Your favorite distortion pedal?

AMT SS-20, not sure if it counts for what you asked as this is a tube based preamp in pedal but it is indeed installed in my pedalboard. I don't even use my overdrive/distortion pedals anymore (Plimsoul, SuperOverdrive, PowerStack). 90% of the time I am in the crunch channel which has enough gain for me and just change between Charvel with humbuckers and the Strat with single coils and it works great for both and good for clean sounds with volume roll back. Some times I may just add a bit of a clean boost with the Strat if I want high gain sounds with that guitar. I know internet people love it for the lead channel for the extreme metal but for me it is the crunch channel where the magic lives for some blues, classic rock/metal. I get it, it may not sound like a real high gain marshall but it sounds good enough for me, costs less, and my rig is light and simple because I also use a solid state power amp.
 
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I gotta do another honorable mention for the cheap-ass Arion Tubulator. MF blew these out for $10 at one time. They sound great for what they do. I still have mine.
 
My favorite of all time? Definitely the Boss HM-2.

That said, it's my favorite because it's still the best way to get a very specific sound. If I had to replace all of my tube amps with a clean amp and a single pedal, I'd probably go with a Wampler Pinnacle.
 
Did I already reply?

-The EHX Allied Overdrive! :)

It functions both as a nice, crunchy "crunch" pedal, a preamp, an EQ, a clean boost- a slight sparkle and chime-
with a seperate "boost" footswitch, that engages a mosFET overdrive; for a ton of saturation.

It has a "blend" knob for 0-100% wet signal,

and has it's spot behind my Blackstar HT-20, to up the midrange, kick up the OD channel a notch;- to give me the crunchy, middy, singing lead & rhythm tone. That the amplifier cannot deliver alone.

Also I can use it on the clean channel, just to add some very beautiful and subtle sparkle and chime.

(I almost need two of these, set up for different uses!) :)

5/5 in my book... I reccommend it to everyone!

-Erlend ♪
 
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Currently use OD pedal and amp gain but when I used Distortion Pedal my favorite was Radial Tonebone Hot British. I would get the Plexitube 2 channel version though if I could only use a single pedal
 
Right now mine is the EHX Tortion. It has an additional stage with more gain for boost, and an always-on cabinet simulation as part of the XLR DI. Depending on your tastes with EQ, you might even find it usable as a three channel amp replacement.
 

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It's not actually on my board yet but I've been playing with a Homebrew Electronics Big D a lot lately.

That thing covers so much ground it absurd. Anywhere from a nearly clean boost to a light OD, to mid-gain push to heavy, amp-like distortion to Marshall probably going to burst into flames to compressed fuzz.

​​​​​​​It's really well built too.
 
Was playing this last weekend. If you kick in both sides, it gets kind of mean.
3d717bde924bb1d2cf5d46a26b339a8b.jpg


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If I took my old Fender to a blues/rock type gig I take my green pedal. (actually I'd take two of 'em if allowed.) For anything requiring more gain my Switchblade or Marshall have more than enough variety but I'd still want my one (or two) green pedals just 'cause they always seem to come in handy when I just need a little more for one reason or another.
 
Edgecrusher said:
You know i used to feel exactly the way you do, then I realized that not only am I just a fan of dirt, all kinds of dirt, that many of my most beloved tones were created with pedals. No amp sounds like a rat or a big muff. I no longer discriminate because dirt comes out of a box or doesn't come from a tube.
Click to expand...

We both share the love for a good distortion then! I love a good distortion box, owned a couple of great ones but I just never found any that stayed on my board. The amp+od pedal always sounds better to me. By better I mean richer in harmonics, more open/ lesss compressed, touch sensitive, lower noise floor etc. I'ts hard to find the right words but for me the difference is not even close.
Maybe it's the way I like to set things up that makes it work that way for me? Right now my rig is simple yet versatile: Boss GT-1, OCD, Klon, Tuner. The klon works great with my Marshall and the OCD with my Mesa.

Great Distortion pedals I owned in the past and loved: Rocktron Silver Dragon, Keeley Triple Wreck, Mesa V-Twin, T-Rex Mudhoney. TC Dark Matter.
 
I gotta share my love for the Marshall Guv'nor/DriveMaster. Love sending that into an amp that's already crunching a little bit and adding a MXR 10 band EQ.
 
FuseG4 said:


Either of these. Left is a lm308 rat.
I like it used with low gain and high level to push a slightly crunchy amp but that's cuz I use it on tandem with bd-2 sometimes for lead boost. The filter has a wide range and plenty of gain available if you have a clean amp. Sounds 80s to me and has great mids, higher mids and just more agro than tube screamer, but with a healthy bass cut to keep things from being a mess

Bd-2 already mentioned above, I concur. Tons of volume boost, can be used for a almost fuzzy sound with gain up Cleans up great, tone knob pretty useful
Little bass cut but not as much as ts

JCM mod ds-1 is pretty good at giving clean amps a marshall flavor. Won't fool any purists but surprisingly good at putting in "bite" and "british flavor", without too much gain. Insane value. Loves tube screamer in front.
Click to expand...

THIS is a sweet combo...
 
Demanic said:
Was playing this last weekend. If you kick in both sides, it gets kind of mean.
3d717bde924bb1d2cf5d46a26b339a8b.jpg


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Click to expand...

See....I get the Comp with the Strat. But that other abomination combination, just no.

By the way - can you hit return so the comments are UNDER the picture? I realize asking almost guarantees never, but I have to try.
 
Aceman said:
See....I get the Comp with the Strat. But that other abomination combination, just no.

By the way - can you hit return so the comments are UNDER the picture? I realize asking almost guarantees never, but I have to try.
Click to expand...
"Other abomination combination" ? What in the hell are you talking about? The Twin boost? It's two overdrives in one box. One based on the 808 and the other on the TS-9. With true bypass. Into a low powered tube amp on the edge of break up. What's not to like?
And it seriously bothers you that the comments are above the photo?
You may want to put some of your psche training to work on yourself.

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