Been shopping for some pedals to replace my Rockman X100. I've a list of things like volume, chorus, flange, wah, etc.
Trouble I'm having is a 'distortion' pedal. Another thread talked about wanting a smooth distortion that mentioned Tom Sholtz. So many pedals I've heard sound kinda cheesy in comparison to my Rockman, which is really thick and smooth.
If I want to get off my crutch of my highly processed Rockman sound, whats the key? Not sure what the differnce is between gain overdrive distortion pedals?
Alot of posts talk about a huge difference with tube amps. No matter what pedal I give a try, it not going to sound as smoothfull through my solid state Roland JC?
"In my dreams your blowin' me... some kisses" - Lets Duet - Dewford Randolph Cox
Basically put, an overdrive pedal tries to simulate the sound of an overdriven tube amp. For a good example of what pure tube overdrive sounds like, listen to just about any Neil Young song with electric. He has never used distortion or overdrive pedals, just pretty much cranks his Fender Deluxe to max!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fBS3B2cZcFM
So, no overdrive pedal is going to sound like your Rockman which was designed to simulate Tom Sholtz's tone on Boston recordings.
Overdrive pedals are not so high gain. They are a relatively mellow breakup compared to distortion pedals. But the tone is awesome, the tone many guitar players crave.
Distortion pedals are far more high gain. This distortion is produced within the pedal itself and passed to the pre-amp of your amp. Overdrive pedals work a little differently, they actually sock up the pre-amp section (although they do produce some artificial distortion of their own)
I often recommend the Behringer TO800 Vintage Overdrive pedal. Here is an example of it into a solid state amp.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5eWLHcYgZy0
Here it is into a tube amp with the gain cranked more.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G62WWki3gIE
Probably not your cup of tea if you are into high gain distortion. Really can't make too many recommendations there, the only real distortion pedal I own is a vintage ProCo Rat. This is a great distortion, although I think of it more as a fuzz pedal. Here is a good clip, although you have to wait till 1:18 before they quit talking and actually play the thing. :roll:
If you know something better than Rock and Roll, I'd like to hear it - Jerry Lee Lewis
Wes-
I understand "overdrive" differently. A classic overdrive pedal (e.g. Tube Screamer) at its simplest merely needs to provide enough gain to overdrive the input stage of the guitar amp. That gain can -- but doesn't have to -- be entirely clean (lower gain), and the output of the pedal may also be clean. But when the resulting amplified signal (maybe only 2x to 4x = 6 to 12 dB larger than that from guitar) nails the input stage of the amp to cause some break-up on peaks, and often that is crunchy break-up, having its own distinctive characteristic quite different from that of a guitar amp's output (power) stage saturation -- which happens to be the creamy smooth variety.
That said, most overdrive pedals provide enough excess gain in the adjustment range to actually cause some clipping within the pedal. (Turn up the gain knob and turn down the pedal's output, and just like a master pre-volume and master volume control setup, internal clipping is possible.) This also allows timbral adjustments by adding some internally generated clipping to that occurring due to amp input overdrive. In an overdrive pedal, the amount of gain is usually less (as you note), so the "internally" generated distortion will not be so extreme as that of a full blown "distortion" pedal.
These days, there also are modeling pedals that will simulate a variety of overloaded (gain pedal plus usually a tube amp) and saturated (tube power stage) setups. These are clearly amp modeling pedals either of the (older) analog type or DSP-based digital.
-=Greg
-=tension & release=-
