Guitar Player top effects pedal roundup

[jonathan harker]

distortionwise i can really recommend this oneman company from germany especially the deluxe motorfuzz! i have the third one (serialnr.003). the first one went to richard from rammstein and the second to another guy! if you like the big muff kind of sound but want it really tight then this is the one! http://www.orion-fx.com/index.php?language=en

someone mentioned frantone - i have the cream puff and the hepcat: i love them! the cream puff looks like barbies pedal but don´t let the look fool you - it´s brutal!!! a guy i know has the peachfuzz which is also a killer!
http://frantone.com/

fulltone is also a great adress! extremely good! http://www.fulltone.com/index.htm

i love pedals!!!!!

[anybody human]

Moog, Fulltone, ZVEX, Eventide, Electro Harmonix. Those are some that spring to mind.

I saw some boutique Scandinavian pedals at the Chicago Music Exchange (go there if you ever have a chance, guitar heaven). I think they were Swedish but I'm not sure. Wish I could remember the name cos they were really nice. If anybody wants to know I'll call them and ask.

Edit: Oh yeah, a friend of mine swears by these pedals from New Zealand. I'll find out the name.

[KrisM]

I used to go through distortion pedals like a fat kid through a pack of starburst.

Zoom actually made some pretty nice analog pedals, they were a trio of overdrive, rock/metal lead and then the tri-metal for "modern hi gain" tones.

I dumped them all when I got a tube amp and never looked back. The only thing in between my guitar and amp, now, is an MXR GT-OD. Great for a nice boost.

[wasoota]

Check out the Sourceaudio effects stuff, they're youtube famous for their 'hot hand' motion-controlled stuff, but the effects themselves are awesome es well, especially the Multiwave Distortion Pro. Don't trust the youtube demos of it, I have yet to see one that does it justice (even the sourceaudio ones themselves). The thing is so versatile and especially just plain *different*, it's almost an instrument in itself. It's more like a synth-meets-hammond (but all working with your original guitar/bass signal, nothing 'artificial' added) than a distortion pedal but it needs that kind of attention as well.

[anybody human]

Ok, figured it out.
TRex are the pedals I saw at the Chicago Music Exchange, and the company is from Denmark.
Red Witch is the other company I was trying to think of, from New Zealand.

They're both really nice. As I said in the last post, the pedals I use a lot are mainly Moog, Fulltone, ZVEX, and Electro Harmonix pedals. Also have a Frostwave filter that a friend sold me, it's a clone of the HP/LP MS-20 filter, super nice but I forget who makes it. It's one guy, from Connecticut I think. If you know of anyone in your town who mods pedals or makes their own, that's a great resource because you can find something unique and often they've focused on a certain design feature that inspired them. It would be especially useful for a distortion, since they all sound different and you could maybe get them to tailor it for you.

[anybody human]

Some really good suggestions in this thread. Thanks for sharing guys.

[leedsquietman]

I mostly use Guitar Rig these days too, but mostly because it's hard for me to crack out the amps with belligerent neighbours and with everyone else in the house not appreciating my 'noise' when they are trying to do something else, i.e. like SLEEP ! And I now only own a Fender Frontman 25 watt and a small Yam practise amp having needed to sell my Roland Jazz Chorus (which I loved) and 100 watt Marshall stack a while ago for financial reasons.

Guitar Rig is great but like all amp sims, it doesn't quite crack distortion convincingly and seems to require more processing to get it to sit right than micing up even the practise amp with an SM57 etc. Most listeners won't care, but guitarists can usually spot Amplitube/Podfarm and Guitar Rig from a mile away, in spite of much improvement in the latest releases.

It is what it is. Like comparing a real concert grand piano against a digital piano, the latter can still sound nice and is much more convenient but there's something magical that samples cannot capture etc in the real thing.

[Homebelly]

I mostly use Guitar Rig these days too, but mostly because it's hard for me to crack out the amps with belligerent neighbours and with everyone else in the house not appreciating my 'noise' when they are trying to do something else, i.e. like SLEEP ! And I now only own a Fender Frontman 25 watt and a small Yam practise amp having needed to sell my Roland Jazz Chorus (which I loved) and 100 watt Marshall stack a while ago for financial reasons.

