a giant thread about OD, Distortion and Fuzz!

share your dirt pedals here (no boosts unless the can produce their own dirt into a bone clean amp).... I am going to split my list up into good and bad (for my tastes), maybe everyone else do the same and we can get discussing. This is a sensitive topic and one man's trash is another man's treasure so be nice, no flaming. All tones can be legitimate in the right context.

Good: DOD OD250 and 1st gen Distortion FX55 (very similar, classic bare bones diode to ground OD, hard to improve on, better dynamics than DS1 and no tone control to fuck your EQ response up), Ibanez TS9 original issue (classic, awesome with Fender amps, hard to improve on, given to a friend for xmas), Boss SD1 original issue (Boss's version of the TS9 with assymetrical clipping diodes, crunchier top, different mid emphasis, similar bass response), Proco Rat 80s, Colorsound Overdrive (a boost, an EQ, an OD, a fuzz, trashy, transistory and pure rock), Boss OS2 Overdrive/Distortion (meaner than an SD1, better voiced than a DS1), MJM Brit Bender Mk3, Univox Superfuzz, custom low gain silicon fuzzface clone, EHX muff fuzz, V8V sweet 'lil '66 tonebender 1.5 clone, mid 60s Vox Tonebender, BYOC Tonebender professional MK2, Burns Buzzaround, Stomp Underfoot Skreddy Mayo clone, Way Huge Red Llama 90s (based on Anderton's tube sound fuzz project using CMOS inverter chip, awesome tweed type sound, great dynamics and bandwidth, a little noisey), MXR Super Badass modified Overdrive (an SD1 with the option of flat or humped mids, a better tone control and a bass gyrator that boosts or cuts 100hz after clipping, easy to tailor to your amp's voicing and to sit well in the mix of your band, a green rhino mk2 with asymmetrical clipping and less mid sculpting), EHX Soul Food (Klon clone, gets close enough for most people including me.... needs a way to bring the bass up for some amps and applications after clipping when used as a dirt machine and not a clean boost, otherwise awesome... fairly transparent, could be more dynamic, I have thoughts on improving the circuit, I might make my own modified Klon soon)

Bad: Ibanez TS5 (sounds like a TS9 for cheap but the plastic tac switch breaks easily), DOD FX55b Supra distortion (awesomely buzzsawy, 90s tones, I actually kinda miss her awful sounds), EHX Russian big muffs Green and 1st gen Black (very similar, both boomy, fun on bass), Ibanez Sonic Distortion SD9 (reminds me of the DOD FX55 but not voiced to my taste, might suit a lot of other people though), Marshall Bluesbreaker silver box 2nd gen (meh, black box 80s ones are supposedly better, whatever, not for me, too bland), MXR distortion+ (like a gainier, less dynamic OD250), Sans Amp 1st gen, DOD YJM250 (brighter, crappier sounding OD250), MXR Distortion II (unique sound, but not particularly useful), Jack Oram Fet Muff (surprisingly abrasive for a FET based design -- not like anything else I've heard but not terribly special either), GGG BSIAB2 (cranked marshall tones from 2 cascaded Oram miniboosters, awful tone control, sounds transistory and almost like a fuzz at high gain settings, basis of many marshall in a box pedals), Boss DS1 (the distortion we all love to hate), 70s EHX Ram's Head Big Muff (big let down), 90s USA Big Muff, BYOC Large Beaver 1st generation with 'triangle muff' specs, Fulltone Fulldrive mosfet (somewhere between a TS9 and SD1, very expensive without much in the way of additional tone shaping, I'll stick with the original Ibanez and Boss units or better still the useful features on the Way Huge and MXR versions), 90s Vox Tonebender RI (small black box, not as good as original in any way, great mod platform), Skreddy Pig Mine (another tweaked muff, supposed to get the David Gilmour Muff sound, fails, more of an unmuffy muff sound LOL, preferred the Mayo circuit, the best Muff style I have ever used but muffs are still overrated), Carl Martin Plexitone (part of a cash plus trade deal for my last ACTUAL Marshall plexi, suffice to say it does not have a plexi tone but did have good resale), Carl Martin Crunch Drive (sounds a lot like Marshall's bluesbreaker pedal with more gain and less dynamics, part of the plexi trade, sold, bad resale), Barber Direct Drive (part of plexi trade, british flavored OD, nothing special, good resale), Catalinbread Hyperpak (great tones in the red llama camp but hissy even at low drive settings, lent to asshole friend of ex-wife, never returned), Mosrite Fuzzrite (great for Iron Butterfly covers and little else), Shine-ei Companion fuzz (make your guitar sound like a musical chainsaw, funny, valuable, sold), MI Audio Crunch Box (popular marshall in a box, sounds a lot like the Marshall bluesbreaker pedal), Xotic BB preamp (not a bad juiced up ts9, but the 2 band tonestack is tuned in such a way that it changes the EQ of your clean guitar tone way too much at ever possible setting), Maestro FZ1, FZ1a and FZ3 (too finicky, only useable for recording retro material, piss weak output, very gimmicky, best to borrow if needed), Blue Silicon BC108 Fuzzface 70s (spitty, harsh, velcroey, fun but too valuable to keep, very gimmicky), BYOC ESV germanium ac128 fuzzface (just meh), Sam Ash fuzz box (okay with humbuckers, awful with fender pickups, not enough output), ZVex Distortron (almost perfect yet not right for me AT ALL, getting so close to a great cranked amp tone is worse than not sounding amp-like at all, but she's good for someone though... very similar in design and tone to BSIAB2 except using mosfet based SHO boosters in series with the big muff inspired tone control instead of 2 dual jfet mini-bosters, different tone and feel, tubier than BSIAB2 but also not as good for heavier music, bass contour switch is handy, tone control STILL holds her back ).

