Talk to me about distortion pedals...

[pgrace245]

I must first say that I am true clean tele guy and was never really a big distortion guy. This weekend I heard a bunch of alternative christian bands and they all had some type of distortion and it's starting to grow on me. The tone they have is hard to describe - I suppose I could find a youtube clip of what I am talking about. But what is a good pedal for good modern alternative distortion. I'm not talking about 80's medal head music. But more along the lines of Green Day or Weezer - ish. I have a TS7 Tubescreamer but it doesn't quite get the sound I was looking for. Perhaps it's like the elusive twang tone. Anyways - how do you get the cool alternative distortion tone? My amp is a Fender DRRI

[FMA]

Rat.
A pretty versatile distortion box.

[Beerts]

I use a Jekyll & Hyde pedal for distortion, usually with my fulldrive 2 pushing into it. the o.d. side of the J&H makes a nice clean boost for after the dirt. I'm not sure what sounds you're looking for but this combination of pedals is very versatile.

[Jenix]

Me and my friends play christian music, alot and very often. Are you talking hillsong, chris tomlin, or relient K. There's a good chance I'll be able to tell you what they use. I have a TS7 and a TS9 and neither could get close until I had the Keeley mod plus on the TS9 and now its my main distortion.

For someone coming from a clean sound to distortion you might want to look away from distortion pedals and look at overdrive pedals because they'll give you a more natural breakup. That is if your taking small steps.

If your planning on keeping your clean tone when your off the dirt box then try to buy a true bypass model. Maybe the fulltone ocd or bbe green screamer.

[TeleBrew]

Catalinbread Hyper Pak Dirty Channel - just don't say the name out loud in Church.

I use it when going between a clean tone and dirty. It also cleans up nicely with your guitar's volume knob, so I leave it on for a lot of songs and adjust the distortion with the volume knob. It'll add plenty of dirt, but can also be used as a semi-clean boost. I love mine.

[aberrant]

I'd say any modded SD-1 would get you there.

[Ethical]

Are you sure you're not mistaking compression for distortion?


Ted

[Guitar_Ninja]

Originally Posted by pgrace245

My amp is a Fender DRRI

Both Billie Joe Armstrong and Rivers Cuomo use Marshall or Marshall-style amps, which is a big part of their distortion sound. A DS-1 or a DS-2 does a pretty good Marshall-type sound with a Fender-style amp, though most people prefer them modded. Or you could try a Marshall Guv'nor, which is the same idea straight from the source.

[pgrace245]

If this helps here is a song I think has the distortion I'm looking for.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uMZfgPjl_xA

David Crowder Band

[pgrace245]

Is this the pedal you were talking about?

http://cgi.ebay.com/Marshall-GV2-Guv...3286.m14.l1318

[Guitar_Ninja]

Yeah that's it.

The cool thing about the Guv'nor and the DS-1 is that a lot of people really hate these pedals, so you can usually get them used fairly cheap. Though I suppose you should also keep that in mind in terms of expectations.

But they're cheap and are a good place to start when you're looking at that kind of distortion sound.

[JimiBryant]

Keeley Fuzz Head and the Rat are both good pedals.

[Jenix]

lol, good luck copying crowders tone. Crowder has a problem copying crowders tone. He records with a program called reason and uses that acoustic of his to record everything. It looks like the other guitar player in the band has dropped some bank to get that tone he has. Just fine something that makes you happy when trying to cover his stuff. I'll ask my friend what he uses.

[11 Gauge]

Originally Posted by Guitar_Ninja

The cool thing about the Guv'nor and the DS-1 is that a lot of people really hate these pedals, so you can usually get them used fairly cheap.

Even better of a deal is the Dano Daddy-O: it is a Guv'nor. Super cheap deals on these here internets for one 24/7/365...

If you're convinced that the Daddy-O "inhales briskly," it makes a handy wheelchock, paperweight, bassboat anchor, etc...

[JohnnyCrash]

Turn the amp up a bit.

