What is your favourite distortion?

[nightingale]

tele->rangemaster[ge]->18watter clone.. not as bright sounding as you would think.. more of an Iommi type tone..

[Elektrojänis]

Elektrojänis: How did you modify your Scrambler?

Hmmm... I should have actually said modified scrambler clone but I guess that it's easy to quess as the originals are quite rare.

My mods for it (or what I remember of them):

1. Germanium diodes for the rectifier stage. This smooths out the very end of the sustain. Not that it is really a problem. Even with silicon diodes sustain does not get choppy until the very end when it is almost impossible to hear it anyway. The downside (well... depends what you like) is that with ge diodes it looses a bit of the nice edge from the note attacks. Actually I'm not sure if the original diodes are ge or si but I think the tonfrenzy samples sound more like the si version. I'm planning to make the diodes switchable between ge and si.

2. Tone control. I added a rat style tone filtter on the end for taming it down a bit if needed. I also put in a switch for bypassing the filter. I find that I mostly have the filter off. Still it is not a bad option to have.

3. Simple fet booster and a volume control on the end. The volume control makes it easier to use with other stuff. The booster counteracts the volume loss of the tone control (not much actually if the tone isnät set to very dark setting) and makes it possible to drive the following effect/amp a little harder when the blend is set to a milder setting. The booster might also distort a bit on some settings.

As I said... Not a basic "just leave it on" type of tone. I just like the weird stuff.

Edit (forgot one):

4. I used 2n3904 for q1, q3 and g4 and 2n2222 for q2. I could not get the specified transistors from my local suplier. I tried some others too. I tried some darlingtons for 1, 3 and 4,  but I liked 2n3904 most. The differences where not too big though (to my ears anyway).

[Hal]

as of now, i have yet to find a distoirtion pedal that sounds at good as my all tube Peavey Ultra 112 :-D.

Im still hunting :-D.  I love my mosface, though.

[brian wenz]

Hello Hello--
   Hhhmmmmm........it's a toss-up between a Vox Tonebender MK I  and a Tonebender MK II.
Brian.

[nero1985]

SLASH's distortion is the coolest but the hardest to simulate!!!!

[jasonober]

today it's dod fx50 because it's the one i modded today  but i almost always like my modded ds-1

[bwanasonic]

Been rediscovering Ebow lately, and I find the distortion tone (into a clean tube amp) gorgeous. When combined with a volume pedal and a little echo, it provides a nice range of violin-like tones.

 Have also been enjoying the *synergy* of several DIY pedals with some old stand-by commercial pedals to form my own *boutique* distortion.  My trusty vintage TS9 (with 808 and *brown* mods) and MXR Dyna-Comp combine really well with an AMZ MosFet Boost and ROG Fetzer in various combinations, for a nice range of tones. My RM clone into my Rivera Quiana dirty channel is super sweet, but it doesn't work the same magic with my more small gig friendly Traynor YCV20.  A few pedals that I love, but rarely gig with these days::

Rat II
GT2
Ge FF

Kerry M

[Elektrojänis]

SLASH's distortion is the coolest but the hardest to simulate!!!!

Well... If you count in the part of the tone that comes from his fingers it might be... Otherwise it's probably just a bit expensive and loud as most of it comes from the guitar and amp only.

Check this site: http://cosmos.oninetspeed.pt/slashguitarpage/Slashsound.html

It might be possible to make a ROG/Doug Hammond -style fet simulation of that amp, but the schematic (http://www.drtube.com/schematics/marshall/2555amp.gif) looks quite complex... or at least big.  BTW. It seems to me it uses diodes/leds for clipping.

[petemoore]

Bwanasonic Wrote:
 "Have also been enjoying the *synergy* of several DIY pedals with some old stand-by commercial pedals to form my own *boutique* distortion. My trusty vintage TS9 (with 808 and *brown* mods) and MXR Dyna-Comp combine really well with an AMZ MosFet Boost and ROG Fetzer in various combinations, for a nice range of tones."
 I really couldn't agree more exactly!!!, but would add, Orange Squeezer into Mos or other Face . ...DS-1...Dist+...
 My Fetzer is on a bypass switch, in the same box as, and before the [also bypassed switched] DS-1...I really like that. The Fetzer sounds great, simple, and is a great Fuzz Driver.
 I tried lots of combo's, Rangemaster, Stratoblaster, Mosfet Boost stages, before Fuzz...Hot Fuzzes can be found this way too.

[PB Wilson]

SLASH's distortion is the coolest but the hardest to simulate!!!!

Try Doug Hammond's Highway 89. I'm almost finished with mine and judging from the sound clips, it seems like it is the perfect pedal for that late '80s sound.

On another note, what are your thoughts on Doug's Meteor pedal? It's on my short list of projects.

[petemoore]

Haven't tried the Meteor or the Hwy 89. Both are high on the list of near future Jfet builds.
 I can say there sure are many options to consider these days for the large batch of Jfets soon to be arriving here .
 I have a BSIAB to tweek on, and ROG Jfet tube amp type schematics to think about...