What is your favorite distortion pedal?

[Robert]

Name only one, and why it is your favorite.

For me, I am not sure. Probably my Maxon SD-9 because it can do both overdrive and high gain distortion tones really well.

[Jimi75]

This thread comes right in time for me to learn from you guys, 'cause I am looking for a distortion pedal to get "high" gain sounds.

Rob, is the SD-9 really capable of producing high gain sounds? I was about to check the Digitech Metal pedal...

[Robert]

Jimi, it does a really good solo tone if your amp is already a little overdriven.

[sunvalleylaw]

Hands down, DVM's Rabid Rodent. It has a stock rat clone mode, but many, many other modes (6 distortion, 6 overdrive) that sound great, and make it very versatile. The overdrive mode colors the sound much less than my other overdrive, my Bad Monkey, so it gives me that too.

I still enjoy my DS-1 (my first distortion pedal) for certain things, but usually in combination with other pedals. Either the chorus to pick up a grunge sound, or using my Bad Monkey after it to smooth it out. But as a stand alone pedal, it cannot stand up to the Rodent.

[Blaze]

I love my DVM R_R , versatile & powerful too..

I tried the Digitech Hothead , cheap powerfull disto but you must tweak a bit for good tone , colored the sound too..

[Suhnton]

Red Llama, although it's not really a distortion pedal, more of an overdrive-y fuzz.

[schenkadere]

Effects Pedal Boutique SRB 808 Plus 2 in 1 Dual OD...I stack od1 set in the TS808 mode into od2 in the Marshall mode and bingo!

[duhvoodooman]

I do indeed love that Rabid Rodent modified Rat, though most of the credit goes to Keith Vonderhulls at BYOC for an outstanding kit design. All I did was change a couple of the clipping arrays and install the "Ruetz mod" switch, which isn't original, either. I will take credit for building them pretty well, though. :D

Sumi, You'll have yours next week! :dude: :rockon:

Among commercial pedals, I think the Marshall Gov'nor Plus is my favorite. Best EQ section I've come across in a pedal. Amazing bottom end. And they're not expensive. $70 most places, though they seem to have been discontinued.... :(

[oldguy]

So far, it's my ZYS by duhvoodooman. After having time to evaluate it against all my other pedals, it wins hands down........ I like it better than the Bad Monkey, and even the Plexitube, both of which I'm thinking of selling now.
Maybe I can sell those and try out the Rabid Rodent.
The ZYS doesn't "throw a blanket" over the speakers like the others, if you know what I mean.

I've had people ask me.... "can you hear a difference in those videos?" when I get on Youtube and hear pedal/amp demos. Usually I can, sometimes I can't. But when I play here at home, I most definately can. The Monkey and the Plexitube sound good until you A/B them with the ZYS. You can EQ them 'till they don't really "color" the sound, but you can't kick them in w/o noticing that they muffle the sound, they kill the big, wide open sound that the amph gets naturally.

[Robert]

The ZYS is not a distortion pedal however in my world - it's an overdrive pedal; a tubescreamer. For overdrive pedals, the ZYS is my favourite too.

[Algonquin]

If the Marshall Guv'nor Plus is considered a distortion box... I'd have to pick that as my favourite.

As mentioned in other posts, it has tremendous EQ properties, and it makes my tele bridge p/u sound freakin huge! It does a great job with buckers too... very versatile when I want to have a hard rocking moment and crank it up loud.

Huge deep base, and incredible drive... all at an affordable price.

It's a keeper :AOK:

[Robert]

You guys are making me want a Guvnor Plus!

[Spudman]

Radial Tonebone Hot British. This pedal is completely over the top for distortion and it's a very high quality at that. It's not subtle - it's a distortion pedal!:rockon:

[Suhnton]

Radial Tonebone Hot British. This pedal is completely over the top for distortion and it's a very high quality at that. It's not subtle - it's a distortion pedal!:rockon:

I listened to some MP3's on the Tonebone site after I saw your pedalboard. That thing smokes.

