Pedals - hard rock sound -DS1 alternatives

Kurva

Anything along the same lines as the Boss DS1 but without the noise?

Sound wise : Hard rock - not softer blues or eric crapton type thing

I think I've tried all the other Boss distortions over the years DS2 is too similar - the rest underpowered or dated (wouldn't mind hearing their new metal thing)

I'll probably go for a modded Robert Keeley DS1 - but wouldn't mind knowing about some other options -

only ones I'm avoiding:
Line 6 - too big + fiddly
Marshall - poorly built
Nobels - bad

I have an English Muff'n - not great with the tube amp -

I gave up on using 12ax7/6v6 that the amp was designed for - too unpredictabile with cheap new tubes - and too expensive to put the really good ones in

now use industrial tubes that are rated 100k+ hours

Thanx

darrenw5094

The DS-1 at this stage is considered to be a load of tosh.
I recently got mine modded with the Keeley Mod and i have to say, i didn't do miricles, but did improve it quite a bit.

Stay away from Boss......much better alternatives out there.
The DS-1 is really a distortion and not an overdrive, like you hear from a valve amp. If that is your thing check out Vai's new Jemini twin pedal. Also the Krank range of pedals are savage.

My personal favs at the moment are the Fulltone Mosfet, TC Electronics distorions/overdrives or if you are minted, Xotic BB Plus.

Check out the demos on http://www.proguitarshop.com/

feylya

The Line 6 Uber Metal is a fantastic little pedal and it's the same size as the Boss pedals.

Glassheart

Check out the T Rex Mudhoney.

dermo909

I use a radial tonebone classic on my pedalboard and it'll do absolutely anything you want. Goes from fender cleans to mesa distortion. They're not cheap but well worth it I think.

BostonB

dermo909 wrote: »

I use a radial tonebone classic on my pedalboard and it'll do absolutely anything you want. Goes from fender cleans to mesa distortion. They're not cheap but well worth it I think.

Looks interesting. Where did you get yours?

dermo909

I got mine from thomann but that was waaay back when sterling was 66p to a euro! You can get them on gak.co.uk for 168 pounds now.
I think its a great pedal and does the hard rock thing brilliantly. I'm not sure about it doing metal though but those sounds are often re-amped and eq'd to the last. For that I'd just get a moetal core and be done with it!

68 lost souls

The mudhoney is nice not sure if it will give you the sound you want.

The Satchurator by Vox is pretty cool. Heard it today for the first time.

Ive heard a few good things about the tonebone nut never actually heard one.

-=al=-

fulldrive is nicer than the satchurator but the satchurater has slightly more gain and lovely harmonic overtones ...the neutral point ont he tone knob on the satchurator is 9 o clock as aposed to 12... go ovr that and its nasty but its just not as nice as a fulldrive, but the fulldrive probably doesnt have enough gain for you and its quite responsive



look at a jemini, it might be what you want... its a mix beteen a ds1 and tubescreamer...

id love to try the tonebone, ive been lookin at em for ages

corkstudent

You may need a RAT. Try and find one with the older LM032 chip, or a Turbo Rat which uses optical clippng.

Don't fork out for boutique ODs whatever you do, unless they're on the cheaper end of the spectrum(like some of Devi Ever's stuff doesn't cost much more than EHX stuff).

Doctor J

Why not? I've got a Fulltone which blows the hole off every other pedal I've ever played. If they're worth it, go for it.

corkstudent

Doctor J wrote: »

Why not? I've got a Fulltone which blows the hole off every other pedal I've ever played. If they're worth it, go for it.

Because there's usually a cheaper pedal that's just as good if you look around enough.

For example there's no point getting a Zvex Box of Metal when you can get a Metal Muff for much cheaper. I prefer my Big Muff to my Fuzz Factory and for crazy fuzz I think the Zoom Tri Fuzz does just as well.

Similarly a lot of people prefer the Bad Monkey to high end Tubescreamers.

