What overdrive/distortion to buy??

darrenw5094

My current setup is mostly Gibson Les Paul Standards into the Marshall JVM410C (100w 2x12). The OD1 channel gives me just the right tone for rhythm playing in a mostly rock covers band.

I am having serious feedback problems when i select the higher gain setting on the amp with the foot controller. This happens with both my Gibsons.
I don't have this problem with my Jap Ibanez guitars. I need to select the higher gain mode for leads. I boost the second master volume on the amp to help with my solos, but when i use the higher gain overdrive....flippin' feedback. I want to continue using the Gibsons.

€2500 Gibson Les Paul Standards and €2000 Marshall JVM should not be giving me these problems. Not for that kind of money.

I have tried Boss overdrive/distortion pedals and can safely say that Boss gear was almost all crap. How can Boss be the industry standard with this rubbish. From the MT-2 to the DS-1. I am now the annoyed owner of a poxy DS-1....although i got it cheap fron the states for about €40......€69 in my local store. The OS-2 sounded good for rhythm with bridge pickup selected, but a bit similar to the overdrive on the Marshall.....then when i select the neck pickup.....it was pants.....died a horrible death. Has anyone tried the Boss pedals with some of the mods added....like the Keeley mod???

I am now disilusioned with Boss. Mediocre pedals that have sold over 8 million worlwide. The Boss CS-3 must be the worst compressor on the planet......horrible fake tone.

I was looking at some other brand names that would be considered boutique pedals.....Voodoo Labs 'Sparkle Drive', TC Electronic pedals, Dytone pedals, Krank distortion.

What other pedals are among the best sounding?
I am not skimping with €60 or €70. The Voodoo Lab 'Sparkle Drive' is about €150 or so.

dr.bollocko

I feel your pain with the DS1. As a wide-eyed neo electric guitarist, some 8 years ago, I was spellbound by Kurt Cobain hammering down on his DS1 in the Teen spirit video and thought, man, that must be the coolest pedal ever.
WRONG!
IT SUCKED so bad. With my US Strat, With my Ibani, even with this sexy vintage SG that was circulating and it still sucked so bad. Actually, my mate has the Cobain Jag-stang and it sucked through that too.
To be honest, since then, I have taken to amp O/d or modelling amp O/D for a range of tones, but wouldnt have anything as grandiose as your set up. I cannot believe that you are getting feedback that cant be filtered out easily with some manipulation. I think a lot of those Gibson pickups are high output, I have one in an Ibanez for playing solo lead and the sound is cranked. Can you link in a volume equalizer to get rid of some of the feedback or some similar handy widget? Surely a nice tube distortion would solve your problem?
And if you do find that prodigal pedal, please let me know!

darrenw5094

i will let you know if i find the holy grail.
i am hearing great things about the Voodoo Lab Sparkle Drive.

I also seen Joe Satriani and Vai with a DS-1 in their setup......the tone satch gets these days is near perfect.....maybe my personal preference.
Those guys must have it personally modified.......then can it still be a Boss DS-1 pedal......or just a Boss chassy with something else in there.

The disapointment of it all.......most frustrating pedal ia have tried........

I got to use a Peavey 6505 at a gig in 'The Button Factory' Templebar and it sounded amazing.......

Beecher

darrenw5094 wrote: »

I also seen Joe Satriani and Vai with a DS-1 in their setup......the tone satch gets these days is near perfect.....maybe my personal preference.
Those guys must have it personally modified.......then can it still be a Boss DS-1 pedal......or just a Boss chassy with something else in there.

Dunno about Satch but Vai's DS-1 is Keeley Modded.

Eoin Madsen

darrenw5094 wrote: »

€2500 Gibson Les Paul Standards and €2000 Marshall JVM should not be giving me these problems. Not for that kind of money.

Indeed. You shouldn't have paid that kind of money for either. New Gibsons are overpriced, and new Marshalls are overpriced.

Without going into a long-winded diplomatic answer... an overdrive pedal is only as good as the amp it's overdriving. Yours blows. I'm not a huge fan of the DS-1 or any boss pedals really, but if you can't even get a half decent tone from it then you won't fair much better with anything else. Get an amp that can actually produce sounds that you like. Would be my opinion. And get some new pickups.

