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Posted by: Niels Nov 11 2008, 09:08 AM

Hi there,

I got a lot of questions about the "distortion" in general.
I already have an Ibanez Tube Screamer TS-7 and I was wondering if it would make sense to buy a distortion pedal?
Can anyone explain the main differences between those two effects? I was thinking about buying the Boss DS-1, but maybe there are other distortion pedals that might be better? On the other hand I'm also thinking of buying a new amp (nothing decided yet) and maybe it's better to buy an amp that includes some overdrive settings? Is overdrive by the way the same as distortion? Is the Tube Screamer also an overdrive pedal (it has a drive parameter)?

You see, I got a lot of questions and I hope I could get some answers.

Kind regards,
Niels

Posted by: MickeM Nov 11 2008, 09:49 AM

An Overdrive pedal will work in two ways. There's the output signal level that's most useful in my opinion, by turning it up you will increase the signal and drive your preamp tubes into distortion. Secondly you can have a gain stage that will add a softer kind of distortion to the signal.

Adjusting the level will only work on a tube amp, a solid state amp doesn't have any tubes to drive so the level function is pretty much useless on a SS as it was intended.
Gain however will work for both SS and tube amps and it'll be a smooth distortion that will emulate a driven tube amp.


A distortion pedal will alter the input signal. Like the gain stage on an OD pedal but not neccessarily soft and smooth since the intention isn't to emulate a tube amp, just to distort.

Posted by: Power_Arctica Nov 11 2008, 09:57 AM

Do you want a light distortion or a heavy one? What kind of music do you play? Myabe you need a distortion pedal and not an overdrive...

Posted by: MickeM Nov 11 2008, 10:20 AM

Yeah, the Boss SD-1 is an OD pedal aswell so the step from TS7 wouldn't give an enormous tonal change.

Posted by: Power_Arctica Nov 11 2008, 10:44 AM

Thats right. Maybe you are looking for metal riffs and only with an overdrive you wont get that sound.
Try to use the TS with your amps distortion. Many people use the overdrive over the distortion to boost
the signal.

Posted by: Niels Nov 11 2008, 10:46 AM

All right, thank you so far for your answers!

I like to play rock music, from bands like Live, Kaiser Chiefs, Franz Ferdinand.
If a DS-1 isn't such a big change, do you have any other recommendations?

Posted by: Ivan Milenkovic Nov 12 2008, 12:22 AM

You can check out my http://www.guitarmasterclass.net/misc-lessons/gear-tutorial-series-boss-sd1-and-ds1/ for some additional info on these two pedals