lemme tell you somethin

[SixStringSuicide]

This thread is about how much i hate distortion pedals. distortion pedals blow a$$. Can someone explain to me why one would wish to dump a pile of steaming poo onto their guitar tone? Now this isnt for the people with solid state amps that dont distort enough or something, because i was once like that. But why would someone buy a nice amp, like a jcm800 or something, AFTER KNOWING WHAT IT SOUNDS LIKE, and then just stick a distortion pedal in front of it? WHY NOT BUY AN AMP THAT SOUNDS GOOD WITHOUT BUYING THAT CRAP!??! yes folks, it annoys me. and theyll probably take this thread down within an hour..but hell, those things suck. You buy an amp for how it sounds, not for how it sounds after a boss metal zone or a DOD death metal distortion crapbox [img]images/icons/grin.gif[/img]

And another thing that pisses me off...vintage guitar tone! yes thats right, shun me if you will, but it ANGERS me to hear an under-distorted twangy old guitar amp. i hate it i hate it i hate it. I see this old guys at guitar stores playing old fenders or vox's sounding like the beatles or something and i just want to take that hollowbody theyre playing and SMASH IT!

...And another thing. Why must all those vintage guitar addicts compare everything to "OLD FENDER BLACKFACES..OR FENDER TWINS"??!?!? Dont play the damn amp if your gonna moan and complain about some old dusty smelly outdated fenders. they suck. look at any review of any amp on any website, and 1 in 3 people will mention that. Well ive played them before and frankly, they suck. Yep, i hate vintage tone people.....

wouldnt you agree? [img]images/icons/grin.gif[/img] [img]images/icons/grin.gif[/img]


ahhh....glad i could get that off my chest and enrich your lives just that much more. [img]graemlins/rant.gif[/img]

good day, and godspeed

[atomic charvel guy]

Re: lemme tell you somethin

three words-
mark cameron modded

that's all you'll ever need.

[wulfe13]

Re: lemme tell you somethin

Well I got a DOD death metal pedal cause my amp is crap and I don't have the money or space for a better one.

I completely agree about the vintage tone. It sucks! I also hate pretentious people, like the ones that complain about a nice amp not sounding like some old peice of shit. You know the ones that say things like "Well it doesn't sound like my old Fender" Well no shit! There's a reason it doesn't sound like your old Fender, Dumbass!

Now you got me going... [img]images/icons/grin.gif[/img]

[SixStringSuicide]

Re: lemme tell you somethin

Amen brother! I may have went overboard on the distortion pedals...but the rest i stick by!

[HeWhoIs]

Re: lemme tell you somethin

Amen Wulfe!!

[buttheadmane]

Re: lemme tell you somethin

yeah, distortion pedals do suck ass, i cant stand how fake they are. i disagree with the vintage tone comment. i love the warm tone of a jcm800. i dont see how it sounds like crap.

[horns666]

Re: lemme tell you somethin

I hear you my brotha ...

I got Three words ...U Ber Schall. [img]images/icons/grin.gif[/img]

[lerxstcat]

Re: lemme tell you somethin

Well, distortion pedals vary widely in how they sound. I have a lot of 'em that I don't currently use, but they can be very useful, like a plain SD-1 in front of that JCM-800 can metal it up pretty nicely. The Cameron mod is the shit for the 800, but if you don't have the $ a good overdrive can really help. I like my old Ross distortion with most tube amps too; doesn't seem to color the tone that much and works well as a boost if you cut the drive back.

High-end stuff is great if you can afford it, but you can sound pretty good on a budget with the right combo of amp and pedals.

AS for explaining modern high-gain tone to a vintage amp guy, it's like explaining a good steak to a vegetarian - they don't get it nor do they want to. Apples and oranges.

[Newc]

Re: lemme tell you somethin

Before going with a rack unit, I had 8 or 9 pedals. I tried every single distortion pedal that was available and affordable, and they all sounded like shit. Everyone raved about the Metal Zone when it came out. I thought it blew ass. Sounded like a tuba for rhythms and a heavily miked Stratacoustic with the speaker in a glass jar for leads.

Even the famed MXR Distortion + and RAT (and Rat Turbo) sounded far too farty and glassy, with absolutely no smoothness (of course, this was through a Baby Gorilla, as that's all I had at the time - I'm sure they sounded great through a Marshall Plexi or whatever, but since I didn't have one....).

Anyhoo, I finally hit the right combination of pedals:
Guitar into:
-BOSS Super OD; set just to boost the incoming signal (Gain on 1 or 2 and Drive up high, or was that vice versa? whatever gives you a very loud and slightly edgy clean tone)
Into:
-MXR Distortion + : dial in a nice smooth rhythm with plenty of crunch and singing leads
Into:
-BOSS PH-12 Phaser, then into a Rocktek Chorus, Rocktek Flanger, and an Arion DD-4 Delay.

Here's a great tip for anyone with a crappy little solid state amp like the Baby Gorilla or whatever (20 watts with a 6" speaker): Find an Applause Super Distortion. That was the ONLY pedal that could get a good saturated distortion by itself with NOTHING in front of it or behind it to boost the gain. You don't need Distortion-class pickups with it, either. It sounded even better with the SD-1 boosting it (great for solos that REEEEEEEEEEEALLY sustain - talk about Shred Tone). Unfortunately, they'll only last about a year or so and then go shits on you.

