Can someone recommend a pedal...

chorduroy

Playing a strat out of a fender frontman 65R and looking for a little more thickness from the drive channel. THe drive channel is just OK but it seems too trebley even after adjusting the bass and mid knobs. Im not looking for a heavy metal/death metal sound.. Looking for a pedal that may fatten up the sound a little and give me something more similar to PJ....obviously a tube amp would get me there but I dont have that kinda doe right now!.

gimmesometruth27

"Fulltone OCD" or zvex "box of rock" should give you what you are looking for. not sure how great they sound with a solid state amp, but they are the basis of my dirty/overdriven tone for all of my tube amps. the box of rock is basically a vintage marshall jmp overdriven tone in a stomp box and it has a clean boost for leads/solos. you can turn the pedals on and turn the tone knob down some and it will take some of the high end/treble from your amp down a little bit. really you can not go wrong with either one and/or both.

timbo1972

Ah! I have a similar question is someone can help... my brother is 40 in a few weeks and I thought I'd splash a little. He has become more involved in a local music scene where he lives focused on rock covers/pub bands etc. Seems to be something of a collective. I think he is using a Marshall amp and an Orange valve pre-amp(?). Has a few pedals but thought I'd get another for him. He tends to play Epiphone and other versions of Guitars and, I think, currently has a Les Paul copy, a Strat copy and some semi-acoustic thingy.

I took him to see PJ for his birthday last year and he commented on how Mike 'dropped' his fender to heavyier tone. Searching around here and on tinternet I have found the Keeley modified TS9 Tubescream, seems to be two versions thereof.

Does this sound like the kind of pedal that would give what he liked in Mike's sound? I have been watching youTube gear reviews and this seems to be a respected pedal.

Also, given he plays local halls and pubs with mates, part of the appeal is likely to be in the 'gearhead' aspect as well. It does have a cool blue light too...

Any help appreciated, also, which of the two is better. One seems to have an extra thingy... is it worth it?

Alternatively another recommendation would be fine too. The prices I saw for the TS direct from Keeley were £150 and £180 respectively (I think).


Thanks

savman

Hi Dave,
Yip the Keeley modded Tube Screamer gets a good rap on these baords and Mike uses one.
He also used a Boss BD2 (Blues Driver) also modded by Keeley. That ones a slight more punch in my opinion.

Pacomc79

A blues driver or a super overdrive is a good one to try. They usually cohabitate well with solid state amps.

ScrapeMySky

Isn't it the case that, very generally speaking, distortions seem to work better with solid states than overdrives? Just because an overdrive is more or less just boosting the input of the (tube) preamp and the distortions do it within the unit? It's a little late over here and I'm really in no condition to make an educated contribution right now but I seem to remember it that way.

timbo1972

Thanks for the tips.

I phoned the Keeley peeps in the UK and spoke to the most helpful chap. He recommended the TS something or other flexi but also said they has a no quibble return/exchange policy even if opened and tried and, further, that if an additional gizmo was required he would 'do a deal'.

Not often you get such good service on a distance sale these days...

Recommended.

chorduroy

Pacomc79 wrote:

A blues driver or a super overdrive is a good one to try. They usually cohabitate well with solid state amps.

Thanks Pacomc....Im going to give the blues driver (prob both) of these a try....there are plenty of them out there on ebay at the moment...

mccreadyisgod

Yeah, the Tubescreamer family of pedals don't typically work well with solid-state amps. I used to think my first TS-9 sucked when I was playing through my original Fender SS amp, or the Peavey I replaced it with. But when I got my first tube amp, I totally got it.

The Boss family of pedals sounds much better with SS amps. A Tubescreamer is meant to push tubes, not make a SS amp sound like it has tubes. Indeed, that's what any good overdrive SHOULD do.

xtremehardy388

Boss BD2 or a Bad Monkey by digitech

DaveyG

Check out the Visual Sound Jekyll & Hyde Overdrive/Distortion. The Jekyll side is like a Tube Screamer with a bass boost.

sfish521

i have a mxr m66 classic overdrive that i play through the same fender fm 65 ss amp and i love the tone

xtremehardy388

sfish521 wrote:

i have a mxr m66 classic overdrive that i play through the same fender fm 65 ss amp and i love the tone

MXR makes some pretty BAD stuff....and by "BAD" I mean good...

sfish521

xtremehardy388 wrote:

sfish521 wrote:

i have a mxr m66 classic overdrive that i play through the same fender fm 65 ss amp and i love the tone