If you're really set on one of the higher end pedals, then it might be worth forking out. But chances are with the variety at a lower price range these days, you'll find somethng you like as good.

Modulation pedals can be a different story - often the higher end ones can sound a lot more "complex". I can't find any Phaser I like apart from the Moon Phaser.

At the end of the day, it's down to personal taste. But there's enough variety in lower end dirt boxes to cater to most people's taste.

-=al=-

zvex pedals are great, theres some downstairs in my friends setups, they're great, same with the overdrives, they're definitly worth the extra few $$

sure i got a fulltone in the US last month for 160$ in the guitar center in sunset, im sure its even cheaper online... thats not expensive for the fulldrive, its a great overdrive... but for what it sounds like he needs is a bit more gain..

Try the vintage rat, it has a little mroe balls to it, and isnt as harsh as the rat... theres a demo on youtube also i seen before...

consider the gt500 jemini and vintage rat... they'd be my recs for the sound being specified

Doctor J

corkstudent wrote: »

Because there's usually a cheaper pedal that's just as good if you look around enough.

Usually there isn't and that's why they sell. Close but not close enough. Certainly in the case of my Fulltone I've yet to encounter anything "standard" which does the same thing.

Surely getting the right pedal for the right sound is the key? The pedal I have more overdrive than distortion which is why I didn't mention it here, but there isn't a mass-produced overdrive which comes even close, IMO. If the OP were looking for an overdrive I would be recommending it because it's so much more flexible than a Tubscreamer or the TS clones it's just not funny. It's defnintely worth the money if you're looking for that kind of sound. I'd wager there are plenty of boutique distortions out there which outperform Boss and the like. Saying to avoid them just because they're expensive is the wrong approach, IMO. Get the right pedal, not the cheap pedal. I'm not saying buy boutique for the sake of it, just don't count them all out from the offset.

-=al=-

tubescreamers have more of a comrpessed sound than the fulldrive... not always a bad thing, but its just a bit different to the fulldrive, which is mroe responsive but you can get that kinda sound if you want, the mosfet has a lot of nice features

either way the fulldrive's the best overdrive ive played

off for christmas drinks for me!

pir

I recommend the fulltone OCD.

-=al=-

OCD is good bvut the fulldrive


kicks its arse

man i love rfulltone

drunkies me ui am

Dord

Doctor J wrote: »

Why not? I've got a Fulltone which blows the hole off every other pedal I've ever played. If they're worth it, go for it.

That's the red one you brought to the meetup isn't it?
If so, that thing is bloody awesome. I want one...

-=al=-

red or blue... either one is good


the mosfets are amazing

i like the way i wasnt invited tot he gear meet up thing.. lmao


Jimini jillickers

happy christmas

Doctor J

Dord wrote: »

That's the red one you brought to the meetup isn't it?
If so, that thing is bloody awesome. I want one...

That's the one. After Boycey brought it to the first meetup I had to have it. Just as well he was selling it or things could have got nasty :pac:

OK-Cancel-Apply

Has anyone here used a Boss Metalzone or Metalcore? I'm thinking about getting one of those.

Doctor J

I went on a long search for a good Metal distortion, picked up a Metalzone along the way. It's not bad if you work hard at getting rid of the fizz. However, I eventually picked up a Line 6 Uber Metal and it's a lot, lot better than the Metalzone, in my opinion of course. It's got a crunchier distortion without the high end fizz which can be hard to purge out of the Metalzone. It works well with dropped tunings too.

Dord

OK-Cancel-Apply wrote: »

Has anyone here used a Boss Metalzone or Metalcore? I'm thinking about getting one of those.

The metalzone sounds like a jar of angry wasps.

Voodu Child

Dord wrote: »

The metalzone sounds like a jar of angry wasps.

i.e. its perfect for metal :pac:

darrenw5094

After years of Boss, people now realise that there are much better alternatives.
Whye do Keeley do so many Boss mods?? They are using low quality parts these days etc. Another alternative is the Krank range.

