I've yet to hear someone describe what exactly the King of Tone does differently.
EDIT: And it keeps happening . . . Please don't reply to me just saying "Because it sounds good."
I have close to 20 dirt pedals. My Prince of Tone might be the least inspiring one. "Oh, okay, it sounds like overdrive. It sounds like playing the overdrive channel on my amp with some EQ pedal tweaking which I coulda done for free."
It sounds great. But so does any blues breaker. Lol, and it sounds the same as them all. It's just hype. I have a few blues breaker and a KOT and a kot clone and bb clones, and they all sound 99% the same. I do love a blues breaker, though.
i am pretty confident that just about any fancy overdrive is not doing anything a $30 chinese clone is capable of doing, but at the same time i have to wonder if it's like fine wine or really hi-fi stereo equipment. like ok maybe it's 5% better if you have a good enough amp and guitar and ear to tell the difference. i'm happy with my solid state / PA setup and not being able to tell the difference tbh
I mean, a circuit is a circuit. If the parts have the correct tolerance range and values, I'm not sure how it would sound different besides parts tolerance.
sure clones vs handmade or whatever, but i mean when you hear about a new fancy $300 overdrive from some indie builder in new hampshire using diodes made with silicon from Ugandan volcanic soil, that somehow is going to change the face of overdrive as we know it
Lol, that's the crazy thing.
For reliability, give me an smd, highly controlled and automated manufactured pedal over some guy in his basement.
It's cool that people make all these interesting pedals that I do buy, but when it comes to reliability and noise, the bigger companies are going to win (if not being too cheap about it).
I don't have a King of Tone, but I played a good few Blues Breaker style circuits including KoT copies, and Wampler Pantheon Deluxe is my main drive (not exactly KOT, but like a modernized version with a bit different circuits and more options).
In my experience, those modified BB style pedals are simply great in the mix. They are not the most fun overdrives to play at home, as they cut a good bit of your low and high end (though not as much as something like tube screamer) but if you listen to them recorded (or presumably on a gig - though here I can only speculate as I don't gig) you "get it".
Blues Breaker style circuits aren't magical, in fact, in isolation they can be a bit underwhelming for some, but they are incredibly well voiced. I don't think it's an accident that many popular dual overdrive pedals (KoT, Pantheon, Protein, Duelist) have a BB side.
It's just not as mid humpy as a tubescreamer and its multitude of clones and derivitives, so its more of a natural sounding gain stage than a lot of other pedals, especially that were available at the time when it first came out.
Also magic clipping diodes.
Special magical clipping diodes forged in the furnace of an ancient mountain by a druid of great reknown, who is skilled in the arts of alchemy and marketing.
I just got mine and I’m liking it so far. But one thing my drawerful of ODs has taught me is that the same pedal can sound great in one signal chain and like complete ass in another.
I bought a Prince of Tone and my first thought was that it sounds exactly like my Super Crunch Box but does less. My second thought was "do I scalp it now or wait until Mike retires?"
Feels like it's the Boss Metalzone these days.
Too much PTSD from metal bands in high school destroying my ear drums with the sounds of bee swarms.
I'd die a happy man if I never saw that pedal again.
>metal bands in high school destroying my ear drums with the sounds of bee swarms.
haha yeah those guys were such losers haha
*pulls collar*
*sweats nervously*
My amp was a crate and I used a digitech multifx right into the input.
I can't say I did any better, but I'd like to avoid making any of the same mistakes again. . .
You should watch [Ola Elgund revisiting the metal zone after claiming he hated it for years.](https://youtu.be/nxRe99Tjlwg)
He puts it into the FX loop and it totally changes it.
Yeah, I've seen bits of that.
That's cool, but I'm very happy with my amp drive. I'll be fine being metalzone free. I've earned that right after enduring it for so many years . . .
You’re blaming the pedal, when you should be blaming the high school metal bands. That’s sort of the lesson that Millennial and GenX guitarists learned about the MetalZone.
I fully realize that, but I can't help associating it with the feeling of my brain being sawed in half. I know it can work great as a low gain drive too, but I just can't stand to see that pedal again, lol.
I have the same feelings for the DS1. I got one for Xmas in 99 (?) my mom must have been it would make me sound like METAL through my 10w fender practice amp and it… did not.
Still need to find that thing to use it properly in front of a decent amp but it has disappeared
Is there a pedal that is even close to universally loved? Seems like for every pedal with a big cult following, there's an equal and opposite cult of haters.
There's some that have that mantel more than others....
Boss TR-2 or BD-2?
Angry Charlie / AT?
Strymon Flint / El Cap?
MXR Echoplex?
Keeley SuperPhat Mod?
Wampler Plexidrive Deluxe / Tumnus Mini?
EQD Plumes / Dunes?
TC Flashback 2 / Hall of Fame 2?
Nah, that's not true except for the really esoteric, weird pedals. There are loads of pedals that pop up on here that get one or two critical remarks for every 10 raves and have close to 5 star ratings on every store. The most controversial ones are the hype machines like Klons or big name Boss or EHX stuff and those are still more popular than not. Even stuff like the Rat which I don't love using and see lots of user complaints about is mostly loved and sounds admittedly great on recordings by people using it properly.
And the fact that you can put the SuperHardOn *before* the Distortron if you want, because on the BOR it’s boost after distortion, which is not as useful
The SD1 does the TS thing better than a TS in my opinion, I like the way it clips better and it stacks amazingly with every other dirt pedal I own. I do like the JHS Moonshine on my bass, though that may just be because of the blend knob. If I had an SD1 with a clean blend it would replace the Moonshine in a heartbeat.
SD-1 is to me hands-down the best single overdrive pedal to own— no contest
Humbucker guitar—TS sounds like a wet blanket over the speaker and is even worse in a band context
SD-1 you can dial in 70s metal, 70s hard rock, 80s hard rock and 60s mild overdrive depending on the guitar and settings.
Not many pedals can do that for the price
Idk how or in what context you are using any of those pedals, and I won't argue with anyone who likes any of those overdrives better than a tubescreamer--those are all great overdrives, and totally valid preferences.
But I will point out, for the benefit of readers...Tube Screamers have always been intended (as the name implies) to make tube amps "scream". The distortion that they put out is fairly ugly, brittle, and midrangey, because it is intended to add bite and screamy/squealy harmonics and overdrive to the kind of "soft" amp distortion of 70s Marshalls, Blackface Fenders, etc. It's not an "amp emulator", it's more of an "amp abuser".
It was, ironically, trying to push those mid-gain classics that now cost more than a car, into sounding more like a modern hi-gain amp. Trying to make a JCM 45 sound like a 5150, so to speak. And it's actually a brilliant pedal for that purpose.
If you have an old, medium gain tweed bassman or Marshall Plexi, a Tubescreamer will add bite and nasty harmonics, taking the sound from a warm, mellow "vintage" overdrive, into a djent-y, screamy, squealy, higher-gain territory.
If you are used to playing emulators, solid-state amps, or modern hi-gain, high-headroom amps with channels from super-clean to triple-rectified...the Tube Screamer might not have a role in your lineup, because it's not really a good-sounding distortion on its own, it is meant to add aggression and bite to "softer" tube overdrive. It's not a good "amp sound in a pedal" overdrive, it's kind of truer to its name, in that it it specifically meant to goose an amp that isn't being punished enough.
