Pedal recommendations for high gain, widdly tones.

timmysoft

mike_l said:

The Ibanez Jet Driver is also a nice distortion. flexible too.

terrible switching though!

mike_l

timmysoft said:

mike_l said:

The Ibanez Jet Driver is also a nice distortion. flexible too.

terrible switching though!

I've not had any probs with mine playing at home. I can see playing out with shoes on might give issues. 

timmysoft

mike_l said:

timmysoft said:

mike_l said:

The Ibanez Jet Driver is also a nice distortion. flexible too.

terrible switching though!

I've not had any probs with mine playing at home. I can see playing out with shoes on might give issues. 

it's the pop as they switch that bothers me.

ICBM

timmysoft said:

mike_l said:

The Ibanez Jet Driver is also a nice distortion. flexible too.

terrible switching though!

it's the pop as they switch that bothers me.

Is it basically a Super Tube Screamer? I hadn't come across it before. Odd that it pops, I assume it uses the same switching as the other 9-series pedals… or have they been stupid and made it true bypass like the Maxons?

xSkarloey

ICBM;378043" said:

Before you do anything, try changing the order of the pedals you have - Bad Monkey into SD9 should give you much more what you want than the other way round. I'd possibly put the SD9 in front of the Timmy as well.

Stacking mid-boosted pedals into mid-scooped works much better than the other way round for harmonic-rich solo tones. Boss SD-1 into DS-1 is the classic example.

Yes. Lower gain od's (BM SD-1 etc) can be great pushing other pedals.

hubobulous

Might not be your taste of tone, but the Wampler SLOStortion is awesome. I'm a fan of the Pinnacle and Riot too.

daveyh

It's awesome, and by chance I'm selling one

Grunfeld

I picked up a Boss Mega Distortion a few weeks back.  Cheap (at £22) and a very interesting pedal -- don't see much talked about them -- but certainly not short of gain.  Tons of it in fact.

And a Wampler Pinnacle -- not quite so cheap!  Nice sounding high gain pedal.

I'd pick up a Mega Distortion and play with it.

littlegreenman

Could do a lot worse than a Blackstar Dist-X for widdlesome tone. High gain and pretty flexible tonally with the ISF doodad.

Dave_Mc

ICBM said:

timmysoft said:

mike_l said:

The Ibanez Jet Driver is also a nice distortion. flexible too.

terrible switching though!

it's the pop as they switch that bothers me.

Is it basically a Super Tube Screamer? I hadn't come across it before. Odd that it pops, I assume it uses the same switching as the other 9-series pedals… or have they been stupid and made it true bypass like the Maxons?

Just out of interest, why is that stupid? If I ever get round to getting a "real" tubescreamer, the maxon one is a fair bit cheaper than the Ibanez one.

Grunfeld said:

I picked up a Boss Mega Distortion a few weeks back.  Cheap (at £22) and a very interesting pedal -- don't see much talked about them -- but certainly not short of gain.  Tons of it in fact.

And a Wampler Pinnacle -- not quite so cheap!  Nice sounding high gain pedal.

I'd pick up a Mega Distortion and play with it.

It is kind of interesting. The big problem I think with it is that it sounds worst when set up for the tones it's advertised to be aimed at- higher gain tones just sound like the worst nu-metal type of tone you've ever heard. If you turn the gain boost off completely, though, it can (sort of) do the DS1 type of thing (but with more control over the tone, and a slightly more modern tonality), and then if you turn the distortion off you can do a passable OD with the gain control.

Bit like with the DS1, though, it's kind of interesting but it wouldn't be my favourite pedal, either. And (to my ears/fingers) it doesn't really do the saturated/widdly thing as well as a lot of other pedals, as I said, to my ears the super-distorted setting is more aimed at nu-metal rhythm type tones.

MatthewShreddery

Thanks everyone - serious gas just got worse

ICBM

Dave_Mc said:

Just out of interest, why is that stupid? If I ever get round to getting a "real" tubescreamer, the maxon one is a fair bit cheaper than the Ibanez one.

Because there's nothing wrong with the original 9-series switching, so going to the trouble of re-engineering it to fit a crude, marketing-driven mechanical switching system into a pedal designed for something better is stupid (in my opinion!).

The Maxon isn't cheaper, the Ibanez is ridiculously overpriced... if you see what I mean . Totally trading on the name/myth and nothing more. The complexity and construction method of a TS-9 is identical to that of a Boss SD-1.

mike_l

Incidentally I've not had any popping from my Jet Driver. The switch doesn't have a massive amount of movement, hence switching when wearing shoes my be an issue. Or don't wear shoes on stage. 

nickb_boy

Have you considered an Emma Reezafratzitz or Caroline Wave Cannon?? Definitely worth having a look at some clips of these little red boxes.

jeztone2

7thvn by Goosoniqueworx easily the most naturalistic high gain pedal with incredibly lo noise.

hubobulous

^^^^ I love it when you bring this pedal into a conversation. Just one of the best names ever to read!!

Dave_Mc

ICBM said:

Dave_Mc said:

Just out of interest, why is that stupid? If I ever get round to getting a "real" tubescreamer, the maxon one is a fair bit cheaper than the Ibanez one.

(a) Because there's nothing wrong with the original 9-series switching, so going to the trouble of re-engineering it to fit a crude, marketing-driven mechanical switching system into a pedal designed for something better is stupid (in my opinion!).

(b) The Maxon isn't cheaper, the Ibanez is ridiculously overpriced... if you see what I mean . Totally trading on the name/myth and nothing more. The complexity and construction method of a TS-9 is identical to that of a Boss SD-1.

(a) I thought I read somewhere (likely on here or on the old musicradar forum, and probably posted by you ) ) that the Tubescreamer switches were a bit prone to failure too? (The buffered ones, I mean.)

