Best Distortion Pedals for Guitar

The Pro Co RAT2 has always held a pretty special place in guitarists' hearts. The Original RAT was introduced in 1978 and found immediate success. Despite being one of the first dedicated distortion pedals, its current incarnation, the RAT2, is still one of the best.

The thick chewy sound we love from the RAT2 sounds incredibly full with tons of bottom end but feels balanced enough to still really let the upper registers sing. It’s essentially half fuzz and half distortion, offering a really interesting mix between the two. To know exactly what we're talking about, reference Blur's brilliant Song 2, which was made using a RAT2.

This pedal is spartan, extremely easy to dial in, and built like a tank. You get 3 control knobs - DISTORTION , FILTER , and VOLUME - and a footswitch. The control knobs feature a rubberized grip that feel great to the touch. The knobs adjust smoothly and have indicators that glow in the dark so adjusting the pedal in the dark is easy to do on the fly.

The RAT2 has rubberized feet that keep it about a quarter inch off the floor. This makes space for the “no tools necessary” thumbscrew that secures the battery access door. The 9V DC input is located on the top of the box between the input and output, but be aware it does not include a power supply.

Thick aggressive tones are our favorite tones with the RAT2, but we also love it because of its versatility. Used sparingly, this pedal can function as an overdrive. Roll on the filter while paring back the distortion and you have a killer overdriven tone that rivals a tube screamer. Dial up the distortion, and you've got capable distortion that set the standard for thrash metal in the 1980s.

It lacks the granular controls of some of the other options on this list, but whether for hard rock, metal, or smoother/warmer blues soloing needs, the RAT2 can dial it in perfectly making the RAT series from Pro Co modern classics. Hugely influential guitarists like David Gilmour, James Hetfield, Dave Grohl, and a slew of other monumental artists have used it.

Bottom Line: The RAT2 is a classic that delivers overdrive, distortion, and fuzz in one box. The sweet spot for this pedal is a thick and saturated distorted tone.

The Boss DS-1 is the most popular distortion pedal on the planet. Introduced in 1978, the little orange box is the first distortion pedal Boss made and has become an icon.

The controls on the DS-1 are simple. It has TONE , LEVEL , and DISTORTION.

The tone knob adjusts the treble. Or specifically, turning the tone knob clockwise cuts bass and going counterclockwise higher frequencies.

Level adjusts volume. We did notice the DS-1 is not as loud as most of the other pedals on this list.

Distortion is straightforward and controls gain and sustain.

This is not a specialty metal pedal, so it is not a high-gain drive. It generally breaks up before getting super modern metal sounds. Be aware of that, but virtually any other type of distorted music you can think of the DS-1 handles like a champ.

This pedal is a relatively bright sounding distortion. It can do crunch to hard rock really well. Boss even includes eight suggested settings in the user manual for a great way to get to some good tones for specific genres.

The way this pedal cuts through a mix is pure rock and roll perfection. Our favorite application for this pedal is rock and roll, plain and simple. Kurt Cobain, Steve Vai, and Joe Satriani are among the long list of well-documented DS-1 users.

To hear the Boss DS-1 in action, make sure to check out our Demo + Review video:

Bottom Line: The DS-1 has a great classic rock distortion tone. It is extremely affordable and it will last a lifetime.

The Keeley Electronics Filaments is marketed as a "high-gain" pedal. To be fair, it is great at high gain tones. We just find that calling this drive a high-gain distortion pigeonholes what is a versatile drive that sounds excellent at lower gain settings as well.

Robert Keeley is no stranger to dirt. His company makes some of our favorite drives on the market, so while the Filaments can go into higher gain territory than their other offerings, we still feel that calling it a high gain is a misnomer because of its versatility.

The Filaments has three stacked gain stages that interact on the signal and even sound warm and inviting at some of the lower settings on the pedal. Once you roll up the gain the sound stays tight as the signal gets saturated.

The tone is incredibly easy to adjust given since you have 7 methods of EQ shaping at your fingertips. The controls are laid out logically and are easy to use. These include PRESENCE , BASS , BODY , and TREBLE knobs as well as toggle switches to adjust the BOOST , BRIGHT (for "more shine"), and CRUNCH (chugging rhythm versus searing solo tones).

In our review, it was hard to find a setting where the Filaments produced a bad sound. All the controls give you optionality to micro sculpt your tone, but you can quickly dial in everything from some light gain drive to chugging metal.

The pedal looks the part too, with a black on black art scheme of a glossy tube on the matte case. The bold red lettering really sets off the look, and the LED is a bright blue.