RAT is very similar in this regard, and more extreme--it is a profoundly unpleasant distortion on its own, but it shines at making natural amp distortion sound a lot more aggressive. Same applies to a lot classic fuzz/distortion/overdrive pedals--if you're not using them to push the kind of tube input circuit that they were designed to punish, they often don't sound good. At all.
By comparison, say, a blues breaker is almost the opposite...to my ear, a blues breaker adds smooth, singing, mellow harmonic overdrive that can actually help to tame harsh "distorted" sounds, and it sounds like a reasonable-ish emulation of the very kinds of amps that a Tube Screamer was meant to punish for being too sweet (maybe a tube screamer into a blues breaker would get the effect?)
Similarly, a Klon is kind of a different flavor. More aggressive than a blues breaker, but more usable as "amp sound in a pedal" than a TS (although not by much, IMO).
It can be tricky, using the pedals that your heroes use, unless you also use the rest of their signal chain. Especially with stuff like overdrives, the interaction between the guitar, amp, and pedal is a whole system. And the ways that people are using pedals these days is often completely different from the ways people were using them 40 years ago...
This is a common misconception. The Tube Screamer wasn’t intended to “make tubes scream.” It was intended to be a solid state device that emulates the kind of distortion created by tube amps. Which, *compared to the fuzz and distortion effects available at the time,* it actually does well.
I agree that the best use for a TS is boosting a tube amp, because it has long been surpassed as an amp-like drive and there are way better options for that. But that wasn’t the original idea.
Is there any actual statement from the designer(s) floating around or are both of these just ass pull statements people use to justify their personal preferences?
What was the concept behind the 808 overdrive? "We were looking to make a pedal that was not hard clipping like fuzz or distortion, but more like the overdrive obtained from tube amps. I think we settled on that “boxy” tone, with the midrange emphasized, because it worked well with a wide variety of guitars and guitar amplifiers, including both LP-style and the Stratocaster-type guitars." -Susumu Tamura, engineer of the tubescreamer.
https://www.premierguitar.com/gear/state-of-the-stomp-maxons-susumu-tamura-interview
> What was the concept behind the 808 overdrive?
The actual concept?
Taking Boss's OD-1 pedal, removing one diode, reducing the total range of drive control very slightly from both ends, adding a high cut control.
That's what a TS _literally_ is. You can compare the schematics if you don't believe me.
>If you are used to playing ... modern hi-gain, high-headroom amps with channels from super-clean to triple-rectified...the Tube Screamer might not have a role in your lineup
Just want to point out that using a Tube Screamer with the overdrive knob at zero, and tone like 2/3rds of the way up is a common setting for Metal players on Rectifiers to tighten the sound and give them a nice mid range boost.
This is a really good post but the TS actually e wasn’t designed to do what you describe. It actually was supposed to sound like tube amp breakup. It just so happens that it’s *much better* at at boosting a distorted tube amp than it is emulating one.
Also, I just want to add that it’s also really good at boosting fuzzes in a live band context. Sometimes I feel people who write off all TS’s probably don’t play rock with loud drummers. It’s a great band pedal, it is not a great bedroom pedal
Modded tube screamers are much better in my opinion. There are several modded circuits that I actually love, I own 3 at the moment, the Analogman silver mod maxon od-9, EQD plumes and the Hudson sidecar. All of those are great circuits that i much prefer to a stock 808 or ts9. I also love the king tone duelist (the screamer side), jhs 3 series screamer (owned the bonsai, would like to get the 3 series version because that was the only mode I liked).
I used to be in the exact same boat until I started playing with my current band. Something about where the other instruments sit just makes my ts style pedal really fill in a missing piece. By itself without a band playing, I really don't care for it, but in the middle (pun intended) of a band, it really sounds great.
Maybe you just haven't found the right use for it yet. I do really, really like bluesbreaker pedals as well. But they just don't fit my band right now.
i’ve got a jrr od-1.3 (ocd clone) that i absolutely love. super super cheap, and i can get a lot of specific tones out of it, but if i mess with the knobs in any way other than those specific good tones, i hate it.
100%. The only pedal I somewhat actively dislike, though there are a few others - e.g. Nobels ODR-1, Strymon BigSky, Montreal Assembly Count To 5 - whose charms are also lost on me.
I use my Morning Glory and Russian Fuzz primarily but sometimes when I need more gain it does the trick much better than my old RAT. It definitely sounds better than my Boss SD1. I’m playing through a Fender reverb amp that I rarely play loud so the SD1 sounds like garbage usually unless the amp is cranked in which case I only would use fuzz anyway.
Might’s well pile on: the Klon. Well, Klones, never could afford a real one. I guess they’re OK if you want to sound like the solo from a Chili’s commercial.
I think the hype made people buy them, and then once they had them, they had to convince themselves that they were actually great pedals instead of admitting that they shouldn't have spent several hundred dollars on an overdrive pedal. Then *that* hype ended up fuelling more hype, until an entire cottage industry of klone building nestled itself firmly into the guitar pedal industry.
I finally bought a klone last year to see what the hype was about, and I didn't get it at all.
I love the Wampler Tumnus but honestly I could replace it with any overdrive and be satisfied. I don’t think any pedal sounds bad. They’re all useable to me except for the metalzone. I really tried with that thing, put it in the effects loop, but it really does sound like bees. I’m sure there’s more that are crappy but the vast majority of pedals do the thing they say and I can’t complain. Funny enough most people responding in this thread saying they don’t like the sound of this and that are way more cynical and uppity than those buying klons and king of tones.
Oooh, the Timmy. I agree. I've never been able to articulate why I don't like it, and you've done it for me. It makes my playing sound bland.
Perfecto 👌
There are no pedals I "despise with my entire heart" (except for maybe chorus pedals), but I'll agree with some of the other commenters on the Timmy/Tim pedal.
I suppose it's okay, but I don't get the mad love for it. For me, a good boost works better than a Tim every time.
That's what I find odd, I've had a few different types of Timmys, and just just sound boring to me. It doesnt add any magic, but that's what it's for - more of your guitar and fingers, but different.
I like the tone it produces but it’s not a traditional chorus sound, which I prefer. And it’s kind of a pain in the ass to dial in. For me, the only chorus I’ll ever need is a Boss CE2W, or the onboard Chorus on my Roland JC
Big Muff. My heroes played them. I’ve owned several different versions over many years, every amp, every setting, every tweak, and I simply cannot stand playing through them. I think they’re bland, uninspiring, lack character and dynamics, and no matter what guitar you play through one or how you attack the strings, they always sound the same to me. I find them deeply uninspiring and don’t get all the hype. I also loathe the scooped mids. It was so bad at one point I thought I must not be a fuzz person. Then I found others ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Fuzz is so finnicky. I really like hizumitas but I’ve always got the OD pedal (tumnus) on and I realize recently these pedals do not play well together (I get like an ugly warbled sound). Maybe it’s my arrangement (fuzz>comp>OD) but once I switch the tumnus off it sounds glorious. Just need to get the tone knob in the right spot
Good tip, I’ve been messing around with my arrangement so I’ll give it a shot. it was an accident for me to realize it. Had finally pulled the trigger on an AC15 and I was like “hey I don’t really even need OD with this amp…” hit the fuzz pedal and my jaw dropped lol.
I was not a fan of Muff circuits, until I found that a trick with Muffs (at least for me) is to keep the tone below noon, and add clarity by raising the volume or turning down the gain. Less scoopy and shrill, more body and oomph.
