Distortion for heavier stuff

[MartyMart]

Had to chime in here...
I never got the hard/prog/nu metal sound out of my BSIAB...  but I've built two SansAmpGT2's and the Mesa setting is absolutely awesome - blows away all three of my Dr. Boogey builds...  The 'Mod' switch alters the tone very well and the 'Mic' switch gives interesting colour too... 
The GT2 is definitely not an easy build... but in one of my threads, 'theman' let me know about the Behringer GDI21 - a clone of the GT2 with an XLR output... all for $30... Not really in the spirit of DIY...but it could get you in the ballpark... add a little EQ and you might just find your heavy sound... 
Disclaimer: I still haven't tried a GDI21 but definitely will...

Good luck.
Mike

Good suggestiond Mike, no it's not DIY, but I have one and it compares quite well to the real Sansamp !
Great deal for 30 or so bucks, I just have a problem with my DI out "squealing" a bit, jack out is
fine.

MM

[oldrocker]

I have to agree with all of the great suggestions here.  The Highway 89 has my vote too.   You can email him for the schematic at dougbhammond@yahoo.com and see if he'll send you the schem.  He's nice so I'm sure he won't have problem sending it to you.  The perf layout for it is on the home-wrecker.com site.  This has four knobs which makes it an intermediate build but worth it.  Set to full bass tone it sounds almost metal.  Well close anyway.  I haven't built the BSIAB2 or the Dr. Boogey so I'm sure these would be great too,  but IMHO are more advanced.  My Hwy89 has 3904's (available at Radio Shack) for transistors and it kicks a#@.  Just my thoughts.

[John Lyons]

He's asking for a modern rock sound with more gain than the Ts-9 , not "nu" or any other kind of metal. (I think)

For me the BSIAB has a very good "modern rock" sound.

John

[jpm83]

A big thanks for all off you. The tone I´m after is kind of new studio distortion standart. Here is one sample http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_b8ReBYFaJA&mode=related&search=

Janne

[Meanderthal]

Jeez- yeah, Basicaudio's on the right track. I was thinking Scandinavian hardcore death metal or something... nowdays if ya want "Heavier" some stuff gets about as heavy as you can possibly imagine, and then a little past that sometimes...

[petemoore]

  All I know's what I hear about the Sansamp, that or the BSIAB should get alot of that, some of it sounds 'just huge', heavy, but not particularly heavily distorted.

[John Lyons]

That's a good point Pete.
There is a distinction between heavy and tight as oppossed to just a ton of gain and being mushy.
The big muff has a lot of gain and it's pretty compressed and clipped. For the Seattle sound and "stoner rock" (others too of course) the big muff is king. A big wall of sound but pretty slugy...

The BSIAB2 and Dr boogey have a lot of gain but they are well defined as well as heavy and built for hard rock, each string comes through pretty clear in chording and riffing.. They sound "modern" to my ears. (Hell, I don't even like 99% of modern rock to be truthfull)

There are other Nice High gainers out there (Meteor, Mr MOStorto, Highway 89, Blackfire and some others of Joe D's making) but these two are the only two distortions I've built that seem to fit the Modern Rock bill (so far) that I can comment on.

I'll shut up now...

John

[boogietube]

You make me laugh Izzy!

Try Sansamp GT2 . They are pretty solid!

He's trying to build a high gain pedal that's NOT complicated!
The GT2 is waaaay more complex than a Dr Boogie.
And really guys, the Dr. is not that complex.  Just lots of offboard pot wiring.

[brett]

Hi
I've built quite a few of the pedals discussed, and play a bit of rock.  So here's my 2c worth:
Distortion + - excellent for a 1980s "tough" sound.  Probably under-rated here coz it's so simple.
To me, the Jordan Bosstone sounds as good or better that the D+.  (Gain is approx 2 x Q1 hFE, so a hFE of 400 gives wild gain)
Rat - exellent choice IMO.  Also under-rated.  My main pedal for "substantial" rock.
GT-2 - I still have psychological scars from building that thing.  Interesting tones, but .... arghh.
Highway 89 - good choice IMO.
Almost anything by Joe Davisson fits this style, especially the Easydrive (lighter) and the Blackfire (transistor version is heavy and excellent).
The Whisker-biscuit hasn't got a mention, but is cool, too.

A non-intuitive alternative is the tube-sound fuzz.  Wait...  In high-gain mode (e.g. 470k feedback resistors and 22pf caps) they can really rock.  Mark Hammer is the guru about these.

cheers
PS I can't comment on the BSIAB coz I still haven't built one.  For years I wondered what the hell a "brown" sound would sound like.     I'm still not totally sure, but threads like this have helped.

[jpm83]

I think I go for BSIAB 2. I have listened some sound samples and the versatility of BSIAB 2 is maybe the main reason I´m going to try it. Thanks for all of you again for answering, I know these type of questions may be difficult because of different tastes for sound and many possibilities for create that sound. So I´m very thankful.

Janne

[sfr]

An LPB into a Distortion + nails it for me.  EQ at the amp to pull things into shape and I can nail a large variety of tones.  Sometimes swap the LPB out for a Brian May Treble Boost when I need a little more bite, but then you have to have the amp dialed in right to keep from being too shrill when using the BMTB.  Perhaps just some cap switching on the LPB for more tonal variety.

If I've got a tube amp with nice distortion, switching the order of those two around (Dist+ into the LPB, then into the distorted amp) can get really heavy, but it can be a hassle to dial in the EQ to keep it from being too out there. 

I was fooling around with a parametric EQ on the breadboard, before and after the Distortion +; it's surprising how much different that pedal sounds with a little mid scoop to it.

[petemoore]

  BSIAB is a great choice, Mu amps will bias when wired correctly, does HG sounds for absolute certain.
  All are good suggestions, Simple Distorters like D+ aren't underrated IMBook, I use the Dist+ tons !!

[Meanderthal]

Simple Distorters like D+ aren't underrated IMBook

Agreed! It's even a real rip-snorter on bass!

[oldrocker]

Okay, okay I'm going to finally build the BSIAB2 and the Dr. Boogey.  I've been avoiding it for too long.  It seems so many love these things so I guess I'll have to break down and do it.  That new Thor circuit on ROG has peaked my interest also.

[Izzy]

As far as I have heard sound clips, I didnt find Dr. boogey that intresting. The distortion wasnt enough tor heavy metal kinda stuff.  Dr. boogey did sound heavy but I guess that was because of it's tone control shaping the tone like mesa boogie.

And about BSIAB is a great Van halen pedal. But still I doubt about metal.

I know Sansmp GT2 might be hard to build, but This thing give great saturated distortion IMO.

Sans amp is hard to build because of it has too many switch. 

I would say make sansamp with less option, like you caa make one ignoring all switch. For eg, if you like

Amp: Cali
Mod : Hot Wired
Mic  : Center

Then you can ignore all the switch and wire it straight. This will definately make this easier.
If you want to do these chaanges in sansamp's schematic  then let me know.

[Izzy]

Oh and By the way my sansamp Gt2 clone is on sale  .

$85 shipped!

http://www.diystompboxes.com/smfforum/index.php?topic=52911.0

[hari]

I just built GT2, the sound is so heavy..good for metal..but i dont know about modern rock..,

how about Shredmaster? I built it and it sound so heavy too..good for metal also..Shredmaster is easier to build than GT2..