I think that's all the dirt boxes I owned and used for any period of time. Chime in. I know there have been similar thread, but not tackled comprehensively. WHat are your winners and losers?

bum bum bum bump.... HAVE AT IT DIRTBOX NERDS!

Yes Jim, this is my kind of thread.

OD: I have a behringer to100, that is a pile of utter bull, so I'm gonna trade that in for £10, at a music store, along with my line 6 amp, and chorus pedal. I plan on buying a movall rocket train, as I need a good comp, and a good OD, and with limited board space, it's a bit of a no brainer. I need an OD on my board for when I'm practising with my band, or somewhere without my amp, but the gain channel on my Laney VC15 is quite nice.

My favourite OD is either the EQD dunes/palisades, or the rockbox boiling point, though outside of TS camp I love transparent ODs like the keeley oxblood, klons (Gold master race), etc. I never really got into OCD style stuff, but fulltone do make awesome drives; you can't argue with the plimsoul, the OCD, and the fulldrive under their belt. There's just so many good ODs, I could go on for days.

DS: Well, I own a muff, which is technically a DS, though I treat it like a fuzz.

I'm a suhr riot DS fellow, I don't own one, but it's my kind of style. I'm not too bothrered about plexi stuff, and nearly every "Metal DS" is a pile of crap, apart from the empress heavy, and a few others.

The movall scorpion riot clone is a nice little thing for the price so I may invest in that at some point.

FUZZ: Well, I own a muff, which is technically a DS, though I treat it like a fuzz.

Personally my favourite fuzz is the zvex FF stuff, and I'm currently trying to build one, but is a long slow process that lasts for an hour every Tuesday evening, in an electronics class full of horny y11 druggies.

I'm not a fan of fuzz faces, and I don't care much for vintage tonebenderesque stuff, as I'm really a muff, or madness guy, but I adore octave fuzz; the tycobrahe Octavia is a beautifully ugly amazing pedal, and there are many others that are amazing, though the timeless combination of POG, and muff still beats all. Well actually the stuff I do with a muff, and pitchfork is quite op.

There are, again, unmentionable amounts of things to say about fuzz.

On these giant gear experience threads, can we all refrain from rating gear we've only puttered with at the guitar store and ehard demoed on youtube? I meant this to be EXPERIENTIAL. How's the gear really peform at a show? Based on cost and popularity I stillf avor a lot of cheap, old and common designs because they work really well IN THE MIX. Some much-beloved boutique stuff has been utterly worthless in a band even though I loved it when I first tried it at home. I actually omitted stuff I've owned but hardly used.... if it didn't go to a gig or recording session I am not going to voice an opinion, that goes for the amps thread too.... plenty of stuff left out that wound up just being an investment piece and didn't get played.