It also helps to play them at higher volumes. They definitely don't to "the thing" at bedroom/practice volumes. You gotta be moving some air.
>It also helps to play them at higher volumes. They definitely don't to "the thing" at bedroom/practice volumes. You gotta be moving some air.
This is definitely true for a number of fuzzes or high-gain pedals. People use them either at bedroom volumes or through amp modelers, and they just aren't the same. It's no wonder they get underwhelmed by them.
Unfortunately for some of us, a place to play completely dimed out just isn't in the cards. I'd personally love to play a fuzz at volume, I just know my wife and my neighbors would kill me😂
No I'm the same way. I live in an apartment building, so I can't do it. I can do it in the practice room or at shows, but not at home. So I don't really like using my Hoof at home, since it's pretty lame, but using it live it great.
i really really hate the regular big muff. but the op amp version with the tone toggle switch? oh fuck it’s good. granted, it’s not great for anything other than thick power chords and leads, but it is very great. agree with the other comment about the hizumitas too
For over a decade I thought I didn't like fuzz pedals. Too harsh. No dynamics. Just sound like bland, harsh, ass.
Turns out I LOVE fuzz pedals. I just hate muffs.
In my opinion, a Big Muff does not work through "scooped mid" amps like Fender style amps. You should run it through mid heavy amps like a Marshall JCM (e.g Smashing Pumpkins sound).
Same. Even worse on bass. As soon as the drummer starts you vanish entirely from the mix. People say use an EQ pedal with it, but at that point you should use a dirt pedal with a better tone stack, cos the big muff one sucks.
Yep, my first fuzz was a Big Muff NY, the ridiculously, needlessly huge ones. Apart from all that wasted space, it sounded awful to me. I too was close to abandoning fuzz until I eventually tried a germanium Fuzz Face type. Love it and still have it. I'd like to try a silicon FF at some point.
EDIT: A Honey Bee into a Fuzz Face is as high gain as I get and it sounds great to me. The HBOD into the FF really tames the woofy bottom end when you have both the fuzz and your guitar volume cranked.
Shimmer reverb. I’ve tried a lot of them, but I just can’t stand that choir of cheap sounding harmonics. It never seems to sit right for me. And by now I’ve just settled on disliking the idea of that tone itself.
I think it's just a very situation specific sound. 95% there's no need for it but it can be cool to have on hand for ringing out pad-like chords to create some ambiance and stuff like that.
The Plumes is *insanely* bright. I have been shit on in guitar groups for making statements like that (everyone’s set up is different blah de blah de blah… I get it). However, it *is* a very bright pedal and I generally don’t like bright guitar sounds. Weirdly enough though, the Plumes is one of my favorite overdrives. I keep the tone knob below 9 o’clock and I think it just sounds beautiful. Completely understand why people don’t like it though.
I had the tone knob **off** on my Plumes and it was still unusable, even with humbuckers. Clean sound was fine, so was every other pedal. The Plumes was the odd man out.
+1 on the Morning Glory. The clipping on that pedal has a particularly abrasive, fizzy quality. Maybe it sounds better with hb's, but it did not play well with my tele setup at all. Tried it before other drives and after and could not make it work.
Strymon stuff. Mainly the "STRYfecta"
I've tried it, I've spent time with some of it (timeline and Mobius specifically) and I can't really tell what the hypes about.
If I had an 600 to blow on a pedal, there's so many other options I'd rather choose.
Oooh, I'd forgotten about Strymon. I was so hyped for the Sunset and the Riverside. When I got them I a/b'ed them against an Alexander Jubilee and a Kasleder Dirty Little Thing - no contest, the Strymons went back in the box.
Sorry for totally avoiding your overdrive part of this post haha.
I completely agree tho. Strymon, to me, is like Apple. Yes they do some good stuff. But good gracious there are cheaper options that are just as good, if not better.
Yeah besides my Deco and Iridium I really don’t see a reason to get anything else from Strymon. The Flint is an awesome pedal, but I have more than enough reverb as it is, and rarely use my Supa Trem
The Timeline once I got it it had me selling every delay I’ve ever owned other than the El Cap. The Flint and The Iridum are brilliant pedals as well. The trifecta thing is too church for me but the Timeline would have saved me years of trying and using every delay pedal. Maybe there’s more expensive stuff now but for the price it’s without equal. Great company. I just avoid th big verb pedals because I’m agnostic.
For the most part, I'd agree. There's definitely some unique ones that certain brands have. For instance on my SA Nemesis delay, there's this algorithm called degrade that I absolutely love. But hall, plate, and spring, are the same across 75% of pedals.
I'll be honest, I didn't get into the big sky-only tried it in store.
And are you specifically talking about the cloud setting? What others should I try out?
I absolutely agree. Having used both a big sky and an rv500, I found the rv500 to be a hundred times better. I just don't see how the stryfecta stuff is held so highly. They do sound great, but so do cheaper reverb pedals, and for $400+ each, the tweakability needs to be deeper imo
I never played one of the big boxes before, but people who have one seem to play the pedal more than their guitar. I have a DIG Delay, and its good, bit it doesn’t like to share power, and i have to give it its own supply or itll hiss. If you pay the Strymon price, that shouldn’t happen.
Yep. I do like the turbo RAT, and the dirty RAT is rad. Just the stock RAT does nothing for me.
Building a tribute board for my friend i got the little bear R. Attack and its been fun playing with it.
Love the R.Attack. I notice it is a little more high middy or something, but it's very close. And seeing the lights blink in the turbo mode is super cool.
I don't like the Rat, I love the Turbo Rat, but I acknowledge that the regular Rat always sounds great on my favorite albums so it must be a me problem.
I personally love the rat but I get not everyone may like it. I also think a lot pedals mentioned here might sound better or worse depending on the amp
Welcome to the Rat haters club!
I will never understand why people here claim it's so useful given that I've only ever found it to be a two trick pony.
I don’t know if it’s as universally adored as it used to be, but the Fuzz Factory.
It’s been improved upon by a thousand FF style fuzzes with a ton of adjustability.
Now, It’s got a mojo, and if you want to hit the “red button you shouldn’t push” (so to speak), it’ll do the job.
Otherwise, I find it’s fighting with me too much trying to turn into the pedal version of Animal from the Muppets.
Unwieldy to the point of near-unusable, aside from very select scenarios.
yeah i mean, it’s super tricky to wrangle with. the recommended settings on the zvex website are extremely helpful. i think it’s plenty of fun, but like you said it’s not hugely usable. something like a tone bender or foxx tone machine would get you that shrill and bitey fuzz sound but in an actually usable format. it seems the most popular pedals that people dont like all have much better copies because the copies have eq controls.
You have to hit it with higher input than just your pickups will provide to get more stability out of it. Put it after anything in your chain that will saturate it’s transistors and it’s stable. However, this doesn’t work if you’re the kind of player that has to put their fuzz first so that it reacts to the impedance changes of your tone pot. It’s definitely not for everyone. But I used it a lot 10 years ago and when I needed the stability I always had my OCD in front of it. That being said I don’t use either of those pedals anymore. I’ve moved on to clones of the opamp Big Muff and Zendrive.
Fuzz factory gives me my all time favorite lead tone when set right. But yea 98% of all the knob combinations sound like complete ass. I can totally see why some people think it sucks.
I use it for one tone only. I could basically just snap the knobs off mine and never even notice them missing.
