Distortion Pedals

Pickups, pedals, amps, cabs, combos

Moderated By: mods

Which distortion pedal is the best?

DS-1
0
No votes
DS-2
4
11%
Little Big Muff
7
18%
Proco Rat
9
24%
Fab Distortion
1
3%
Other
17
45%
 
Total votes: 38
a66jagdream
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Post by a66jagdream »

i useds to have a rat vintage reissue and i didnt like it so either get the rat 2 or muff, i kinda like the mxr distortion but not very versatile
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Aug
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Post by Aug »

I has a digitech grunge pedal and I love it.
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DeadPenny
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Post by DeadPenny »

D.O.D. Grunge? bah! seriously, check out one of the variations of the Electro Harmonix Metal Muffs. it can do that light drive kind of deal, or it can do the ball-crushing, i-want-to-eat-your-babies kind of distortion. whatever you want.

or since you're running a solidstate amp, try checking out the Seymour Duncan Twin Tube Classic. it will really beef up your sound and it gives you two channels to dial in for two different sounds. or you could set it up for the same distortion, but one with a volume boost.

either way, two kick ass pedals. check them out and think about it.
Being in love, I've found, is a lot like working at a factory - eventually, you get replaced by either a foreigner or a machine...
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Nick
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Post by Nick »

Fender Blender.

Harsh. But fucking awesome.
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Mike
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Post by Mike »

Aug wrote:I has a digitech grunge pedal and I love it.
Yeah but you like.. don't even have an amp.
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Gandalf
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Post by Gandalf »

^ thats silly?
Johno
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Post by Johno »

euan wrote:Marshall Drivemaster off eBay.

Three band EQ FTW
+1
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Tweez
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Post by Tweez »

Aug wrote:I has a digitech grunge pedal and I love it.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1oyYFQYm5Nw
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ElCapitan
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Post by ElCapitan »

lamp wrote:I've got a Big Muff Pi and a Fab Overdrive on my pedalboard, and I have to say that I use the Fab loads more than the Muff. For ?15 I'd seriously think about getting one of them, even if you get something else as well. Guess it really boils down to what kind of sound you want.
Lamp, what amp do you use? Mines a dark-as-fuck big ass solid-state combo and the FAB is unusable through it, it just sounds way too muddy whereas with the Big Muff I can tons of trebley bite that the FAB lacks.
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Mike
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Post by Mike »

Mike wrote:Did you listen to my pedal samples through my Crate Power Block? That's SS and could be a good reference, the RAT2 and FAB Overdrive and Distortion are on there.
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Gandalf
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Post by Gandalf »

Tweez wrote:
Aug wrote:I has a digitech grunge pedal and I love it.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1oyYFQYm5Nw
i know!!!
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Thom
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Post by Thom »

ElCapitan wrote:
lamp wrote:I've got a Big Muff Pi and a Fab Overdrive on my pedalboard, and I have to say that I use the Fab loads more than the Muff. For ?15 I'd seriously think about getting one of them, even if you get something else as well. Guess it really boils down to what kind of sound you want.
Lamp, what amp do you use? Mines a dark-as-fuck big ass solid-state combo and the FAB is unusable through it, it just sounds way too muddy whereas with the Big Muff I can tons of trebley bite that the FAB lacks.
I've got an Orange Rockerverb 50 head with 2x12 cab.
I used to use it through my Marshall Valvestate as well, and I thought it sounded pretty good through that too.
I do agree with you though, it's not the most trebly pedal, and I always have the tone turned up full.
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aphasiac
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Post by aphasiac »

I'd like to give the Marshall Gov'nor some love..

Not sure how the vintage ones sound, but I have one of the new reissues (GV-2 Guv'nor+) which have a 4 band EQ (deep/bass/mids/treble).

people call the RAT2 the "marshall in a box" pedal, but i can tell you, the new Guv'nor uses the exact same distortion circuit as my Marshall Valvestate - it sounds EXACTLY the same (actually it's better - the tone is alot thicker and lacks all the horrible high overtones from that stupid tube in the valvestate preamp).

Easily the most "natural" distortion pedal ive used, and can turn any of my amps into a Marshall - my only complaint is it could do with a little bit more gain.
Last edited by aphasiac on Wed Feb 21, 2007 12:59 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Post by aphasiac »

euan wrote:And if everyone is going to say Big Muff, I'll say Graphic Fuzz. That can get it's Muff on if you want it to.
Also consider Zoom Ultrafuzz. It has 2 fuzz circuits based around the faceface and big muff, blendable with the "color" knob.

With "color" all the way to the right and "tone" on about 3, you get a very VERY good big muff impression.

of course by playing the with the "color" and "tone" knobs you can get a HUGE array of sounds - with "color" all the way to the left and "tone" on 0 it can even sound like a regular distortion pedal!

plus it has a knob which makes the whole pedal self-ocillate - which is fun :P
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Doog
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Post by Doog »

I miss mine :(

I'm hoping Hurb will see me it back when I've got money to fritter away on such luxuries.
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Fran
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Post by Fran »

What kind of sound you after malik? Namedrop.
A lot of them pedals only cover a certain ammount of ground, as much as people hate them the marshall guvnor and Boss MT-2 do offer quite a lot considering the onboard EQ.
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aphasiac
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Post by aphasiac »

Fran wrote:What kind of sound you after malik? Namedrop.
yeh actually i was thinking..

If RAT2 is such a good pedal, can anyone name a few songs i can hear one used on? Surely a few bands have based their sound around this great pedal??

On the artist page on the Proco website it mentions Graham Coxon, Sonic Youth, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, but as far as i know all these bands use the Turbo RAT.
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Mike
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Post by Mike »

Coxon used a RAT2 on Song2. Foo Fighters recorded all of "There Is Nothing Left To Lose" with RAT2s into Vox AC30s.

Ira from Yo La Tengo
Agata from Melt Banana
Buzz from the Melvins
Peter from the Dandy Warhols

I think that gives you an idea of it's versatility
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Fran
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Post by Fran »

No-one ever mentions the MXR Distortion+, if you can cope with the shit bypass it is a very versatile stompbox. It cleans up great and up full borders on fuzz.
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Mike
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Post by Mike »

TimTim uses one dunnit.