Recommend distortion pedal please

[HappyBlues]

Hello ppl. I need some advice. I am proud owner of Vintage Modern 2266c combo amp. I Use it with a Strat, with midrange boost on, with detail about 1 o'clock and body at about 11 o'clock. EQ all at 12 o'clock and I use master volume from 9 o'clock for playing at my bedroom up to what I need on stage.

I own Boss BD-2, OD-3 and DS-1 pedals. First two are fine, they sound great. But DS-1 sounds too muddy/midrangey with mid boost on. Because I prefer the sound of amp with mid boost on with the two pedals I want to replace DS-1. What do you recommend? I want it to be a rock tone, a bit like JCM800, 1959 or something like that. Not metal distortion, only pretty rocking one.

One more thing. I have to have TONE set pretty low (it depends on guitar a lot, mine hates high settings). On DS-1 it was at 9 o'clock, more would result in scratchy highs. So bear in mind that Distortion pedal either has to have Tone pot or not produce scratchy highs at all. I don't know if this doesn't make GV-2 out of possible checklist.

I ask because I have no chance to test out a pedal before I buy it. Youtube links of samples are welcome. (if there are any you know of)

It should be in 149$ range at most.

So any reommendations?

[kissfanps]

the fultone OCD is $159 if you can spare the extra 10 bucks

[surfnorthwest]

+1 on the OCD

IMO putting any distortion pedal in front of this amp defeats the whole reason for owning it, they will simply change the vintage tone of the amp.

[kissfanps]

+1 on the OCD

IMO putting any distortion pedal in front of this amp defeats the whole reason for owning it, they will simply change the vintage tone of the amp.

I agree with Surf. I just use it for higher gain stuff like 80's metal, but if you are going to be playing with the OCD on for most of the time, the VM is not for you. (unless you are Paul Gilbert)

[Dave W]

Again the OCD. I do not have one yet but its on my list. Paul Gilbert uses it with his VM combo. I do not really know much about him but he clearly can play and knows tone. I have seen several pictures of his pedal board and its always there. From the reviews I read it covers the tones you are going for and other VM players are using it! Good luck!

[HappyBlues]

anyone tried guv'nor with VM? Its a lot more price friendly...

Anyways, I don't play with dist. pedal in front of VM for most of the time. Only for harder songs. VM's overdrive is unusable for me... It just has too many wrong frequencies - wrong sharp grainy high freqiencies that ruin it for me and I can't cope with them (even with Boss gt-8's EQ for some reason, even if it is run in loop of VM) so I just use pedals to get overdrive from it... Might change some day but then, I would have to get a nice OD from VM)

So I use BD-2 and OD-3 which are nice OD stomps and I want some harder one for harder tones...

But if I get to find nice OD from VM itself, I might switch to that...

So any more suggestions?

Btw. I love the OD from BD-2 and OD-3 and I don't thinlk it destroys the tone of VM... Since I never got good OD from VM itself...

I use (as you can see in signature) a Vintage V6 Icon Strat copy... It sounded quite good with Peavey Classic 30 od thou... But that amp sounds horrid compared to VM...

[Lungo]

I'd recommend that new Satchurator pedal if it wasn't out of your price range. I checked one out last week and I was impressed. I still prefer the distortion from an amp but the thing sounded good.

[kissfanps]

http://vintagemodern.informe.com/viewto ... ustin+gold

Here is a link to a thread that has some info about the Rocktron Austin Gold. I think its only like 70 bucks and people have had some good experiences with it.

My next pedal is gonna be a z-vex box of rock which is around 200

[VirgilCaine]

VM's overdrive is unusable for me... It just has too many wrong frequencies - wrong sharp grainy high freqiencies that ruin it for me and I can't cope with them (even with Boss gt-8's

:shock: I cannot comprehend....

I use the Rocktron Austin Gold, as well as a TS-808, and a MXR Micro Amp. I use the Austin Gold for a lead/clean boost+ added color on low range...the ts-808 for distortion and drive in low range, and the Micro Amp for solo boost in high range. But, I play lots of classic rock (who, stones, zep, beatles, yardbirds, cream, tull), and Rockabilly (Carl perkins, Johnny Cash, Eddie Cochrane,) and Americana ( dylan, the band, wilco, uncle tupelo, tom waits, petty) so, I don't need a ton of garf in front of my VM.

Question: can't you run that GT-8 straight into the board and be done? I'm having a hard time understanding why you would run that with a VM?. Then again, I'm on the back side of 43 yrs old and never did develope a taste for digital pedal boards.

