Distort me!

So I have heard a bit of BOSS DS-1 bashing around the traps and I figured I'd throw down the question - what's the best (in your opinion) digital/analog distortion pedal out there?

I do own a DS-1 and have used it a lot, I like the really dirty buzz-saw sound it gives, I like to play a lot of simple Ramones type pop-punk stuff but I'll admit it's not perfect.

So fire away ladies and gents....

Well I haven't really heard other people's opinions about it but I own a TC Electronics Nova Drive and I love it! It's an all analog pedal with an overdrive circuit and a distortion circuit that can store 18 presets and route the two pedals as od>distortion, distortion>od, or both parallel (no affect on each other). It's also MIDI controllable and can work with a G Switch to bring up presets on the fly. It's super gig friendly and I don't have to worry about dialing up different tones, I can just recall them!

I don't like using the DS-1. Instead, I run two SD-1s (Super overdrive), but I will soon use a TS-9 to drive and SD-1 to give myself the crunchy sound.

I like to play a lot of simple Ramones type pop-punk stuff

I play a lot of the same kinda stuff, and I have tried the DS-1 (and a lot of other really expensive pedals) and did not like it. But I really like the tone of the SD-1. I think that is perfect in front of an already crankin' tube amp. I think of it almost like mixing all the good stuff from a Tubescreamer and a DS-1.

I'd love to try one the old 80's TS9's I have a TS7 tube screamer one of those silver Tone Lok ones, it's woeful. The sound is so thin and boring.

Any old distortion should work for distortion. If you have a amp with midrange focus and play hot humbuckers, you should get a great distortion when cranked up.

Check out the old Marshall 1974x (AKA 18 watt clone) videos on the youtube.

Mxr fullbore metal

2 tubescreamers....

RAT

RAT
+1.
Get a Deucetone (2 Rats in one pedal with You Dirty Rat and Turbo Rat clipping options)and swap out the opamps for a couple of LM308s or get the BYOC Mouse, Rat clone kit. It comes with mod options.

MM

Hardwire SC-2

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^this goes out to the DS1 bashers

+1 on the RAT.

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^this goes out to the DS1 bashers

Is that an ascii facepalm?

Had a ds1 that i ran with my old cybertwin. It sounds great through ss and modeling amps but has been way too thin and hairy sounding on my blues deluxe and blues jr. However tight compressed and balanced distortion with my cybertwin. Sounded great i wore out the footswitch on the first and bought a second.

The only dirt pedal I have on my board is a Radial Bones London.

It really does give that big, warm, British / Marshall plexi tone. Also very, very nice with the drive rolled way back, given just a hint of OD.

Love it.

Yeah the MXR Fullbore is very high on my list of MUST HAVES!!!

I've had a DS-1 and SD-1 both were pretty terrible. Well they sucked with my setup (a Telecaster and vintage Fender amps) anyway. They really thinned out my sound and left it with that tinny sound that resembles listening to music on an old portable transistor radio. I also found they were difficult to tune in and their controls did relatively little to alter their overall character.

For that kind of pop-punk sound i use some kind of boost into either a very good overdrive pedal or a dimed amp. For boosts I'm using a distortion pedal called the D*A*M Sonic Titan, but with it's distortion at minimum and it's volume maxed. I also use a D*A*M Red Rooster, which is a Rangemaster type pedal. Both have tone controls so I can make sure there is enough bass or mids around to prevent my sound getting too thin.

Yeah the MXR Fullbore is very high on my list of MUST HAVES!!!

I love mine, has a built in noise gate that is adjustable via internal trim pot, has a mid scoop button, and you can control lows, mids and highs with the knobs as well as volume, tone and gain. It is one of the sickest distortion pedals I have ever owned. It is however pretty aggressive and cannot be tamed. Some distortion pedals you can use as a clean boost or slight distortion, not happening with this pedal. Once it is engaged, you are in metal territory and there is no middle ground.

+1 on the ProCo RAT, most "musical" distortion I've ever played!