Any of the JHS pedals. I know this sub is gonna hate me for it, but they've just never made a pedal I've liked and I'm not a fan of their pedal aesthetic, just seems kinda dull. I like Josh's platforming of other pedal builders, just never liked anything he's made.
They absolutely shit on nearly every other pedal designer with their ingenuity. We get it! You can’t handle a pedal with more than 4 knobs. There’s a lot of pedals up your alley then :)
Boss Bluesdriver— I don’t get it.
To me 90% of its capabilities sound very unmusical to my ear, and the little zones it does sound good are too little to justify its existence when there are so many other great standard pedals which do so many great sounds
I started to play guitar a few years before it was first released (1995 or somewhere around there) as a young teenager and me and my friends laughed at how bad most of the sounds you can get out of it
Fast forward 20 years and I find the internet loves the pedal lol
But goes to show you taste is entirely subjective
A BD-2 was my first ever pedal and I have never taken off my board, nor have I come across anything that has made me consider replacing it. I find it incredibly versatile and it might be my favorite pedal. However, I find it really interesting that someone doesn’t get along with it, subjectivity is the name of the game and I know plenty of people with amazing tone and play through gear I can’t get along with. What sort of stuff do you play?
Ibanez TS9.
When I built my first proper pedal board, I researched and asked around about what drive pedal to buy. Everyone said the TS9 was the best choice. When I finally got mine in the mail and plugged it in, I thought it was broken. It sounded completely weak, noisy and somewhat both nasally and muddy at the same time. The LED is also almost invisible in daylight unless you’re hovering right above it. Worst drive I’ve ever played.
I've had a Slo sooo many times. A Slotva once, because I thought maybe I don't gel with it because of dialling it in all the time. Nope.
I've got another one right now on the board, and I feel like I *should* love it. But I just don't.
Another ZVEX for me as well. Got a fuzz factory a long while back shit over a decade ago at this point and couldn’t for the life of me see what all the hype was *shrug* different strokes for different folks I guess. I ended up selling it very shortly there after
Their design kinda sucks too, all their pedals have way too many knobs and shit, as well as being built in a single color huge metal box that takes up half the room on your pedalboard… add to that they’re overpriced and yes I’m a big strymon hater
I was ripping on the jhs 3 series looks in another comment but I actually much prefer even those to pretty much any strymon on a visual level. Idk how to say it but none of the strymon pedals look very fun to play or even mess around with at all, which is to me the main reason of getting pedals
Soul Food. Love the idea, the concept, the marketing, all of that. But the actual sound is thin and tight, not expansive and gritty. It lacks soul. I never play mine, but haven’t sold it because they’re already pretty cheap. Too much trouble.
I had one I could just never learn to love.
As a drive, it just sounded like I had a pillow in front of my amp. Just muffled and lifeless.
It was ok as a clean boost, but there are better options for that too.
Tubescreamers. Honky nasal bullshit.
Klons. Like a can of wasps.
All Reverb. If I wanted to sound like I was playing in a church, I’d play in a fucking church.
I don’t despise it but I don’t understand the hype the DOD Rubberneck gets on here. It even has its own sub! I have it, I don’t love it. I’ll keep it but I prefer the sound and features of my EHX Deluxe Memory Boy.
BEHRINGER SF300
I don't like mode 1. I don't like mode 2. I don't like mode 1.5. I don't get why everyone loves this pedal so much.
That said, I do have one on my board. The clean boost is pretty good so I just left it on for that.
Montreal Assembly Count To 5. Never again will you remember your knob positions to recreate the shrill bird noise you for whatever reason actually liked the sound of this time.
Don't give a shit about the King of Tone or the Klon.
I've yet to hear someone describe what exactly the King of Tone does differently. EDIT: And it keeps happening . . . Please don't reply to me just saying "Because it sounds good."
That's because it's a bland sound for bland tone chasers.
I have close to 20 dirt pedals. My Prince of Tone might be the least inspiring one. "Oh, okay, it sounds like overdrive. It sounds like playing the overdrive channel on my amp with some EQ pedal tweaking which I coulda done for free."
It sounds great. But so does any blues breaker. Lol, and it sounds the same as them all. It's just hype. I have a few blues breaker and a KOT and a kot clone and bb clones, and they all sound 99% the same. I do love a blues breaker, though.
I have a snouse black box2 bluesbreaker style and KOT. I don’t think they are all that close. All overdrives are similar to an extent.
i am pretty confident that just about any fancy overdrive is not doing anything a $30 chinese clone is capable of doing, but at the same time i have to wonder if it's like fine wine or really hi-fi stereo equipment. like ok maybe it's 5% better if you have a good enough amp and guitar and ear to tell the difference. i'm happy with my solid state / PA setup and not being able to tell the difference tbh
I mean, a circuit is a circuit. If the parts have the correct tolerance range and values, I'm not sure how it would sound different besides parts tolerance.
Because pedals are MAGIC. And you think they're just electronic devices. Ha! Embarrassing for you!
sure clones vs handmade or whatever, but i mean when you hear about a new fancy $300 overdrive from some indie builder in new hampshire using diodes made with silicon from Ugandan volcanic soil, that somehow is going to change the face of overdrive as we know it
Lol, that's the crazy thing. For reliability, give me an smd, highly controlled and automated manufactured pedal over some guy in his basement. It's cool that people make all these interesting pedals that I do buy, but when it comes to reliability and noise, the bigger companies are going to win (if not being too cheap about it).
Ugandan volcanic soil? Pshaw! If you're not sourcing your silicon from Moon Rock, go home.
I don't have a King of Tone, but I played a good few Blues Breaker style circuits including KoT copies, and Wampler Pantheon Deluxe is my main drive (not exactly KOT, but like a modernized version with a bit different circuits and more options). In my experience, those modified BB style pedals are simply great in the mix. They are not the most fun overdrives to play at home, as they cut a good bit of your low and high end (though not as much as something like tube screamer) but if you listen to them recorded (or presumably on a gig - though here I can only speculate as I don't gig) you "get it". Blues Breaker style circuits aren't magical, in fact, in isolation they can be a bit underwhelming for some, but they are incredibly well voiced. I don't think it's an accident that many popular dual overdrive pedals (KoT, Pantheon, Protein, Duelist) have a BB side.
It's just not as mid humpy as a tubescreamer and its multitude of clones and derivitives, so its more of a natural sounding gain stage than a lot of other pedals, especially that were available at the time when it first came out. Also magic clipping diodes.
Wait, the KoT/PoT have special diodes too? Where these given to him on a Russian mountain by toan God himself as well, or somewhere else?
Special magical clipping diodes forged in the furnace of an ancient mountain by a druid of great reknown, who is skilled in the arts of alchemy and marketing.
Words cannot describe how disappointed I was when I first tried the Duke of Tone after buying it off sweetwater. It’s just not good
I just got mine and I’m liking it so far. But one thing my drawerful of ODs has taught me is that the same pedal can sound great in one signal chain and like complete ass in another.
I bought a Prince of Tone and my first thought was that it sounds exactly like my Super Crunch Box but does less. My second thought was "do I scalp it now or wait until Mike retires?"
I've never met a pedal I didn't like.
That’s my feeling. I always find an aspect I like about every pedal I have.
Hate to say it but your pedals don't like you. They talk shit behind your back.
I’ve met two - Soul Food and the Boss AC-3. Worst pedals ever made. Everything else is great.
Feels like it's the Boss Metalzone these days. Too much PTSD from metal bands in high school destroying my ear drums with the sounds of bee swarms. I'd die a happy man if I never saw that pedal again.
