Question: Distortion Pedal Recommendations

Deep Eddy

Deep Eddy

Argle Bargle or Foofaraw?
Given the over-saturation of the market with distortion pedals, it's tough to know where to even begin looking for a distortion pedal. Here's what I'm looking for:

1. Good for classic hard rock sound (Marshall). Doesn't need to get into super high-gain modern distortion, but it's fine if it can.
2. $100 or less (used is fine)
3. My amp is a Peavey Classic 30 and guitars are a Les Paul Traditional and a Les Paul Special (P-90s)

I was looking at some demos of the MXR Super Badass Distortion pedal online, and it appears to fit the bill. Of course, MXR offers about 4 bazillion different distortion pedals (Distortion +, Custom Badass 78, Classic, Fullbore Metal, etc. . . ) . Then there are the multitude of other brands out there.

Any help narrowing the field is appreciated.
 
I recently got an Electro Harmonix Soul Food. It's supposed to be a Klon clone. I've never tried a Klon so I can't say for sure. But it is a really nice transparent OD. And it was $62 new.
 
The Super Badass Distortion is really a Marshall Shredmaster.
The '78 Badass Distortion is really a Keeley modded BOSS DS-1.
The ProCo RAT (and Turbo RAT) are also great choices.
The EHX Glove is a Fulltone OCD clone.
My experience with the Soul Food is that I do not like soft clip overdrives. I wouldn't recommend it for this application.
 
I was running a Marshall Jackhammer, which is an updated (improved, IMHO) version of the Shredmaster into a Peavey Classic 30 and liked it a lot. It was my first experience with a dirt pedal that I would call "transparent". It didn't change the character of the guitar or my playing -- just made it crunchy.

So, if an MXR Super Badass is based on the Shredmaster, that's not a bad way to go.

BTW, I have an original Shredmaster. It's good but overrated. The range of usable control for the gain leaves a lot to be desired. Marshall fixed that on the Jackhammer but added a useless muddy higher-gain setting and went to annoying concentric pots.
 
I have a '78 Custom Badass that I use for my "hard/classic rock" sound and I like it a lot. I use a Satchurator for my more metal sound.
 
The Wampler Pinnacle is the best sounding distortion pedal I've ever heard. I'm not normally a fan of pedals... I like the sound of cascading tube preamps and somehow Wampler was able to get that sound in a pedal without any tubes in it. Just amazing.

Brand new they're $200, but Zzounds has one for $135 http://www.zzounds.com/item--WAMPINNACLE

pinnacle-0f69dceb14275a51c3fda525733129ab.jpg
 
baimun said:
The Wampler Pinnacle is the best sounding distortion pedal I've ever heard. I'm not normally a fan of pedals... I like the sound of cascading tube preamps and somehow Wampler was able to get that sound in a pedal without any tubes in it. Just amazing.

Brand new they're $200, but Zzounds has one for $135 http://www.zzounds.com/item--WAMPINNACLE

pinnacle-0f69dceb14275a51c3fda525733129ab.jpg
Click to expand...
Damnit, baimun... Now you have me thinking it's possible for me to get a Pinnacle for myself...

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I have the Cannonball which is a modded version, but I want to pick up a regular Wave Cannon too. LOVE IT!
 
Chad said:
Another vote for a Rat. You can basically set the knobs wherever you want and it still sounds good.


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Click to expand...


But the rat also has a definite "That's it's sound" thing going on regardless of where the knobs are. You either love it or hate it... there's not really any "well you just need to dial it in."
 
baimun said:
But the rat also has a definite "That's it's sound" thing going on regardless of where the knobs are. You either love it or hate it... there's not really any "well you just need to dial it in."
Click to expand...

Agreed.


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I have the Wampler Pinnacle Deluxe and its great but I actually spend a lot of time with my Voodoo Lab Sparkledrive MOD stacked with the RC Booster for my crunch on cover gigs. The Wampler comes out for the 80's hair metal more than anything else.
 
@Mark Wein ... I'm looking for something to add some spank to a clean channel for funky clean solos. You think the Sparkle drive is the right thing for that, or is that too much of a distortion pedal? I was also thinking that or one of those TC spark booster or something. I don't just want a clean volume boost (I have that) or a distortion pedal... looking for something inbetween.
 
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