Distortion pedal or mini/nano head?

[Huggy Love]

Well folks, I recently unloaded my Mesa recto, it was just too loud for my apartment and I've been mainly playing jazz lately, so I went (ahem ... ) solid-state. (I won't mention the brand or model for fear of being banned permanently from this forum.)

All right, stop your squawking and squealing, TBH for clean sounds it's a little better and a lot more controllable in live settings. The only problem is, once I plugged in a distortion pedal (boss turbo distortion DS2) it sounded like doodoo, especially bending a high note on the top E string. I had used it with my recto and it sounded great but through a solid-state head the sound was embarrassing to say the least.

These days I'm not rockin' anymore and only use it (distortion) to record some fusion licks or pretend I'm Randy Rhoads every once in a blue moon, but I do want a decent tone for when I do.

Before I go spending a bunch of time, money, and effort, please suggest a few pedals that you think provide a strong overdriven yet good tone, especially on single note lines rather than power chords and the nu metal style rhythm.

I've also looked into mini/nano heads (although a pedal would be more practical in live settings) and they have a certain appeal to me. The MT15 sounds great, especially the half power switch is perfect but at around $600 it's more than I'd like to spend for something that won't get used that much. There are other manufacturers that I tried out, Joyo Bantamp (20W too loud, but sounded good), Hotone Nano (cheap, small, 5 W, but didn't sound all that great), but that is starting to look like a rabbit hole. So before I go searching around to try stuff out, let me know what you might think of both these ideas and which pedals or mini heads might provide a singing and soaring Carlos Santana type lead tone.

 

[andy474x]

I would take a long look at the Friedman Dirty Shirley pedal. It not only sounds great, but because of the full set of EQ controls, is very versatile both in terms of the tones it can achieve and ability to mesh with a wide variety of amps. I use it for almost all of my lead stuff, as well as more classic rock type riffing.

 

[CandidPicker]

Huggy,

If you're playing more jazz recently, my suggestion is to look towards either a Mad Professor Simble or J Rockett Blue Note Pro Series. Does the D-Style / Two Rock / Fuchs amp quite well with smoother overdrive that doesn't do crunch too much, more for singing leads.

Both are somewhere under $200 last I checked, and a used one off eBay or Reverb would save you some cash. If you're looking for something with a bit more grind and distortion, the J Rockett 'The Dude' pedal might be more in your wheelhouse. YT has plenty of reviews of all 3.

 

[garrettb]

Huggy,

If you're playing more jazz recently, my suggestion is to look towards either a Mad Professor Simble or J Rockett Blue Note Pro Series. Does the D-Style / Two Rock / Fuchs amp quite well with smoother overdrive that doesn't do crunch too much, more for singing leads.

Both are somewhere under $200 last I checked, and a used one off eBay or Reverb would save you some cash. If you're looking for something with a bit more grind and distortion, the J Rockett 'The Dude' pedal might be more in your wheelhouse. YT has plenty of reviews of all 3.

The Simble is a great pedal. The unique controls allow you to get a wide variety of flavors out of it. It finally took the top spot away from my AC Booster until it was dethroned by a custom overdrive from Lemon Sundrop.

 

[CandidPicker]

The Simble is a great pedal. The unique controls allow you to get a wide variety of flavors out of it. It finally took the top spot away from my AC Booster until it was dethroned by a custom overdrive from Lemon Sundrop.

Thanks, Garrett,

The Simble had its own place on my board for several years as my only overdrive effect, until the Blue Note Pro Series took its spot. The Simble seems to have slightly more oomph in the overdrive department (gain and level), but was my choice for quite a while when using a clean amp and the Simble for any pushed or driven tones.

The AC, BB or RC boosters I think have more crunch than smooth for the most part, though it takes quite a bit of adjustment to dial in a good smooth leads with either an AC, BB or RC booster. I've personally not heard the Sundrop yet, but will check out YT just because my curiosity is now piqued.

EDIT: Could not locate 'Sundrop' but only 'Lemon Drop' on YT. If this is the 'Lumpy's Lemon Drop' you speak of, please verify, thanks.

One really can't go wrong with the Simble for D-Style leads; they're smooth, singing, violin-like leads, not crunchy or harsh in any form. You can dial in a good amount of overdrive with the Simble, but one seldom need too much for a good tone. And the kicker is, the Simble is easier on the wallet.

 

[bodia]

Huggy,

If you're playing more jazz recently, my suggestion is to look towards either a Mad Professor Simble or J Rockett Blue Note Pro Series. Does the D-Style / Two Rock / Fuchs amp quite well with smoother overdrive that doesn't do crunch too much, more for singing leads.

Both are somewhere under $200 last I checked, and a used one off eBay or Reverb would save you some cash. If you're looking for something with a bit more grind and distortion, the J Rockett 'The Dude' pedal might be more in your wheelhouse. YT has plenty of reviews of all 3.

