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98% of the time I'm playing my electric guitars with one cable straight into my tube amp.
Tons of effects lure me in, get me involved tweaking tones, but ultimately I find my way back to "just amp."
My Boogie MKIIb covers the singing sustain hi gain sounds, but it is kinda loud.
I mostly use a Super Reverb that I've owned for nearly 50 years now. First distortion pedal I ever used with that amp was the GM Fuzz Up, then a Foxx Tone Machine, then probably a less memorable sampling of pedals like the DS-1 and such.
Some time later I picked up a Chandler Tube Driver rack, and it sat mostly unused for a few decades until last year when I dug it out and found I could get close to the Boogie lead tone with the Tube Driver into the BFSR.
Then just this last week bought a $40 8-space rack and a $10 Ikea table to hold this Yamaha DG1000 that I just got delivered, and that's what I'm trying at the moment. So this is "rack" not a "pedal" but it is very capable of smooth, singing sustain (Allan Holdsworth recorded an entire album with this gear.) You can program many different sounds and retrieve them with midi foot controller, and the knobs are motorized to move into each saved setting (this makes it very easy to make further fine adjustments on any stored setting.) You can easily find these DG1000 for less money than a boutique pedal, I paid $200 at Guitar Center.
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01-05-2017 11:38 PM
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I have an Analogman KoT for OD and a newly acquired MXR Submachine for fuzz. The submachine is really awesome. I love my friend's Fulltone Fulldrive 2; I haven't tried the OCD but I'm interested...
I'm also a fan of my Mooer yellow comp. A little comp goes a long way...
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The Fulltone OCD sounds great in my opinion,
very responsive with gorgeous overtones!
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Funny thing is, when I bought mine WAY back in my pre-pube days, I was too young to get the name. When I got a little older, I was quite surprised to find out what it refers to.
Originally Posted by Longways to Go
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Back when I used pedals, my distortion was from a Butler Tube Driver.
Still my favorite dirtbox, by far.
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Wow! Thanks to everybody for all the great suggestions. This forum is such a wonderful resource.
This thread has provided a perfect starting point for researching pedals. I wrote down a list of everything and have had a lot of fun internet researching all kinds of cool looking pedals that I'd never heard of.
Butler tube driver looks awesome -- it is now on my future might need list!
Also makes me curious about other pedals with a real tube . . .
Yesterday, I hit my favorite local shop to see what they had to offer.
I sat down with a Gibson ES-339, a Deluxe Reverb, and 4 pedals and made some noise.
First up, Catalinbread Sabbra Cadabra. I guess it's supposed to be Black Sabbath in a box. I'm sure there are good sounds in this pedal somewhere, but I didn't find them. Sadly, they didn't have a Katzenkonig in stock.
Next up, Fulltone Robin Trower RTO Signature Overdrive. I liked this one quite a bit. It was easy to find good sounds at most every turn of the knob. But I had the distinct impression that it does one sound-- and only one sound -- really well -- and that sound is Robin Trower. I guess I'm looking for something a bit more independent-minded than that.
Next, Visual Sound Double Trouble. This is a big beast of a double pedal with two independent distortion circuits that can be run separately or together. This thing is a monster! If I was doing a hard rock thing, I'd be all over it, but it seemed more aimed at heavy crunch than singing to me. Inconveniently large box, but cool & fun.
Last, I played the Fulltone Fulldrive 3. This one came home with me. It's also a double pedal -- independent Overdrive and Boost that can be used separately or together. When I turned on this pedal, I almost instantly bonded with the sound, and after fiddling with the knobs for a while, I found all kinds of likeable tones. It's a complex pedal with lots of controls, but I didn't have any trouble finding great tone most everywhere. It's going to take a while of exploring to get myself really dialed in with this pedal, but I'm super impressed with it. It's much smoother sounding than the Plimsoul, which now sounds gritty in comparison. I also like that you can play hard on a singing single note line, and then soften up your touch for chords and not have a complex jazz chord turn to complete mush. Very cool.
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Haven't played one...
But the fulltone Octafuzz, sounds fairly impressive to me.
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I'm a Wampler guy. Tried a dozen or so others. Ended up keeping a Dual Fusion, a Plexidrive Deluxe and a Tumnus. To my ears, Brian does "dirt" well.
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Another relatively "fine-grained" OD just discovered:
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Hey I have same pedal! How does your bass control work? I think there are two version, one with regular bass pot that increases bass clockwise, but mine has bass wired as basscut as it goes clockwise. Great pedal nonetheless. And very rare I think. Originally Posted by 999369
I'd also recommend Rockett Holdsworth OD/Boost -- no, it's not instant Holdsworth-in-a-box but, but it's really good low to mid gain pedal and can get kinda Dumbleish tone. Combine that with clean boost side and right kind of delay (I mainly use Yamaha UD-Stomp), it does Holdswoth type tone too.