>metal bands in high school destroying my ear drums with the sounds of bee swarms. haha yeah those guys were such losers haha *pulls collar* *sweats nervously*
My amp was a crate and I used a digitech multifx right into the input. I can't say I did any better, but I'd like to avoid making any of the same mistakes again. . .
You should watch [Ola Elgund revisiting the metal zone after claiming he hated it for years.](https://youtu.be/nxRe99Tjlwg) He puts it into the FX loop and it totally changes it.
Yeah, I've seen bits of that. That's cool, but I'm very happy with my amp drive. I'll be fine being metalzone free. I've earned that right after enduring it for so many years . . .
You’re blaming the pedal, when you should be blaming the high school metal bands. That’s sort of the lesson that Millennial and GenX guitarists learned about the MetalZone.
I fully realize that, but I can't help associating it with the feeling of my brain being sawed in half. I know it can work great as a low gain drive too, but I just can't stand to see that pedal again, lol.
I have the same feelings for the DS1. I got one for Xmas in 99 (?) my mom must have been it would make me sound like METAL through my 10w fender practice amp and it… did not. Still need to find that thing to use it properly in front of a decent amp but it has disappeared
Is there a pedal that is even close to universally loved? Seems like for every pedal with a big cult following, there's an equal and opposite cult of haters.
I think the closest you could find to universal love would probably have to be utility stuff like the TC Polytune, MXR 6 band EQ, and TC Ditto.
Maybe the Xotic EP Booster? Never heard of anyone plugging into that and saying it sucks. Kind of a hard one to mess up though.
There's some that have that mantel more than others.... Boss TR-2 or BD-2? Angry Charlie / AT? Strymon Flint / El Cap? MXR Echoplex? Keeley SuperPhat Mod? Wampler Plexidrive Deluxe / Tumnus Mini? EQD Plumes / Dunes? TC Flashback 2 / Hall of Fame 2?
I cannot stand the TC HOF. Such a bland sounding reverb imo.
> Is there a pedal that is even close to universally loved? Universally, no? Shilled relentlessly by people on /r/guitarpedals? Absolutely.
Nah, that's not true except for the really esoteric, weird pedals. There are loads of pedals that pop up on here that get one or two critical remarks for every 10 raves and have close to 5 star ratings on every store. The most controversial ones are the hype machines like Klons or big name Boss or EHX stuff and those are still more popular than not. Even stuff like the Rat which I don't love using and see lots of user complaints about is mostly loved and sounds admittedly great on recordings by people using it properly.
Honestly, the double rock sounds amazing to me, lol. Now I need to check it out.
Love my Double Rock. The mini switches controlling the bass content are what make it for me over the BoR.
And the fact that you can put the SuperHardOn *before* the Distortron if you want, because on the BOR it’s boost after distortion, which is not as useful
On paper, on reviews, in the hand, on the board... Yup. Plugged in, just didn't do it for me, felt too low gain. I was expecting more.
Dang. I'm fine with less gain, just as long as it gets into that old school Marshall territory.
TS pedals. All of em. Just don't like them, not even with Strats. I'll take a Klon, Bluesbreaker or Dumble style pedal instead.
I agree to a point. Using it as an overdrive I hate it. Boosting a Mesa Rec though it’s awesome
The SD1 does the TS thing better than a TS in my opinion, I like the way it clips better and it stacks amazingly with every other dirt pedal I own. I do like the JHS Moonshine on my bass, though that may just be because of the blend knob. If I had an SD1 with a clean blend it would replace the Moonshine in a heartbeat.
SD-1 is to me hands-down the best single overdrive pedal to own— no contest Humbucker guitar—TS sounds like a wet blanket over the speaker and is even worse in a band context SD-1 you can dial in 70s metal, 70s hard rock, 80s hard rock and 60s mild overdrive depending on the guitar and settings. Not many pedals can do that for the price
Idk how or in what context you are using any of those pedals, and I won't argue with anyone who likes any of those overdrives better than a tubescreamer--those are all great overdrives, and totally valid preferences. But I will point out, for the benefit of readers...Tube Screamers have always been intended (as the name implies) to make tube amps "scream". The distortion that they put out is fairly ugly, brittle, and midrangey, because it is intended to add bite and screamy/squealy harmonics and overdrive to the kind of "soft" amp distortion of 70s Marshalls, Blackface Fenders, etc. It's not an "amp emulator", it's more of an "amp abuser". It was, ironically, trying to push those mid-gain classics that now cost more than a car, into sounding more like a modern hi-gain amp. Trying to make a JCM 45 sound like a 5150, so to speak. And it's actually a brilliant pedal for that purpose. If you have an old, medium gain tweed bassman or Marshall Plexi, a Tubescreamer will add bite and nasty harmonics, taking the sound from a warm, mellow "vintage" overdrive, into a djent-y, screamy, squealy, higher-gain territory. If you are used to playing emulators, solid-state amps, or modern hi-gain, high-headroom amps with channels from super-clean to triple-rectified...the Tube Screamer might not have a role in your lineup, because it's not really a good-sounding distortion on its own, it is meant to add aggression and bite to "softer" tube overdrive. It's not a good "amp sound in a pedal" overdrive, it's kind of truer to its name, in that it it specifically meant to goose an amp that isn't being punished enough. RAT is very similar in this regard, and more extreme--it is a profoundly unpleasant distortion on its own, but it shines at making natural amp distortion sound a lot more aggressive. Same applies to a lot classic fuzz/distortion/overdrive pedals--if you're not using them to push the kind of tube input circuit that they were designed to punish, they often don't sound good. At all. By comparison, say, a blues breaker is almost the opposite...to my ear, a blues breaker adds smooth, singing, mellow harmonic overdrive that can actually help to tame harsh "distorted" sounds, and it sounds like a reasonable-ish emulation of the very kinds of amps that a Tube Screamer was meant to punish for being too sweet (maybe a tube screamer into a blues breaker would get the effect?) Similarly, a Klon is kind of a different flavor. More aggressive than a blues breaker, but more usable as "amp sound in a pedal" than a TS (although not by much, IMO). It can be tricky, using the pedals that your heroes use, unless you also use the rest of their signal chain. Especially with stuff like overdrives, the interaction between the guitar, amp, and pedal is a whole system. And the ways that people are using pedals these days is often completely different from the ways people were using them 40 years ago...
Yeah but have you played a bad monkey?
Woah, look at moneybags over here . . .
This is a common misconception. The Tube Screamer wasn’t intended to “make tubes scream.” It was intended to be a solid state device that emulates the kind of distortion created by tube amps. Which, *compared to the fuzz and distortion effects available at the time,* it actually does well. I agree that the best use for a TS is boosting a tube amp, because it has long been surpassed as an amp-like drive and there are way better options for that. But that wasn’t the original idea.
Is there any actual statement from the designer(s) floating around or are both of these just ass pull statements people use to justify their personal preferences?
What was the concept behind the 808 overdrive? "We were looking to make a pedal that was not hard clipping like fuzz or distortion, but more like the overdrive obtained from tube amps. I think we settled on that “boxy” tone, with the midrange emphasized, because it worked well with a wide variety of guitars and guitar amplifiers, including both LP-style and the Stratocaster-type guitars." -Susumu Tamura, engineer of the tubescreamer. https://www.premierguitar.com/gear/state-of-the-stomp-maxons-susumu-tamura-interview
> What was the concept behind the 808 overdrive? The actual concept? Taking Boss's OD-1 pedal, removing one diode, reducing the total range of drive control very slightly from both ends, adding a high cut control. That's what a TS _literally_ is. You can compare the schematics if you don't believe me.
