can do almost anything now. . . except for super high gain metal...for that the Mesa needs to be engaged. . . or the Tonebone. . . :D
 
Re: What's a good overdrive or distortion to use with a strat.

The Golden Boy said:
What are you trying to do with it- actually use the OD as the OD for your main guitar sound or the "kick" for a solo?

I'm a pretty big fan of the Barber Direct Drive.

http://www.barberelectronics.com/
Click to expand...

Yes, something to give me a more distorted/overdriven main guitar sound with the stratocasters. My TS7 and Supa Fuzz are fantastic for solos but for the chord crunch they don't sound good. The strats overdrive the amps nicely but of course not like a humbucker. Just looking for something that would get me into the area of say a bridge humbucker through a Marshall (more JCM800) sound. I don't want to change the bridge to a humbucker because I love the sound for some things and I don't want to change the look either.
 
Re: What's a good overdrive or distortion to use with a strat.

I'm a fan of putting a compressor before a fuzz just to fatten things up a tiny bit. Sometimes it can get kinda too compressed/woofy if you don't tweak but I think this is the way to go with single coils. I always hated Hendrix's live overdriven tone because its just floppy/open and thin sounding. I like my gain two ways: fat,tight and raw for just good old rock and long and smooth sounding with a lot of sustain.
 
Re: What's a good overdrive or distortion to use with a strat.

Boss DS-1 for everything from Led Zepplin to Joe Satriani from a Strat.

Or the Fulltone '69 for the ultimate in Hendrix tone.

Or the Duncan Pickup Booster...probably the most transparent and versatile of the three pedals I mentioned.

Lew
 
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Re: What's a good overdrive or distortion to use with a strat.

I use a G2D Classic overdrive. The new Vox Cooltron Big Ben od is pretty cool, too.
 
Re: What's a good overdrive or distortion to use with a strat.

75lespaul said:
Yes, something to give me a more distorted/overdriven main guitar sound with the stratocasters. My TS7 and Supa Fuzz are fantastic for solos but for the chord crunch they don't sound good. The strats overdrive the amps nicely but of course not like a humbucker. Just looking for something that would get me into the area of say a bridge humbucker through a Marshall (more JCM800) sound. I don't want to change the bridge to a humbucker because I love the sound for some things and I don't want to change the look either.
Click to expand...
I got the Barber pedal because I had a 66 Showman that was really cool, but it wouldn't do what I wanted it to do. I did a lot of searching around for a pedal that sounded like good tube overdrive- but didn't compress, and was relatively dynamic to the touch. The Barber was the closest I could find but it still didn't do the trick. For what I got it for, it failed miserably- taking a clean amp and making it sound like an naturally overdriven amp. I still haven't found a pedal that accurately does that. HOWEVER... The Barber does an amazing job at giving a nice overdriven sound, it doesn't squash your tone, it augments a natural overdrive really nicely, it's not "woofy," and it is responsive to your attack.
 
Re: What's a good overdrive or distortion to use with a strat.

+1 on boss ds-1, to get the nice od tone you just crank the output level and decrease the gain.
 
Re: What's a good overdrive or distortion to use with a strat.

Brow said:
I find my G2D Custom Overdrive to be excellent when using single coils.

The keep their character, they're just Overdriven :D

If you want more info then their site is www.g2d.co.nz
Click to expand...

+1 :bigthumb: G2D absolutely rock. For SRV tone get the Creamtone, but the Custom Overdrive is definitely a goer if you want more distortion.
 
Re: What's a good overdrive or distortion to use with a strat.

I really need to try the Pickup Booster.
 
Re: What's a good overdrive or distortion to use with a strat.

stevie_bees said:
I really need to try the Pickup Booster.
Click to expand...

I'm bringing mine to UGD at the weekend :D
 
Re: What's a good overdrive or distortion to use with a strat.

Brow said:
I'm bringing mine to UGD at the weekend :D
Click to expand...
Cool, I'm intrigued to hear how it'll react with my Legacy.
 
Re: What's a good overdrive or distortion to use with a strat.

Is that Boss DS-1 good in its stock form or does it need a mod? i've been reading some horrible review on it, expecially the Taiwan models. Supposedly the Japanese model (older ones) are pretty good.
 
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