small pedal for "grit"... not distortion or overdrive

[bottlenecker]

Germanium Fuzz Face. Seriously.

The "secret setting" on Germanium FFs is the crispy clean tone you get by rolling your volume back. They don't get as saturated as silicon, there's a whole range of dirt available in your volume knob depending on how you set the pedal gain. The recent Dunlop reissues are good, and not expensive.

I was playing all weekend with my ge fuzz face on and my guitar volume rolled back almost to clean. Great sound.

 

[MilwMark]

OK, interesting. Whats the difference between this one and the DOD250?

The 410 has no drive, so there's that.

Even with the DOD 250 drive down, they sound and feel a bit different to me.

The 250 pushes mids just a hair. Which is great. It is also inherently "softer" and "looser" to my ear.

The 410 is very "flat" unless you tweak the very musical EQ knobt. BUt it's just a "gritty boost". Turning the level up more doesn't increase the tiny amount of "grit" added by the pedal. It simply induces more volume/gain in the amp.

 

[tfarny]

Maybe I missed it - nobody mentioned the Soul Food? That's what it is best at, I figure - but maybe I don't understand the actual tone you're after.

 

[stringslinger]

Right now I have Nobels ODR with gain practically at 0, but spectrum and volume turned up. That's my "always on" pedal at the moment. Probably too clean to be called grit, but you can get it there without going full-on overdrive. In the past it's been Zvex Box of Rock with gain turned mostly down. That was a cool gritty tone too.

I just got a AnalogMan Prince of Tone, and am using that as my mid-level overdrive pedal. Having success with that.

I like the Soul Food suggestion too.

 

[Fearnot]

anybody tried the little Donner killer boost?

I have two of them... and that's 'Boost Killer' thankyewverymuch. I use them as an 'always on' pedal and like them a lot. Don't know if that's grit or not.

Don't you have a Mooer Pure Boost? I'm pretty sure it's the same stuff as the Donner inside.

 

[RiverDog]

I've got a couple of songs with this new band where I play very Fender country clean but I'd like to have a sound that has more "grit" to it

I know thats a terrible description, but, lets just say I dont want a straight clean boost, thats not getting it, and I dont want any sort of overdrive thing (that I know of, I've tried several)... even the old Blues Driver pedal, is too smooth sounding. The DOD250 didnt work either.

I dont quite know how to describe it so this isnt helpful. I have no idea what will do this for me.

Perhaps like a tiny bit of drive?? with some small amount of sustain and maybe a slight mid hump or something. Some kind of tiny compressor with a tiny drive in a tiny box? CITY OF TINY LIGHTS!!! hahaha

In artsy fartsy description, the same clean sound but audio sandpaper rubbed on it.

Also it cant be any wider than the Boss size.

Anything come to mind?

I bet the new MXR Booster Mini might do the trick. I really want to try one. Checkit:

The MXR Booster Mini gives you the sonic secret sauce of the Echoplex Preamp with the legendary boosting power of the MXR Micro Amp in a lightweight, space-saving mini housing. The Volume control has up to +25dB on tap while the Tone control rolls off highs. To add a little extra grit to your signal, adjust the internal Echoplex Preamp level control.

https://www.jimdunlop.com/product/m293-7-10137-10133-3.do

 

[Serenity23]

 

[bawdyli'lmonkey]

i wonder if you could get something like a boss line selector - run your OCD into loop A, a jumper across loop B, adjust loop levels to taste with the A+B parallel mode... LS-2 might give your OCD the functionality of a sparkle drive to dial in a bit of its drive into your clean. Never tried it, don't own one, no idea if it would work.

 

[Danjabellza]

Dod boost for sure. At noon it's unity gain, so you can actually use it as an "under-drive" if you wanted to. But just a hair over that noon position and it puts just that edge of breakup sound on an otherwise clean amp. At least it does with my setup.

Otherwise the Em-Drive from Emerson custom is the lowest of low gain overdrives. Uber "transparent" super light overdrive.

 

[thegeezer]

For just a touch of grit? An Xotic RC Booster.

Note: works better with slightly scooped amps as opposed to amps that are heavier in the mids.

 

[steve v]

I'll throw the Timmy in for discussion. I use it for just that bit of grit

 

[ponce]

Give a listen to a Mid Fi Demo tape fuzz. It has that transistory but warm and controlled grit

 

[codamedia]

I've got a couple of songs with this new band where I play very Fender country clean but I'd like to have a sound that has more "grit" to it....

Also it cant be any wider than the Boss size.
Anything come to mind?

For comparison, here is my common setup...
Telecaster > Small Pedal Board (everything used sparingly) > SF Vibrolux

To achieve the tone you are describing, I am using a BOSS OD-3 with the Accidental Mod that has been discussed on these forums. My standard tone is just a clean Fender... typical classic country tone, but with the OD-3 on it gives the vibrolux a "tweed" quality. Less sparkle and more grind - but not really overdriven.

Before the accidental mod I could never get the OD-3 to a low enough gain... with it, I run the gain around 9:00 - tone around 11:00 and the output to unity. There is lots of room left for a little more, or a little less gain.

Here is a link to that original mod thread.
http://www.tdpri.com/threads/accidental-boss-od-3-mod.566782/

 

[ukepicker]

Another idea is the Boss SD-2. I think the crunch channel will also do what you're after. It sounds just like my clean tone with a hint of compression and little tighter bass. But add in some extra drive on the drive knob, and it'll get gritty. But still sound clean. I even know where you can find one for sale (wink-wink).

 

[cousinpaul]

Blues Breaker v1 is great with P-90's. Might work for you. $59 from Chicago Stompworks in a MXR size enclosure. It's got a lot of sizzle and does grit well.

 

[blowtorch]

anybody tried the little Donner killer boost?

yep and it can be set up to do exactly what you are describing

 

[jj69]

Strymon Deco
It might be overkill in terms of price and size but if grit is integral to your sound like mine, this is perfect (on the saturator side) plus you get chorus/flange/ slapback on the other side.
Check out a guy named Eric Haugen on youtube who also uses the deco for the same purpose .
Here's a link but he also has anothe vid where he demonstrates his pedalboard

 

[Stratohacker]

Maybe a J. Rockett Archer

 

[jimmytheshoe]

Have you tried a cheap eq pedal? It sounds like you just want to boost what you already like soundwise. Maybe just push the highs/mids a bit and let the amp do the work.

 

[Redvers]

Sounds like a job for the Red Llama. It's perfect for mostly clean songs that need a bit of bite. And it retains your amp sound.