The Simble is a great pedal. The unique controls allow you to get a wide variety of flavors out of it. It finally took the top spot away from my AC Booster until it was dethroned by a custom overdrive from Lemon Sundrop.

I'll toss out a 3rd vote for the Simble. Great pedal!

 

[CandidPicker]

Note the use of humbucker and single-coils in the 2nd vid. These 2 vids represent the Simble fairly well.

 

[Huggy Love]

I knew this pedal subject would become a rabbit hole quickly, I think the suggestion of bringing in my axe & amp head to test out some pedals a friend suggested is going to be the best option at this point.

Maybe everybody got the wrong idea when I started out with the jazz mention, the Simble is not the direction I was going. The slightly pushed blues/jazz Larry Carlton tone isn't the target, I was talking more Carlos, EVH, Randy kind of thing. A departure from my clean Wes/Benson tone, much more aggressive, the tones of the Simble would be the lower end of the gain spectrum. Just want one that has that violin-like thing that Carlos gets even with a mesa cranked, so does Scott Henderson, and then maybe fart around with some metal riffs every once in a while.

Thanks for the suggestions on the others, I'll have to take some time and research/listen to them, but I have to go now....

..... I have to go pick up my HB from the shop so I can come back and post a NSSFD thread.

 

[garrettb]

Thanks, Garrett,

The Simble had its own place on my board for several years as my only overdrive effect, until the Blue Note Pro Series took its spot. The Simble seems to have slightly more oomph in the overdrive department (gain and level), but was my choice for quite a while when using a clean amp and the Simble for any pushed or driven tones.

The AC, BB or RC boosters I think have more crunch than smooth for the most part, though it takes quite a bit of adjustment to dial in a good smooth leads with either an AC, BB or RC booster. I've personally not heard the Sundrop yet, but will check out YT just because my curiosity is now piqued.

EDIT: Could not locate 'Sundrop' but only 'Lemon Drop' on YT. If this is the 'Lumpy's Lemon Drop' you speak of, please verify, thanks.

One really can't go wrong with the Simble for D-Style leads; they're smooth, singing, violin-like leads, not crunchy or harsh in any form. You can dial in a good amount of overdrive with the Simble, but one seldom need too much for a good tone. And the kicker is, the Simble is easier on the wallet.

Lemon Sundrop Electronics is the company. They don't have much web presence other than Facebook. Basically, Jeffrey loves to tinker with circuits, so he specializes in custom designs.

The OD he built for me is based on the original Boss overdrive, but all point-to-point wired with the best materials. Plus he crammed it into a smaller enclosure with top jacks for me. The real magic sauce is he replaced the usual Tone control with a Contour control instead. I tune the Contour control to match the tonality of the amp, which gives the most transparent OD I've heard. Bumped the Simble off the board.

What made me ditch the AC Booster was I found that I could tune the Simble to sound pretty much identical, but the Simble could also do more.

 

[CandidPicker]

Lemon Sundrop Electronics is the company. They don't have much web presence other than Facebook. Basically, Jeffrey loves to tinker with circuits, so he specializes in custom designs.

The OD he built for me is based on the original Boss overdrive, but all point-to-point wired with the best materials. Plus he crammed it into a smaller enclosure with top jacks for me. The real magic sauce is he replaced the usual Tone control with a Contour control instead. I tune the Contour control to match the tonality of the amp, which gives the most transparent OD I've heard. Bumped the Simble off the board.

What made me ditch the AC Booster was I found that I could tune the Simble to sound pretty much identical, but the Simble could also do more.

Thanks, Garrett,

Lemon Sundrop apparently isn't widely known other than on FB, and there were only several vids on their site that only remotely displayed the pedal you had mentioned, if at all. My feeling is that I'm not looking for a replacement pedal, so I'll stick with my Blue Note for now. Seems to do what is needed with a good range of pushed to overdriven tones, much like the Simble, but with extra versatility because of the mini-toggle 'hot' switch for a harder edge. And cleans up nicely with rolled off guitar volume.

Enjoy your Sundrop. If perhaps you have any spare time, a YT vid or sound clip of the Lemon Sundrop might provide us with a clue of what persuaded you to invest in the Sundrop.

I think I'd need to consult with my sales reps in a closed meeting so as to obtain their viewpoint instead of doing the pig-in-a-poke thing again.

 

[alantig]

Wasn't Randy's pedal an MXR Overdrive? I can't remember off the top of my head and I'm too lazy to look it up right now.

My primary dirt pedal is a Radial Tonebone Hot British. Nice tube-driven pedal. But I'm also using amp distortion and occasionally a metal or fuzz pedal.