And don't bother with fancy valve pedals generally, most of them are just ss with low voltage valves. The valves might as well be light bulbs for all they actually do.

darrenw5094

The main Gibson i use has a pair of Seymour Duncans...a SH-4 in the bridge and a Sh-2 in the neck. The overdrive in the Marshall is fine for rhythm playing.....it's the overdrive at higher gain for solo's is causing feedback.

I have been looking at ENGL amps lately. Maybe the Screamer 50w version.

Dord

A tubescreamer should do the job. I think the sparkledrive is actually based on a tubescreamer too. lol

Voodu Child

If your JVM is feeding back wildly, it's likely a preamp valve issue. They shipped with lousy valves (as do most Marshalls) and I know quite a lot of people popped up in forums with similar problems.

Karl Hungus

I got myself a modded Tubescreamer from www.bodenhamer-electronics.com and I haven't looked back since, absolutely stellar pedal, that's for sure. I'd highly recommend one.

But I would agree that you should check the tubes first.

darrenw5094

Can i get them changed easily......exactly what kind of tube would i go for any where would i buy them.....

What difference did the mod do on the Tubescreamer??

Rustar

darrenw wrote:

My current setup is mostly Gibson Les Paul Standards into the Marshall JVM410C (100w 2x12). The OD1 channel gives me just the right tone for rhythm playing in a mostly rock covers band.

I boost the second master volume on the amp to help with my solos, but when i use the higher gain overdrive....flippin' feedback.

Have you tried using a power brake? You can get that same amp tone at more manageable volume levels.

Beecher

darrenw5094 wrote: »

Can i get them changed easily......exactly what kind of tube would i go for any where would i buy them.....

What difference did the mod do on the Tubescreamer??

Eurotubes for your tubes.

I would also highly recommend the Keeley Modded TS9 Plus. With the current dollar/euro exchange its cheaper to buy a new keeley modded one over there then a new unmodded one over here.

darrenw5094

Rustar wrote: »

Have you tried using a power brake? You can get that same amp tone at more manageable volume levels.

What exactly is a power brake....where can i see one online...?

Eoin Madsen

If you've never changed the stock valves then that should actually be your first port of call. You can get specs for the valve requirements from the Marshall website or by emailing them, or by asking someone in the place you buy the valves. I highly recommend you shop online.

www.watfordvalves.com if you want some expert advice and high quality valves, or www.eurotubes.com if you want some JJs (JJs are good) for low cost. Or just go googling.

Beecher

darrenw5094 wrote: »

What exactly is a power brake....where can i see one online...?

Its an attenuator. It goes between your head and cab absorbing most of the power generated by the amplifier and turning this power into heat. This allows you to crank your amp and get that lovely saturated tube tone while keeping the actual volume outputted from the cab at a manageable level.

darrenw5094

My JVM is a 2x12 combo, not head and cab.
Would i have to get someone to put it in to the amp?

Voodu Child

Yeah, check your valves before going buying any OD pedals or attenuators.

Like I said already, the JVMs were known to have shipped with dodgy pre-amp valves that contributed to excessive feedback. Revalve the preamp section and see if it helps with the feedback.

Re: the o/d pedal, with all the switches and channels on the JVM, I really wouldn't be bothered with that for now. If you can't get a sound you like out if it without an OD, likely the amp isn't for you. (or bad valves)

darrenw5094

When i buy the Eurotubes set, where do i get them fitted?
Can it be done easily by someone with a bit of knowhow?

Gary ITR

I had a DS_1 for years and a while back it packed in so I bought another, didn't sound the same at all

My name is Todd

Satch and Vai don't use their DS-1's as standalone distortion effects. They use them to boost the distortion from their amps / racks. The DS-1 just sits on top of this distortion and has variable effects depending on the distorted signal going into it.

I use mine on both distortion channels of my Marshall VS102R and can get some great lead tones.
It's fairly weak on it's own when running through the clean channel, but you can coax some subtle lead and rythym tones from it.

Beecher

darrenw5094 wrote: »

When i buy the Eurotubes set, where do i get them fitted?
Can it be done easily by someone with a bit of knowhow?

If you are just changing the preamp tubes its easier than changing a lightbulb. The old ones just pull out (may need a bit of a wiggle) and the new ones just slot in.