MXR makes some pretty BAD stuff....and by "BAD" I mean good...

yeah i'm completely sold on their pedals... i really want to get a dyna comp and i know mccready uses the phase 90 so that will probably be the next two pedals i get

keeponrockin

sfish521 wrote:

xtremehardy388 wrote:

sfish521 wrote:

i have a mxr m66 classic overdrive that i play through the same fender fm 65 ss amp and i love the tone

MXR makes some pretty BAD stuff....and by "BAD" I mean good...

yeah i'm completely sold on their pedals... i really want to get a dyna comp and i know mccready uses the phase 90 so that will probably be the next two pedals i get

I use my Dynacomp as a quasi overdrive... Boost the volume, gives a punch without any more gain.

sfish521

chorduroy wrote:

Playing a strat out of a fender frontman 65R and looking for a little more thickness from the drive channel. THe drive channel is just OK but it seems too trebley even after adjusting the bass and mid knobs. Im not looking for a heavy metal/death metal sound.. Looking for a pedal that may fatten up the sound a little and give me something more similar to PJ....obviously a tube amp would get me there but I dont have that kinda doe right now!.

go to guitar center and look at the MXR M-66 Classic Overdrive. They had a sale recently and were selling it for $29.99. As far as I know they are the exclusive dealer of this pedal and it was a "special run". The pedal isnt listed on jimdunlop.com anymore either. It has incredible tone and plays well with a solid state amp.(I have the same one as you and playing the pedal and the amp overdrive channel side by side sounds like a day and night difference. If you can't find it at guitar center, you'll have to dig a bit deeper into your pocket and try the ebay solution. there's plenty of reviews/demos on youtube to get an idea of the sound. here's an ebay auction in case if you want to get it.
http://cgi.ebay.com/MXR-M-66-Classic-Ov ... _740wt_930

xtremehardy388

chorduroy wrote:

Playing a strat out of a fender frontman 65R and looking for a little more thickness from the drive channel. THe drive channel is just OK but it seems too trebley even after adjusting the bass and mid knobs. Im not looking for a heavy metal/death metal sound.. Looking for a pedal that may fatten up the sound a little and give me something more similar to PJ....obviously a tube amp would get me there but I dont have that kinda doe right now!.

Also take a look at the Marshall Guv'nor. It NAILS PJ.

chorduroy

Thanks to everyone for the awesome advice...much appreciated. So, after all of the advice and tips, the pedal I chose to go with is................Got sidetracked and havent got it yet!..haha

But based on what Ive read here and heard (youtube demos) Ive narrowed it down between the Boss BD2 and MXR M-66 Classic Overdrive...

doctor z

An Ibanez groove tube works great with a Fender twin reverb or similar tube amp .

Wolf At Bay

Been a while since I played my solid state fender, but I used to run a Big Muff into it, and I remember it sounding decent, but I don't know.

sfish521

chorduroy wrote:

Thanks to everyone for the awesome advice...much appreciated. So, after all of the advice and tips, the pedal I chose to go with is................Got sidetracked and havent got it yet!..haha

But based on what Ive read here and heard (youtube demos) Ive narrowed it down between the Boss BD2 and MXR M-66 Classic Overdrive...

here's an m-66 for $40 on ebay if you decide on that one
http://cgi.ebay.com/MXR-M-66-Classic-Ov ... _500wt_947

AzWicker

I love my timmy and would recommend it, especially for stratocasters. If you are short on cash, Danoelectric cloned it and calls it a transparent overdrive.

xtremehardy388

chorduroy wrote:

Thanks to everyone for the awesome advice...much appreciated. So, after all of the advice and tips, the pedal I chose to go with is................Got sidetracked and havent got it yet!..haha

But based on what Ive read here and heard (youtube demos) Ive narrowed it down between the Boss BD2 and MXR M-66 Classic Overdrive...

BD2 is the most versatile pedal IMO. The Marshall Guv'nor 2 is a good PJ pedal. Good luck.

DaveyG

chorduroy wrote:

Thanks to everyone for the awesome advice...much appreciated. So, after all of the advice and tips, the pedal I chose to go with is................Got sidetracked and havent got it yet!..haha

But based on what Ive read here and heard (youtube demos) Ive narrowed it down between the Boss BD2 and MXR M-66 Classic Overdrive...

I strongly reccommend at least trying out the Jekyll and Hyde, I didn't think I was going to like it, but I liked it a lot more then any other distortion and overdrive pedals.