But I agree with you, if the buffer in it is good, I'd rather have the soft switching too.

Is there any truth to their marketing claims that the OD9 has a little more bite and output because the buffer has been removed, or is that BS (or just because with the buffer removed, once you turn the pedal on it appears louder since your highs come back? ) )

(b) Oh absolutely, you're preaching to the choir there. Just I can't help wondering if the maxon or ibanez version might not sound slightly better than the joyo or bad monkey that I currently have... for a pedal I use quite a bit, it might be worth it.. And I often find I don't necessarily like the "improved", more expensive versions since I tend to use the thing in a very standard way (boost) where I don't really need the "flaws" to be fixed...

For example, I got the Hardwire Tube Overdrive recently, which has the rep of being a "better" bad monkey. Tried it first more as an OD into my lower gain amps and loved it. Big improvement. Then I tried it as a boost to my high gain amps (which is more how I'd planned to use it), expecting to like it more than the Joyo or Bad Monkey. I didn't )

I guess what I'm saying is, I'm well aware the "real thing" is way too dear (and the maxon too, though it's a bit less bad in that respect), but does anyone make a good (rather than "as cheap as possible" like the Joyo and even the Bad Monkey) genuine TS clone for a reasonable price? There's the EHX East River, but it seems to be tweaked rather than a clone (plus I don't know about EHX's rep for reliability), the Visual Sound (but it's an obnoxious size, and not all that cheap anyway)... There doesn't seem to be much in the "sensible price/value/quality" bracket, really. That I'm aware of, anyway. ) EDIT: Huh, thomann has the visual sound route 808 for ~£50.

mike_l

@Dave_Mc I like the CM-2 as a stand-alone rather than a boost. I find it's pretty close, soundwise, to a Mk1 Guvnor (on the classic setting). Certainly in a live situation there wouldn't be enough difference to spend the extra. It does take a boost pedal into it nicely too.

ICBM

Dave_Mc said:

I thought I read somewhere (likely on here or on the old musicradar forum, and probably posted by you ) ) that the Tubescreamer switches were a bit prone to failure too? (The buffered ones, I mean.)

The 8-series ones are, the 9-series less so although possibly still a little worse than Boss.

Dave_Mc said:

Is there any truth to their marketing claims that the OD9 has a little more bite and output because the buffer has been removed, or is that BS (or just because with the buffer removed, once you turn the pedal on it appears louder since your highs come back? ) )

lol

Yes, probably .

Dave_Mc said:

I guess what I'm saying is, I'm well aware the "real thing" is way too dear (and the maxon too, though it's a bit less bad in that respect), but does anyone make a good (rather than "as cheap as possible" like the Joyo and even the Bad Monkey) genuine TS clone for a reasonable price?

It does seem to be difficult to find one that's a proper TS clone. Ironically probably the cheapest way of getting a genuine TS circuit cheaply is the Ibanez TS-5 "bug", but a lot of people don't like the way they look.

The Behringer Vintage Tube might be, I'm not sure - I haven't tried one. Their copies of various Boss pedals are quite accurate though.

Dave_Mc

mike_l said:

@Dave_Mc I like the CM-2 as a stand-alone rather than a boost. I find it's pretty close, soundwise, to a Mk1 Guvnor (on the classic setting). Certainly in a live situation there wouldn't be enough difference to spend the extra. It does take a boost pedal into it nicely too.

Oh yeah it works very nicely as a boost- probably more versatile than a TS as a boost, too. Just if you want the TS thing, the (cheaper) TS clones I have seem to do it better. ) What makes it "better" than a TS also seems to make it "worse" at sounding like a TS (I suppose that sort of stands to reason).

ICBM said:

Dave_Mc said:

I thought I read somewhere (likely on here or on the old musicradar forum, and probably posted by you ) ) that the Tubescreamer switches were a bit prone to failure too? (The buffered ones, I mean.)

(a) The 8-series ones are, the 9-series less so although possibly still a little worse than Boss.

Dave_Mc said:

Is there any truth to their marketing claims that the OD9 has a little more bite and output because the buffer has been removed, or is that BS (or just because with the buffer removed, once you turn the pedal on it appears louder since your highs come back? ) )

lol

(b) Yes, probably .

Dave_Mc said:

I guess what I'm saying is, I'm well aware the "real thing" is way too dear (and the maxon too, though it's a bit less bad in that respect), but does anyone make a good (rather than "as cheap as possible" like the Joyo and even the Bad Monkey) genuine TS clone for a reasonable price?

(c) It does seem to be difficult to find one that's a proper TS clone. Ironically probably the cheapest way of getting a genuine TS circuit cheaply is the Ibanez TS-5 "bug", but a lot of people don't like the way they look.

The Behringer Vintage Tube might be, I'm not sure - I haven't tried one. Their copies of various Boss pedals are quite accurate though.

(a) Thanks

(b) LOL

(c) Thanks. I'm kind of a bit concerned about Behringer reliability (plus I'd also be a bit concerned that it's probably no better than my Joyo). I thought of those cheaper Ibanez ones (the TS7 sprung to mind) but they seem to have been discontinued for a while now. )

I'm wondering about that Visual Sound one now. ) I think it's meant to be an "improved" 808 too, but the bass boost is on a switch (so with it off, I think it's at the stock tubescreamer setting), and I think it's meant to have more output/level boost too (which wouldn't hurt, I don't think that'd make it sound less like a TS, you could just turn it down a bit). Also (supposedly) has a decent buffer and reliable switch.

Looks utterly horrible and is massive, though. )

EDIT: The other concern is that I often end up buying 4 cheaper versions of the same thing and could just have bought the "real thing" to start with and been happy. )