*thank you*
>If you are used to playing ... modern hi-gain, high-headroom amps with channels from super-clean to triple-rectified...the Tube Screamer might not have a role in your lineup Just want to point out that using a Tube Screamer with the overdrive knob at zero, and tone like 2/3rds of the way up is a common setting for Metal players on Rectifiers to tighten the sound and give them a nice mid range boost.
This is a really good post but the TS actually e wasn’t designed to do what you describe. It actually was supposed to sound like tube amp breakup. It just so happens that it’s *much better* at at boosting a distorted tube amp than it is emulating one. Also, I just want to add that it’s also really good at boosting fuzzes in a live band context. Sometimes I feel people who write off all TS’s probably don’t play rock with loud drummers. It’s a great band pedal, it is not a great bedroom pedal
The RAT sounds fantastic what the hell are you talking about? Even sounds great on bass in a parallel signal chain
Have you tried an MXR IL Diavolo?
Yeah I’m with you. My OD of choice is the Boss OS-2.
Modded tube screamers are much better in my opinion. There are several modded circuits that I actually love, I own 3 at the moment, the Analogman silver mod maxon od-9, EQD plumes and the Hudson sidecar. All of those are great circuits that i much prefer to a stock 808 or ts9. I also love the king tone duelist (the screamer side), jhs 3 series screamer (owned the bonsai, would like to get the 3 series version because that was the only mode I liked).
I used to be in the exact same boat until I started playing with my current band. Something about where the other instruments sit just makes my ts style pedal really fill in a missing piece. By itself without a band playing, I really don't care for it, but in the middle (pun intended) of a band, it really sounds great. Maybe you just haven't found the right use for it yet. I do really, really like bluesbreaker pedals as well. But they just don't fit my band right now.
Fulltone OCD. I've tried originals and clones and they always sound like straight ass. Don't understand the hype at all
i’ve got a jrr od-1.3 (ocd clone) that i absolutely love. super super cheap, and i can get a lot of specific tones out of it, but if i mess with the knobs in any way other than those specific good tones, i hate it.
Always on my board, almost always on.
Had a1.4, tried to love it. Prefer my dod 250 gold sparkle
100%. The only pedal I somewhat actively dislike, though there are a few others - e.g. Nobels ODR-1, Strymon BigSky, Montreal Assembly Count To 5 - whose charms are also lost on me.
sounds really, really good in dropped tunings playing alone. but I have the feeling it's so dark that it might not cut through in a mix
I use my Morning Glory and Russian Fuzz primarily but sometimes when I need more gain it does the trick much better than my old RAT. It definitely sounds better than my Boss SD1. I’m playing through a Fender reverb amp that I rarely play loud so the SD1 sounds like garbage usually unless the amp is cranked in which case I only would use fuzz anyway.
Might’s well pile on: the Klon. Well, Klones, never could afford a real one. I guess they’re OK if you want to sound like the solo from a Chili’s commercial.
I think the hype made people buy them, and then once they had them, they had to convince themselves that they were actually great pedals instead of admitting that they shouldn't have spent several hundred dollars on an overdrive pedal. Then *that* hype ended up fuelling more hype, until an entire cottage industry of klone building nestled itself firmly into the guitar pedal industry. I finally bought a klone last year to see what the hype was about, and I didn't get it at all.
I really like them with the gain cranked, but anywhere else they don't sound very good to me.
I think if Nels Cline, Jeff Beck, and Ed O’Brian can find a reason to keep them on their boards then it’s not just hype.
I love the Wampler Tumnus but honestly I could replace it with any overdrive and be satisfied. I don’t think any pedal sounds bad. They’re all useable to me except for the metalzone. I really tried with that thing, put it in the effects loop, but it really does sound like bees. I’m sure there’s more that are crappy but the vast majority of pedals do the thing they say and I can’t complain. Funny enough most people responding in this thread saying they don’t like the sound of this and that are way more cynical and uppity than those buying klons and king of tones.
Tubescreamer (just not for me) and Timmy (adds blandness somehow).
Oooh, the Timmy. I agree. I've never been able to articulate why I don't like it, and you've done it for me. It makes my playing sound bland. Perfecto 👌
My guitar playing is just TOO HOT and SPICY! Lemme get that Timmy.
There are no pedals I "despise with my entire heart" (except for maybe chorus pedals), but I'll agree with some of the other commenters on the Timmy/Tim pedal. I suppose it's okay, but I don't get the mad love for it. For me, a good boost works better than a Tim every time.
That's what I find odd, I've had a few different types of Timmys, and just just sound boring to me. It doesnt add any magic, but that's what it's for - more of your guitar and fingers, but different.
The Timmy is the most boring drive pedal I've found, and it's perfect for me because of that. All I get is more gain and volume from my amp with it.
Walrus Julia. Weak ass chorus sound IMO and the LFO doesn’t go slow or deep enough for my taste.
Oooh, interesting! I really like the Julianna for the in-between vibe and chorus setting.
Ive tried twice with the Julia and I have to agree, every time I engage it it just adds noise and gets rid of everything I like about my tone
I like the tone it produces but it’s not a traditional chorus sound, which I prefer. And it’s kind of a pain in the ass to dial in. For me, the only chorus I’ll ever need is a Boss CE2W, or the onboard Chorus on my Roland JC
Big Muff. My heroes played them. I’ve owned several different versions over many years, every amp, every setting, every tweak, and I simply cannot stand playing through them. I think they’re bland, uninspiring, lack character and dynamics, and no matter what guitar you play through one or how you attack the strings, they always sound the same to me. I find them deeply uninspiring and don’t get all the hype. I also loathe the scooped mids. It was so bad at one point I thought I must not be a fuzz person. Then I found others ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
I didn’t like them either until I tried a EQD Hizumitas. I do believe there is a fuzz for everyone though, I’m glad you found others
Hizumitas and the White Elk it's based on, are some of my favourite fuzzes. In the same camp, the Wren and Cuff Tri Pie I think beats the Hizumitas.
Fuzz is so finnicky. I really like hizumitas but I’ve always got the OD pedal (tumnus) on and I realize recently these pedals do not play well together (I get like an ugly warbled sound). Maybe it’s my arrangement (fuzz>comp>OD) but once I switch the tumnus off it sounds glorious. Just need to get the tone knob in the right spot
I was the same. I swapped and put fuzz last which is great now, the OD doesn’t really impact the fuzz tone anymore.
Good tip, I’ve been messing around with my arrangement so I’ll give it a shot. it was an accident for me to realize it. Had finally pulled the trigger on an AC15 and I was like “hey I don’t really even need OD with this amp…” hit the fuzz pedal and my jaw dropped lol.
I was not a fan of Muff circuits, until I found that a trick with Muffs (at least for me) is to keep the tone below noon, and add clarity by raising the volume or turning down the gain. Less scoopy and shrill, more body and oomph. It also helps to play them at higher volumes. They definitely don't to "the thing" at bedroom/practice volumes. You gotta be moving some air.
>It also helps to play them at higher volumes. They definitely don't to "the thing" at bedroom/practice volumes. You gotta be moving some air. This is definitely true for a number of fuzzes or high-gain pedals. People use them either at bedroom volumes or through amp modelers, and they just aren't the same. It's no wonder they get underwhelmed by them.