 

[CandidPicker]

I knew this pedal subject would become a rabbit hole quickly, I think the suggestion of bringing in my axe & amp head to test out some pedals a friend suggested is going to be the best option at this point.

Maybe everybody got the wrong idea when I started out with the jazz mention, the Simble is not the direction I was going. The slightly pushed blues/jazz Larry Carlton tone isn't the target, I was talking more Carlos, EVH, Randy kind of thing. A departure from my clean Wes/Benson tone, much more aggressive, the tones of the Simble would be the lower end of the gain spectrum. Just want one that has that violin-like thing that Carlos gets even with a mesa cranked, so does Scott Henderson, and then maybe fart around with some metal riffs every once in a while.

Thanks for the suggestions on the others, I'll have to take some time and research/listen to them, but I have to go now....

..... I have to go pick up my HB from the shop so I can come back and post a NSSFD thread.

In THAT case: "The Dude" Check Shawn Tubb's "The Dude" video at 9:05 for EVH, and then the Treble boost dialed in after 10:20. Also useful for a pushed amp front end...

Or, the older brother...the "Archer"

Either with a touch of reverb/delay/echo...tone bliss...although I don't own either pedal...both of these were considered before my Blue Note...each has a touch more hair than the Simble and Blue Note, with a harder edge, but still within the overdrive realm rather than distortion...

 

[Tremontinator]

(I won't mention the brand or model for fear of being banned permanently from this forum.)

Translation: "I bought a Line 6!"

The only problem is, once I plugged in a distortion pedal (boss

The problem is you bought a boss pedal

These days I'm not rockin' anymore

Dear Christ I hope that never happens to me

Before I go spending a bunch of time, money, and effort, please suggest a few pedals that you think provide a strong overdriven yet good tone, especially on single note lines rather than power chords and the nu metal style rhythm.

Seymour Duncan Twin Tube series

I've also looked into mini/nano heads (although a pedal would be more practical in live settings) and they have a certain appeal to me. The MT15 sounds great, especially the half power switch is perfect but at around $600 it's more than I'd like to spend for something that won't get used that much. There are other manufacturers that I tried out, Joyo Bantamp (20W too loud, but sounded good), Hotone Nano (cheap, small, 5 W, but didn't sound all that great), but that is starting to look like a rabbit hole. So before I go searching around to try stuff out, let me know what you might think of both these ideas and which pedals or mini heads might provide a singing and soaring Carlos Santana type lead tone.

Too much of a pain in the ass to keep quoting and deleting

Honestly, I was surprised by this VHT thing. It's a series of combos that are called Redline. They're metal AF! Also good clean and less distortion tone but, I really love the insane channel. So much Distortion, saturation, sustain, and meat. Almost makes me want to trade my Tremonti amp

Had to phone my dealer to get the name. VHT Redline. He says anybody in the USA can call him, and he'll ship anything. Dixie Guitar King out of ST George Utah. 435-275-4989
Hippie by the name of Johnny. He's got em in stock. One is like an 8" combo, the other is a 12" combo. No idea what wattage. I think there's a 2x12 in the line as well.
Honestly, it does the metal thing at reasonable volume.

You specified Saint Rhoads. He played super leads. I'd say get like a DSL5 or whatever, and run an OD into the front end.

The MT15 though, is the number 2 best amp I have ever played. I'm dying to own a triple recto some day. Until then, this MT15 kicks the living F out of Marshalls, hiwatt, line 6, hotone, Peavy, you name it, this thing sounds waay better.

If you like that type of sound at 15 watts or less, the MT15 friggin delivers!


Also, screw Santana's lead tone. Find your sound.

(This coming from the guy playing an SE Tremonti Custom with Tremonti USA signature pickups and MT15)


Ok, screw the forum. I haven't played in 2 wks.

 

[Huggy Love]

Translation: "I bought a Line 6!"



The problem is you bought a boss pedal



Dear Christ I hope that never happens to me



Seymour Duncan Twin Tube series



Too much of a pain in the ass to keep quoting and deleting

Honestly, I was surprised by this VHT thing. It's a series of combos that are called Redline. They're metal AF! Also good clean and less distortion tone but, I really love the insane channel. So much Distortion, saturation, sustain, and meat. Almost makes me want to trade my Tremonti amp

Had to phone my dealer to get the name. VHT Redline. He says anybody in the USA can call him, and he'll ship anything. Dixie Guitar King out of ST George Utah. 435-275-4989
Hippie by the name of Johnny. He's got em in stock. One is like an 8" combo, the other is a 12" combo. No idea what wattage. I think there's a 2x12 in the line as well.
Honestly, it does the metal thing at reasonable volume.

You specified Saint Rhoads. He played super leads. I'd say get like a DSL5 or whatever, and run an OD into the front end.