The Filaments can draw power from 9 or 18 volts (sounding louder at 18) and is true bypass. However, it does not have the ability to run off a battery, so be aware of that limitation.

Bottom Line: It is too restrictive to call this only a high-gain drive, although it produces nuanced metal tones brilliantly. Its tone shaping options give it a versatility that makes it a compelling option no matter what genre you play. All things considered, this is one of the most versatile modern drives with a range that will satisfy anyone wanting serious distortion.

The MXR M75 Super Badass Distortion is one of the best sounding distortion pedals MXR has made. The distortion has an incredible range , it's easy to dial in, and it's an outrageous value for the money.

The 3 EQ knobs are its marquee feature. They allow you to sculpt your tone no matter what guitars, amps, or other pedals you're using.

And that's where our dilemma with the M75 is. If you wanted ONE pedal to cover all your dirt needs, this would be hard to beat , especially given the price. It does clean boost -> gentle breakup -> hard rock distortion -> metal.

It's not our favorite sounding in any single category, but it can handle them all extremely well. If you are limited to a single drive pedal or want to put together a minimal pedalboard, this is a great option.

The knobs are super simple: OUTPUT knob controls the volume; DISTORTION knob does the heavy lifting. The 3 EQ knobs - BASS, MID, and TREBLE - serve to sculpt your tone. The pedal features True Bypass and is a rugged and attractive little thing with a metallic silver finish.

With the distortion set all the way down, the M75 is a serviceable little clean boost. As you dial up the distortion you approach a nice crunchy overdrive, and with the knob cranked all the way and the mids cut back you'll achieve a modern metal tone.

Bottom Line: True to its name, the MXR M75 truly is a badass pedal with an incredible range. The 3-band EQ on it really seals the deal. If you want a dirt box that can pretty much do it all, or you frequently switch pickup types and amps you'll really value the tone-sculpting options the M75's EQ gives you.

The KHDK Electronics Dark Blood is one of Metallica's Kirk Hammett's signature pedals. The company was co-founded by Kirk Hammett (KH) and David Karon (DK) in 2012. If you're interested, you can read more of the company's story here.

The pedal feels and looks great in hand (We tested the Limited Edition version of the pedal in Candy Apple Red). The knob controls are GAIN , VOLUME , DOOM (The pre-distortion EQ that controls low-end), and TREBLE. The knobs are chicken head style so they are easy to read and adjusting them is smooth as silk. There is also a Hi/Lo selector switch for compression and sustain and a subtle GATE knob , which controls noise reduction.

While the pedal can hold it's own with high gain treble leads, the real surprise was how good the low-end tones sounded when you turn the Doom knob past twelve o'clock. The pedal sounds remarkably full and impressive. We tip our hats to chief engineer of KHDK Antonin Salva, who has done an amazing job with the EQ of this pedal. Having said that, it doesn't sound terrific at low gain levels, but as Kirk said, this was designed to be,

...the ultimate pedal for gain freaks.

In addition to the magical "Doom" knob, the other aspect that really sets this pedal apart is the onboard noise gate. With a simple twist of the knob, you can eliminate unwanted feedback completely. We were really impressed how well the simple noise gate worked at cutting feedback, even with noisy single coils. The ideal gate level varied quite a bit across the guitars we tested this pedal with, but having the ability to adjust the signal definitely added a useful capability to this pedal.

Bottom Line: This made in Kentucky pedal delivers terrific metal tones for both soloing and rhythm playing due to its impressive EQ and built-in noise gate.

It would be remiss of us to not include our favorite high gain distortion pedal. We tried many, and we can confidently say the Wampler Dracarys Distortion is very good.

The Dracarys is a boutique, true bypass pedal made in the USA by Brian Wampler and company, and was inspired by the playing style of Swedish guitarist Ola Englund.

This thing is a monster (or a dragon, as it were). Forget about "transparent" drive pedals, the Dracarys will absolutely decimate a clean channel with huge distortion. The controls are familiar - three EQ knobs; BASS , MID , TREBLE , a VOLUME knob, and GAIN knob. The toggle switch in the middle lets you go between Open and Tight (less and more compression, respectively).

If you back off the gain, you can absolutely get modern rock tones out of the Dracarys. Still, we would strongly recommend it for people who tend to play heavier genres. This pedal will chug and djent beautifully, sounding huge yet still very articulate.

Bottom Line: This is one of the finest high gain distortion pedals we've had the pleasure to test. It's super easy to dial in and the EQ controls are very useful. For sweet sounding modern, high gain distortion, we wholeheartedly recommend trying out the Wampler Dracarys.

