I've been thinking about doing this for some time and finally got around to it today. What I did was to record the same riff on every distortion and fuzz pedal I own--multiple times in several cases, where the pedal had more than one signal clipping mode. I ended up with a total of 15 variations. In alphabetical order:

  1. Brown-Sound-in-a-Box-2
  2. Fender Bender (ToneBender)
  3. Fuzz Farm (Fuzz Face/Ge)
  4. Fuzz Farm (Fuzz Face/Si)
  5. Marshall Guv'nor Plus
  6. Mega-Muff (BMP, stock)
  7. Mega-Muff (JFET)
  8. Mega-Muff (LED)
  9. Rabid Rodent (LED)
  10. Rabid Rodent (Overdrive)
  11. Rabid Rodent (Rat, stock)
  12. Radial ToneBone Classic
  13. ZYS (LED, high gain)
  14. ZYS (MOSFET, high gain)
  15. ZYS (TS808, stock, high gain)
The trick here is that they're NOT recorded in that order--I randomized the sequence. Listen to them and (a) see what you like the best, and (b) try and guess which is which. That's essentially impossible, but see how many you can get right. I'll post a link to the answers in a couple of days. But really, the point of this isn't a "quiz", but rather a chance to hear the different distortion tones where all the other factors (guitar, amp, player, recording set-up, etc.) are kept constant. And the main reason for not listing which is which is to do this like a "blind" wine tasting. Keeps the brain from getting in the way of the ears, so to speak!

Recording details: All recording was done using the bridge pickup of my Epi Elitist LP Standard into my Fender Blues Junior amp.The only other effect is a modest amount of reverb. The gain (or drive, or sustain, or fuzz, or whatever they call the distortion control on the pedal!) was set to about 2/3 - 3/4 on all pedals. Pedal volume was adjusted for each recording to keep the final volume approximately the same. Tone controls were set nearly flat in most cases, for the pedals that have them. Volume on the guitar was dimed, and the tone knob was at the midpoint. The clip starts with a clean (and somewhat slow) run through the riff, and then the 15 versions follow.

Here's the Box.net link. The total clip runs just under 3 minutes. And you're going to get real sick of that damned riff (I know I did..... ):


BTW, my Zonkin' Yellow Screamer (ZYS) isn't really a distortion pedal, but it gets pretty close in the gain-boost mode. So consider that a bit of a hint.