OD vs Distortion

eSGEe said:
I see one on line for sale -- are they decent?
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I had it plugged into my 5w Fender yesterday. Does a decent job. Didn’t get a chance to really dial things in as our puppy thought I should pay attention to her rather than the guitar.

Not sure it would replace either pedal by themselves. But if you were short on real estate on your board it would most certainly do a decent job.
 
this is my board.........Im trying to wade into this "pedal pool" --- RVA is guiding me -- however I think the problem is I have a MESA -- and most pedals are uneeded.....(not being a corksniffer--the damn thing just sounds awesome)
perhaps the fact I have been trying low end Joyo and Danelectro and the like ?????
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Actually. After messing with the pedal for a bit I unplugged it and went straight into the 5w Fender. Cranked it to 10 and played away. Was surprised. That little thing sounded pretty good all by itself.
 
eSGEe said:
this is my board.........Im trying to wade into this "pedal pool" --- RVA is guiding me -- however I think the problem is I have a MESA -- and most pedals are uneeded.....(not being a corksniffer--the damn thing just sounds awesome)

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My personal attitude is to get distortion from the amp's own overdrive/distortion channel when possible. If the amp provides it well enough on it's own, forego the pedal.
 

I post this for the level of gain/distortion--it sure seems "enough" -- to me Frankly its WAY more than I ever use--
 
I do use a Joyo Ultimate drive on the Panama and the Lil Sexy 5 watt heads-- to get them to break up takes WAY to much volume---and so the pedal gets the job done at lieveable levels. :)

but I am wondering is there a better option than the "Ultimate Drive" by joyo.?

trying to understand the "allure" of the pedal.....
 
eSGEe said:
trying to understand the "allure" of the pedal.....
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In my case it allows me to get the OD or Distortion at a way lower volume. Yes. I’d love to drive my 20w Traynor to OD with nothing but a guitar and a cord, but I’d have neighbors calling the locals to have me arrested. More for playing badly.... and.... they can here me playing badly.

Edit: I should add. My amps so old it only has a master. No gain.
 
----Attenuation perhaps--????

THat allows me to crank the gain (rarely but I can) and the volume and NOT kill my dogs -- or wake the neighbors--

I guess its either way --- I too use a drive pedal for the Lil sexy 5 watt tube amp Drumoid created for me-- it has no attentuation so I can get DIRT at low volume :)
 
For home practice use, I can get all the distortion I want and the person in the next room can’t even hear a thing.

Headphones.
 
depends on the amp and the attenuation--
THe Panama sounds very compressed if to much attenuation knob is used-- I think it just cuts power like a master volume--

the Mesa has a "hack" that attenuates the output level by tricking the amp into thinking its going into the FX loop and it sounds very clean and clear and similar (without the gut punch chug of VOLUME of course)
hal9000F-SeriesMixPotMasterRevB.jpg


Robert and some others here have some external attenuators they use -- I cant speak for those mine are "built in"
 
eSGEe said:

I post this for the level of gain/distortion--it sure seems "enough" -- to me Frankly its WAY more than I ever use--
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Mesas tend to have more gain available than a reasonable person would ever need. My Mark 5 at noon on the gain in Mk2 mode is basically the sound of early Metallica. There's not much need to go higher on the gain. My Mini Rec is usually no higher than 1:00 in vintage mode.
 
for blues etc. mine is typically at 8:00 ish-- and that is PLENTY of grit -- for single coils I back it down to 7:00 (almost OFF) for humbuckers-- and yes at 12:00 its getting into death metal territory --if I flip the "contour" on at that point --- its OFF THE CHARTS----
 
O.D. is typically soft clipping and lower levels of distortion.

Distortion is typically hard clipping and high levels of distortion.

Using O.D. pedals for distortion is fairly useless, for me. I use them as a signal boost and to boost e.q. frequencies I want to emphasize. People running the gain/drive high on an O.D. are missing the point, IMHO. But then again, to each his own.

Also, on fuzz and distortion, I think people miss out on the signal boost aspect. Jimi Hendrix's fuzz tone was AWESOME because he ran the Volume on 10, thus overdriving the input of the amp. If you run a fuzz at unity, you are missing at least half of the magick.

Then there is old school pedals like my Colorsound Overdriver clone or a Rat Distortion, which are using fuzz like circuits to achieve distortion tones.

Some of my absolute BEST tones come from running pedal volumes on 10 and using the guitar volume to control the drive. This has been the best way to achieve "Cranked" tones and amp interactions at low volume for me. Amp volume set clean and low, pedal dimed to drive the hell out of the input, guitar volume barely cracked open for rhythm, and just slightly higher for singing leads. You know you've got it right if the guitar volume on "10" is all but unplayable. It mimics playing a plexi on "10" in that you have to ride the guitar volume if you expect to have any control, even at low overall volume levels.

The Colorsound circuits I own seem to do this better than anything else I have tried. The Overdriver and one knob fuzz send huge doses of signal to the amp.
 
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