A Distortion Dilemma

Now when it comes to overdrive and distortion I think it's safe to say that I'm an obsessive. I've been searching for THAT sound in my head ever since I first flicked the channel switch on my first ever practice amp and made sweet (well not so sweet if I am being honest) distortion for the first time.

I've owned several overdrive and distortion pedals over the years and the first one that I bought was an Ibanez DS-7 which was recommended to me by an assistant in a guitar shop when I didn't really know what I was looking for. I was pretty content with it when I tried it in store but the more I played with it the more disappointed I got with it. To be honest I still use it occasionally when I am after a horrible filthy bass distortion but if you are looking for Ibanez pedals stick with their much better reissue series.

The second pedal I bought was an Electro Harmonix Big Muff Pi (The made in NYC version) purely because I wanted to sound like I was in Smashing Pumpkins. This is still one of my favourite all time pedals, it generates a harmonically rich, creamy distortion that is superb for single note lines and power chords but lacks a little clarity with normal chord work. When I started gigging I paired it with a trusty Boss SD-1 which provided me with a cleaner, more natural and dynamic sounding overdrive and allowed me to cut through the mix when playing rhythm parts. My bands Sound Engineer Joe tells me at the end of every gig to get rid of the SD-1 because he is sick of the sound of Boss pedals (and who can blame him when over 10 million of them have been sold since they were first released!)

After a few gigs though I soon realised the great flaw of my beloved big muff, the rich, deep sound might have sounded great on its own but I'm not in a three piece grunge band, I'm in an 8 piece where my guitar needs to be relatively low in the mix a lot of the time and the muff just wasn't cutting the mustard. While looking for a solution I saw a guitar player using a Pro Co Rat reissue and thought it sounded great and there was soon one winging its way to me in the post.

Here I learned a valuable lesson... I ordered the pedal online without even trying one first based purely on the assumption that it would work with my set up. Yes I'm young, foolish and above all too lazy to take a 20 minute train ride into the centre of London where a PLETHORA of albeit quite average (vintage and rare and Macari's excused) guitar stores are waiting for me to come and test their wares. Although the Rat cut through the mix, it just wasn't the sound I was after. Never mind, maybe one day I'll get it modified by Robert Keeley and maximise it's true face melting potential.

I've been working in guitar shops for a few years now and I'll admit that I've become a bit of a gear snob. Anything labelled as 'boutique' or 'hand wired' gets me all excited and high price tags seem insignificant when all you can focus on is pure, unadulterated TONE. I've decided that my setup requires a twin distortion pedal so that I can have my rhythm channel and a lead channel and easily switch between the two. I found that trying to use two separate pedals to achieve the same effect just causes one pedal to compress the hell out of the other which is just no good at all.

As previously mentioned I had already pretty much made my mind up on the superb sounding Fulltone Full Drive 2 Mosfet but then this time I decided that I wasn't going to be made a fool of and started researching the market. I found a great article on the Gibson Website where they compare some of the most respected boutique pedals on the market to the new range of Visual Sound pedals and this turned me on to the potential of their Jekyll and Hyde (as used by the Strokes but don't let that put you off...) Following this I started talking to a few of the many sales reps that visit my shop and was turned on to the new Bones series by Tonebone (none of the three really cut it for me after trying them all in series) and now I've been told to check out T-Rex pedals (the distributor is kindly lending me a few next week!) and after checking out their superb website and listening to some demos I have high hopes that their Dr. Swamp pedal may just take the title of being my go to overdrive.

What I have discovered is that almost every guitar company and its mum and churning out overdrive and distortion pedals like it's nobodies business... None of them seem content with just making ONE damn good overdrive and ONE damn good distortion and then maybe putting both of them in the same box for folks like me! Be warned that if you are looking to upgrade your pedal board that it's not going to be an easy ride.

Going Bare Knuckle: Part 2

On Friday night my bandmates in Brontosaurus Chorus and I jumped into our trusty driver come sound engineers brand-new second-hand tour bus/van and headed to a pub called The Hobbit in Southampton to peddle our Indie Pop wares. The gig went as well as could be expected my only complaint being the lack of an audience but when you play in a band doing original material in a town that hasn't really heard of you this is considered the Norm.

What excited me most was that two days previously my friend Nick replaced the stock pickups in my '62 Reissue Telecaster with a set of Bare Knuckle 'The Boss' pickups. The blurb on the box promised 'Classic Tele sound with extra weight in the mid range for driving rhythm and cutting lead' and it wasn't wrong. Earlier in the day I set up all my pedals and amp the same as how I usually have them at a gig so that I could get used to the new sound and dynamic response of my guitar. I feared that I may have chosen a set of pickups with too high an output for my tastes despite the fact that it was a higher output that I so desired but I was frightened that I would loose the vintage characteristics that made my Tele a Tele.

In the end it turns out there was no need for it, when clean the dynamics and response had improved no end although to my ears the overall sound of the instrument seemed darker, which was probably to do with the more distinguished mids and fatter low end. The real icing on the cake came when I kicked on my overdrive (for the record I'm currently using a Boss SD-1 and a Pro-Co Rat II but I'm currently in the market for both a new overdrive and a distortion unit so all suggestions are welcome!) and found that the lacklustre sound that once plagued me was no more and instead the overdrive was not only thicker and richer but the tonal characteristics of my pickups shone through much more than before. Satisfied I packed up my gear and headed off to the gig.

After the gig I chatted with our sound engineer Joe about whether or not he noticed any difference and he said that the sound seemed instantly more open and full but he also noticed a lot more top end cut that lent itself to the mix. In my band I have a string section a keyboard and a trumpet to compete with so I can never be quite as loud as I would like but now with my new pickups I can be a little bit more confident that I'll be heard playing at a slightly lower volume than usual.

So, am I one step closer in my never ending quest for the ultimate guitar tone? Probably, but the search for that perfect guitar sound is an eternal one and the next step for me is to replace my overdrive pedal and I'm currently thinking that a Fulltone Full Drive II MOSFET is the way to go.

The photo in this post was taken by my friend Di and used with her permission, you can see more of her photos at her Flickr.