What is the OSG dirt family of choice?

Everyone needs a stompbox.

What's on your board?

Muff type
35
16%
Rat type
32
15%
Tubescreamer type
20
9%
Fuzzface type
13
6%
DS-1 type
4
2%
Blues Driver type
14
6%
Klon type
22
10%
Bender type
12
5%
Octave fuzz type
7
3%
Superfuzz type
13
6%
Treble booster type
9
4%
Tim/Timmy Transparent OD type
11
5%
Other
28
13%
 
Total votes: 220

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Flurko
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Re: What is the OSG dirt family of choice?

Post by Flurko » Thu Sep 08, 2022 12:24 am

I never was particularly picky about pedals, and I can't say I have played any of the classics listed in the poll.
Let's see, in chronological order I've had :

-Behringer Blues Overdrive : I guess it's supposed to be some kind of Blues Driver hommage, the gain knob has been broken for a decade so it does only big farting fuzz noises. Funny but not really useful.

-Danelectro Pastrami : I had this period in time when I only bought stuff on Thomann when my friend had an order going, to save on shipping, which made for weird spontaneous choices. It's not bad, except for the shoddy plastic housing and pots, a nasty scratchy distortion which was my main OD sound for a while.

Fast forward ten+ years to

-Boss DS-2 : only bought it because it was sold for cheap along with a used pedalboard I got locally. It doesn't do subtle but I like the different modes.

-Harley Benton/Joyo American Sound : it's more a preamp than an OD, but it's really nice once plugged into a loud Poweramp, with a compressor pedal in the front I have nice singing leads and feedback, really pleasing physical experience.

-EHX Nano Metal Muff : I'm in a metal band now, and I needed something heavier, with definition and the gate inside is really useful. Turns out I like having the choice to get into howling Feedback or not, and the jazzmaster onto the cranked DS-2 was just walls of Larsen whenever I was not playing.

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Re: What is the OSG dirt family of choice?

Post by s_mcsleazy » Thu Sep 08, 2022 3:19 am

i should mention. i do have a lot of dirt pedals for other styles. i really like a lot of pedals designed for "metal" in the 80's and 90's because they're great at getting that 90's skate punk guitar tone (DOD metal maniac and dean markley tube overlord come to mind) i like having different kinds of fuzz because sometimes you just need that sound for recording. weirdly, i own more boosts than overdrives but in my post-hardcore band, my klone (mr latte head) gets a lot of use. i don't really like overdrive when recording. always sounds kinda flat.
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Re: What is the OSG dirt family of choice?

Post by redchapterjubilee » Thu Sep 08, 2022 5:11 am

I'm a solid overdrive guy. Klone/Timmy/EQ pedal and stack it all with something a little gnarly like my beloved Upstate Analog Rat or a SS/BS Mini or a Mk I.V Tonebender. Any and all could be on a recording. Live, it's (from right to left) a Klone (ARC v2 on the big board, Tumnus on the little board); Rat (either the original on the big board or a clone I had made for the little board); and an eq'ed boost (Timmy v2 on the big board, Fish & Chips EQ on the little board).

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Re: What is the OSG dirt family of choice?

Post by del » Thu Sep 08, 2022 6:37 am

With "select up to 10" available, I'm surprised by the low score of the Fuzz Face! I would have guessed that FF would be in the leading mix with muff, rat, and "other."
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Re: What is the OSG dirt of choice? (Whoops, reset results!)

Post by kingmedicine » Thu Sep 08, 2022 8:28 am

Bradley-Jazz wrote:
Wed Sep 07, 2022 7:20 am
kingmedicine wrote:
Wed Sep 07, 2022 6:19 am
A Rat and a Hotcake are the only two absolutes on any of my boards these days. If there is a 3rd, I’ll sometimes add a “transparent”-style OD.

With smaller amps, I could probably get away with just the Hotcake and with larger amps just the Rat would be fine.
What amps are you using? Is there any truth to the story that Hotcakes are great with Voxes, and a bit flat with Fenders?
The Hotcake does sound amazing with a Vox, but works with many other amps as well (I haven’t found the Fender thing to be true). I’m mostly using it as sort of a dirty boost (volume most of the way up and gain around 9-11 o’clock) with either an AC30 or brownface Princeton-type amp. Used it previously with a BF Deluxe Reverb, SF Vibrolux, and SF Bassman though and got great sounds.

I don’t love it with the gain above noon-ish in general though (with any amp), which is why I prefer it with smaller amps as a dirty boost or stacking with/hitting another overdrive. Seems to have better volume knob cleanup than anything else I have as well.

