I am in the market for an Overdrive or distortion pedal. I play with a blues jr. and a strat and I am pretty much a blues guy. I'm looking for a big sound like a Buddy Guy or SRV type tone, but in the living room at home. Would like to also be able to get a good classic rock crunch too. Am I right in assuming that an Overdrive pedal is what I need and not some kind of distortion pedal(used to think they were the same thing)? Do I even need an OD pedal with a blues jr. or should I just crank the vol.(gain) knob up with the master down on the amp and hope to acheive the same thing that way? ( I guess what I'm hoping is that I can get a better breakup than what the amp gives)
After reading a few threads on here about this, it seems like the Ibanez TS is the pedal to get. Seems like someone was also big on another one(Beringher I think) that cost less. What do you guys think?
i'm a big fan of the the Digitech Bad Monkey overdrive pedal. You can get a great crunch sound out of that - for blues and classic rock.
I actually just sold one. I had just made up my mind to keep it when EJWebb paypal'd me the money to purchase it! :shock: It's all good though because I have many overdrive options on my multifeffect now
SRV used the Ibanez TS so if you are looking for that tone...
Check it out the Fulltone OCD. It is overdrive but you can get some tones in a distortion side. It has a great range of tones. There are several YouTube demos but try to play it in a local store. I have a v4 and I tried a v3. Probably I prefer the v4 (I don't remember exactly the old one).
I also have a BBE GreenScreamer. Similar to the TS808 but cheaper (same electronics).
You could also consider some Keeley or Analogman mods over the Ibanez or even some Boss pedals. The mod improves the sound.
MI Audio has some interesting pedals. The Crunch Box (the red one) sounds nice. I don't like the MI Audio blues pedals (they have a couple of them).
Good luck.
+1 badmonkey
#4491....
get the tubescreamer turbo. it has four settings. the low end is boosted. it has more early blues drive and crunch.
I am the one who recommends the Behringer TO800. Great pedal.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UteVdAOsquU
I love the Behringer, but this week I picked up a Boss DS-1 and I think it's a great sounding pedal. It is a Distortion pedal, but it does not have tons of gain like modern pedals. It really falls into the Overdrive pedal range of distortion. It is very flexible, can go from a good crunch like AC/DC to a very Hendrix-like distortion with my Strat in the neck position, think Foxy Lady. The Tone control is especially good, you can dial in lots of bass for a heavy tone or dial it out to get Punk like tones. At about 11 o'clock setting on distortion you get a very nice Classic Rock Marshall-like tones. So I am really enjoying this new pedal.
And the price is great for a Boss pedal, I paid $39 at Musicians Friend, with another $5 for shipping. Good deal. :D
I love my Behringer and still use it, but I wanted something that would get a little more distortion, but not hyper-distortion.
Here is a pretty good demo of the DS-1 with a Strat into a tube amp. Lots of different tones here, but you will hear some very Hendrix/Stevie Ray tones. Look at the drop-down notes for the different settings he is using.
If you know something better than Rock and Roll, I'd like to hear it - Jerry Lee Lewis
well, I took dogbite's advice and went with the turbo Tube screamer(If the Tube screamers were good enough for Stevie, then, well, you know the rest........). You were right, it does have more bottom on the other settings compared to the ts-9 setting. Was a little expensive, but I got a good deal at GC since they owed me some credit.
Anyway, I am happy with this and the blues jr. now I have clean and dirty and if I really want total saturation, I can spin the amps vol.(gain) all the way to 12 with the TS on for an insane black sabbath type overdrive.
The boss pedal sounds like a good deal for only 40 bucks. Maybe when I get the urge to play with other distortions I'll pick one up for a 2nd option for distortion. I think my taste in sound and tone is similar to yours Wes.
I use two Boss BD-2's with Keeley mods -- one for a clean pre-amp and the other for a bit of crunch. I also use a BBE Sonic Maximer (not the pedal version). If you haven't tried a Sonic Maximer, you should! I was seeking the same sound you are looking for and I really nailed it. Use a tube amp, of course...
I'll second Dcross02's recommendation of the Sonic Maximizer. I own the BBE Sonic Stomp which is the Maximizer in pedal form for guitar. It is a great pedal, but it is a very subtle effect. It is hard to explain, but it just opens up the sound of your guitar, amp, and pedals. You read reviews where people say it's like you took a blanket off your amp. Well, this is the very best description to describe this pedal's effect. Once you turn it on and get used to it, when you turn it off your tone will sound muffled like you threw a blanket over your amp. But this is all it does, it doesn't give you distortion or overdrive or anything like that. It is a pedal for someone who is seeking great tone. I leave mine on all the time. I put it last in my chain and it is perfectly quiet. You can dial in more bass or treble for very warm tones. But the main thing it does is make your tone come "alive" for lack of a better description. An excellent pedal IMHO. :D
If you know something better than Rock and Roll, I'd like to hear it - Jerry Lee Lewis
I'm telling you, the BBE Sonic Maximizer is definately the secret weapon that nobody seems to know about. I started out with the rack version and then switched to the pedal version. The pedal didn't seem to sound quite as good, so I switched back to the rack version again.
I go from my guitar --> effects pedals -- Amp input. Then, I put the Sonic Maximizer through the in/out loop on my amp.
Once you try one of these, you will never play without one again. Great on Acoustic guitars too.