Karl Hungus

You could sell your Marshall and get an Engl Invader instead.

Seziertisch

I reckon you need to go with an overdrive of some sort to kick the amp up a notch. Thomann have good deals on the TC Vintage series (which are the same as the T-Rex pedals). They have been discontinued and are reduced to clear. Some serious savings. I haven't used any of the overdrive/distortions they offer but I have used both the delay and the compressor and was well impressed. I also have a modded DS-1 that I bought from a guy in Germany. It was his take on the Keeley/Analogman mods (so he said). It blows the stock pedal out of the water, giving a real stack in box sound. I don't know how it compares to the actual Keeley/Analogman mods, but I'd imagine that they do something similar, perhaps with a slightly different flavour. As for Kurt Cobain and his DS-1, afaik the original DS-1 had a very different circuit from the current one, using a different design and chips.

darrenw5094

Karl Hungus wrote: »

You could sell your Marshall and get an Engl Invader instead.

Funny you should say that....i have been very impressed by the ENGL range over the past few days......check out some videos on youtube.....

The invader is expensive, but the 50w Screamer is a screamer......:D
I could buy one of those from Thomann and keep the Marshall JVM as a spare.......hope you are reading this Mr. Marshall.....you are just about good enough as a spare these days......'effer.:D

And you too Mr. Boss...you are a robbing ****. Get your act together.

Karl Hungus

darrenw5094 wrote: »

Funny you should say that....i have been very impressed by the ENGL range over the past few days......check out some videos on youtube.....

The invader is expensive, but the 50w Screamer is a screamer......:D
I could buy one of those from Thomann and keep the Marshall JVM as a spare.......hope you are reading this Mr. Marshall.....you are just about good enough as a spare these days......'effer.:D

And you too Mr. Boss...you are a robbing ****. Get your act together.

Well, I did suggest that kind of jokingly, but if you like the kind of Marshall vibe, then I simply cannot recommend the Invader enough, because it's an EL34 beasty and channel 2 does a better classic Marshall kind of tone than any recent Marshall I've played. The way I have it now, it captures the tone of Megadeth's Rust In Peace perfectly, and that's just Chan2.

Check out the sound clips here, which give you a very good idea of the kind of versatility it gives you. It absolutely ****s all over the more low-end Engls I've played before, and they're awesome to begin with. So yeah, it definitely might be worth considering.

darrenw5094

The ENGL Invader is about 2 grand man.....on Thomann.

Where is the cheapest to buy an ENGL Invader...?

Karl Hungus

The price seems to be the same everywhere, so that's pretty much it, bar going second hand, and I've not seen many.

Fingers Mcginty

I have a ds-1 modified by the keeley lad and there is a big difference in tone. The stock ds-1 was totally horrible. Very noisy too. Now i use it as a boost sometimes with the distortion all the way down and the level on the pedal up. Overdrives the tubes in my screamer nicely.

darrenw5094

Did you send your DS-1 off to get modded or did you buy it already modded.

How much would it cost to send away to get mod in it???:cool:

darrenw5094

For anyone who is experienced in chaging valves with Eurotubes......what set will i buy from the list here https://ssl.eurotubes.com/cart/index.php?page=view_products&category_id=9&sub_category_id=132 and why???

Voodu Child

Would you not just get a single 12AX7 from somewhere and swap it in each position one by one, just to confirm that it's a bad preamp valve causing the feedback problem and not something else.

No sense in wasting money on a full revalve until you know the amp is 100% healthy in other aspects.

darrenw5094

Too late....all those rave reviews about KT77 valves and the bad hype on the stock Marshall ones meant i have just bought a set from Eurotubes.

4 KT77's
4 ECC83S Standard
1 ECC83S Balanced

Cheap $$$....so i just went for it.......a bit of a rush buying them......

Fingers Mcginty

darrenw5094 wrote: »

Did you send your DS-1 off to get modded or did you buy it already modded.

How much would it cost to send away to get mod in it???:cool:

I sent it to him , he modded it and sent it back. I think it worked out at 105 dollars including shipping which is around 70 Euro at the mo'. Listen to the clips from youtube ...there are loads of ds-1 ulra clips.

Fad

either the aforementioned tubescreamer, or a Muff, theyre surprisingly versatile (as i have lately discovered)(i know its a fuzz but still)