[Dave W]

Not meaning to offend, but in reference to the quote highlighted above(wrong frequencies). I also cannot comprehend the idea of wrong frequencies from the VM overdrive either. I bought and tried the Boss GT-8 two separate times, messed with them for extensive amounts of time. I thought I was not patient enough and spent tons of time with it. So, i tried it twice and was didapointed. It was sterile every which way I tweeked it. They say if you buy the Harmonic Converger and use it with the unit it takes the sterility away. For 1 box, there are some really great effects to use with the GT-8 but the overdrive and distortions lack even with all the knobs to tweek. I plugged into the VM and what I heard and felt made me jittery and excited like a little kid. Made things fun! It had different tone with playing dynamics as opposed to just quieter and louder. As far as plugging the Gt-8 into the effects loop, its still like plugging a computer with all knids of changes to the signal chain. I am now using cheap guitars( LTD and Xaviere ) with good pickups in to a great amp(VM) an getting better tone and having more fun than I have in along time. Compared to my history of getting the real good guitar and spending less on the rest. The only thing that seems to go agaist te grain for me is using the VM mid boost with humbuckers, for me the mid boostsworks best with single coils. Maybe something from the begging of your signal chain just does not mesh well with the VM? Maybe te VM is just not the right amp for the sound being sought. Maybe the effects/OD pedals bring you closer to that sound? All the gear may be cool but jsut not mesh and give the desired to you are looking for.

Back to the Distortion/Overdrive Pedals another option is the VooDoo Lab Sparkle Drive. VooDoo Lab does have a history of footswitches going bad but they repair them fo you. The pedal also has a clean boost function. You can get them off Ebay new with a best offer option for about $120 shipped. For the $150-160 range you could get a new OCD or a new Sparkle Drive plus a new Boss DS-1(the orange one) and be pretty versatile.

[Green Manalishi]

My recommendations would be OCd (under $150 on eBay) or the Crunch Box.

The OCD has less mids, more bottom and functions great as a boost, overdrive or distortion. The Crunch box has better crunch, that famous Marshall upper mids, and lots of gain. It is less than the OCD.
Proco Rat is another, less expensive option.

My personal taste is a treble booster (on full range) into the VM. Just gobs of tone.

[HappyBlues]

Yeah yeah, I can hear you : why would one use GT-8 with VM? Well I don't use GT-8 for anything but delays and modulations and to control amount of gain of analog stomps. For OD I never use GT-8. I use analog stomps. I know GT-8 OD's lack, that's why I don't use them, neither amp simulations. GT-8 doesn't color the sound really much as an effect, only steals a bit of life, but I can live with it since I need it.
VM's OD sound bad even if I plug only guitar straigt into VM or VM->BD-2/OD-3->VM. But that's ok, because I didn't like the sound of Strat->VM on Marshall presentation either. But VM has great clean sound and one can build from there. Add analog stomps and good sound is on the way.

[SteveD]

That's perfectly reasonable, we're all different and we each have an ideal sound and tone we aspire to. As long as you get there by whatever means in the end then job done.

[HappyBlues]

Well, I play in band that has to cover a lot of different sounds. Original songs were recorder with : Fender Twin Amp, Fender Twin Reverb, Marshall JTM-45, Marshall 1959, Marshall JCM2000 DSL, Vox AC-30 both pre and post Top Boost era ones, Mesa Boogie Nomad 55, Mesa Boogie Dual Rectifier, Matchless DC-30 and I surely forgot some. Some are done with amp's overdrive channel, some are overdriven, some are only amps with stomps, not driven...
In fact, with few OD stomps (each has its voicing) I can get close to those tones with VM. Which I think is great. Because in general, good tube amp always is good tube amp. Good classic Marshall will sound closer to good classic Fender than Fender's own low price models.Because good tube tone is always good tube tone and goodness of tube is there. But that is my opinion.
I can get best tones I ever had with VM with stomps and I'm almost absolutely satisfied with it. Whatever good stomp I put in front of it, amp still sounds awesome, just with different voicing (which is what I look for).
With Boss BD-2 I get great overdriven tones that are quite clean, (im means of dirt) and it sounds fab. With OD-3 I get great crunch with lots of dirt and it sounds just great. With DS-1 it's not that great, that's why I want to replace it with something more gritty.
In general, I always had more luck getting tone that sounded good to my ears with stomps than with amps. That might be because I play copy of 60's strat, and those instruments in general, from my experience, perform much much worse in amp overdrive territory than Les Paul's and PRS's... Still, I get tone I love so I don't have much to muck around.
But if you have constructive ideas how to make my strat play with VM's overdrive you are more than welcome, because in terms of dynamics, breath and purity of tone, overdriven tube amp sounded always better to me... And overdriven amps tend to sound equally good for softer and heavier songs. Just by selecting PU's...

Any suggestions good people?

[Lungo]

What pick-up configuration does your strat have? If it's S-S-S, maybe you would consider a humbucker in the bridge?