Bad Monkey is a Good Monkey

[Spudman***]

TOT

I actually have the Hot British. Nelskie has the Classic.

The Tonebones have WAY more gain and distortion than the Monkey.

Monkey=mellow, smooth Tonebone=grit and out of control madness (and way less money in the pocket)

If you want distortion ask Robert about the Digitech X Distortion.

[tot_Ou_tard]

TOT

I actually have the Hot British. Nelskie has the Classic.

The Tonebones have WAY more gain and distortion than the Monkey.

Monkey=mellow, smooth Tonebone=grit and out of control madness (and way less money in the pocket)

If you want distortion ask Robert about the Digitech X Distortion.

Ahhh, I understand. Do the Bad & the Bones play well together? If so which would push which?

In other words...Bad2TheBone or Bone2TheBad?

[duhvoodooman***]

Spud mentioned the Tonebone Classic & I know that Vood has both the Monkey and the Tonebone.

So what are the differences in tone between his Badness & his Boneness (surgery reference intended )

I am particularly interested in Vood's opinions on how they differ in front of the AD30VT. Which one do you use more often and why.

What a coincidence! I posted just yesterday in a thread on Patchtronix.com on exactly this subject. Here's what I wrote:

"For what it's worth, I like to do the same thing you describe with my AD30VT, i.e. play through the clean models and add distortion/overdrive with an external pedal. Since the AD30VT doesn't offer the built-in distortion modes of the 60/120 series (other than just pushing the gain), a pedal was really my only option.

For a nice warm, restrained overdrive, I've found the Digitech Bad Monkey to be very effective, and you can find used ones in excellent condition on eBay for $25 or so. Not really very flexible with the range of OD tones it offers, but what it does, it does very well. And cheaply!

However, if you are looking for a pedal that will give you tremendous flexibility and an almost limitless range of distortion from mild to extreme, take a look at the Radial ToneBone pedals, which are based upon a 12AX7 preamp tube. The model I bought is the Classic, with "American style" distortion, but they also make a Hot British model that's supposed to give Marshally overdrive sounds. In any case, the thing has several dials and slide switches that let you play with the degree and character of the distortion over an amazing dynamic range. I've been very impressed with it, and use it with both my AD30VT and my Peavey Delta Blues tube amp. Great results with humbuckers or single coils.

Not a cheap pedal at $190 or so new, but again, you can find good used ones on eBay for about two-thirds of that."

So bottom line, with the Tonebone you get a lot more, but you pay a lot more.

As far as which I use more....geez, no idea. Not a big difference, I don't think. Since I play mostly blues & classic rock stuff, I often want just an overlay of mild distortion, for which the Bad Monkey suffices nicely. But if I'm looking for harsher sounds or want to reproduce a particular distortion tone, the added range & flexibility of the Tonebone come in handy for that. I even use them together at times, setting a baseline overdrive with the 'Bone and kicking in extra boost and a bit more overdrive for leads with the Monk. Works great!

Last point--you asked about the Digitech X series pedals. I have one of those, too, a Tone Driver, pretty much permanently attached to my Valve Junior. It kind of falls in between the Monk and the 'Bone, though closer to the former. It has an extra control called the "Morph" knob that the Bad Monkey lacks, which allows you to change the character of the overdrive. The X Series brochure shows three "emulation" settings for the Tone Driver, designed to mimic the DOD 250, and the Ibanez TS-9 and TS-808 models. There's also a fourth suggested setting for "Blues Solo". Overall, the Tone Driver is still more of an overdrive pedal (i.e. mild to moderate distortion) than a real distortion pedal. But the other two X Series distortion pedals fill in the gap from where the Tone Driver leaves off up through extreme "death metal" tones.

[Spudman***]

In case it wasn't noticed...I have posted some links on this thread to sound clips from some of the X pedals. They just look like links to MF but the clips are there. Scroll down.
http://www.thefret.net/showthread.php?t=1761

[Robert****]

Fyi, I have Bad Monkey, Blues Driver and Digitech Hot Head demos on my website, under "video clips".

[Nelskie]

I use both the DigiTech Bad Monkey and Tone Driver pedals with all of my amps, and achieve fantastic results. Both are very solid, well-engineered pedals that do what they say they do. As DVM mentioned, they work well in a variety of situations, and with all kinds of amps - solid-state, tube, and hybrid amps like the Vox Valvetronix series. The thing I like most about them is their versatility - as in the adjustment parameters of each pedal allows you to dial in just the right amount of whatever you need - - without going into the Twilight Zone as far as tone is concerned.

The Tonebone is indeed a step to "the other side" of the spectrum, but again, its controls allow for acute adjustment, and you can pretty much run whatever you want in conjunction with it, and usually come up with excellent results.

One thing no one has mentioned is the point of "overdrive" vs. "distortion". I think this is important to understand, as the innate characteristics of each will produce different tonal effects. The Bad Monkey being an "overdrive" pedal will push the front end signal of the amp into its natural distortion characteristics. Conversely, a distortion pedal will add that effect on the front end (i.e. the distortion point), and as you increase the volume, there will be a point where that tone will stop sounding good (i.e. muddy, fuzzy). Combining these pedals with different amps, of course, will have different effects. The thing you need to realize is that there are really no rules; yet having a good idea of what each will do will certainly allow you to experiment, and ultimately, achieve success with your tone. The other thing you should be cognizant of is the characteristics of the amp models you are modifying. For example, the Tweed model will respond differently to the overdrive vs. the Marshall model (since its design allows for more gain / saturation at an earlier point in the signal chain) . . . and so forth. Adding the guitar / pick-up equation will also produce different effects with different pedals, and that shouldn't be a newsflash to anyone here either.

The bottom line is this: you can push sound any number of ways with effects pedals, and there is really no best way to go about doing it. Knowing what your amp and pedals will do is probably the most important thing, as all of our ears hear different things, and ultimately, what sounds good to me might not sound good to you.

DigiTech pedals are easily some of the best out there, and I'd recommend them to anyone in a heartbeat. In case it hasn't been mentioned, here is the link to their site. I believe most of the pedals there have sound clips, and all of them are pretty good in giving you an idea of what they'll sound like.

http://www.digitech.com/

Personally speaking, I'd recommend that you explore some of the lower cost pedals before taking the "dive" into something like the Tonebone, or even the Ibanez TS-9. You might even want to check out the Marshall Bluesbreaker II, which I've found to be another great pedal (*sound clips are under the "Downloads" section).

http://www.marshallamps.com/product.asp?productId=62

Good luck!

[tot_Ou_tard]

Thanks for all the info! I have read about the difference between overdrive & distortion, but that is quite a different thing from the understanding you get by playing.

For now it's the Bad for me (I like that diminutive better than the Monk) & who knows what is next?