Dord

darrenw5094 wrote: »

After years of Boss, people now realise that there are much better alternatives.
Whye do Keeley do so many Boss mods?? They are using low quality parts these days etc. Another alternative is the Krank range.

I still use Boss pedals. I have a TU-2 and a CEB-3 bass chorus. I love the bass chorus, ****in' awesome.

darrenw5094

Dord wrote: »

I still use Boss pedals. I have a TU-2 and a CEB-3 bass chorus. I love the bass chorus, ****in' awesome.

I use the TU tuner too.....but the overdrives and distortions are not so good.
The DD-6 delay was a shocker too. Chorus Ensemble was bland and disapointing. The Boss Noise Supressor is a disgrace and an insult to people with working ears. I am sure there are some decent Boss pedals, but there are a lot better out there. Then again, the price of Boss suggests entry level pedals.

I got rid of my Boss compressor too........

-=al=-

tu tuner is ok alright solid tuner...

cs3 is a joke, the delays are decent, nosie supressors pretty bad metalzones a piss take

darrenw5094

Lets go through the list of Boss

Overdrive/Distortion
DS-1
Ds-2
BD-2
MD-2
MT-2
OD-3
SD-1

Delays
DD-3
DD-5
DD-6

Modulations
BF-3
CE-5
CH-1
PH-3
TR-2

EQ
AW-3
GE-7
CS-3
TU-2
NS-2

The ones i found ok were the TU-2, OD-3 best of a bad bunch, BF-3.
Everything else is either average at best or a load of tosh.
Compressor, Noise Supressor, DS-1 were/are all b*ll*x.

If anyone can give there favs and why, go ahead.

OK-Cancel-Apply

Doctor J wrote: »

I went on a long search for a good Metal distortion, picked up a Metalzone along the way. It's not bad if you work hard at getting rid of the fizz. However, I eventually picked up a Line 6 Uber Metal and it's a lot, lot better than the Metalzone, in my opinion of course. It's got a crunchier distortion without the high end fizz which can be hard to purge out of the Metalzone. It works well with dropped tunings too.

Hmm yeah from what I gather though, the Metalcore is a bit better than the Metalzone. I'll look into a Line 6 Uber Metal also. It certainly sounds the biz (just looking at youtube now).

Just looking at your site - is the Line 6 Uber Metal what you use for your metal tone on the 'Acrid Nebula' tracks? That sounds kick ass!

Doctor J

Cheers man. Those tunes were done with Ampeg VH-140C, the Uber Metal is for when I don't have/can't bring the amp with me

Dord wrote: »

The metalzone sounds like a jar of angry wasps.

It does when you don't read the manual

darrenw5094

Just don't buy the damn yoke.......and you won't have to worry about sounding like a clatter of wasps.

-=al=-

a clatter of pissed off wasps who just had their hives tramped on by a man who just put 4 pissed off cats into the same room

thats what it sounds like

OK-Cancel-Apply

Doctor J wrote: »

Cheers man. Those tunes were done with Ampeg VH-140C, the Uber Metal is for when I don't have/can't bring the amp with me

Oh ok. That's a solid state amp, right? How do you think the sound you can get with the Line 6 Uber Metal compares with the Ampeg VH-140C? Do you think it can sound just as good?

Doctor J

Yep, glorious solid state. It's never going to please the amp purists but it's perfect for what I want from it. The Uber Metal doesn't sound as good to my ears, if I had both to use I'd use the Ampeg every time, but I have an unhealthy affection for the Ampeg. It's the best pedal sound from the ones I tried, the likes of the Metalzone, Muffs, H&K Warp Factor, Dod. The Uber Metal has the most useable mids of the pedals I tried and it translates well across a load of different amps. On the Ampeg I only have the gain at about 3, 4 at the most, I go for a crunch rather than overly thick distortion and the Uber Metal has a similar sweet point where it's nice and crunchy without the mush of too much distortion. Some of our stuff is as low as dropped A and it keeps it nice and clear, again some of the other pedals got a bit mushy at lower tunings.