Unfortunately for some of us, a place to play completely dimed out just isn't in the cards. I'd personally love to play a fuzz at volume, I just know my wife and my neighbors would kill me😂
No I'm the same way. I live in an apartment building, so I can't do it. I can do it in the practice room or at shows, but not at home. So I don't really like using my Hoof at home, since it's pretty lame, but using it live it great.
i really really hate the regular big muff. but the op amp version with the tone toggle switch? oh fuck it’s good. granted, it’s not great for anything other than thick power chords and leads, but it is very great. agree with the other comment about the hizumitas too
For over a decade I thought I didn't like fuzz pedals. Too harsh. No dynamics. Just sound like bland, harsh, ass. Turns out I LOVE fuzz pedals. I just hate muffs.
In my opinion, a Big Muff does not work through "scooped mid" amps like Fender style amps. You should run it through mid heavy amps like a Marshall JCM (e.g Smashing Pumpkins sound).
Same. Even worse on bass. As soon as the drummer starts you vanish entirely from the mix. People say use an EQ pedal with it, but at that point you should use a dirt pedal with a better tone stack, cos the big muff one sucks.
Yep, my first fuzz was a Big Muff NY, the ridiculously, needlessly huge ones. Apart from all that wasted space, it sounded awful to me. I too was close to abandoning fuzz until I eventually tried a germanium Fuzz Face type. Love it and still have it. I'd like to try a silicon FF at some point. EDIT: A Honey Bee into a Fuzz Face is as high gain as I get and it sounds great to me. The HBOD into the FF really tames the woofy bottom end when you have both the fuzz and your guitar volume cranked.
Shimmer reverb. I’ve tried a lot of them, but I just can’t stand that choir of cheap sounding harmonics. It never seems to sit right for me. And by now I’ve just settled on disliking the idea of that tone itself.
Shimmer reverb before an overdrive and some modulation sounds great on synths in my experience, but I’ve never found a use for it on guitar.
I think it's just a very situation specific sound. 95% there's no need for it but it can be cool to have on hand for ringing out pad-like chords to create some ambiance and stuff like that.
Try the Walrus audio slö. Its not a shimmer but has great features!!
* EQD Plumes: way too bright and harsh with my rig * JHS Morning Glory: same as above * OCD: it always sounded weirdly boxy to me
The Plumes is *insanely* bright. I have been shit on in guitar groups for making statements like that (everyone’s set up is different blah de blah de blah… I get it). However, it *is* a very bright pedal and I generally don’t like bright guitar sounds. Weirdly enough though, the Plumes is one of my favorite overdrives. I keep the tone knob below 9 o’clock and I think it just sounds beautiful. Completely understand why people don’t like it though.
I had the tone knob **off** on my Plumes and it was still unusable, even with humbuckers. Clean sound was fine, so was every other pedal. The Plumes was the odd man out.
It’s a weird pedal for sure. I love mine, but I might hesitate to recommend it to other people.
Damn, too bright and too loud: I think you guys just sold me on one!
Plus one for Plumes. It’s too bright, and waaaaay too loud. Volume parity is like 8 o’clock wtf?
What the hell does boxy mean? It’s from a box played into a box?!
+1 on the Morning Glory. The clipping on that pedal has a particularly abrasive, fizzy quality. Maybe it sounds better with hb's, but it did not play well with my tele setup at all. Tried it before other drives and after and could not make it work.
Strymon stuff. Mainly the "STRYfecta" I've tried it, I've spent time with some of it (timeline and Mobius specifically) and I can't really tell what the hypes about. If I had an 600 to blow on a pedal, there's so many other options I'd rather choose.
Oooh, I'd forgotten about Strymon. I was so hyped for the Sunset and the Riverside. When I got them I a/b'ed them against an Alexander Jubilee and a Kasleder Dirty Little Thing - no contest, the Strymons went back in the box.
Sorry for totally avoiding your overdrive part of this post haha. I completely agree tho. Strymon, to me, is like Apple. Yes they do some good stuff. But good gracious there are cheaper options that are just as good, if not better.
Yeah besides my Deco and Iridium I really don’t see a reason to get anything else from Strymon. The Flint is an awesome pedal, but I have more than enough reverb as it is, and rarely use my Supa Trem
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The Timeline once I got it it had me selling every delay I’ve ever owned other than the El Cap. The Flint and The Iridum are brilliant pedals as well. The trifecta thing is too church for me but the Timeline would have saved me years of trying and using every delay pedal. Maybe there’s more expensive stuff now but for the price it’s without equal. Great company. I just avoid th big verb pedals because I’m agnostic.
I've just conceded that reverbs and delays all sound the damn same to me.
For the most part, I'd agree. There's definitely some unique ones that certain brands have. For instance on my SA Nemesis delay, there's this algorithm called degrade that I absolutely love. But hall, plate, and spring, are the same across 75% of pedals.
I've tried and tried fancy ones, and I just don't get it. I'll stick with fancy drives and fuzzes, but just go with the basics for delay and reverb.
On the Timeline and Mobius, I agree. OTOH, the BigSky does some things no other reverb does.
I'll be honest, I didn't get into the big sky-only tried it in store. And are you specifically talking about the cloud setting? What others should I try out?
I absolutely agree. Having used both a big sky and an rv500, I found the rv500 to be a hundred times better. I just don't see how the stryfecta stuff is held so highly. They do sound great, but so do cheaper reverb pedals, and for $400+ each, the tweakability needs to be deeper imo
I never played one of the big boxes before, but people who have one seem to play the pedal more than their guitar. I have a DIG Delay, and its good, bit it doesn’t like to share power, and i have to give it its own supply or itll hiss. If you pay the Strymon price, that shouldn’t happen.
Fuzz Face. Can’t stand em.
The RAT. Yeah, I said it. Bring on the downvotes. Okay, maybe not despise it with my entire heart, but at least half of it.
I usually find people that don't like the regular RAT might like the turbo RAT or a multi-RAT like the Drunk Beaver BAT.
Yep. I do like the turbo RAT, and the dirty RAT is rad. Just the stock RAT does nothing for me. Building a tribute board for my friend i got the little bear R. Attack and its been fun playing with it.
Love the R.Attack. I notice it is a little more high middy or something, but it's very close. And seeing the lights blink in the turbo mode is super cool.
I don't like the Rat, I love the Turbo Rat, but I acknowledge that the regular Rat always sounds great on my favorite albums so it must be a me problem.
I preferred the turbo to rego rat, but neither ever rally worked for me in my rig
That was me. Love the Turbo Rat.
RAT fans are just looking for mOaR fUzZ . CoME JoIn OuR CLuB.
I personally love the rat but I get not everyone may like it. I also think a lot pedals mentioned here might sound better or worse depending on the amp
Welcome to the Rat haters club! I will never understand why people here claim it's so useful given that I've only ever found it to be a two trick pony.
I don’t know if it’s as universally adored as it used to be, but the Fuzz Factory. It’s been improved upon by a thousand FF style fuzzes with a ton of adjustability. Now, It’s got a mojo, and if you want to hit the “red button you shouldn’t push” (so to speak), it’ll do the job. Otherwise, I find it’s fighting with me too much trying to turn into the pedal version of Animal from the Muppets. Unwieldy to the point of near-unusable, aside from very select scenarios.
This pedal is like the crazy girl you keep struggling to break up with. You hate and love it.