The Fender Pugilist surprised us with how good it is. In the past, with few exceptions, Fender’s effect pedals have underwhelmed us. It felt as if the company was testing the waters by dipping a toe in the pedal market without being committed. This time, judging by the Pugilist, they are all in.

The distortion tones, features, and build quality of the Pugilist had us in disbelief how far Fender has come with effect pedals. The Pugilist has a well-designed gold anodized aluminum chassis and features magnetically latched 9V battery door that is spring loaded so you can reach the battery without even taking the pedal off your board. The cleverest design feature though is the control knobs are illuminated with blue LEDs, giving the pedal an easy to read sapphire glow, which can be switched off if its not your thing. All this attention to detail and the golden Fender amp-style jewel indicator light combine to make a gorgeous minimalist pedal.

In terms of construction, we could only produce two nit picks about the Pugilist. The first is the foot switch on our unit was tough to depress and made a very audible click when engaged. Second, we wish the input and output jacks were top mounted to save some space on the pedalboard. Aside from these minor things, Fender really nailed it when designing this distortion.

Crucially, Fender’s attention to detail wasn’t confined to aesthetics. It sounds great too. This distortion features two gain engines that can each be independently controlled with TONE and GAIN knobs.

However, the more interesting control on the Pugilist is the BLEND knob, which lets you determine the mix of the gain engines. We found “Gain B” more aggressive and bass heavy than “Gain A.” Dialing them in for several guitar and amp combinations was a pleasure and we could always find great tones no matter the signal chain. In fact, it was difficult to find a tone we didn’t like.

You also have the option to stack the drives in a series if you prefer that option to blending them via a toggle switch. Finally, there is a BASS BOOST toggle as well to give the bottom end more oomph. All these shaping options give the pedal a wide sonic range.

Bottom Line: We love it for light distortion to hard rock, as its sweet spot stops a little short of metal. Having said that, the tones the Pugilist makes rival pedals twice its price, and the versatility and range of the pedal make it really impressive for anyone looking for a rock-focused powerhouse.

The EarthQuaker Devices Acapulco Gold is interesting. One glance will tell you that. In addition to some beautiful artwork the form factor of this pedal puts its uniqueness on display from the moment you first lay eyes on it.

The pedal is essentially a footswitch, a brilliant white LED indicator, some beautiful black and gold artwork, and one big honking knob. What’s weirder, it somehow all makes sense.

I’ll let EarthQuaker Devices explain their reasoning:

Since tone is in the hands, we decided to keep the controls of the Acapulco Gold as simple as possible. The footswitch turns the pedal on and off, and the giant knob controls the output volume. That’s it. ... Want less gain? Turn down your guitar’s volume knob. Need a darker rhythm tone? Roll back your guitar’s tone control. Easy, right?

We can’t argue with that. This pedal was designed to simplify your distortion options and redirect the focus to just picking up, plugging in, and playing guitar.

The Acapulco Gold is based on power amp distortion. Specifically, it is modeled after a dimed Sunn Model T distortion. For those uninitiated, Sunn Model Ts have a cult following by those that love huge, over the top overdrive. However, unlike a Sunn head, which go for well north of $2K on the used market, this pedal is easy to find, transport, and doesn’t require maintenance.

This pedal fits the bill if you like this somewhat specific maxed out tube amp sound. No question, this is pure driven amp rock and roll distortion. The bottom end is too big and unruly for metalheads, and the dimed amp sound is something that is a specialized sound since adjusting the Acapulco Gold is limited by your guitars knobs. That limits the Acapulco Golds versatility compared to some of the other distortions here, but if you like the sound of this produces, this is a very attainable way to get an amazing tone.

And we mean it when we say the tone is amazing. It is really popular with doom and stoner rockers for it’s saturated expressive crunch. And despite having a really booming low end, the treble sustains you can achieve with this distortion are great. Check out this video of Andy putting it through its paces if you’re interested in hearing how it sounds.

One word of caution: this pedal is LOUD! When we plugged in with our guitar volume up, we couldn’t get past 11 o’clock on the gigantic knob before we were shaking our windows.

Bottom Line: The Acapulco Gold delivers the sounds of a Sunn Model T amp with everything turned up to 10. No more, no less. The downside is you are giving up versatility by not having EQs and other tone shaping features, the upside is you have legendary amp tone in a stomp box. If you love that driven tube amp on the verge of exploding sound, this may be the distortion for you.

The JHS Angry Charlie started off as a Marshall-in-a-box attempt; specifically an eighties rock defining JCM 800. That means you get really chunky mids with plenty of gain on tap. Thanks to wide EQ options, JHS really made this pedal sound great at a light crunch setting to searing solos.