The MT15 though, is the number 2 best amp I have ever played. I'm dying to own a triple recto some day. Until then, this MT15 kicks the living F out of Marshalls, hiwatt, line 6, hotone, Peavy, you name it, this thing sounds waay better.

If you like that type of sound at 15 watts or less, the MT15 friggin delivers!


Also, screw Santana's lead tone. Find your sound.

(This coming from the guy playing an SE Tremonti Custom with Tremonti USA signature pickups and MT15)


Ok, screw the forum. I haven't played in 2 wks.

Although you were dead wrong on the Line 6, looking at another combo, and screwing Carlos' tone, you're probably right about the Boss pedal and spending too much time quoting & deleting.

The MT 15 is probably the best sounding lunchbox kind of head I've tried so far, you're on the money there. I've always used the amps overdrive instead of pedals and now after trying out a couple pedals so far, I'm reminded of this.

 

[Tremontinator]

Although you were dead wrong on the Line 6, looking at another combo, and screwing Carlos' tone, you're probably right about the Boss pedal and spending too much time quoting & deleting.

The MT 15 is probably the best sounding lunchbox kind of head I've tried so far, you're on the money there. I've always used the amps overdrive instead of pedals and now after trying out a couple pedals so far, I'm reminded of this.

Try the MT15 clean channel with pedals.

If it's not line 6, then it's crate. Or worse: Peavey

 

[Huggy Love]

Try the MT15 clean channel with pedals.

If it's not line 6, then it's crate. Or worse: Peavey

The clean channel of the MT 15 is insufficient for my application, wouldn't cut thru the mix of a drums & standup bass. It would end up as an expensive shred toy that I'd use to record not often enough.

Still way off the mark, you're still thinking Rock amp, its 50w of jazz respectable tone run thru 2x12 closed back cab, not a modeling swiss army knife.

U mentioned Hotone, did U own a Nano?

 

[Deleted member 5962]

I’d say for the singing stuff, some kind of Zen drive. I had two, and A) didn’t love them any better than a couple other pedals, and B) both times, someone offered me more than new retail price for them so I sold them to fund amps. Then a few months ago, Lovepedal was having some whack sale and I got two of the best pedals I’ve ever used. One is an Amp11 and a built in boost. The other is a Black Magic Zendrive. While I didn’t have quite as good of amps when I had the other real Hermida Zendrives, I fell in love with this pedal almost immediately. It KILLS into a clean amp, a mild breakup amp or even as a unique solo voice even with high gain tones from my Bogner or my Archon. I don’t know the normal price but I paid like $65 or something crazy and it is KILLER!

If you want more Marshall crunch, you could look at a Barber Direct Drive

 

[Tone-y]

Friedman BEOD, Wampler Euphoria, Suhr Riot, Lovepedal Dover Drive. OR how about one of the Victory valve Pedals like the V4 Countess.

I could also suggest getting rid of the solid state amp and everything else and getting one of Thomas Blug's bluguitar amp 1. Will do everything from Fender Bassmanish clean to modern high gain through 4 channels, and from headphones/straight into a mixing desk to a 4x12 cab at stage volumes

 

[garrettb]

Thanks, Garrett,

Lemon Sundrop apparently isn't widely known other than on FB, and there were only several vids on their site that only remotely displayed the pedal you had mentioned, if at all. My feeling is that I'm not looking for a replacement pedal, so I'll stick with my Blue Note for now. Seems to do what is needed with a good range of pushed to overdriven tones, much like the Simble, but with extra versatility because of the mini-toggle 'hot' switch for a harder edge. And cleans up nicely with rolled off guitar volume.

Enjoy your Sundrop. If perhaps you have any spare time, a YT vid or sound clip of the Lemon Sundrop might provide us with a clue of what persuaded you to invest in the Sundrop.

I think I'd need to consult with my sales reps in a closed meeting so as to obtain their viewpoint instead of doing the pig-in-a-poke thing again.

This is the one I did last year when I was testing it. It's just me noodling on the CU22 into an already dirty amp.

The way I describe it is, it just gives me more of everything that's already there.

 

[Tremontinator]

The clean channel of the MT 15 is insufficient for my application, wouldn't cut thru the mix of a drums & standup bass. It would end up as an expensive shred toy that I'd use to record not often enough.

Still way off the mark, you're still thinking Rock amp, its 50w of jazz respectable tone run thru 2x12 closed back cab, not a modeling swiss army knife.

U mentioned Hotone, did U own a Nano?

No. My PRS dealer told me to research Hotone. I got that email from him right before logging in here.


I honestly don't care what anybody plays. I'm just following internet tradition of making fun of those brands.


Have you tried MT15 clean with an EQ? MXR 7 or 10 band? Or that newfangled Target Mids pedal?

Just an idea