Guitar Rig is great but like all amp sims, it doesn't quite crack distortion convincingly and seems to require more processing to get it to sit right than micing up even the practise amp with an SM57 etc. Most listeners won't care, but guitarists can usually spot Amplitube/Podfarm and Guitar Rig from a mile away, in spite of much improvement in the latest releases.

It is what it is. Like comparing a real concert grand piano against a digital piano, the latter can still sound nice and is much more convenient but there's something magical that samples cannot capture etc in the real thing.

I have only two words for you..
Isolation Cab.
And a sugestion...
Rivera silent sister...

I have one, and it was a revelation.
Best thing i have bought in years..
I have an SM57 up inside mine, and i'm looking at getting an Audix i5 to complement it.

In the past i have tried both the randal and the demeter iso boxes and not really dug them, but the rivera freaking rocks!!

[leedsquietman]

Thx - good suggestions. Now just need some money to buy !

I've heard good things about these products before, but hadn't thought about them for a while, so thanks again.

[AceLuby]

You could always make your own too. I've built a few overdrives, boosts and a delay. Very satisfying, but frustrating during testing. There are quite a few BYOC otherwise you can find schems online and build anything you want.

[mojofunk]

I too have ditched the multi-efx (although the Adrenalinn 3 stays!), and ended up with way better sound, albeit a greatly less speedy set up - I need to build a pedalboard! I ended up with: a Boss CS-3 compressor (not really transparent, but good for boosting clean solos) into a Vox wah, then a Fulltone Mosfet (Awesome, amazing, so fine!), then into either an amp, or if recording or playing direct into a PA, a SansAmp Tri-AC and The Adrenalinn (A or B switched), then in the amps efx loop or after the SansAmp: a volume pedal, a Boss Rotary sim (a modulation effect that doesnt suck!), into a Boss RE-20 tape delay sim (which is also killer on the send of a mixer), into a EHX Cathedral reverb. Phew! I often whittle it all down to the Fulltone, the volume pedal, and the SansAmp.

While I lost the simplicity of the multi efx gizmos, I think that by carefully picking the tools you use you can arrive at the specific tools that do their thing the very best . . . with any luck each item is the last of that variety you will ever need, and we can get back to the sounds and the inspiration that provides. You Tube and proguitarshop.com have lots of fun videos to check out, quite fun really - for us musicians its Xmas all the time!

[Jome7]

The D.O.D. Grunge pedal was the best distortion I've had so far, and that was with my first guitar that was a old cheap piece of junk. But with that pedal and a Dimarzio Super distortion pickup it sounded really good. They also have a new pedal called the Distortion Factory but under the Digitech brand I think, but for the price of one pedal you can choose among the sounds of several of their others.

I'm not a big fan of multi-effects units since they tend to be a pain to program and everything with the small screens and all the buttons and combo's that you have to remember, but I had a little Vox amp that had a bunch of built-in effects that sounded very nice, also had a Line 6 Spider III with some built-in effects, but I didn't use them too much.

Boss effects are supposed to be the best, I had the Heavy Metal, distortion/overdrive combo, and one of the chorus pedals at one point, but I sold them all at a loss to a music store to have money to ask a girl out to the movies, and then she said no haha...just my luck! I also had a Micro BR recorder that was loaded with effects, most of them were good quality but some were just too weird for the stuff I was doing at the time.

[dancerchris]

Ibanez Tube Screamer

[dick nixon]

The Big Muff. The Little Big Muff, in particular.

The Big Muff is still the best distortion (fuzz, I know) I've ever owned. And it's cheap. You can spend $70 and get something great, or triple that price and get something similar.

Someone mentioned Red Witch pedals. The Famulus is a great distortion. Super expensive, but great.

If you are looking for a weirder, heavier thing, the MXR Blue Box is pretty great.

Of course, you have to match this to your guitar and amp - some pedals sound better with different equipment. Case in point, the Rat. I have heard a ton of albums where a Rat-using guitarist sounds amazing. I tried one, I can't even make a reasonable sound with it through my guitar/amp.

[StinkyPat]

Zvex, Electro Harmonix, Fulltone and Prescription......... Hell, that's about it.

Zvex = Fuzz Factory, Octane, Lo Fi Loop Junky

EH = Metal Muff and 16-Second Delay

Fulltone = Wah

Prescription = Experience and Rx Overdrive

All Lovely!!!!