Best pedal for Rock?

[G3ck0]

I have a crappy amp that has the worst overdrive effect ever. It has decent clean though. I want to play Green Day, and I was going to buy a new amp at the end of the year, but I thought a pedal would work too. So, what pedal would be best to get the Rock (Green Day) sound? The Boss DS-10 looks good, is it good for the rock sound? Thanks

 

[TNT]

Try a Boss "Metal Zone"!! Inexpensive pedal that for the money will get you a Green Day sound.

 

[Slingy]

You want a Marshall type sound with lots of gain but not so much metal sounding. Although the boss DS-1 is about the cheapest pedal you can get, it's still a good pedal that covers classic rock to crunch. I still have one and think it will work fine.

 

[B2D]

In all honesty, I'd save some money and get a better amp first. Putting a good pedal in front of a cruddy amp is like putting lipstick on a pig, to use the old saying.

A DS1 is a decent all-purpose distortion pedal but you need to pair it with a good amp to really get the goods out of it.

 

[peterd79]

the DS-1 isn't a bad pedal... but honestly i've learned that pedals don't make a crummy amp better... they just distort the crummy amp... and i say this because i went through the same thing many many many many many many many times over... i kept wanting to get a classic tube amp tone but never invested in the true tube amp... so i had this enormous rig of pedals that ultimately robbed me of my tone...

so i now run what i wanted all along and minimal pedals (just one multi by TC Electronics) to get the tones i want.

If you're looking at picking up a newer amp at the end of the year i wouldn't invest too much in high end pedals until you've got the better amp to play with. The DS-1 is great and if you can find the Classic Distortion pedal that's a killer deal... i think i paid 30-40 for it and it's worth at least twice that much... but now it just sits there... so test 'em out i've heard a lot of good things about many of the lower end dirt pedals... check out Delta Labs at GC they're not too bad for the money and there's one more out there but im drawing a blank.

 

[spkirby]

Agreed, you must get a better amp before trying pedals as boosting a bad amp will still sound pretty bad. Most people forget that most of your tone is from the amp, and that pedals and guitars are less important in the overall equation.

(of course good pedals and guitars make a difference too!)

 

[G3ck0]

Well my amp does have a half decent clean tone, so wouldn't a distortion work well enough? I just got my electric guitar a few days ago, and only played on a really bad classical before then, so I'm no expert. Amps are expensive in Australia. If I wanted a tube amp it would cost $500 plus which I couldn't afford, and I have heard bad things about solid state, but I did want a Marshall MG15FX before I read bad things about solid state, but I don't know :\

 

[andynpeters]

If your amp has a good clean tone the pedal should improve thing in the dirt department.
Solid state amps have improved enormously in recent years, so don't be put off trying that Marshall just because it doesn't use valves

 

[G3ck0]

Well that's good to hear. Yeah, the clean is decent but the overdrive sucks, so much. And I want more of a "rock" sound. I still might buy the Marshall amp, but I also want a better sound sooner :\

 

[spkirby]

Take your guitar and amp to a music shop and try out a few things. If it still sounds kind of bad then try a few amps out

 

[G3ck0]

Probably a newbie question, but if you had a better amp, why would you need a pedal like a Boss DS-1. There is people using it with the Marshall amp I want, but it has the gain settings etc so why use a pedal?

And what's the difference between the DS-1 and DS-2? Does the DS-2 just sound better?

 

[Roubster]

I've heard and read VERY good things about the Suhr Riot pedal. Its a bit expensive on Its own, but its really supposed to kick some serious a**. Maybe try and save up for one of the Blackstar amps...ht-5 is insanely cheap with amazing tones. Not perfect for gigging probably, but for practice And jams it should satisfy in the rock department.

 

[Slingy]

The Marshall MG amps you mentioned are perfectly good practice amps. They don't sound half bad either. I recommend trying a Line6 Spider amp too. They're very inexpensive and you get a ton of great sounds to experiment with.

 

[Neances]

"SOBBAT" all the way. Hand Made from Japan

 

[French Kiss]

Try the Carl Martin "Plexitone" , 3 pedals in one ; one of my fave ...

 

[Jonny Dubai]

i got a crappy amp at home too but put a Korg pandora infront ot it. Sounds better now! If its just for the house think about a multi FX unit.

 

[ScoobySteve]

I'm all for the new amp first. Make your heavy investments first. If you spend here and there on FX, Pedals and Color, you'll never get to the point where you'll have enough for a significant buy.

As Steve Morse says, tone and signal integrity is very important. There's your Guitar, a Cable and Amp. The more you complicate this, the more complicated things will be there. There are MANY times where I would play just straight to the amp. The fundamentals needs to be solid first.

 

[DR5Guy]

An used V-Amp 2 (~$30, maybe cheaper) will give you significantly better options; much better than a stand-alone OD/distortion pedal in case you don't care much about sound 'purity'. The sound quality is not stellar, but it is very affordable and gives you at least 10 usable amp models, not to mention noise gate, compressor and bunch of other effects. Works very well in front of SS amps. I like the Soldano (Modern hi-gain) emulation a lot.

 

[Astrofreq]

The Orange Crush 35DLX is a great little 35 watt amp for only about $240. Definitely worth checking out

 

[cosmic]

A good friend of mine swears by his Satcherator pedal by Vox.