Guitar effect question

Cafe Society
1

I’m just starting to learn to play guitar, after having played bass for a while, and I’m looking for a cheap (<$100 for sure) effect that will give me something of a bright “vintage” distortion sound. Think like the solo to “Last Nite” by The Strokes, or really that whole song… or really everything that band plays…

Anyway, something that is not a heavy metal crunch/roar or a 60’s fuzzbuzz sound. Something a little brighter and more subtle, a little fuzzy edge with a lot of extra sustain. I know this is a tall order when I’m not willing to pay much, but of course I don’t really expect to be able to sound just like The Strokes for $60. I just want to know if the Dopers can recommend something kind of like that sound that’s really cheap. Maybe one of the various Danelectro distortion pedals? But which one?

Any suggestions are appreciated.

LC

2

I generally enjoy a good ‘overdrive’ pedal. But for what you what you want something that’ll let you fine tune it.

3

I have found the Ibanez Tube Screamer Classic to be a very versatile distortion pedal. Try one out in a store…

4

second on the tube screamer

Check these two things out.

Line 6 POD, revolutionized guitar pedals. sounds incredible

Digitech RP50, amazing little box.

5

Well, I’ve bid on an Ibanez Tube Screamer Classic with eBay, but I imagine I’ll be outbid before the auction ends. If not, rock on, I got a really good deal. Those things are apparently hard to hunt down (The TS-10, that is).

Short of that, I’ll go to a guitar shop and try out the Danelectro Pastrami overdrive, I’ve read good things about that at Harmony Central, and it’s hard to beat the price - at any given time on eBay there are numerous auctions selling them for around $25.

I way can’t afford either a POD or the Digitech Multi-Effect, but even if I could, I’m not looking for that much versatility just yet, and I’m doubting that the single effects on those boxes sound as good as a stomp box would.

Some day I’ll be able to afford a box that will nail that slightly edgy overdriven tube-amp sound, that’ll just make it SING. Until then, I’ll work on actually getting good enough that that will matter. :wink:

LC

6

Try a Dallas-Arbiter Fuzz Face. You can still get them in most music stores. They sound awful on chords but great on single note stuff.

7

A lot of punk bands used to use an overdrive pedal combined with the natural distortion of their gain turned up to 10. It’s too thick for the style of guitar I usually play but I’ve tried it and it does sound good for that kind of music. Experiment with different levels of gain on both the amp and the pedal. Even the cheapest pedals in the world should give you a good sound if you experiment with them.

8

Very popular pedal.

You can recreate the Strokes “Shit-Sound” (because anything that reminds me of the Strokes sounds like shit), by using amp distortion with highs at 8, mids at around 5-6, and lows around 3-4, maybe 5. And play with your bridge pickup or the turnon both the the bridge and middle pickups if they are single coil.

You don’t need any fancy pedals for this sound. In fact, I think in live sets I have had to sit thru of theirs they don’t even have stomp boxes, just a switch to turn on and off the amp distortion.

9

Don’t know if they’re available where you are, but I can recommend the Sansamp pedal; you can dial in how much distortion you want, and it sounds pretty good with ‘just a little’ (which most pedals, in my experience, don’t). It has three choices for mic placement, three for amp simulation type (I think it’s Fender/Marshall/Vox AC30) and three for overdrive depth, plus tone controls etc.

10

Before I comment, I’d like to tell you that I own the following equipment to give you an idea where I’m coming from…

Guitars…

1968 Cherry Red Gibson ES335 (Mint)
1971 Black Beauty Gibson Les Paul Custom (with soapbar pickups)
1972 Sunburst Gibson Les Paul Standard
1973 Tobacco Sunburst Fender Telecaster Custom (humbucker on neck)

Amps…

1965 Fender Blackface Twin Reverb (the real deal, not the reissue)
1967 Vox AC30
1971 Vox AC30
1989 Marshall JCM900 Combo

Pedals…

OK… I own one at the moment - a Korg AX100G - but I’ve tried heaps over the years - including a fairly intensive “free trial over a 3 month period” last year of the Line 6 POD.

All things being equal, when I’m recording, I point blank refuse to use any pedals whatsoever - except for this Korg jigger because it has some very nice “dial in” delays. And the reason? A great guitar sound, a truly, truly great guitar sound, relies as much on the “sound pressure energy” driving INTO your strings from your amp as it does upon your guitar and your playing.

As you can see by my little arsenal above, I can pretty well get any “famous” tone you’d care to mention. Time after time, I’ll try another pedal that the local muso store offers me to roadtest, and every time (with the exception of one which I shall tell you about in a moment) I come away disappointed - simply because my gear is sufficiently good and varied that these pedals (especially the multi effects pedals) often are merely “trying” to replicate what I already have at my dsiposal. It then becomes a question of “why bother using a fake modelling option” when I’ve got the real thing right there in front of me.

The exception to the rule was the Proco Rat pedal. Man, that thing is impressive. Dave Grohl put me onto that one. I asked him one time “how did you get those tones on Learn to Fly?” because I own the same guitars and amps he used on that song (the ES335 and Les Pauls going thru a Vox AC30 cranked to maximum).

He explained that for the choruses, and choruses alone, he’d stomp on that Proco Rat pedal and it just created this “wall of sound” which he double tracked and panned hard left and hard right.

OK… so how does this help you?

At the pro recording end, the major players are using mostly a “Big Muff” or the “Proco Rat” - and contrary to popular myth - units like the Line 6 POD are NOT being used in true high budget releases. To this day, nothing beats having a genuine classic amp and a genuine classic guitar and playing them real loud because of the “cyclical energy between amp and guitar” which is taking place.

However, the Strokes sound itself is really quite easy for me to achieve. They just use vintage Fender amps from the 60’s. My Blackface Twin turned up to about 7 out of 10 gets that sound real easy. But bear in mind, those vintage amps are a pretty penny nowadays.

Just trust me when I say this. You don’t get anything for nothing. As much as the publicity will tell you otherwise, it’s point blank impossible for digital modelling to “truly” clone a loud amp. Also, as your ears become better trained, you start to notice the “fake” high frequency sound artefacts on these pedals which is similar to that “squelchy” mp3 sound on low bit rates you might have heard.

All in all, consider the two pedals I just mentioned. If they’re good enough for Dave Grohl, you can’t go wrong.

11

The Rat!

(I myself use a TurboRat for my bass)

12

It’s true that many recording artists don’t use any effects while recording (they really can screw with your feedback effects), but you can bet several layers of effects are added during production in most cases. That’s why a lot of guitarists like pedals - they can sound like the album, not what it sounded like as it was recorded. And just because you don’t see a guitarist using pedals when playing live doesn’t mean there’s not a sound tech switching effects on and off for different parts of the song.

13

BBF - I totally believe you when you say that a classic tube amp cranked to distortion level is the best way to get that overdrive edge. The fact is, I can’t afford to spend anything like what it would cost to get such an amp. I just want to be able to get something that sounds sorta maybe a little bit like I did, and I don’t want to pay too much for the privelege.

I’m considering the DOD 250 Reissue, and the Boss SD-1. Anyone know much about those?

LC