I am unsure how POG + Muff is timeless when I can very easily put a date on the POG sound, anything in that octave/pitch additive style is very much 'of the moment'... but awesome if that synthy sort of guitar sound is your bag

heads up, the fuzzfactory is basically a fuzzface, man.... its just got lots of controls instead of fixed value parts controlling transistor bias and such as well as some adjustable stuff going on at the gate and drain of both transistors.... try building a fuzz face, Sola or Vox Tonebender (essentially the same pedals but for a few components that voice them) from the schematic with a handful of parts and then start modding it and you'll be ready for a fuzzfactory, basically all the madness of the fuzz factory is about being able tos et the thing like the components have drifted over the years so tis not working right anymore, LOL

DOD FX55b Supra distortion (awesomely buzzsawy, 90s tones, I actually kinda miss her awful sounds)

http://equipboard.com/items/dod-fx55b-supra-distortion-pedal

^ This?

I have the FX-55C with me right now. I guess buzzsawy is one way to put it. Looks a lot more professional than the older model and it just kicks ass.

Just not the right ass, and not at thte right time. It kicks my two-months-into-playing-guitar self's ass pretty hard. Now I look it at it and I think "ew, too much".

On a different note, the Blackstar HT-Dual. The boost distorts so well, it sounds fantastic. Too bad the distortion channel sounds so terrible. I can make a Metal Zone sound better.

yup, the 55b, 90s pedal, not really the same as the 55C, similar topology, different sound

maybe a different blackstar HT would be more to your taste.... I feel like I tried one of their tube pedals in a store and liked it a lot.... I don't think it was the 'dual' though

My dirt pedals are as follows

Boss DS-1 - In my opinion the thing is excellent, not the most usable tone by any means but I love it, it just has a sound that in my opinion stands out from a lot of other stomp boxes. I'm tempted to buy another and mod it to compare them side by side.

Boss DS-2 - I thought it was going to be a lot better than it is but that remote switch (I think its a mids boost?) makes it sound really quite horrible and unbearable to my ears. Also I find it doesn't sound as good as DS-1 with the same settings for some reason. I just keep the gain low and rarely use it as a boost/overdrive, a very loud pedal though.

Electro-Harmonix Germanium 4 Biggmuff - This is a very good pedal for the right person but it just don't cut it for me, the overdrive side of the pedal sounds very nice but I just don't get on with the distortion side, I hate it but it could be that I'm running it into a solid state amp? I'll have to see when I get a new amp for my birthday.

Digitech Hardwire CM-2 - A very very good overdrive pedal, like a tubescreamer on steroids, much more tonal possibilities and it just does everything the tubescreamer does better and much more in my opinion. I love being able to control my highs and lows, the overdrive is extremely clear and can play open chords without it getting muddy in the slightest, very nice pedal, probably my favorite on my pedal board.

Digitech Hardwire SC-2 - Another awesome pedal from digitech, I did play it on the saturated setting at first but this aswell as adding another gain stage it scoops the mids abit which I hate! So I play it in the crunch setting which goes from a nice slight break up to a really good clear distortion, perfect for me.

big muffs are tough, everyone thinks they are awesome and easier to get on with than more primitive fuzzes, but almost every version ahs issues playing well in a band or in certain rooms or with certain amps... fortunately for those who must muff, there are SO MANY muff variants now that you can probably find one that suits your guitar, amp and band

your description of the CM-2 sounds a lot like a juiced up bad monkey, but the sc-2 distortion sounds seriously interesting... have you used either with a drummer and bassist yet?

I have nothing to say about the DS-2 other than to sneer that Boss managed to ruin the few things about the DS-1 I liked. You ay like the discontinued Boss Overdrive/Distortion. It always felt to me like the pedal the DS-2 SHOULD HAVE BEEN. I wish I knew where I put mine. I was just looking for it today....

