Lets talk distortion pedals!

drew_drummer

Dancefap
Sep 7, 2008
6,474
3
38
London, UK
Hey,

What distortion pedals are people fans of? I'm talking pedals you'd use into a clean channel to get thick lush walls of distortion.

I have a Fulltone OCD, but somehow it doesn't seem to be crushing enough. Looking for recommendations for that Cult of Luna type of sound.
 
I think it's actually an overdrive. It doesn't get as gainy as distortion, and it is not as clean as a boost. Either way.... it'd be good to get some recommendations for high-gain distortions.

I'll checkout the Krank one!
 
I think it's actually an overdrive. It doesn't get as gainy as distortion, and it is not as clean as a boost. Either way.... it'd be good to get some recommendations for high-gain distortions.

I'll checkout the Krank one!

OD, boost, same thing. :lol: depending on the controls (like vol dimed, drive nil, tone noon) It's just a SD-1 on roids.

What amp are you using?
 
OD's are one thing, but why anyone who can afford a tube amp would want a solid-state pedal for the main source of their distortion tone escapes me! :yow:
 
el34's at the moment. But I know a guy who builds his own tube amps, and has mad skills. Gonna get him to look at the amp; thinking I might get him to sort it out for 6l6's and maybe replace the preamp tubes for something a bit tighter. I want something akin to a 6505 sound, but a bit darker.
 
OD's are one thing, but why anyone who can afford a tube amp would want a solid-state pedal for the main source of their distortion tone escapes me! :yow:

haha. Well, portable distortion mainly. My tube amp basically lives at our other guitarists house (although I have been thinking about getting another one for home use) and so having a pedal I can use at home or at gigs where I don't have my amp, would be good.
 
I have had extremely limited experience with any distortion pedal I've ever played (most at guitar shops and stuff) and I only use overdrives myself, but I've heard good things about these products...

Line6 Uber Metal - The video demo of the line6 guy doing this sounds totally disgusting, but based on what other people on forums have said, it's a fairly decent pedal and sounds nothing like the demo video.

Dimebag MXR - I am ot sure of one particular model or different models or what, but I've heard this is a pretty brutal sounding pedal.

Apparently the Boss Metalcore pedal is decent too, and also the old 'heavy metal' boss pedals. Apparently if you turn every knob all the way up it is instant Swedish old school death metal.
 
the best metal pedal i have ever come across has got to be the Electro Harmonix (EHX) metal muff with top boost, its so versitile, bucket loads of gain and crazy sweeps on the bass, mid & treble. you can dial in just about any tone on it.

and its pricing is to die for.

i hate metal zones, they have that kind of bee in a jar tone

digitech metal masters are ok but when it comes to running off a battery they eat the juice so much and they sound very digital.

dod death metal's have a nice tone but are very very very noisy.

the Blackstar HT-DISTX is also a lovely pedal, really nice warm tone.


again i stand by my metal muff with top boost, try one out
 
digitech metal masters are ok but when it comes to running off a battery they eat the juice so much and they sound very digital.

All the DigiTech pedals I've had are exactly like that - very digital sounding (which actually sounded really cool on the HyperPhase), and batteries barely last a gig.

I've got a Zoom Tri-Metal which is actually not too bad - more gain than anything else I've ever heard (at 12 o'clock it's like a dime'd Triple X) and madly touchy dials (the 'range' knob does basically nothing bar for one tiny section), but every note stays clear even with the gain up, and in front of a decent amp it sounds immense.

Steve
 
If I get some 6l6's before you I'll post a clip to compare the two, but lasse doesn't think there's too much difference between the two types in that amp, although the 6l6's do modernise it a bit.

Joe
 
+1 for the krank. I haven't felt the need to get anything better since i got it, it's just phenominal. Not as good as top end tube monster but it's not a huge amount of money so you really can't lose