Distortion_Pedal

[AYwazowski]

Hi folks,
I'm a newcomer to an electric guitar. I was playing acoustic guitar for 3 years but never tried myself playing an electric guitar. Yesterday I turned 24 and my friends gifted me Yamaha Revstar RS320
So I want to buy a distortion pedal. Which one do you recommend? I have $200 for this aim, don't look for an expensive one for training

[leokula]

What kind of music are you into? Any guitarists whose distorted sound you like?

[dc]

What kind of music are you into? Any guitarists whose distorted sound you like?

also: even in our boutique age, $200 seems like kind of a crazy budget for distortion, which tends to be one of the cheaper FX out there. you could get a Rat for $70 and spend your other $130 on something else, like delay/reverb. with today's mini-pedal options and the used market, you could easily get three good effects.

if something like this had been available when i first started playing, i'd have died and gone to heaven:

https://robertkeeley.com/product/ddr-dr ... ay-reverb/

[Danley]

What amp are you using - something single channel or not yet determined? If you haven’t already chosen, you can base your amp selection around having a good distortion channel/footswitch.

[Jaguar018]

What amp are you using - something single channel or not yet determined? If you haven’t already chosen, you can base your amp selection around having a good distortion channel/footswitch.

You can do this, but I'd also mention that it's important to learn how and what you want to use distortion for with an amp. Having distortion at the 'end' of your signal in the amp can/will sound way different than having it at the 'front' of the amp in a pedal. Does the amp have an effects loop? These are things you might want to start figuring out.

In the meantime, there are certain distortion pedals that have been around for decades. There is a reason for this: they sound good to a lot of guitarists who use all kinds of different amps and guitars. They are Swiss army knife pedals: versatile and effective.

For distortion, I will always recommend Rats. The Boss DS-1 is another. Cheap to buy and easy to resell, and they are universally available. Tubescreamers are overdrives, but I'd check them out too. I don't just mean self-consciously noodling in a guitar store for five minutes. Take them home; fiddle with the knobs a bit. Even if you don't like these pedals and the way they sound/perform it's useful to 'know' them as so many other pedals are based off them and you will learn to avoid them. Valuable purchases and learning either way.

[Danley]

What amp are you using - something single channel or not yet determined? If you haven’t already chosen, you can base your amp selection around having a good distortion channel/footswitch.

You can do this, but I'd also mention that it's important to learn how and what you want to use distortion for with an amp. Having distortion at the 'end' of your signal in the amp can/will sound way different than having it at the 'front' of the amp in a pedal. Does the amp have an effects loop? These are things you might want to start figuring out.

In the meantime, there are certain distortion pedals that have been around for decades. There is a reason for this: they sound good to a lot of guitarists who use all kinds of different amps and guitars. They are Swiss army knife pedals: versatile and effective.

For distortion, I will always recommend Rats. The Boss DS-1 is another. Cheap to buy and easy to resell, and they are universally available. Tubescreamers are overdrives, but I'd check them out too. I don't just mean self-consciously noodling in a guitar store for five minutes. Take them home; fiddle with the knobs a bit. Even if you don't like these pedals and the way they sound/perform it's useful to 'know' them as so many other pedals are based off them and you will learn to avoid them. Valuable purchases and learning either way.

Good points. I like having the effects loop on my TSL to use a distortion as a pre-amp, Ola Englund style I also don't hate the DS1 and agree Rat is a good choice. Part of me prefers boosting a dirty channel with an overdrive to any distortion; that said I think Tube Screamer into a clean amp is not a great sound if OP has say a Twin Reverb. But if the amp can generate dirt on its own that's a great choice; even DS1s don't sound bad through dirty amps though that's not my experience with a lot of distortions.

[AYwazowski]

Hi mates, thank you for feedback!

also: even in our boutique age, $200 seems like kind of a crazy budget for distortion, which tends to be one of the cheaper FX out there. you could get a Rat for $70 and spend your other $130 on something else, like delay/reverb. with today's mini-pedal options and the used market, you could easily get three good effects.

if something like this had been available when i first started playing, i'd have died and gone to heaven:

https://robertkeeley.com/product/ddr-dr ... ay-reverb/

Special thanks for the clarification, now i agree with you.
When i wrote the first post, i hadn't known anything about the price of good distortion. I read some info, and guess what?..
*drumroll*
I thought about EQ pedal, not distortion one. I don't know why, but they mixed up in my head. Sorry for confusing you, that was my bad. As i said i don't savvy in this stuff, but even i was surprised with my stupidity.
What about EQ pedal? I read some articles about them, i feel shame for my mistake, so i have discovered more about pedals.
As i understood there are 2 most common brands of EQ pedals - boss and mxr. What can you say about them?
Also I'd like to know your opinion on reviews like:
https://equipboard.com/posts/best-eq-pedal
https://primesound.org/best-eq-pedals/ and so on. You know what i mean. Is it a good idea to buy something from reviews like these? Or it's just a commercial piece of trash with no usefulness for people, who want to buy good stuff?

[Jaguar018]

You want an eq pedal eh?

Well, to me that was always one of those pedals that I considered after I got all the more 'essential' pedals.

Overdrive
Distortion
Fuzz
Delay
Phaser
Flanger

Lower down for me are pedals like envelope filters, ring modulators, compression, and eq pedals.

With that said, eq pedals can do cool things; MXR and Boss are solid purchases.

[somanytoys]

I think you may need to try 2 or 3 out, if you can, to figure out if you want a graphic eq or a parametric/shelving eq. I think that there are pretty solid camps on each type being better. I usually use parametric/shelving, but I still have a graphic.

The graphic that I have is a Source Audio SA120, with 4 presets and a boost, which is always a plus. It’s also midi switchable, but I don’t use that feature. ~$120 new, lots of used ones for less on reverb.

But as Jaguar said, Boss and MXR are solid.