Nice punchy distortion?

[jrc4558]

Hello everybody!
My band is about to start recordin a demo, and it is time to get the sound right. I'm usin a closed back 2x12 enclosure, which resonates wonderfully at the low frequencies and gives the most natural clean sound ever. But   (there's always a "but" when it comes to the sound), I play strats and other single coil pups equipped guitars. They are amazingly dynamic and soft, and sound great with mild distortions. On the other hand, they lack the punch that is associated with high gain stacks and humbucker-equipped shorter scale guitar (like gibsons).
My main heavy distortion now is the Crash Synch, designed by John Hollis, who did an amazing job. I like the harmonics and the character of that pedal, however, it lack punck (or strong attack, as you wish to call it).

Now, my question is this:
Are there any pedals that would be really high-gain distortion (op-amp based preferred), that would sound like, say, early Sepultura (Arise, Chaos AD), or Pantera (Cowboys from Hell)?

And, if I were to correct the timbre of the guitar (mid-boost) before the distortion stage, which one would you recommend to somehow force the single coils sound"like" humbuckers?

Thank you very much!

[Mark Hammer]

Go to Supremetronic, buy a bunch of 2N5089's and make yourself a Blackfire.  It'll make you think you could power Mississauga with a 9v battery.  Ridiculous gain.  Consider adapting the scoop/normal tone arrangement at the output of a Superfuzz.  Changes to your pickup settings or tone control will change the character of the drive nicely, moreso than many other high-gain or fuzz pedals.

For a somewhat different sound, I found that a Distortion+ circuit, with a pair of silicon diodes instead of germanium, and a pair of paralleled 5534's instead of a 741, yields a very nice "punchy" sound.  A little more aggressive than stock Dist+.

[bwanasonic]

I play strats and other single coil pups equipped guitars. They are amazingly dynamic and soft, and sound great with mild distortions. On the other hand, they lack the punch that is associated with high gain stacks and humbucker-equipped shorter scale guitar (like gibsons).

For recording, a variety of guitars will often yield better results than one type of guitar with a variety of pedals. See if you can rent or borrow a Gibson style guitar or two. Variety is the spice of life and recording.

Kerry M

[Jered]

I second what Mark says, the Blackfire is a gain monster. You never mention what kind of amp your using, but if its solid state you should probably try a Meteor. Its the only circuit that I've heard that made a SS amp sound tube, convincingly.
  Jered

[brett]

As Mark H said;

Go to Supremetronic, buy a bunch of 2N5089's and make yourself a Blackfire.

That is one high gain, wild beast of a  pedal.  For that final "touch" you could follow it with some equalisation to scoop some mids.  Then you're punching like Mr Ali.

have fun

[Bluesgeetar]

Hey constantin.  Ever thought about wiring those singles in a series?
My tele has 7 tones you can get some good punch from singles.  At least I do wired in series.

[jrc4558]

Thanks everybody!

Mark - Ok, I should have tried it in the first place i guess:)

Jered - It's a 1966-68 Fender Bandmaster head, of course I messed with the circuit, so now it's more like Bassman with an extragainstage:)

Bluesgeetar - I'm usin noiseless Dimarzio's in both of my guitars and I'm pretty happy with how they sound in the stock switching configuration, however defore I had a Strat with maybe four extra switches.  :twisted:

[TheBigMan]

I like my GGG Sonic Distortion.  Lots of gain, very thick without being muddy.

[WGTP]

I have to agree about the Black Fire.

Hey Mark, what do you estimate the center frequency and amount of cut is for that notch filter arrangement is?

[Mark Hammer]

I have absolutely no idea, but if either of us got off our butts and did the math based on posted formulae, I suspect we would. :wink:

The notch filter in question is a T, formed by a 10k and 22k resistor, with a .01uf cap at their junction going to ground.  The whole shooting match is bypassed by a .001uf cap.  At the very least, I can say that the 10k/.01 combo forms a lowpass section rolling off at around 1.6khz.  The absence of any resistor in series with the .001uf bypass cap means that some high end goes through unimpeded.  Where that highpass rolloff starts, I couldn't tell you.  If the scoop in that notch is not severe enough for you, then it might make sense to increase the .01uf cap to maybe .015 or even .022, and drop the .001uf cap to 820pf or so.  That will stagger the lowpass rolloff and highpass rolloff even further apart.  Note that this will likely reduce overall signal level.....but few will care because it will sound so malevolent  :twisted:

[RDV]

Has anyone tried that tone control PDF that was posted by Mr. Huge?
It was a BMP type control with a nice switchable option for a different tone.
I'm thinking of building another Blackfire(as my last one was kind of a dud) and using that particular tone circuit.

Regards

RDV

[Paul Marossy]

I used a Marshall style tone stack on my Blackfire. I can't use the pedal, though, it's just way too loud! I have to tweak it so it's not so loud...

[will]

Hi Paul,

I used a Marshall style tone stack on my Blackfire. I can't use the pedal, though, it's just way too loud! I have to tweak it so it's not so loud...

You could try to put a 1K trimpot between the emitter and the 10uf caps to adjust the gain for each gain stage for Q2 & Q4. I did this wilth great results with the Vulcan.

Regards,
Will

[Gringo]

I tried the Huge bmp tonestack after my mosfet obsidian and my vulcan, searching for The tonestack (failed miserably).

The mid scoop is huge(IMO too much), and i'm a metalhead!! The "standard" setting is ok, quite similar to the original.

[Paul Marossy]

Thanks for the tip, will.  

[WGTP]

How does the Vulcan compare to the Black Fire?