Used to own a DS1 way back... nice, cheap but sounded too digital

I just got a GFS Brownie Classic (a Rat variant I think, I'm just not comfy calling anything a clone, but I think they are similar, same chip...) and this pedal is capable of serious distortion/sustain/and tonal control

My fav dirt box ?

(excl. fuzz off course)


T-REX Mudhoney

I just picked up an MXR Classic Distortion that's pretty nice. I also own a DS1 that is kinda nice for some things. But my fravorite is definitely the Russian Big Muff.

Pro Co Rat.

/close thread.

I got me a Zvex Distortron and TS-9. TS-9 I use for the edge and the Distortron for the dirty and grit distortion. Looking at trying out the Radial Tonebone Tri-mode

There are tons of good dirt boxes out there. I don't think the DS1 is one of them, but if you do, cool. The Rat is a very good pedal. I even like the Rat2. I like the Super OD, but it's been years since I've even heard one.

I have bought, sold, traded and borrowed about 30 dirt pedals in the course of the last 2years. I wanted to find MY tone. I wanted a low gain od, a distortion and a fuzz that I was happy with. There are so many options and I've tried a mountain of them. In my experience the Fulltone, Zvex, Catalinbread and Way Huge pedals have been the best I've tried. It really just depends on what you're going for and what you like in the end.

I have a Big Muff with tone wicker that I love, although I don't use it much. Its got a sound that I want every once in a while. I kept 2 Catalinbread pedals. The Dirty Little Secret and the Formula 5. They have been my favorites of all of the ones I've tried. I'm still looking for the low gain od and a great fuzz. But I've got two med-high gain tones I absolutely love with these pedals. Those are the only 3 that I felt like I can't part with.

The Way Huge Fat Sandwich is really good. But it overlapped alot of what I already had with the Cbread stuff. I definetly would recommend it to someone looking for a straight up distortion.

Sorry for the long post, but I've spent alot of time looking for my dirt. I hope I can save someone else a little time in their search.

Go for used 80's Proco Rat.

really (fire away if you think I'm wrong/I'm happy to be corrected) there are two basic types of distortion circuit, at least amongst the vintage pedals

(1) the DS-1, Rat family and the
(2) MXR Distortion +, DOD 250 family

I like both, well I don't have a MXR Distortion +, but I do have a Ross Distortion which I think is related.

I love my 250s and DOD FX50s

don't mind my DS-1s either

Suhr Riot or Zendrive.

Coming from the cleanish boost/Blues overdrive camp (as that is just the right dirt for me/the music I play...) I am in the middle of exploring my first real distortion- the GFS Brownie Classic- which is from what I have read a Rat-style with few clipping options. This sucker is very powerful and I'm just getting used to well, the distortion! I'm not really a hard rocker, but I can hear a jazz/fusion application to even some Allman Bros. (with the clipping switch in tthe more open, "plexi" setting, at lower Gain)

The only bummer is that this pedal seems to work best with my guitar cranked- it is NOT very dynamic, and I lose treble as soon as I back off on the guitar- are "Rats" like this? The pedal has some great balls, and sustain but the guitat volume needs to be all the way up-

So I have heard a bit of BOSS DS-1 bashing around the traps and I figured I'd throw down the question - what's the best (in your opinion) digital/analog distortion pedal out there?

I do own a DS-1 and have used it a lot, I like the really dirty buzz-saw sound it gives, I like to play a lot of simple Ramones type pop-punk stuff but I'll admit it's not perfect.

So fire away ladies and gents....

If you want to be distorted . . .

. . . i heard good things about this lil black box, from TC Electronics.

http://www.austinbazaar.com/TC-Electronic-Dark-Matter-Distortion-Pedal-p/tc-960720001.htm

Coming from the cleanish boost/Blues overdrive camp (as that is just the right dirt for me/the music I play...) I am in the middle of exploring my first real distortion- the GFS Brownie Classic- which is from what I have read a Rat-style with few clipping options. This sucker is very powerful and I'm just getting used to well, the distortion! I'm not really a hard rocker, but I can hear a jazz/fusion application to even some Allman Bros. (with the clipping switch in tthe more open, "plexi" setting, at lower Gain)

The only bummer is that this pedal seems to work best with my guitar cranked- it is NOT very dynamic, and I lose treble as soon as I back off on the guitar- are "Rats" like this?
The pedal has some great balls, and sustain but the guitar volume needs to be all the way up-


NO, deff not.
Not the LM308 chipped Rats !
Even my Custom 4-into-1 Rat has a fantastic open dynamic range.
Never ever muddy, or dull, no matter what settings on the box, or where the guitar's (SG & Tele) volume is.

