Drive/Distortion for a fat, beefy lead tone but also good with a BF Fender, does one exist?

builttospill

I'm still on the look out, what's out there? I know this is getting a little tedious and this topic has been done to death. 
I'm currently trying out a Zvex Double Rock, the jury is still out, it seems to have a bit of a farty low end but it's so bloody versatile, maybe just a little overkill for my needs, the two SHO's cascading sounds brilliant.   

Not too many! but so far I've gone through the following:

Vintage 88' Rat 2 (A bit thin sounding! but really nice overdriven sounds)
Lovepedal HPPT (Owned twice, didn't sound as good second time round)
Crowther Hotcake (Loved the fuzzy high gain sounds but not so much the lower gain settings,  probably more to do with my amp?)
Original TS-808 (combined with and used after the Rat, boxy, honky sounding but nice as a clean boost!) 
Jam Pedals Rattler (Decent Rat Clone)
Walrus Audio Mayflower (Just didn't get along)

Wishlist:

BMF El Jefe
Buffalo TD-X
Buffalo Evolution
Arc Effects Soothsayer
Mr Black Thunderclaw
SS/BS Fuck Overdrive
Any variation of the OCD
MXR Distortion +
Black Cat OD-Boost
Black Cat OD-Fuzz

Kebabkid

I find an OCD to be a good pedal and put an Xotic EP Booster in front of it to fatten it up from what would be a rhythm sound/fill-in leads to a full on, thicker, lead sound. In fact, I would recommend the EP Booster on for any other pedals that you like but aren't quite there.

colourofsound

I have one of these for sale: 

Really reluctant to sell as it's bloody lovely. If you like it, send me a PM.

thomasw88

Do not get the buffalo td-x unless you want a horrible bees in jar sound..

Nobels id_1r sounds great with fender amps and then stick a klon clone in front... heaven


I'm using a strymon sunset at the mom3bt and I'm starting to like it a lot

monquixote

The Riot is designed to get a fat rock tone out of a Fender Twin and is one of my favorite pedals.

builttospill

thomasw88 said:

Do not get the buffalo td-x unless you want a horrible bees in jar sound..

Nobels id_1r sounds great with fender amps and then stick a klon clone in front... heaven


I'm using a strymon sunset at the mom3bt and I'm starting to like it a lot

That's a little worrying! 

the_pman28

Presume you have the means to switching or clipping the bright cap? Some recommendations from my search to pair with bf/sf fenders:

tubescreamers are great if you can turn the amp up a bit

lovepedal amp 11 quite nice 

the barber pedals are designed around fender amps and sound spectacular (direct drive and gain changer both brilliant)

Blues driver sounds good to me now I've clipped the bright cap

i didn't personally care for the bogner Burnley but some people seem to love it with fenders and it's the definition of fat! 

If you're looking to move your double rock on, can I call first dibs? Been meaning to try one out!

simonk

thomasw88 said:

Do not get the buffalo td-x unless you want a horrible bees in jar sound..

Not my experience with it at all.

robinbowes

Sounds like you need to try a Zendrive or clone. Simble Drive is good, from Mad Professor.Mooer do one too - I forget the name.

R.

builttospill

robinbowes said:

Sounds like you need to try a Zendrive or clone. Simble Drive is good, from Mad Professor.Mooer do one too - I forget the name.

R.

Thanks Robin, yep! I've got a RYRA Klone so maybe  I need to experiment a little more with placement. It's currently first in my chain (sounds better there!) and it's set as a clean boost. Going to try it after my current drives to see if that makes a difference.

robinbowes

builttospill said:

robinbowes said:

Sounds like you need to try a Zendrive or clone. Simble Drive is good, from Mad Professor.Mooer do one too - I forget the name.

R.

Thanks Robin, yep! I've got a RYRA Klone so maybe  I need to experiment a little more with placement. It's currently first in my chain (sounds better there!) and it's set as a clean boost. Going to try it after my current drives to see if that makes a difference.

No, not a Klone (clone of a Klon), I'm talking about a Zendrive or clone.. Different beast altogether.

R.

builttospill

robinbowes said:

builttospill said:

robinbowes said:

Sounds like you need to try a Zendrive or clone. Simble Drive is good, from Mad Professor.Mooer do one too - I forget the name.

R.

Thanks Robin, yep! I've got a RYRA Klone so maybe  I need to experiment a little more with placement. It's currently first in my chain (sounds better there!) and it's set as a clean boost. Going to try it after my current drives to see if that makes a difference.

No, not a Klone (clone of a Klon), I'm talking about a Zendrive or clone.. Different beast altogether.

R.

FFS! my stupid brain, Zendrive has been on my 'intrigued by' list for sometime... not had the chance to try one.
 I do like the look of those Black Cat Pedals in particular the dual OD-FUZZ or OD-BOOST.

Sassafras

thomasw88 said:

Do not get the buffalo td-x unless you want a horrible bees in jar sound..

Nobels id_1r sounds great with fender amps and then stick a klon clone in front... heaven


I'm using a strymon sunset at the mom3bt and I'm starting to like it a lot

Sounds like your TDX was faulty. It's a very meaty pedal.

Richardj

Doesn't necessarily need to be bootique. I run a TC Mojo Mojo for the lighter crunch stuff and a Dark Matter for the higher gain distortion. Both together gets into the fatter more modern rock tones.  Worked very well into my DRRi and '68 Custom Twin and is still great into my HRDX.

Jonathanthomas83

simonk said:

thomasw88 said:

Do not get the buffalo td-x unless you want a horrible bees in jar sound..

Not my experience with it at all.

Or mine.

builttospill

the_pman28 said:

Presume you have the means to switching or clipping the bright cap? Some recommendations from my search to pair with bf/sf fenders:

tubescreamers are great if you can turn the amp up a bit

lovepedal amp 11 quite nice 

the barber pedals are designed around fender amps and sound spectacular (direct drive and gain changer both brilliant)

Blues driver sounds good to me now I've clipped the bright cap

i didn't personally care for the bogner Burnley but some people seem to love it with fenders and it's the definition of fat! 

If you're looking to move your double rock on, can I call first dibs? Been meaning to try one out!

Thanks for your suggestions, will keep you posted re: Double Rock, It does sound great! its the handpainted variety, had a couple of extra hours with it the other day.
I needed to push my Princeton to 3 which is loud for bedroom levels to get the best of of it, with both the distortrons cascading I was getting into J Mascis territory. 

kennedydream1980

I would imagine the Xotic BB preamp would work very well, the bass and treble knobs help to match it to most amps, and its sounds very fat.

Gassage

Effectrode Blackbird will do this wonderfully well.

builttospill

Gassage said:

Effectrode Blackbird will do this wonderfully well.

Coincidentally! I was looking at one of these a few weeks back, look's like a right beast! I have a CTC Blackface Stardust which covers my BF tones beautifully but I have to say I'm well intrigued. 

johnhe

The Thorpy Gunshot is the best I've hear during of one touch, standalone, fat lead tones. I tend to stack my pedals, and therefore want something less fat and lower gain. But the Gunshot is the best I've ever owned for all the fatness and juiciness i could ever want in one box.

impmann

Okko Diablo works well with BF Fenders - its more of an overdrive than distortion but it does have quite a bit of gain on tap.
I've also found that Fender amps seem to need stacked drive/distortion to get the best out of them - so I'll use either a Nobels ODR1 or similar with something like a RAT set to a lower gain than I'd normally run, to get the thickness plus the volume boost. That can get pretty huge and you can then tailor the tone on each pedal to remove any flub.