Anyhoo, later I got another Gorilla (TC-30?) and another distortion pedal (Rocktek Distorion - crap.ass.). Then I went to Radio Shack and got a 1/4" to 2x 1/4" splitter, and ran the BOSS SD-1 into both the MXR and the Rocktek, then the MXR into the Phaser and Chorus, and the Rocktek into the Flanger and Delay, then each chain into each amp.
That. Fucking. RAWKED!

Stereo guitar with two completely different sounds [img]images/icons/grin.gif[/img]

Ya want Metallica's tone from Puppets or Lightning or Justice? That's it - two signal chains into two amps at once [img]images/icons/grin.gif[/img]

Even when I got my first rack (used GSP21 Pro) I still kept my pedals to run into the other amp [img]images/icons/grin.gif[/img]

Today, I use an ADA MP-1 for a preamp and Digitech TSR-12 for fx, and run stereo into my 12-track with 2 different EQ settings on each channel - it still fucking rocks [img]images/icons/grin.gif[/img]
No more doubling rhythm or lead tracks, just lay it down on two at once with 2 different eqs - one accenting the (600) bass and low-to-middle mids (800-1024), the other accenting the (1280) mids, (3500) high-mids, and highs (under 15K) [img]graemlins/headbang.gif[/img]

Newc

[pro-fusion]

Re: lemme tell you somethin

My old Carvin X100 half-stack didn't have nearly enough distortion, but a Rat fixed that right up. I was getting the "Iommi sound of death"!! But that's the only satisfactory distortion pedal I ever used--although that was before a lot of the current ones, such as the Metal Zone, were around.

[Fragle]

Re: lemme tell you somethin

i dont know shit about vintage gear. all i can say is that its definetely not the sound im after, but if some 50 year old guy who loves the beatles and similar stuff wants to play old fender twin amps and teles or hollowbodies, i dont care. just relax, this guy doesnt complain about your metal sound either.

but when it comes to stompboxes, i have to disagree. alright, the metalzone is more or less crap, although i was able to get a VERY heavy sound out of it when i put it in front of my laney and used it as a booster (volume all the way up, gain all the way down, slight bass boost, and thats it). unfortunately, as good as it sounded for heavy palm muted stuff, it was crap for leads, and i HATE to stomp on 3 different switches just to change my sound from rythm to lead.
well, back to the topic. imo stompboxes dont "destroy" your tube tone, i think they contribute something to your tone.
so for example, those stock jcm800's dont have enough gain for metal, thats for sure. but i found that putting a stompbox in front of it (like a tubescreamer) doesnt mess up its tone, it just makes it heavier. same goes for my laney. although that fucker has enough gain, its more suited for lead playing by itself. palm muted stuff just doesnt sound as tight and heavy as i want them to sound. so i bought a tubescreamer and put it in front of it. voila. kickass heavy, and my leads cut through way better than before (actually, my neighbours started complaining about my volume after i bought it, although i didnt change my master volume setting. it just cutted thru way better than before and therefore annoyed em more ...lol). AND i didnt notice any loss of tone. i think it still reacts very good to changes in my playing (dynamics), something you cant say about the mt2 which totally messed up my dynamics.

so basically, i think there are good stompboxes and bad ones....good ones like the mxr distortion +, tubescreamer, and several boss units; bad ones are the dod death metal pedal (what pile of shit!!!!) and the mt2....and maybe shitloads more. as long as youre using the good ones your tone wont suffer (at least imo), but you can finetune your sound.


of course there are people who say that they mess up your tone, but hell, most of those people think that EVERYTHING between your guitar and your amp kills your tone. that includes wahwah, fx, eq, and what not. acutally, there are guys who think that the amps EQ messes up your tone...take a look at the hughes and kettner puretone. that baby has a so called "growl" knob which blends out the EQ. [img]images/icons/rolleyes.gif[/img]

greets
fragle

[tonemonster]

Re: lemme tell you somethin

Any Marshall I have ever played doesnt have enough "oomph" for me. But that doesnt mean they are bad amps. They are fine amps, Just not my style. I have a JMP-1 in my rack. I need to slam the front end of any marshall with a Boss Compressor/sustainer and a Tubescreamer to get anythin usable out of it. Thats one reason I have Mesa/Boogie amps, they simply dont need anymore gain infront of them with a pedal. They kick enough on their own. But in my old days starting out, I did need my old cheesey Arion metal master pedal to get good distortion [img]images/icons/rolleyes.gif[/img]

I hear you on the vintage thing, I dont like that tone by any means and I really dont like the stuck up asses that put down lots of great amplifiers because they arent the "hallowed vintage Fender" amp. I say fine, go play your viantage tone, but dont slam our tone and gear just because they arent 50 years old!! There are many great amplifiers out there today that you just cant beat, but the those hoity, toity stuck up vintage snobs think everything in the world sucks if it isnt what they like. [img]graemlins/evilimages/icons/tongue.gif[/img]

I for one, LOVE the gear thats being produced today. There are so many cool products out there for us to choose from. [img]graemlins/headbang.gif[/img] [img]graemlins/band.gif[/img]

[ABSOLUT CHARVEL]

Re: lemme tell you somethin

Roland JC-120 .... clean as it gets

[Newc]

Re: lemme tell you somethin

The only Marshall I've played through that sounded good was a 30w Artist head into a Tubeworks 4x12. I tried a JCM800 and thought it sounded like a screaming b1tch [img]graemlins/laugh.gif[/img] - no, not one that's screaming your name as you're nutting up her pink, I mean a Fran Drescher that's telling you to turn that shit down [img]graemlins/laugh.gif[/img]

Newc