NO, deff not.
Not the LM308 chipped Rats !
Even my Custom 4-into-1 Rat has a fantastic open dynamic range.
Never ever muddy, or dull, no matter what settings on the box, or where the guitar's (SG & Tele) volume is.

I think the GFS does have the LM 308 chip, but have not checked- as I said it is powerful with a pretty wide (boost>saturated and compressed) Gain range but I am losing something when turning down the guitar- I have NOT gigged with it yet, so it may be moree dynamic If I am able to "open up" the amp a bit...so far it has been bedroom volume- thanks!

The previously mentioned GFS Brownie Classic is my favorite distortion stompbox.

Having said that I'd love to try a Wampler Pinnacle and a Wampler Ecstasy.

The previously mentioned GFS Brownie Classic is my favorite distortion stompbox.

Having said that I'd love to try a Wampler Pinnacle and a Wampler Ecstasy.

I am digging the Brownie (it is my first real distortion pedal, got a lot of OD's but this thing is brutal. I play blues and country/jazz but today (at home) it has been Ramones, Social D, and even Green Day. The pedal just makes me wanna go there!

I like the "open" setting on the 3-way switch the best as it seems to split the difference in Gain/compression between the other 2. Best for me to just leave it there as the Tone and Gain controls have a lot of range anyhow. a fun pedal that needs a rock gig asap!

Well I haven't really heard other people's opinions about it but I own a TC Electronics Nova Drive and I love it! It's an all analog pedal with an overdrive circuit and a distortion circuit that can store 18 presets and route the two pedals as od>distortion, distortion>od, or both parallel (no affect on each other). It's also MIDI controllable and can work with a G Switch to bring up presets on the fly. It's super gig friendly and I don't have to worry about dialing up different tones, I can just recall them!

I checked this out over at ProGuitar...very interesting. Sounds good...are there any other pedals that have this back and forth and parallel capabilities?

Carl Martin Plexitone--I've tried a zillion boxes, and for true distortion, this one is king. I used it with a very clean 100 watt Hiwatt and it was like I was playing through an honest to god high-gain monster head. I'm not really a distortion guy, so I got rid of it, and only have what I'd call overdrive pedals rather than distortions. One is a Keeley moded ts-808, which is nice, the other is a Catalinbread Formula No. 5, which screams, and could be called a true distortion, but not the way I have it set.

An 80's Rat is my favorite that I've played.

Every time I tweak a knob on the RAT I'll say "that sounds just like old so and so". Then I google old so and so and guess what's on his board? An 80's RAT. And you know its good if old so and so uses it, because he could afford to play anything he wanted.

Another RAT fan here. I have an early 90's RAT 2 USA built version with the LM308 chip and LOVE it!

I bought a DS1 to put in front of my Musicman amp. I like it just fine but I have the tone at 10:00 and the distortion at 2:00. I'm sure there are much better ones out there but I don't need anything else. I do confess though, I am looking into some possible mods for the pedal. I'm just not looking too hard. It gives me what I need. I also must say I do hear the tone of my tele through it. What can I say? I think it's great for 50 bucks.

An 80's Rat is my favorite that I've played.
Dangit. I just looked at the pot codes on my "80's Rat" - 1990. Fail. No wonder it sucks and I hate it so much.:wink:

More Rat love. If you can't find an affordable, working 80s Rat, and don't wish to build your own, the Hartman Electronics LM308 Op-Amp Distortion pedal is a well-built, reliable Rat-style distortion with an added button to switch to a smoother, slightly more transparent overdrive.