[Spudman]

I listened to some MP3's on the Tonebone site after I saw your pedalboard. That thing smokes.
Shades of every British artist you've heard.:)

[Blaze]

Radial Tonebone Hot British. This pedal is completely over the top for distortion and it's a very high quality at that. It's not subtle - it's a distortion pedal!:rockon:

Looks like they have a more small & compact version now ...

Td0UYNELmEc

[Spudman]

Looks like they have a more small & compact version now ...

Td0UYNELmEc

Except that they are solid state. The Hot British has an oh so yummy tube.

[Suhnton]

Shades of every British artist you've heard.:)

Rick Astley?

[Robert]

Boy George?

[sunvalleylaw]

Howard Jones!

[Ro3b]

John Constable!

[duhvoodooman]

Stop it. Just stop it. :nono:

[SuperSwede]

Tech21 GT2.. and its all mine.. mine I say..... my precious...

[rev156]

I've heard the Barber DirtyBomb on UTube and I think it's great but I would like to hear it live.
Cheers,

[Gutmann]

The Tech21 XXL - no other Pedal could replace it from the board so far. Makes a monster out of a Fender-amp and clears up with the guitarvolume better than anything i've tried so far. On the overdrive-side, there's the Crowther Audio Double Hot Cake - my personal souvenir from travelling through NZ:AOK:

[schenkadere]

The Tech21 XXL - no other Pedal could replace it from the board so far. Makes a monster out of a Fender-amp and clears up with the guitarvolume better than anything i've tried so far. On the overdrive-side, there's the Crowther Audio Double Hot Cake - my personal souvenir from travelling through NZ:AOK:

Do you have the original or reissue? I was always curious about those, but never really dug the clips.

[Spudman]

Shades of every British artist you've heard.:)
More like this
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hksil-KkebQ

[markb]

Do you have the original or reissue? I was always curious about those, but never really dug the clips.

There are no reissue Hot Cakes. Just different versions. A bit like RATs with the difference being that new Hot Cakes are just as good as they used to be.

[Gutmann]

It's the original Tech 21 XXL, the one in the silver box. I use it for 5 years now, bought it used.
The clips show what you can do with it but they could show more flexibility.
Here are two SAMPLES (http://www.soundclick.com/bands/default.cfm?bandID=941708) I made, all with the same settings, only the guitar-volume varies.

The XXL has a serious amount of gain when set to minimum - the dynamic sample at the end shows minimum gain with guitar-volume up (G&L ASAT with quite a high output). With the warp-poti, you can change the character of the drive to a really thick, fuzzy tone.

The hotcake really is a bit like a rat but with more transparecy - but never heard one of the old rats. Theres two versions of the hotcake, the normal and the bluesberry. The last one has a bit more low end. The double hotcake contains a normal hc and the bluesberry cascaded one into another which makes it the perfect flexible pedal.
Proguitarshop (http://www.proguitarshop.com/product.php?ProductID=1296&CategoryID=11) has a cool demo.

Uli

[schenkadere]

It's the original Tech 21 XXL, the one in the silver box. I use it for 5 years now, bought it used.
The clips show what you can do with it but they could show more flexibility.
Here are two SAMPLES (http://www.soundclick.com/bands/default.cfm?bandID=941708) I made, all with the same settings, only the guitar-volume varies.

The XXL has a serious amount of gain when set to minimum - the dynamic sample at the end shows minimum gain with guitar-volume up (G&L ASAT with quite a high output). With the warp-poti, you can change the character of the drive to a really thick, fuzzy tone.

The hotcake really is a bit like a rat but with more transparecy - but never heard one of the old rats. Theres two versions of the hotcake, the normal and the bluesberry. The last one has a bit more low end. The double hotcake contains a normal hc and the bluesberry cascaded one into another which makes it the perfect flexible pedal.
Proguitarshop (http://www.proguitarshop.com/product.php?ProductID=1296&CategoryID=11) has a cool demo.

Uli

Yes, i was refering to the XXL about the reissue thing. Thanks for the clips. The XXL seems a bit more fuzz than than smooth and creamy, right?