OK-Cancel-Apply

Cool, that's a big help, thanks for your thoughts. I think I may just go for one of those Ubel Metal pedals. I'm pretty sure I can get a decent sound from it with the rest of the gear I have.

OK-Cancel-Apply

Just want to say that I got a Line 6 Uber Metal today - it's amazing! It's the best distortion pedal I've ever had! You can pretty much get any sound you want from it. It sounds better than what I got from driving the bejaysus out of my tubes. Perfect for hard rock, metal..grunge.. anything. I'd highly recommend this pedal. It's versatile enough to please everybody. I think I'm going to marry it.

Doctor J

Good stuff. Get a room

OK-Cancel-Apply

Hey everyone, I'm sorry to keep dragging this thread up, but I don't want to waste space with a new one.

I just have a quick question:

Is it OK to use my universal power supply with the Line 6 Uber Metal? In the past, I used to have Boss pedals and I had the correct adaptor, so I've never had to ask this.

I have a power adapter capable of 1200mA, 12V, but the pedal only requires a small fraction of that (something like 30mA, 9V). I won't go blowing it or anything will I? Sorry if this seems like a silly question, but I don't want to take any chances.

Sounds great I must say, but dang, it really eats batteries!

68 lost souls

Nope, you have to get the voltages to match. 9v pedals need a 9v power supply.

Red Sleeping Beauty

OK-Cancel-Apply wrote: »

Hey everyone, I'm sorry to keep dragging this thread up, but I don't want to waste space with a new one.

I just have a quick question:

Is it OK to use my universal power supply with the Line 6 Uber Metal? In the past, I used to have Boss pedals and I had the correct adaptor, so I've never had to ask this.

I have a power adapter capable of 1200mA, 12V, but the pedal only requires a small fraction of that (something like 30mA, 9V). I won't go blowing it or anything will I? Sorry if this seems like a silly question, but I don't want to take any chances.

Sounds great I must say, but dang, it really eats batteries!

Is it some sort of generic power adapter from Argos, Maplin or Power City ? THe ones with the "adjustable" voltage ? If so, it's unregulated and a bit like shagging without a johnny... there's a risk there of too much power getting through and your pedal taking off like a space shuttle launch gone wrong.

If it's just a 12V adapter by god don't go plugging it in to your pedal. Get rechargable batteries

OK-Cancel-Apply

Yeah the power supply is adjustable between 12v, 9v, 7.5v, 4.5v, 3v and 1.5v if I remember correctly. It seems like a fairly decent one - I ordered it through Peats.

68 lost souls

Ah k. Sorry I didnt get that it was interchangable. Thought it was just 12v. Make sure aswell the polarity is correct. The old +-(0-- signs are important to check. Ive used one of those befor ebut got a horrible sound off them, as was said already generaly they are not regulatred. When it says 9v it may not actually be if you get me.

Doctor J

The answer is yes. It's a 9V pedal, it takes a 9V battery. The Boss PSU works.

Red Sleeping Beauty

OK-Cancel-Apply wrote: »

Yeah the power supply is adjustable between 12v, 9v, 7.5v, 4.5v, 3v and 1.5v if I remember correctly. It seems like a fairly decent one - I ordered it through Peats.

I've got one of them, they're not designed for audio use. I don't like using it, it hums and it's not totally safe.

OK-Cancel-Apply

Well, I tried it out. I made sure the polarity, voltage etc was correct and hooked everything up. When the green light failed to come on I felt a cold chill and yanked out the power as quick as I could. I haven't tried it again with a battery... just hope it's not fried! :eek: I don't know - maybe I put the wrong size connector on, and it wasn't making contact, but I don't think I wanna try again!

It's just a shame that power supplies don't come as standard with these pedals. They build them so slim these days.

Red Sleeping Beauty

Maplin sell a power supply transformer that'll power most standard effects pedals.

You could also search for a "1spot"


Here's some good reading material here :
http://www.stinkfoot.se/andreas/diy/power/list.htm

http://www.stinkfoot.se/andreas/diy/power/psu.htm