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Re: What is the OSG dirt family of choice?

Post by fuzzjunkie » Thu Sep 08, 2022 2:24 pm

EQD Special Cranker


I don’t know for sure on this one, but the Speaker Cranker is a One Knob Fuzz variant, which is basically a Silicon Fuzz Face.
The edge between fuzz and overdrive
That’s my favorite zone too. David Torn calls it “Underfuzz” but fuzzy overdrive will do. I have a couple of pedals that do a good job of that.

I have one pedal that I use as Big Muff, or a sound somewhere between a Superfuzz and a Big Muff, or as a replacement for a Roland BeeBaa that used to live on my board, but it’s a Fairfield Four Eyes, so really should be “other” as it’s 3 JFets in parallel with 3 sweepable band filters.

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Re: What is the OSG dirt family of choice?

Post by JSett » Fri Sep 09, 2022 10:29 am

If I turn down the volume just a crack at the guitar my Sunface goes into a glorious 'Underfuzz" :?
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Re: What is the OSG dirt family of choice?

Post by Maggieo » Fri Sep 09, 2022 2:10 pm

The RAT and fuzzes, with some Klon tosses in now and then.
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Re: What is the OSG dirt family of choice?

Post by cpeck » Sun Sep 11, 2022 3:23 am

Mostly Big Muff, though I got a mk 3 Tonebender recently and it records beautifully.

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Re: What is the OSG dirt family of choice?

Post by sessylU » Wed Sep 14, 2022 1:22 am

Hmm, not as many Treble Boosters as I'd have thought. Such an useful, obvious pedal to have on your board.
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Re: What is the OSG dirt family of choice?

Post by fever606 » Thu Sep 15, 2022 3:14 am

del wrote:
Thu Sep 08, 2022 6:37 am
With "select up to 10" available, I'm surprised by the low score of the Fuzz Face! I would have guessed that FF would be in the leading mix with muff, rat, and "other."
I know I’m in the minority, but I just can never get a Fuzz Face to work with my (Jaguar > Hiwatt) setup. The SG > Bassman pairing fairs better, but it’s still never “the sound I’m after.”

I have a feeling things might be different if I played lead, but I am nothing if not a mildly competent rhythm player…
cpeck wrote:
Sun Sep 11, 2022 3:23 am
Mostly Big Muff, though I got a mk 3 Tonebender recently and it records beautifully.
Pretty much my experience after discovering the Mk 3 / 4 / Supa / Jumbo Tone Benders. Just different enough but not too far removed from the Muff… and they definitely cut through a mix better.

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Re: What is the OSG dirt family of choice?

Post by MrShake » Thu Sep 15, 2022 3:42 am

del wrote:
Thu Sep 08, 2022 6:37 am
With "select up to 10" available, I'm surprised by the low score of the Fuzz Face! I would have guessed that FF would be in the leading mix with muff, rat, and "other."
Same surprise here. I've grown to enjoy them, but they're just not for me to use all the time. But most other people seem to love 'em.

Since volume knob cleanup is so important to a lot of Fuzz Face players, maybe it's that JMs/Jags don't do the volume rolloff as well? At least mine don't.

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Re: What is the OSG dirt family of choice?

Post by dave19er » Sun Sep 18, 2022 7:12 am

johnnysomersett wrote:
Fri Sep 09, 2022 10:29 am
If I turn down the volume just a crack at the guitar my Sunface goes into a glorious 'Underfuzz" :?
I just learned about this trick fairly recently (a year or so ago). Turning down the volume to about 7 on a strat running through a Sunface gives it an amazing, glassy tone. It’s just about my favorite clean tone ever. I don’t use the Sunface for dirt at all. I do use one of a variety of Klones, a tubescreamer (Maxon 808), and a 20-some year old Zen Drive that /never/ leaves my pedal board (and is what I grab if I can only take one pedal). I had a King of Tone, but traded it towards a guitar, because I just could never quite get the tone to work for me. I’ll probably pick up a Duke of Tone to try again.

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Re: What is the OSG dirt family of choice?

Post by Lost In Autumn » Thu Sep 22, 2022 1:04 am

MXR Distortion + has been my goto for many, many years. I'd put it in the "transparent drive, Boss OD-1" derivative category.

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Re: What is the OSG dirt family of choice?

Post by JSutter » Thu Sep 22, 2022 7:50 am

For distorion pedals, I am a long time user of a Marshall Shredmaster or a clone. Lately I have been using a Boss MT-2 clone I modded. For overdrive, Boss SD-1.

Otherwise I would use amp distortion.

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