Dirt Pedal Shoot Out

[shredmonster]

Lets see if I can remember them all.
Trifecta
Tech21 XXL
Fulltone 69
Timmy
OCD
Cream Tone
Gristle King
Real Tube
Sparkle Drive
BYOC Shredder
EffectsPedalBoutique SDR808 (Double sided one)

Winners: Gristle King was stellar I thought -not voiced for metal but great for everything else and did have
a lot of gain that would work for most situations. Nice pedal.

Cream Tone - another very very nice gainy pedal - maybe a bit less gain than the Gristle King but with these 2 peals that would be all any board would need

SDR808 - Another stellar pedal every bit as boutique as the above - again
stellar tone.

BYOC Shredder - Yep believe it or not this thing absolutely rocks. And it
goes into territories the others do not. I was pleasantly supprised.
I will be putting in a treble mod and switch as it can be dark with some amps without this mod.

Dissapointed by the Sparkle Drive and Timmy. Not that they were bad in any way - just that you can find pedals that are more flexible that will cover what these do.

OCD - another nice pedal but not as flexible as the others above.

A couple were more of the fuzz variety. The Trifecta had some nice sounds.

Real Tube didn't do much for me and the XXL was to buzzy for my ears.


Not all are mine. My friends board will have the Gristle King and the Cream Tone - he is moving the Timmy and the OCD off.
My board will have the SD808 and the BYOC Shredder.

[BenoA]

Sounds like a lot of fun! Thanks for sharing!!!

[Larz]

I wouldn't think the Tim/Timmy stuff is meant to be A/B'd against alot of those are they, especially something called the shredder? Seems like more of a transparent boost/light overdrive from what I remember hearing..........along with a waiting list to get one.

[shredmonster]

I wouldn't think the Tim/Timmy stuff is meant to be A/B'd against alot of those are they, especially something called the shredder? Seems like more of a transparent boost/light overdrive from what I remember hearing..........along with a waiting list to get one.

Not the point. The point was to find the pedals that had the best balance of range or flexibility, musical sound, tone, options etc...
Some of the other pedals could cover Timmy territory and had way more flexibility. Same with the OCD.

[catzodellamarina]

This is good info. I've always wanted to host or attend a Pedal Party. Maybe I'll get working on that.

I recently recorded in the studio and used a Pro Co Rat on some of the songs. I was pleased with the OD tone, clarity, and clear circuitry.

[Larz]

Gotcha, I missed the context, seemed sort of apples/oranges when I first read that list.

[markD]

This is good info. I've always wanted to host or attend a Pedal Party. Maybe I'll get working on that.

I recently recorded in the studio and used a Pro Co Rat on some of the songs. I was pleased with the OD tone, clarity, and clear circuitry.

one of the best ROCK tones i have EVER had - not metal, mind you, but rock - is a Pro Co RAT with a stratocaster plugged into a fender twin reverb. with a bit of the reverb dialed in it makes for an amazing lead tone. that is a tone i use in the studio a lot. the RAT is a great pedal...

[shredmonster]

That is interesting Mark. A lot of new high gain effects and amps to my ears lose tone and don't sound musical. Once you go over a certain amount of gain tone seems to go away - and this is coming form someone who uses a Framus Cobra. (I put tubes in, had it re-biased so it sounds very musical - sort of like a hot rodded Marshall.)

I am always looking for gain with tone. Which is why we did the pedal thing. And to eliminate pedals on our boards and use just a couple for all our applications. You can do that with the pedals I mentioned in the first thread. Unless you need really really high gain. But then it goes back to the tone thing for me.

As much as I love the Framus I have a 50 Watt VHT 50ST with EL84's that just kills my Marshall and Framus in pure tone.

Also when looking at pedals I look for such things as string separation on the highest gain settings, harmonic content and sustain. I also
look for pedals that can be used for both rhythm and leads so they have to not be fizzy or buzzy or noisy when playing really fast arpeggios and such.

