Addressed to Mark and others: "distortion pedals are .......

[Steben]

.... not grainy enough to be a good fuzz, too grainy  to be good overdrive and be honest, they are NOT a cranked amp."
?

[Mark Hammer]

You want a definition?  or a punch line?

[11-90-an]

... a pedal that I still need more trained ears to recognize between it and overdrive. 

[Steben]

You want a definition?  or a punch line?

I seem to find of all theoretical distortion units the ones that are called distortion the least interesting. IMHO they add the most to the market saturation. A good drive channel completely obliterates the need for a distortion unit.

[niektb]

I use a DIY Friedman BE-OD/Dirty Shirley-hybrid, the drive sounds are truly phenomenal... Also, for me a good reason is that I can set the amp to clean (especially single-channel amps) and don't bother with it

[amptramp]

Addressed to Mark and others: "distortion pedals are... AWESOME!"

There are so many different types that allow an entire galaxy of sounds that include a cranked amp but also so many other sounds that, like the transuranium elements, do not appear in nature but are highly useful.

[deadastronaut]

distortions have many ''flavours'' that's whats great about them imo....and is likely why there are so many...


e.g. try playing full on thrash metal with an mxr dist+......... that aint ever gonna cut it

[Mark Hammer]

distortions have many ''flavours'' that's whats great about them imo....and is likely why there are so many...


e.g. try playing full on thrash metal with an mxr dist+......... that aint ever gonna cut it

All true. However, most of the variations can often be easily obtained by either sticking a booster stage ahead of the pedal and/or an EQ ahead of or after it.  All too often, it's a bit like toasting the bread a little less or a little more and claiming you've come up with a "different" grilled cheese sandwich.  There's obviously more than one kind of grilled cheese sandwich, but after a certain point, there are no more breads or cheeses to use for variation; you've reached "peak cheese".

[bartimaeus]

the mr bean image was funny, but tbh it's a little silly to try to objectively say that distortion pedals are worse... why bother?

overdrives sound good with an amp on the edge of distortion. distortions sound good with a clean amp. a ts9 sounds terrible with a totally clean amp, but a lot of distortions sound really nice with clean solid-state amps. like everything, it just depends on your setup and what you're trying to do.

[Steben]

distortions have many ''flavours'' that's whats great about them imo....and is likely why there are so many...


e.g. try playing full on thrash metal with an mxr dist+......... that aint ever gonna cut it

Ever played a ts or treble boost into a fuzz face?

[Steben]

the mr bean image was funny, but tbh it's a little silly to try to objectively say that distortion pedals are worse... why bother?

overdrives sound good with an amp on the edge of distortion. distortions sound good with a clean amp. a ts9 sounds terrible with a totally clean amp, but a lot of distortions sound really nice with clean solid-state amps. like everything, it just depends on your setup and what you're trying to do.

Glad you found it funny 😁 mission accomplished. I admit some pedals are great for playing metal on a budget amp. But thats it. I adored my metal zone in the days of yore... because it had so many eq options. But quality drive, gentle break up.... impossible. And a Face volume clean up to insanity in one pedal. What beats that?
I am not waging war here. I just put drive and fuzz above "distortion". And big muff and tone bender 3 are close to distortion. But they allow that little more... reminds me of mods to make a ds1 a fuzz pedal for example.
Quite the centrist politically, but in dirt box world a fuzz and a drive own a distortion for me.

[deadastronaut]

distortions have many ''flavours'' that's whats great about them imo....and is likely why there are so many...


e.g. try playing full on thrash metal with an mxr dist+......... that aint ever gonna cut it

Ever played a ts or treble boost into a fuzz face?

nope....i have a dedicated hi gain FET metal that gets me where i need to go, no hiss, so no need for a noise gate either so i'm sorted for hi gain dirt........

i found a compressor into ts is kinda cool though......but still not heavy enough for certain stuff.