Low volume distortion\overdrive suggestions?

[alex1fly]

After 19 years of mostly playing with clean tones I'm trying to venture in to the wide world of distorted tones, and hoping for gear recommendations that sound good at low and high volumes.

With my setup (multi fx into a clean high headroom amp), my distorted tones sound like digital garbage no matter what I do. I'd say my ideal OD tones are in the Vai\Pettrucci realm but I enjoy hot Marshalls and Boogies as well as the genres of metal\djent, modern rock, pop punk - so Opeth to Dream Theater to Blink 182\Green Day to Animals as Leaders. Beautiful chunky palm muted riffs and soaring leads. I know a lot of these sounds come from a cabinet moving lots of air, so my dream may not come true.

Ideally I'll be successful at getting these tones at low volumes and high volumes, with only one or two additions to my rig.

Options that come to mind are:
Separate amp made for OD tones like a Tiny Terror
Versatile OD petal like a Full-tone
Something like a Sansamp to give some analog flavor to the distortion. I love my Sansamp for bass.

Any other ideas? Thanks!

Alex

 

[PRSfanboy46]

After 19 years of mostly playing with clean tones I'm trying to venture in to the wide world of distorted tones, and hoping for gear recommendations that sound good at low and high volumes.

With my setup (multi fx into a clean high headroom amp), my distorted tones sound like digital garbage no matter what I do. I'd say my ideal OD tones are in the Vai\Pettrucci realm but I enjoy hot Marshalls and Boogies as well as the genres of metal\djent, modern rock, pop punk - so Opeth to Dream Theater to Blink 182\Green Day to Animals as Leaders. Beautiful chunky palm muted riffs and soaring leads. I know a lot of these sounds come from a cabinet moving lots of air, so my dream may not come true.

Options that come to mind are:
Separate amp made for OD tones like a Tiny Terror
Versatile OD petal like a Full-tone
Something like a Sansamp to give some analog flavor

Any other ideas? Thanks!

Alex

I'm going to buy a tiny terror dark actually.

 

[andy474x]

After 19 years of mostly playing with clean tones I'm trying to venture in to the wide world of distorted tones, and hoping for gear recommendations that sound good at low and high volumes.

With my setup (multi fx into a clean high headroom amp), my distorted tones sound like digital garbage no matter what I do. I'd say my ideal OD tones are in the Vai\Pettrucci realm but I enjoy hot Marshalls and Boogies as well as the genres of metal\djent, modern rock, pop punk - so Opeth to Dream Theater to Blink 182\Green Day to Animals as Leaders. Beautiful chunky palm muted riffs and soaring leads. I know a lot of these sounds come from a cabinet moving lots of air, so my dream may not come true.

Ideally I'll be successful at getting these tones at low volumes and high volumes, with only one or two additions to my rig.

Options that come to mind are:
Separate amp made for OD tones like a Tiny Terror
Versatile OD petal like a Full-tone
Something like a Sansamp to give some analog flavor to the distortion. I love my Sansamp for bass.

Any other ideas? Thanks!

Alex

What amp are you using? Some pedals mesh better with certain types of amps.

I’ve been through many, but there’s an absolute endless sea of them out there.

If I had to pick a few right off the bat from what you mentioned, they would be:
Friedman Dirty Shirley
Wampler Sovereign
MXR Super Badass

 

[InTooDeep]

Going to vote for a modeler. I just recently sold the tube Amp (Boogie MK IV) and went with a fractal audio FM3, I don't miss my tube Amp. Playing at all hours is possible.

 

[Tahlee]

Please check out the Suhr Riot pedal. I am so picky with pedals that I return the ones that don’t make me happy immediately. I have only kept three. The Riot will get you where you need to be. As well as nailing some Winger. Don’t hate me for being 50. Winger was a tight band.

 

[alex1fly]

What amp are you using? Some pedals mesh better with certain types of amps.

I’ve been through many, but there’s an absolute endless sea of them out there.

If I had to pick a few right off the bat from what you mentioned, they would be:
Friedman Dirty Shirley
Wampler Sovereign
MXR Super Badass

Thanks for the suggestions so far. Glad to know it is maybe feasible to get monster tones at lower volumes as well.

My current amps are a Crate 2x12 GTD120 and a Fender Mustang III 1x12. Don't hate - they get great cleans and slightly overdriven sounds. I'm able to get my sound well enough with most amps I've played on.

Thing is, "my sound" hasn't included distortion for many years. So it would be cool to add a piece of gear that offers several flavors of distortion, to see what "my sound" will end up being. I did have a Digitech RP multifx for like, 15 years, and dug the distortion on it. The Boss multifx unit I replaced it with just sounds terrible with the dirty sounds, but the rest of the unit is pretty good so it'll probably stay.

There's almost too many choices for OD/Dist out there. How's a guy to choose without spending a ton of time and money?

 

[11top]

Kemper or Headrush

 

[Herr Squid]

Alex, you're in need of a good quality modeler and a good quality FRFR monitor system to explore the huge playground of dirty guitar sounds that are out there.