Try distortions, overdrives, fuzzes, boosters, and other types of distortion causing effects. Sometimes a good low watt tube amp cranked can do it for you, other times a huge power section with a cascaded preamp will do it, other times the right amp with the right pedal will do it.

I built a TS808, Mosfet based clean boost, and a Rangemaster treble booster clone. They all work differently (even with different amps/pickups). Fuzzes always make me think of Jimi Hendrix, but that may also be an option... try them all through a DRRI and a guitar similar to yours.

To me, the best overdrive is a JCM800 preamp styled amp. I really like 5E3 overdriven. I also like clean boosts pushing a tube amp. The best bet is to simply try as many things as possible at your local guitar shop. Beg, borrow, or steal. You have to take the tour to know what is for you.

[JSnipes]

Most of these guy's (the pro christian rock guitar players) are using 3 or 4 different pedals. I have seen the Zvex double shot, the Fulltone Full drive 2 (the blue one ) is really popular. A good pedal is the xotic effects BB booster. If you want simplicity a good way to go is a double pedal. This offers two benefits, one you can set two different distortions/OD. You can set one as a clean boost and one as an OD or one as a mild OD and one as a really dirty OD. You should look at wamplerpedals.com (the maker is Brian Wampler who mods all of Brent Masons pedals) he has the hot wired pedal which is a double distortion pedal (killer) and a few others which i have recently purchased. The guy actually voices the pedals. I play in one of these christian rock/church bands and I run the following OD/distortion pedals for varied flavor into a Dr Z Stang Ray: Xotic effects RC--AC--BB boosters, wampler Pinnacle 2 (for really heavy stuff) and an MXR Fuzz pedal the new 108 which is the Jimi Hendrix signature fuzz in a phase 100 size box with led and wah freindly buffer switch. I hope this helps. If I were you I would really looka t the wampler pedal.

[pgrace245]

the Fulltone Full drive 2 (the blue one ) is really popular

Do you know which bands use this pedal? I'm trying to get an idea of the tone. I know most of these guys play gibsons and thats where I draw the line. I have to use my teles I could never bear the thought of selling a tele to get a gibson-unthinkable. I was also considering on getting a peavey classic amp. I heard they are a little warmer in tone and can put out good distortion w/the preamp. I was hoping to stay under a $100 if possible. I appreciate all of the feedback.

[pgrace245]

Under $100 for the pedal.

[DWBH]

Death Cab for Cutie's guitarist and producer Chris Walla uses the Fulldrive 2 and he plays Telecasters..

[manfesto]

heh, I started playing guitar because of Green Day.

Back then, I got my sound of a squier strat, a solid state Randall 2x12, and (most importantly) a DOD FX69 Grunge pedal.

It's not a versatile pedal in the least - it goes from too much distortion to way too much distortion. Super saturated, big on the mids. Doesn't matter if it's single coils, or humbuckers, or p90s, they all come out super saturated.

And man, I loved it :)

I wish I still had it.

But yeah, if you're looking for modern distortion, maybe worth checking out. They're cheap now, too!

[Plaid Sabbath]

Hey guys. I'm a little late to the party (and a newbie as well) but I'd like to cast a vote for the MI Audio Crunch Box. One of many pedals that aims for the "Marshall in a box" tone, but I have to say it gets pretty close to that tone.

I use it with Teles and my Flying V and the pedal likes both buckers and single coils. It also makes my Blues Jr. a completely different animal when I click it on.

[Pickalittle]

Tone to die for:

1 Favorite Fender Tele
Set to neck position

1 Fender DRRI

1 Fulltone OCD
Volume=10 o'clock
Tone=12 o'clock
Drive=9-10 o'clock

Tweak as needed. Play til the sun comes up.

[Jenix]

The Vox ac30's are very popular in christian band tomlins guitar player uses one as well hillsong, just to name a few. Alot of the tone of Christian music is the delay. The 8th note delay almost like U2 style.

I personally am a fan of Chris Tomlins guitar player. Probably because he's a gear junkie. Here is a link to a very informational youtube video for his pedal board, look at his other videos too.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wHoMv...eature=related

[junk126]

Cool vid, thanks for posting!