And Truetone (formerly Visual Sounds) VS-XO is great too: it has Tube Screamer side w/clean blend and Nobels ODR side. With Nobels side you can get dark/smooth lead tone that is still not muddy.
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You will get more value from this thread if you say what amp you use and give a couple of examples of the tones of songs/players you like. Originally Posted by Longways to Go
When I play slide I go for long sustain so I kick on my big muff and Deluxe Memory Man.
This video and others from the channel might help:
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
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Big box RAT, set low, with a tube amp that's right on the edge.
I don't do that enough anymore. Time to bring out the patch cables
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Seriously, I've come to the conclusion that video demos of overdrive/distortion pedals are to be avoided like the plague. I listened to that Xotic Soul Driven pedal earlier in the thread and IMMEDIATELY went to Reverb and eBay to check them out. In the final analysis IMHO there just isn't that much difference between them once you get to the $200 threshold. I started with Boss DS-1 and have arrived at Ethos and Okko by way of Eternity, Zendrive, Klon clones, Fulltone, Greer, and all the others I can no longer remember. When I need renewed perspective, I take out my home-built 5F1, plug in my telecaster, turn the amp up to 11, flip over to the bridge pickup, and have at it. Then I suddenly remember why I came.
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I decided to add a fuzz to my pedalboard too, so now I have Black Arts Toneworks Pharaoh into Fulltone Fulldrive 3. I am enjoying this set up -- all kinds of great sounds in there. I am using mostly boost and very little gain. Also, to add more complexity to the mix, this feeds into my Rivera Venus 3 amp which is capable of an astonishing number of different tones and levels of gain.
Funny thing is, I'm most likely to take my trusty Henriksen 110ER with no pedals to play a gig.
This pedalboard into tubeamp setup is more like a tone playground for me.
I wouldn't really want to lug it around, but I do find it inspiring.
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I use a Wampler Ecstasy(now called "Euphoria") overdrive for the dirt I need. It has 3 settings, smooth, open, and crunch. It's got a diode as well which means that the bass control is more like a fuzz!
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There's nothing remotely like a Fuzz Face. It can go from a lightly overdriven amp, almost clean, to crazy with little change in volume with the volume control on your guitar. Jimi is the only person that used it to the max but David Gilmore made good use of it too. I'm going to sell my 80's Tube Screamer and get a new mini-Screamer.
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I've done a lot of research the last couple months on effects in general. Never was into gear too much till recently. Sometimes you can believe the hype and sometimes not. I just got a Boss RV-6 reverb pedal. It's a night/day difference between that and the reverb in my Boss ME80 multi-effects. the RV-6 can hold it's own against some of the best ambient reverbs.
Pretty cheap too. Maybe more versatile. Don't overlook Boss for digital effects but some of these cheaper mini-effects are excellent.
I have a Deja Vibe which is supposed to be a copy of the original uni-vibe. It has intensity level. It has the pulse like a heart beat. Duh dum....duh dum.. Most of the things called uni-vibe now don't.
Love it.
I got a mini-Ibanez flanger. It's great. There are all kinds of good digital delays.
The big thing is overdrive and distortion. That's where we can get fussy. For me it's the newer Fazz Face. I'm going to get rid of my 80's Tube Screamer and get a new cheap mini-Screamer. I can dial in a Big Muff tone with the Fuzz Face using the volume control on the guitar.
People tried to get me to use a Rat in the 80's in R&B and I should have but I was hard-headed and determined to make lighter over-drive work.
Rat, Tube Screamer, Big Muff, Fuzz Face. They cover a lot of ground.
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I started out with a Bosstone, and eventually moved on to a Deluxe Big Muff Pi, and then a Hot Tubes. Modern two-channel amps with master volumes made these redundant. A Music man 112RD50, a couple of Crates, and a series of Marshalls and Peaveys ensued, accompanied by a selection of small, crankable amps; eventually culminating in a Traynor YCV40WR with accompanying 12"Celestion extension cabinet, from which I can wring virtually any tone I want at any volume I choose short of actual irreparable cranial damage. Useful in any setting.
That said, my last gigs were with a DRRI and my trusty Danelectro Daddy-O. Its weighty and very sturdy housing is home to volume, gain, and three bands of tone controls. When the smooth and silent footswitch is engaged and the little red light glows, any thing from a gentle warming on through a hint of hair leading to some serious snarl building to apocalyptic levels of acoustic anarchy are available, if desired. I see by the sticker on the bottom I shelled out about seventy bucks for this invaluable device. Money well spent, I say.
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