Question What distortion do you use?

[behrens]

I picked up a Pro Co Rat2 today.



I'm liking it over my old Boss MT-2 Metal Zone pedal (I know, I know, but it can be used for styles other than metal).

Anyhow, it got me thinking...what do you all use?

Pedal? Amp?

 

[DrKev]

Radial Texas Bones overdrive into a Laney LC15-110. Texas Bones is the best overdrive I've ever tasted - superb versatility, the lowest noise floor I've ever heard, and and fantastic build quality to boot. The only pedal that remains on my wish list is the Radial Hollywood Bones distortion. After that, I'm done buying OD/Distortion forever. Seriously!

 

[Roxy]

VOX Satchurator for classic to modern distortion tones. MXR Dime Distortion for the modern "scooped mids" tones. I plan to build a collection of pedals to place in front of a one channel clean amp. That way I can always switch things up. I find on multi-channel amps that I end up not liking or using many of the pre-amps after awhile.

 

[lessthanone]

Right now I use my Amps OD channel. Hughes and Kettner Duotone, On of the most beautiful gain channels I've heard so far. I plan on picking up a Rockbox Boiling point and another handwired TS808 at somepoint to put in front though

 

[jbert]

I use a Timmy for low gain, a Barber Small Fry for medium gain, and a Suhr Riot for high gain, into an Allen Accomplice Deluxe Reverb clone. Sounds great with my Silhouette Special and JP6.

Jbert

 

[RocketRalf]

I only like tube distortion, and I couldn't afford a gain monster, so I got myself a Damage Control Solid Metal pedal. That was a few years ago, they're discontinued now. But since then there are quite a few more tube distortion pedals available.

 

[mbeck]

My favorite distortion sound comes from my ENGL Tube Toner, a 4 channel floor preamp - love it. When talking about distortion pedals my favourite one is my OKKO Diablo Gain+. Besides its really nice sound I really like its versatility in the midrange: it allows to fatten or thin your sound. It can give single coils more body and sound almost like humbuckers or make humbuckers chime like a single coil. If somebody needs that for some songs...

 

[mystixboi1]

I use the distortion from my evh 5150 iii 50 watt. Although I am always on the look out for a nice overdrive

 

[Spudmurphy]

I'm always interested in reading a topic like this. The quest for "Tone Heaven" is akin to finding the holy grail.
Couple of points I'd like to chip in with.
I love using a cleanish tone for my everyday use - just a small bit of amp break up - but how do I step this up when I want to do a "Kossoff" type break?
I've used a couple of devices over the years - Boss Blues overdrive, old Metalzone stomp box, Pod XT, behringer OD, MXR GT OD - They all give me the boost / gain I need for the solo stuff but I've never thought "ahh yeah THAT is it, that's the grail.

Now is anybody going to disagree that Jamie Humphries has a monster tone? (would take a brave man/woman lol). After attending one of his clinics I had a chat with him. He really doesn't like a dedicated DISTORTION stomp box - and I was kinda taken aback by that! He drives his amp hard, uses low gain pickups on his Axis and when he wants the grunt he turns the guitar volume up and kicks in a EP (exho plex) booster made by xotic.

The gigs I play are small clubs, pubs and you don't get the luxury of a long dedicated sound check. Also I need the gear to perform well, and not break down. A few weeks ago I had my pedal board (Dunlop wah, MXR GT od, EH Compressor, Danny Cool Cat Vibe, TC Flashback delay and Korg + tuner) and experienced signal loss. Turned out to be a cable - but in the heat of battle you don't wanna spend ages sorting your gear out mid set.

So I am trying out tonight and tomorrow night my Pod XT with shortboard out front. Have a few nice patches set up and will see how it goes. This will "do away" with all the hard wired connectors. As long as it performs ok I'll be using that set up. ie no amp/speaker emulation just an OD/Chorus/delay patch set up.

I am tempted by an EP booster though !!!

 

[skerwo]

Yes, the OKKO Diablo is a superb pedal. I used it for a lot of years.

Since I cleaned up my pedalboard, I only use drive sounds from the TC Electronics Nova System in front of my JTM45-style amp. For my opinion no metal sound possible but everything up to classic hardrock sounds. For me the perfect one in a box solution.

Rainer

 

[Miqueas92]

Boogie MKIV!

 

[mikeller]

Amp distortion is my first pref. If I need some other colors, my board has a Timmy, a Xotic BB (which I use as a boost mainly), and a Suhr Riot that will likely be replaced with a Wampler Pinnacle that I am picking up this weekend....

 

[Adam_D]

For me, it's a cranked Marshall JVM on the clean orange mode, that thing can really shout.

I usually slam the front end with either a GearManDude Luther Drive, or a Boss SD-1, which.. I actually prefer, it's a great pedal! I like to shoot for a smooth Bonamassa style lead tone, with maybe a hair more bite and gain. Akin to Chris Poland's lead sound.

 

[Jamie M]

Xotic BB Preamp

 

[Norrin Radd]

Best distortion pedal ever:

 

[dkannen]

My tone comes from the distortion on my ENGL Morse, but I've just added a Pod HD Pro to my rack, which is simulating a TS808 and compressor on the front end. Good stuff for sure!

 

[Nick.Royale]

My favorite distortion is direct into my Soldano Hotrod 50 with the gain cranked to about 9 (it goes to 11).

 

[Roubster]

I also prefer the distortion from a good tube amp, however I dont really own a phenomenal one. I have a Blackstar HT20 head which has a good gain tone, but is not very versatile unfortunately.

Also I dont gig right now, but go to the studio bunch of times with my buddies to jam and do some covers. I have no idea what amps I will be using and what condition they are etc. so I bring my little board.

I got a Suhr Riot for the heavy distortion...I must say I really do like this pedal. It sounds great depending on the set up of course. I also have the Xotic BB Preamp which I use for the lower gain stuff, but I will actually kick that in to boost the Riot for over the top metal stuff especially when we play Symphony X or Judas Priest material.

I am also looking into the Wampler Pinnacle...that pedal sounds really awesome from what I've heard so far. Their other pedals also sound really cool.

Mike, please report once you get the Pinnacle in comparison to the Riot!!! I kind of like that the Pinnacle has two EQ knobs to dial in the tone more. The Riot is great, but really needs to be turned up to sound amazing and full.

And yea, Xotic make AMAZING pedals. The BB preamp is one of my favorite OD pedals ever. The EP booster will be going on my board as well at some point.

 

[ozzyrules]

Egnater Renegade 65 and 4x12 cab. The amp has plenty of gain with no distortion pedal needed.

 

[beej]

My Guytron's OD channel.

I have a little Jet City head as well, I use a Psionic Telos with it. OD/boost/buffer in one. That's a pretty sweet pedal.