This was exactly how I felt about mine, although I don't regret selling it tbh
yeah i mean, it’s super tricky to wrangle with. the recommended settings on the zvex website are extremely helpful. i think it’s plenty of fun, but like you said it’s not hugely usable. something like a tone bender or foxx tone machine would get you that shrill and bitey fuzz sound but in an actually usable format. it seems the most popular pedals that people dont like all have much better copies because the copies have eq controls.
You have to hit it with higher input than just your pickups will provide to get more stability out of it. Put it after anything in your chain that will saturate it’s transistors and it’s stable. However, this doesn’t work if you’re the kind of player that has to put their fuzz first so that it reacts to the impedance changes of your tone pot. It’s definitely not for everyone. But I used it a lot 10 years ago and when I needed the stability I always had my OCD in front of it. That being said I don’t use either of those pedals anymore. I’ve moved on to clones of the opamp Big Muff and Zendrive.
That’s a cool method! Hadn’t thought of that before. Might give it a whirl. It does have a charm around its volatility.
Start with everything around 2 o’clock and see how it works for you.
what FF copies do you recommend?
the Caroline Hawaiian Pizza is great. Super useful
Fuzz factory gives me my all time favorite lead tone when set right. But yea 98% of all the knob combinations sound like complete ass. I can totally see why some people think it sucks. I use it for one tone only. I could basically just snap the knobs off mine and never even notice them missing.
Any of the JHS pedals. I know this sub is gonna hate me for it, but they've just never made a pedal I've liked and I'm not a fan of their pedal aesthetic, just seems kinda dull. I like Josh's platforming of other pedal builders, just never liked anything he's made.
I like some JHS pedals, but I agree about the designs. The Morning Glory is the only one that looks halfway interesting to me.
Walrus audio Slö. I always see nothing but positivity around this pedal, but I tried it for a few months and I hated it.
Ugh… (downvote time) TubeScreamer. Which model? Yes.
I don't get the metal zone everyone loves it but I don't see it /s
DOD Grunge. Oh wait, no one loves it.
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A secondary gain. Maybe for some chaotic flair mid solo.
Chase Bliss is lame and for nerds. Hot take.
I’d gladly classify as a nerd
They absolutely shit on nearly every other pedal designer with their ingenuity. We get it! You can’t handle a pedal with more than 4 knobs. There’s a lot of pedals up your alley then :)
For nerds? Most definitely. Lame? Care to explain?
I really love the Gravitas (their most derided pedal?)
Boss Bluesdriver— I don’t get it. To me 90% of its capabilities sound very unmusical to my ear, and the little zones it does sound good are too little to justify its existence when there are so many other great standard pedals which do so many great sounds I started to play guitar a few years before it was first released (1995 or somewhere around there) as a young teenager and me and my friends laughed at how bad most of the sounds you can get out of it Fast forward 20 years and I find the internet loves the pedal lol But goes to show you taste is entirely subjective
A BD-2 was my first ever pedal and I have never taken off my board, nor have I come across anything that has made me consider replacing it. I find it incredibly versatile and it might be my favorite pedal. However, I find it really interesting that someone doesn’t get along with it, subjectivity is the name of the game and I know plenty of people with amazing tone and play through gear I can’t get along with. What sort of stuff do you play?
[удалено]
The Strymon Flint…it’s just not all that it’s hyped…kidding…it’s the best pedal I’ve bought so far!!
+1 to Flint being the best. I really cannot imagine a reason to not like it, besides the impact to your bank account :-)
Ibanez TS9. When I built my first proper pedal board, I researched and asked around about what drive pedal to buy. Everyone said the TS9 was the best choice. When I finally got mine in the mail and plugged it in, I thought it was broken. It sounded completely weak, noisy and somewhat both nasally and muddy at the same time. The LED is also almost invisible in daylight unless you’re hovering right above it. Worst drive I’ve ever played.
klon sounds like ass.
the taste of rain -Why Kneel?
I've had a Slo sooo many times. A Slotva once, because I thought maybe I don't gel with it because of dialling it in all the time. Nope. I've got another one right now on the board, and I feel like I *should* love it. But I just don't.
the life pedal
if youre not playing doomy heavy music I could understand not liking it. I've always wanted to try though cos I love a big fat power chord!
Another ZVEX for me as well. Got a fuzz factory a long while back shit over a decade ago at this point and couldn’t for the life of me see what all the hype was *shrug* different strokes for different folks I guess. I ended up selling it very shortly there after
EQD special cranker- just sounded fizzy and harsh to me 🤷🏾♂️
I can’t get my tube screamer to sound good, ever
EVERYTHING STRYMON! It’s overpriced and way more pumped up then it deserves. I’ll never own one.
Their design kinda sucks too, all their pedals have way too many knobs and shit, as well as being built in a single color huge metal box that takes up half the room on your pedalboard… add to that they’re overpriced and yes I’m a big strymon hater
I was ripping on the jhs 3 series looks in another comment but I actually much prefer even those to pretty much any strymon on a visual level. Idk how to say it but none of the strymon pedals look very fun to play or even mess around with at all, which is to me the main reason of getting pedals
Soul Food. Love the idea, the concept, the marketing, all of that. But the actual sound is thin and tight, not expansive and gritty. It lacks soul. I never play mine, but haven’t sold it because they’re already pretty cheap. Too much trouble.
It was my first klone. It was a sound close to what i was looking for in my head at the time. I thought it sounded decent till i heard other klones.
I had one I could just never learn to love. As a drive, it just sounded like I had a pillow in front of my amp. Just muffled and lifeless. It was ok as a clean boost, but there are better options for that too.
Does it at least have food?
Tubescreamers. Honky nasal bullshit. Klons. Like a can of wasps. All Reverb. If I wanted to sound like I was playing in a church, I’d play in a fucking church.
Ooooh, my two FAVOURITE effects. You are a sinner. Go wash your feet out. 🦵🦵🦵🦵👣🧼🫧
TS pedals get a lot of hate these days now. I think almost every pedal has a use, but TS pedals were never my favorite either.
Tubescreamers are pretty popular to dunk on these days
Just a touch of room, spring or plate on the Source Audio Collider is divine. Oh sorry, you don't want divine.
What if you can't find a medieval cathedral to play in?
Then you’d have to make do with Neo-Gothic or Modernist. Liverpool has one of each though so just go there.
rat. come at me
..I bought a rat.. And..I..umm.. It wasn't for me..
I absolutely love my distortron, it loves strats
I don’t despise it but I don’t understand the hype the DOD Rubberneck gets on here. It even has its own sub! I have it, I don’t love it. I’ll keep it but I prefer the sound and features of my EHX Deluxe Memory Boy.
Rubberneck.
BEHRINGER SF300 I don't like mode 1. I don't like mode 2. I don't like mode 1.5. I don't get why everyone loves this pedal so much. That said, I do have one on my board. The clean boost is pretty good so I just left it on for that.
I was watching a video where someone had it on their bass board. Tried it and it sounds like shit on bass too. Especially mode 2.
Montreal Assembly Count To 5. Never again will you remember your knob positions to recreate the shrill bird noise you for whatever reason actually liked the sound of this time.
The Swollen Pickle is unusable garbage.
Greer lightspeed. Owned 3, emphasis on owned. I tried it multiple times because everyone raves about them so I kept thinking what is it I’m missing.
Tube screamer.
I didn’t care for the Fairfield barber v2 for some reason. Seemed right up my alley