I'm a Fractal Audio fan and love the Axe-FX 3 to death, but they can be pricey and scarce. A secondhand Axe-FX II or AX-8 could work great for you if you find one at a price you like. A Line6 Helix could also work well for you though I have no first-hand experience with those. Also if 11top says HeadRush is good, I'd believe him.

The thing you must make sure to do if you experiment with a modeler is get a good speaker system that's meant for guitar modelers! I play through a pair of Friedman ASM-12s which I love, but those are again kind of pricey. The HeadRush speakers have good word of mouth and seem to be quite reasonably priced. Don't run a modeler through your Crate or Mustang or desktop monitors and then wonder why the modeler sounds "digital." Those speakers are not suited to that application.

 

[Nice F Holes]

I’m using an Effectrode Blackbird preamp (2 channel, all tube, Fender and Dumble based) and a Two Notes cabinet simulator. It’s freaking amazing, even through headphones. All the dynamic response of a real tube pre, and really great simulation of power tube and speaker breakup at any volume.

 

[Tone-y]

Soooo many options. Sooo many different ways of doing it and answers.

As others have mentioned some kind of modeller might be the answer. You'll be able to experiment with several different high gain amps/pedal sims then. Something like the new POD GO, or the helix stomp, Amplifire box etc. If you've got the budget then the kemper floor or FM3 might be options for the ultimate in modeller tones (I know, subjective).
Other cheaper options might be something like the Mooer preamp live. That has a whole bunch of high gain amps modelled. They also do individual pedals for cheaper, the micro preamps - something based on the diezel/5150 should do you OK there.

I've just got a KSR ceres which is pretty good. It's an analog high gain pre-amp with a few tone shaping options. Two channels with various amounts of gain stages switching in. One channel is a bit more marshally flavored and the other is more Boogie/Soldano. Although it is a pre-amp, I've just got mine going into the front of a clean amp at the moment and it seems to work alright.

 

[alex1fly]

Thanks again for the suggestions. Quickly googled the gear listed and it all looks pretty badass. Seems like there's a decision to be made between modeler and the traditional amp/preamp/pedal setup. Are modelers the way of the future? They sure seem to have come a long ways since I had a Line 6 Spider III back in 2010. The guitarist from my last band had a Kemper and it sounded pretty dang good - though it seemed like he had to spend a lot of time in menus.

 

[Tony M.]

Wampler makes a whole bunch of good sounding dirt pedals.

 

[bodia]

+1 on the Suhr Riot. Great pedal. Also, +1 on the Kemper.

 

[Tone-y]

Modellers certainly have got better over the years. And they're only going to get better as the years go by too. I think the main reason that they've been recommended though is the flexibility they offer, there's a lot of different amp and effects types built in to get those various tones you wanted in your original post. And they'll be easier to dial in for quieter volumes than a traditional amp.
However, you've also hit the nub of the downside too, the amount of time in menus and the shear number of options can be daunting. There are a few simpler options though. The amplifier box has got a simple user interface, basically a bunch of knobs and what you see us what you get approach. I think the mooer preamp live is fairly straightforward looking too. Then there's something like the route I've gone, with a Strymon iridium (which models 3 classic master volume amps) and pedals to get high gain options. By the time you've bought all that though you could just get a decent all in one modeller

 

[Ovibos]

Boss Katana will do everything you want, at whisper to thunder volumes.

It also takes pedals very well if you don't love its various dirt options.

 

[Wailing]

If you are in the USA I believe its quite easy to purchase a Snouse Black Box, fantastic Marshall sounds at low level, and quite reasonable pricewise... I have one of their Mk1's which are replicas of the Marshall Bluesbreaker pedal... a mainstay of my pedal board

 

[jak3af3r]

Wampler makes a whole bunch of good sounding dirt pedals.

Yep. I have almost one of each. And two Euphorias.

 

[alex1fly]

Here's a maybe silly question. With these dirtbox options, is it still important to have a high output pickup? Or does the preamp/modeler/sophisticated pedal take care of boosting the output enough to get the right response for metal? Just brainstorming whether or not I should consider a pickup swap on my metal-tone-seeking guitar - currently using a Dimarzio Air Zone which is supposedly medium output.

 

[DISTORT6]

Here's a maybe silly question. With these dirtbox options, is it still important to have a high output pickup? Or does the preamp/modeler/sophisticated pedal take care of boosting the output enough to get the right response for metal? Just brainstorming whether or not I should consider a pickup swap on my metal-tone-seeking guitar - currently using a Dimarzio Air Zone which is supposedly medium output.

I like the amp doing the work. Your pickups should be fine.

 

[Tone-y]

Actually, the boss katana is a good suggestion. And they have a few different versions to suit budget.

As to pickups, again there is no right answer. You certainly don't need high output pickups with all the gain options these days. Different pickups might help achieve a tighter sound etc.

The air zones should be fine though. Certainly to get you started