[Gutmann]

Yes, i was refering to the XXL about the reissue thing. Thanks for the clips. The XXL seems a bit more fuzz than than smooth and creamy, right?

Via the warp, you can make it very smooth and thick - I prefer the warp rather neutral. It only has an additional treble-poti and you can get a real aggressive sound w tele&Fender but set to the right amount (10-11o'clock) it's neither aggressive nor dark and gets quite sparkling when rolling back the volume on the guitar. The low-volume-sample is both guitars with the XXL(same setting), the one from the beginning has a bit less volume.

Here is another vid we made some time ago, the solo guitar at the end is a band mate, all the riffing is the XXL on a Fender Twin: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pPdcxAQqtnE.

The Crowther is definitely smoother at high gain settings.

[Tone2TheBone]

I like both my Duhvoodooman SD-9 clone and my Guv'nor Plus pedal. Both sound great...both are very different from each other...both are extremely versatile...and Rob using a distortion pedal with an already overdrive amp is cheating sir.

;)

[duhvoodooman]

Here's Gutmann's YouTube link in working order:

pPdcxAQqtnE

[hubberjub]

My favorite that I own is my Lovepedal Eternity. I have been loving the Youtube clips of the Hermida Zendrive though.

[Suhnton]

Here is another vid we made some time ago, the solo guitar at the end is a band mate, all the riffing is the XXL on a Fender Twin:
The Crowther is definitely smoother at high gain settings.

Hey cool song Gutmann.

[ZMAN]

Hey Spud I saw this thread and lo and behold a Hot British turns up on a local buy and sell. Mint condition 1 year old. $135 can. Do you think I should pick it up. The only distortion pedal I have is the DS-1.
I don't even know what these go for new?

[hubberjub]

Hey Spud I saw this thread and lo and behold a Hot British turns up on a local buy and sell. Mint condition 1 year old. $135 can. Do you think I should pick it up. The only distortion pedal I have is the DS-1.
I don't even know what these go for new?

That will be a huge improvement over the DS-1.

[ZMAN]

Well I picked it up. I paid 125 Can. It is a really versatile pedal and goes nicely on my pedal board. It is a year or so old in mint condition.
As you said Hub it is a huge improvement on my DS-1. I tried the Fulltone Distortion and it was not as good as the Tone Bone. I like the fact that it is Canadian made as well.
I will give it a good test over the next couple of weeks.

[romanclay]

Personally, I love my zvex fuzz factory. Yeah it's a fuzz, but i think it has some more distortion then a lot of pedals I've heard, and it's really hot high gain, plus you can drop it back and still have a bit of a overdrive sound.

[P.J.]

My favorite is probably my Tonebone Classic because I like the way it fills out single coils and works w/ other pedals. I think it sounds especially good w/ teles and lipstick p/u's.

=-) PJ

[Ch0jin]

Wow so nobody went for the OCD?

I was under the impression they were pretty much the benchmark for boutique OD pedals. Based on what they cost to buy in Oz you'd think so anyway.

Anyway, my current favourite -distortion- (meaning I'm not including my fuzz's or they'd win) pedal is my "Brown Sound in a Box". It's a one trick pony, but it's an entertaining trick. For those that don't know it, its essentially a high gain FET drive pedal thats supposed to sound like a dimed Marshall. A claim I'd go along with by the way.

[schenkadere]

Wow so nobody went for the OCD?

I was under the impression they were pretty much the benchmark for boutique OD pedals. Based on what they cost to buy in Oz you'd think so anyway.

Anyway, my current favourite -distortion- (meaning I'm not including my fuzz's or they'd win) pedal is my "Brown Sound in a Box". It's a one trick pony, but it's an entertaining trick. For those that don't know it, its essentially a high gain FET drive pedal thats supposed to sound like a dimed Marshall. A claim I'd go along with by the way.

I tried the OCD v3 and v4...didn't like either...too bottom heavy and fizzy.

[Ch0jin]

I tried the OCD v3 and v4...didn't like either...too bottom heavy and fizzy.

Thats a little ironic as it was a guy with the name "shenker69" on youtube who got me interested in them in the first place haha :)