Idiots guide to pedals.

[captcoolaid]

Okay I am the idiot guide me please. I have a practice amp Orange Crush 20ldx. I love the thing but I hat having to stop playing to switch from cleans to a medium gain setting. So I need an inexpensive pedal for a gain pedal.

By the way all my guitars are Strats and Teles with uber high dc bucker in the bridge as in 20k+ and 6.3k A5 an A2 necks depending on the guitar.

 

[Hector Arcadius]

We're on the same page. I also have a SS amp that has very nice cleans and I hate it's distortion channel, thereforeI resort to pedals for the gain.

(BTW, one of my 2 guitars has a bridge humbucker from...hm... a custom winder...hm... hey! You!)


It'a a good think you listed your gear. Next question: where do you wanna go? what kind of music style do you want to cover? There are many styles of gain pedals:

Tubescreamer-ish
Marshall-y (both vintage sounding and more modern)
Fuzz-boxes (Muff-y of Face-y)
Clean Boosts
American High-gainers (like Rectifier-sounding)

 

[Hector Arcadius]

Oh, and how much do you want to spend?

 

[gibsonguitar1988]

Hi Capt!

I'm a gain pedal aficionado of many different kinds so let me run through some options.

First, a budget would help me to decide the perfect pedal. For the sake of this post, we'll say 150 or less.

Do you want a warm overdrive that is smooth, bluesy/creamy? Or do you want a brighter but still thick heavy rock overdrive? Or somewhere in between? Or do you want an amp-in-a-box pedal that will give you Marshall or Fender tones through any amp? How much gain do you want to be available on the pedal (low, medium, or high gain)? Lots of choices here.

I'll wait until you answer some more questions before I say what I'd recommend but honestly check out the Fulltone OCD or the MXR '78 Distortion. The '78 didn't click with my Fender tube amp (Twin Reverb RI) because it was too bright but an Orange should be pretty dark and I bet it'd work well. But really the OCD IS the be all end all of easily-available high quality medium gain overdrives. That pedal is legendary and for good reason. If you want something smooth and bluesy the Green Rhino reissue by Way Huge is a great choice. All of these are in the 100 dollar range.

I've been through many drive pedals and have loads of experience with them so I should be able to help you pick out something once you answer my questions. Glad to help. Drive pedals are my specialty, I have tons of them. But I'm a clean amp + drive pedal guy myself.

 

[captcoolaid]

Okay what I play is fvcked at times here is the gain channel on the Crush
[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wc5m-w0P_1s]YouTube - ‪noodling.wmv‬‏[/ame]
You can here the hornets nest on the individual strings. Hate that. I play mostly Alice in Chains meets Rob Zombie type stuff. I would like more of a Marshall gain channel tone if that is possible. Remember all I have been a plug and play guy for most of my life.

 

[Freddy G]

Any time I see Phil X demoing a guitar on Fretted Americana he kicks in a pedal called a Bad Monkey and I'm always impressed. Haven't tried on personally though

edit....wow great chops man!

 

[gibsonguitar1988]

Then I still say Fulltone OCD. Or MXR '78 Distortion. As a third option, the ZVex Distortron might be up your alley. There aren't many mass produced/easily available Marshall-in-a-box pedals but there are tons of boutiques I could recommend (Catalinbread Dirty Little Secret, Wampler Plextortion, etc) but are more than likely more than you want to spend on one.

 

[captcoolaid]

Hey freddie could you point me to one of him using it. I have seen some of the vids and love that guys tone.

 

[captcoolaid]

I am just using it for bedroom practice and songwriting.

 

[gibsonguitar1988]

I am just using it for bedroom practice and songwriting.

Then definitely go with the MXR '78 Distortion. Should be perfect. Only 80 bucks.

http://www.musiciansfriend.com/guitars/mxr-m78-custom-badass-78-distortion-guitar-effects-pedal

To be honest I've never played a 50 dollar or less drive pedal that was any good to my ears. But that's just my experience. Most of them are too digital fizzy sounding.

 

[gibsonguitar1988]

Here is a demo of the MXR '78:

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uLkd4DX3PxY]YouTube - ‪MXR Custom Badass '78 Distortion‬‏[/ame]

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lXZFHf7WWcQ]YouTube - ‪MXR Custom Badass 78 Distortion guitar effects pedal demo with SG‬‏[/ame]

 

[Hector Arcadius]

Rayne,

for Marshall-in-a-box kind of pedal, I have this one and it's the last that would ever leave my board (around $130.00):



[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OMJLIOSMaZM]YouTube - ‪MI Audio Crunch Box‬‏[/ame]



There are others, not necessarily better, but they are more expensive:

Lovepedal Purple
Wampler Plextortion
Suhr Riot


Another pedal that is quite versatile and can do both the Marshall sounds and more modern ones, is the Hardwire Valve Distortion ($100.00)


[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v6lGgtjQeGA]YouTube - ‪Quickcut: HardWire SC-2 Valve Distortion - Les Paul‬‏[/ame]



The Bad Monkey is a nice and affordable pedal, but based on your style and music, I doubt if a Tubescreamer-clone / type of overdrive could get you there. Perhaps I can find a video of Phil X using it...

 

[captcoolaid]

I like the Crunch box and the MXR the best the Crunch seems a bit compressed but it also has the capability to adjust the circuit internally. But I have to say the MXR may be a good starting place for me. Thanks guys. Now for the uber cool part and no I am not pedaling his wares, but I happen to know a pedal builder and now that I know what circuit I want off to see what he can do for a trade. Good to be a winder. And again thanks man I may be getting the MXR pending what he says.

 

[jsanchez]

I have the 35 watt orange crush, and i use the boss SD1 super-overdrive ($45 from amazon) and the boss power stack ($99 guitar center) in conjunction with each other. I am very pleased with both pedals.

 

[captcoolaid]

How is the SD1 by itself.

 

[gibsonguitar1988]

I like the Crunch box and the MXR the best the Crunch seems a bit compressed but it also has the capability to adjust the circuit internally. But I have to say the MXR may be a good starting place for me. Thanks guys. Now for the uber cool part and no I am not pedaling his wares, but I happen to know a pedal builder and now that I know what circuit I want off to see what he can do for a trade. Good to be a winder. And again thanks man I may be getting the MXR pending what he says.

You can't go wrong with the MXR. I think it will be a great pedal for you. Again as I said, it sounds better with darker amps (Marshall, Orange, etc).

 

[captcoolaid]

Anyone here know Caleb over at Bucktone effects.

 

[jsanchez]

How is the SD1 by itself.

its good for lead, just ok for rhythm. I use it to push my distortion pedal, its gives you a bunch of sustain and a really good sound imo.

 

[captcoolaid]

Well I got a hold of Beerdog here on the forum and he is gonna let me check out one of his pedals. Says it will be a good place to start since the last time I used a pedal for anything was when ProCo first came out with the Ratt, yeah that long. You know the vintage MXR pedals were still shiney and new and you could get a used one for around 15 bucks. Get the picture. Any way thanks all and thanks Sludge for turning me on to The Dog.

 

[mockingbird]

The MXR '78 - one hell of a great drive pedal. But... I am still yet to own one.

Alternatively, you could invest in a better valve amplifier.