The pedal is powered through a standard 9V negative center and draws 11 mA. Controls include Volume , which is a master output control, Drive , and a tone stack with Bass , Middle , and Treble. The EQ has a wide frequency range and is flat at 12 o’clock so you can relatively cut or boost each range. The EQ is also really sensitive and even small changes result in a large sonic change, so this pedal can cover a lot of ground. In fact, this EQ is one of the best we’ve seen on a distortion pedal. We were impressed by how JHS voiced this distortion so that despite the wide range, it was hard to make a bad sound in our testing.

We will say there is a diminishing return on the drive, and past 2 or 3 o’clock things passed our personal sweet spots to get muddier than we liked with the volume cranked, but we still didn’t think it sounded bad.

The mids of the Angry Charlie really stand out, giving the pedal a creamy saturation at its core. On top of this quintessential British sounding base, you can add treble or bass to preference to add some bite or boom and sound great. Even as a boost, when we rolled back the drive and opened up the volume we were impressed. That’s generally not the forte of pedals that can accurately mimic a JCM 800 at a high gain setting.

It also sounded great with scooped mids for 80s hard rock and metal. Again, we have to praise the EQ here. Even with the gain up, the pedal stays tight with clear note separation. Rhythm or lead playing, this pedal handled it all.

The version 3 is an update that adds a little headroom, slightly different voicing, as well as a more extensive EQ instead of the tone control knob on the V2. We should also mention there is an Andy Timmons signature pedal from JHS that is based on this platform with selectable headroom (15, 50, or 100 watts), if that is important to you, but you will sacrifice some control in the EQ. Really, though, you can’t go wrong with either option.

Bottom Line: The Angry Charlie from JHS is a rich sounding distortion based on the legendary Marshall JCM 800 amplifier that has iconic British tones, but excels in many genres and roles because of its impressive EQ.

The BIG EAR WOODCUTTER is a ProCo RAT clone. Specifically, the kind folks at BIG EAR (who build these boutique pedals by hand) modeled this one after an LM308 equipped RAT.

It's a very solidly built and nice pedal. The big white lettering looks cool on the pedal's black finish. The knobs are metallic and turning them feels amazing. You can't use a battery with it, so make sure you have a 9V power supply.

The knobs are the same as the RAT, though two of the three have been renamed. The footswitch is easy to click and the LED is bright and white.

So, if ever you've been interested in a RAT, you need to take a close look at the WOODCUTTER. We compared it side by side to a newer RAT2 (non LM308), and it sounds very similar. The thing about RAT clones is sometimes they stray a bit too far from the original sound (looking at you, Walrus Iron Horse). The WOODCUTTER comes astoundingly close.

Check out our video where we compare RAT 2 vs. WOODCUTTER vs. Iron Horse V2 and hear it for yourself:

Where they deviate is that the WOODCUTTER has more bass. Whether that's good or not depends on the rest of your rig - perhaps if you have a bass-heavy amp and a chunky Les Paul, you might not need the extra bottom end. If a ProCo RAT2 is 55% fuzz and 45% distortion, the WOODCUTTER is the inverse.

As for us, we love it. It's one of the only RAT clones we've played where we can say with confidence...

It's like a RAT, but better.

Bottom Line: The BIG EAR Pedals WOODCUTTER feels special; it's hand-made in limited quantities by a husband and wife team. It'll also cost you nearly three times what a new RAT2 does. Is it worth it? To us, yes. Not that it's three times better than an original RAT, but it's dripping with sophistication and boutique feel, and puts a huge smile on our face every time we turn it on.

The Walrus Iron Horse V2 is a beast ready to be unleashed. Just as the cool artwork would make you think first looking at this pedal, it is rough and rowdy. The sound is fat and full, but it also sounds great at low gain levels.

The Iron Horse gives you three control knobs; LEVEL , TONE , and DISTORTION. Additionally, there is a Compression toggle between a low compressed clipping, high compression, or a wide-open tonal shape.

The Iron Horse is built around the famous LM308 chip. It is considered one of the Holy Grail op-amps by tone chasers because it was used in the original Pro Co RAT pedals until 1995. While not a purpose built guitar chip, it has rightfully gained a following. Current RAT incarnations that are manufactured in China still sound terrific, but for people specifically looking for the original vintage op-amp sound coupled with American craftsmanship we love the Iron Horse V2.

The Iron Horse gets you that classic distortion sound and gives you more compression options and control. By adding a three-mode toggle switch that selects different diodes Walrus has essentially taken a classic distortion and improved the dynamic range.

Bottom Line: This distortion delivers classic tones from the iconic LM308 chip while adding more tone shaping controls.