Afternoon all, I'll begin by stating that I know little about the technology of music, and thus can't really be too technical in requirements.
My band have started playing live over the past year. Our sound moves from quite delicate jazzy stuff to big loud noise (the 'post-rock' sound, if you will). I'm looking for a pedal that will allow me to move from the delicate to the noise without much fuss.
I'm currently using an Electro Harmonix Pi Big Muff, but find that as much as it makes my sound fuzzy and distorted in the way I want, it steals (or at least seems to steal) my volume. I'm currently at the mercy of borrowing amps from other people, so don't have a stable setup there.
So: delicate to fuzzy and loud with as little fuss as possible. Any advice?
Thanks
What kind of guitar do you play? The output from the pickups will make a difference to the distortion, you'll get. It's also important to know the size of venue that you are playing.
For most situations, though, I would suggest a good quality 30W tube amp as the basis for your sound. That will give you plenty of good clean tones. Turning the gain up will get you into overdrive and, maybe even, distortion territory without the need for any effects.
As an effect, my personal suggestion would be to find a Hughes & Kettner Cream Machine or Metal Master, which are mains driven mini-amps, which can also be used as preamps/distortion pedals. They have two 12AX7 tubes - one as the pre-amp and one as the "power" amp - you can use them to get bedroom volumes if connected directly to a speaker. Put one of those boxes in front of a tube amp and you'll get all the distortion you could want, without any loss of volume. These are not current models from H&K, but there are plenty on Ebay. The current models are fantastic, but have a pretty good price attached to them.
Test Drive the current models here
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I own a ProCo Rat, and it is similar to the EH Big Muff. For a fuzz pedal, it is pretty quiet, and you can get a big volume boost if you want. It is one of the most popular pedals ever, if you can get an old 80's model, they are the best. The modern versions are good however.
Here is a demo on YouTube
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ysmu2gR7IJ8
Here's another
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Thanks guys, I'll have a look.
Since you like the tone of the Big Muff, maybe check out a power booster pedal?
http://www.musiciansfriend.com/navigation?q=booster+pedal&st=
Dan
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