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Posted by: sted Aug 23 2009, 12:16 PM

I had a gig last week on the day my new amp arrived (Fender blues deluxe reissue), a quick look at my set list and I knew a nice distortion would be required so I hurriedly purchased a DS-1 to get me through the gig. Its not bad but the other guitarist was playing a Spider 3 (I kid you not!) and my own tone was still more in the fender overdrive range and was lacking a bit of beef in comparison.
So im looking for a pedal to give me that more low end drive (Dare i say marshall-esque?) ive got a TS on order which is brilliant but i need a good alternative pedal for more punch.

My thoughts:

Rothwell Hearbreaker, Purple plexi, Rat.

suggestions?

Posted by: ZakkWylde Aug 23 2009, 12:35 PM

Do you want an overdrive to boost your Fender crunch into more gain or do you want a distortion pedal to go over your clean channel?

Posted by: sted Aug 23 2009, 12:42 PM

Well, both really! I use the clean with a boost setting on the pedal and then stack the drive channel with the DS-1 and plenty of gain for a distortion, however even at quite high gain settings the distortion is still quite "top end". I suppose something that would sit on the clean and go straight to saturation would be ideal, I can then back it off for the drive channel.

Make sense?

Posted by: ZakkWylde Aug 23 2009, 01:03 PM

Sense? Not really!

Just kidding

I would say get a Tubescreamer-like od pedal for tightening things up and boosting and a full blown distortion pedal to create that marshall-esque high gain tone. That will give you the widest range of sounds possible!

The OD pedal is there to spice up your fender tone without altering it and the Distortion pedal goes over the clean channel to give you your desired high gain tone. I don't know too much about good distortion pedals as I prefer amps with good onboard distortion but I will do my best to help you:

http://www.thomann.de/gb/ibanez_tk999_ht_tubeking_ht.htm

I hear a lot of people saying on good things about this pedal. A tube driven Distortion for a superb sound with a range from classic Marshall to high gain thanks to a lot of tweaking options!

http://www.thomann.de/gb/blackstar_ht_distx.htm

Blackstar tube powered distortion. Ex Marshall engineers. You had a blackstar. This thing will deliver everything from marshall to modern high gain while sounding better than most amps on their own!

Posted by: sted Aug 23 2009, 01:05 PM

Yeah, didnt really think of the HT pedlas, they would make a lot of sense.Cheers mate, Ill be checking both these out!

Posted by: MickeM Aug 23 2009, 01:36 PM

The Blackstar (and you should get the Dual imho) you could plug into the return jack of the amp to use as preamp.

Posted by: ZakkWylde Aug 23 2009, 01:50 PM

Sorry this is a bit off-topic but is that how you youse a preamp on an amp head? Just plugging it into the return of the amp?

If I wanted to use a Mesa Triaxis something like that with my Marshall Jvm, I just put the preamp into the return of the loop?

Posted by: Jesse Aug 23 2009, 04:26 PM

... Sted, how bouts, you give me the blues amp, I send you my distortion pedal. Deal?

Just kididng, how u like it?!

Posted by: Sensible Jones Aug 23 2009, 04:43 PM

Marshall Guv'nor can produce quite a fat distorted tone!

Posted by: Xuestor Aug 23 2009, 06:05 PM

Fulltone OCD - best OD pedal ive tried

Posted by: Staffy Aug 23 2009, 06:15 PM

I own a Boss DD-20 which is a programmable distorsion/OD unit with four user memories, i compared it to an old TS in order to get that overdriven blues sound, and i cant tell no difference. If u wanna beef up the amp and maintain its tone I would go for the Timmy-box, but I purchased a Danelectro Transparent Overdrive instead, which is about 1/3 of the price for the Timmy... It doesn't change the tone of either my Fender or Marshall a bit, just adding overdrive.
Good Luck and happy searching Sted!

//Staffay

Posted by: Shime Aug 23 2009, 06:30 PM

Has anyone tried the http://www.seymourduncan.com/products/stompboxes/sfx08_power_gri/ for that matter?

I use an old Boss Turbo Overdrive pedal with my Fender 75 tube amp. It works well especially if you have high output pickups and boost the amp itself rather heavily. It doesn't transform your Fender into a modern high-gain amp though.

What I also do is play through a Pandora PX5D with hi-gain amp + 4x12 cab sound modeling plugged in the Fender amp. Distortion is massive and brutal yet smooth - incredible really. But not that suited for gig situations.

Posted by: sted Aug 23 2009, 06:33 PM

Thanks guys, loads of great suggestions here, looks like I'll be bust checking out these pedals for a while! I really like the sound of the OCD and the HT-Dual.

Hey why not? its a great amp mate, of that there is no doubt! Its very, very loud though! I played a gig last week and couldnt take it over 3 on the volume (It goes to 12!) the clean is amazing and the driven tones are pure fender heaven, i just need something to fatten up the low end on rockier tunes, hence the thread!

Posted by: Noangels Aug 23 2009, 07:30 PM

I think the pedal your using right now should do the trick,never been a big fender(amp!) fan but when I had a twin reverb 20 years ago I pushed it hard with a RAT od pedal

Posted by: Ivan Milenkovic Aug 23 2009, 07:43 PM

As we talked on the chat, but still worth mentioning:

I got OCD stomp recently and it is awesome. It brings out the best of the tube amp.
Very musical, rich and dynamic stompbox. Arguably the best distortion pedal I have ever used. It is "only" for use with tube amps tho, on solid state amps it sounds fuzzy and uninteresting.
It has a Lo and Hi modes which is a pretty cool option and can run from 9-18V of power, 18V providing more headroom than 9V operation. I suggest experimenting with it ofc.

Posted by: MickeM Aug 23 2009, 11:13 PM

Yes you got it! The amps preamp doesn't get any signal and the path into the poweramp is through the return jack which goes directly in there.

Posted by: Ivan Milenkovic Aug 24 2009, 02:13 PM

Micke is right, in order to bypass the preamp on a Marshall (or any other amp), go directly to power amp (FX Loop return).
On some amps (like Fenders), the return is actually named "Poweramp In", and send is called "Preamp Out". It means the same thing basically..

Posted by: -Zion- Aug 25 2009, 10:46 AM

i am using the Seymour Duncan SFX-03 and i really really like it..



btw.. reading this thread i am really not sure what to do..
I am using (in this order): above mentioned SFX-03, a Boss NS-2 (noise suppressor), a boss CH-1 (chorus) and a boss DD-07 (delay)..
i am playing on a marshall amp.. what would be the best way of using my pedals on the amp?? right now they are all going straight into the guitar input..

thanks in advance-.

Posted by: Ivan Milenkovic Aug 25 2009, 09:41 PM

If you are using only the clean channel of the Marshall then this is good way to go.

However if you use distortion from Marshall and the FX loop is series one, then put chorus and delay in the loop.

Posted by: -Zion- Aug 27 2009, 11:31 AM

I am indeed using the clean channel..

Thanks for clearing that up for me..

Posted by: Ivan Milenkovic Aug 27 2009, 11:58 PM

No problem mate, anytime. Cheers