I forgot a pedal, the MXR Blue Box, script logo... fuzzy 2 octave down effect blendable with a Nintendo/Velcro heavy fuzz tone. Fun with or without the octave, not suitable for a lot of music styles though. I had that for a while and was getting a real kick out of it at shows. Its a lot more refined than a lot of other octave fuzzes, but that doesn't make it more polite. Not the same sounds as using a pitch shift with a fuzz. Everyone should own one once.

The muff with the sound I want seems to be the Deluxe Bigmuff, so I'll get one of those, used it a few times at guitar stores and all that, I love having the mids circuit on it.

Trust me the CM-2 is the shit and very very well priced. It takes a 9v 1.3 amp adapter but the pedal itself have rails in it so its running at 15v instead, very powerful and just amazing pedal, just don't expect to get crazy amounts of distortion on the modified setting its just not that sort of pedal but run it into a cranked tube amp and you'll just have a ton of distortion. The pedal also has a very convincing tube sound to it too! does not sound digital (atleast to me)

I have used the CM-2 with a drummer and bassist and all that and it cuts the mix perfectly! I couldn't ask for more really. I cut the bass a little bit and boost the highs a bit too, nothing mjor though, just to my taste. I tend to have the mids on my amp at around 8 so pretty high, I love having my mids out there though which may help with the cut, I'll try it with different settings on the amp and see how it sounds and cuts the mix :)

I am yet to use the SC-2 outside of my flat haha

The DS-2 was just so underwhelming I was expecting a really powerful tone out of it like I get from the DS-1 but it just sounds meh in comparison to me. How people like Kurt Cobain happily made the switch to one is beyond me. I do like that pedal quite a lot, should really try getting myself one

I like my mids so far out there that I haven't owned an amp with an actual midrange for years and I typical play through channels without tone controls or with the tone stack disengaged on my HW amps.... why? MORE MIDRANGE... I'm like Christopher Walken with cow bell on this score. That's why I played Marshalls for years. MORE MIDS and while you don't think of Voxes as being middier because of the Beatles? They are SUPER MIDRANGEY as long as you don't get carried away with the top boost channel

I wouldn't be expecting the CM-2 to be very gainy, sounds tubescreamery, enough gain to make a full, classic rock kinda OD into a clean amp, best set lower pushing an amp that's just breakin' up.... there's just a lot of 2 band EQ tubescreamer/SD1 variants these days so its hard to get worked up about it... Xotic, MXR, Way Huge, etc etc

Speaking of mids, and I know it's on the wrong thread, but the "bright" switch on my laney; is that just a mid boost?

no, its probably a treble bleed cap tied to the gain pot.... if its wired as I expect it goes back to the birth of guitar amplifiers and is a simple highpass filter that has less effect the closer the gain pot gets to 10 until at 10 its finally out of the circuit.... the old idea was to compensate for the way pots tend to sound dark at low settings and ALSO to fight your ears tendency to hear loud sounds as brighter than quiet ones.... eventually it became a stylized thing to get V1 to react certain ways to the input signal like on a Vox or Marshall... obviously being tied to the gain control on a modern master volume amp it will not be behaving as intended unless the master volume is wide open, but the JCM800 series made a virtue of this (there's a bright cap of this style permanenty tied to the gain on those amps) by using it as a voicing control

Thanks. Do you know the stock speakers Laney use?

website or manual?

The website doesn't say and I don't have the manual.

other than the switching circuit for the gain 'channel' I would bet money I could schematic your amp pretty closely just by guessing... if I had to guess the preamp sits somewhere between a plexi and an ac30 top boost, these are not very different preamps, its really jut the EQ that's wired up different, still 2 gainstages before EQ with a cathode follower stage to lower the impedance to the phase inverter. The gain channel probably adds a spare 12ax7 triode stage out front to make it like a JCM800. Long tailed pair phase inverter for sure feeding 2 cathode biased el84 tubes with solid state rectification.... the question is whether they gave her any negative feedback in the power amp (its a vox VS marshall design thing) and whether your bright switch is voiced Marshally or Voxy

Laney used to always use Celestion modern Leads or Classic Leads.... can't you just look at the speaker?

EDIT:

in the 90s and early 2000s! its been awhile, but that's what the laney cabs I've had were loaded with

It's not very clear, but it looks like a "Jansun"?