[roodyrocker]

The first thing I would ask is what amp was used with these pedals? reason I ask is that some pedals just sound better with certain amps than others. Some like the Tim/Timmy are not designed for super high gain but rather a subtle extra kick to certain amps. I have several pedals which I mess around with with various amps and the result is not the same from amp to amp. Here is a list of some of the ones I have:

Fulltone OCD (versions 1, 2, and 3)
Fulltone GT500
Fulltone Fulldrive II Mosfet
MI Audio Crunchbox
Paul Chochrane Tim
Retro-Sonic 808
ZVex Box of Rock
ZVex Box of Metal
Xotic BB Plus
Butler Real Tube II
Guyatone Hot Drive
Boss DS-1

I use the OCD and Retro-Sonic 808 with my Marshall RR 1/2 stack. I like the MI Audio Crunch Box with my Metro Amps Plexi clone. I use the Tim with a rather cranked up Marshall Class 5. So the bottom line is I think of them as Pedal/Amp combos rather than pedals or amps seperately

[straycat]

Just tried out my Boss DS-1 Keely modded version and Its dark on one of my amps but on my Jet City 20 it sounds really good.
A bit more tweak room than an OCD IMO.The OCD is nice on all of my amps not a metal OD but sweet and fat sounding.
BB plus is a nice one too.Guyatone hot drive is nice with a Fender amp not in a high gain amp.
Thats about all I have messed with here recently.

[Trussrod]

one of the best ROCK tones i have EVER had - not metal, mind you, but rock - is a Pro Co RAT with a stratocaster plugged into a fender twin reverb. with a bit of the reverb dialed in it makes for an amazing lead tone. that is a tone i use in the studio a lot. the RAT is a great pedal...

I bought a Rat in 1982 IIRC.

[Larz]

I think Keeley has a new overdrive out now that I saw in an ad.

Wampler makes several OD variations that have gotten a lot of good reviews, Pinnacle (brown tone) and Triple Wreck come to mind.

[shredmonster]

The first thing I would ask is what amp was used with these pedals? reason I ask is that some pedals just sound better with certain amps than others. Some like the Tim/Timmy are not designed for super high gain but rather a subtle extra kick to certain amps. I have several pedals which I mess around with with various amps and the result is not the same from amp to amp. Here is a list of some of the ones I have:

Fulltone OCD (versions 1, 2, and 3)
Fulltone GT500
Fulltone Fulldrive II Mosfet
MI Audio Crunchbox
Paul Chochrane Tim
Retro-Sonic 808
ZVex Box of Rock
ZVex Box of Metal
Xotic BB Plus
Butler Real Tube II
Guyatone Hot Drive
Boss DS-1

I use the OCD and Retro-Sonic 808 with my Marshall RR 1/2 stack. I like the MI Audio Crunch Box with my Metro Amps Plexi clone. I use the Tim with a rather cranked up Marshall Class 5. So the bottom line is I think of them as Pedal/Amp combos rather than pedals or amps seperately

Yeah sorry - Purpose of this was to find the best pedals to use with unfamiliar back lines as I don't always play my own amps.
So we took a Groove Tubes 45 Watt - which is a great clean amp with tons of headroom - so much you could turn it most of the way
up and it will stay clean. It is made to take pedals really well.
Then we tried each pedal with both humbuckers and single coils.

I realize some of these pedals are made to push amps. Some can do both - push amps and sound great on the clean channel. This is more of
what I was looking for. Good tone and flexibility.

[markD]

i need to start looking into something that i can use with provided amps and still be able to get my sound. it looks like my band *may* be getting a tour for the first part of the summer. if it goes through, i will not be able to bring my own amp. that is CRUSHING to me because my amp is my voice. i can play almost any guitar, but my amp is my sound.....

[roodyrocker]

Yeah sorry - Purpose of this was to find the best pedals to use with unfamiliar back lines as I don't always play my own amps.
So we took a Groove Tubes 45 Watt - which is a great clean amp with tons of headroom - so much you could turn it most of the way
up and it will stay clean. It is made to take pedals really well.
Then we tried each pedal with both humbuckers and single coils.

I realize some of these pedals are made to push amps. Some can do both - push amps and sound great on the clean channel. This is more of
what I was looking for. Good tone and flexibility.

Gotcha. That can be a tough thing to find.

Rudy
Metal Inc.