MT-2 like distortion pedals?

[FatMike]

Hi,

does anyone know a distortion pedal that delivers a distortion sound similiar to a boss MT-2 (high-gain distortion)? I mean one that doesn't just sound like a fuzz with diodes instead of transistors.....  :?.
I built a Marshall Guv'nor and it sounds OK for some purposes, but now I'm looking for a pedal that sounds really modern (not necesserely metal-like) with enough gain and "palm-mute-bass". A pedal that sounds like real amp distortion (not overdrive) and not just like a cheap effect.... The MT-2 is OK, but maybe not that versitile. I could of course build one myself and replace the EQ, but I just wondered if there are other, comparable pedals.
I hope you know what I'm looking for...  

Thanks,

Fat Mike

[Gringo]

This ones i've tried:

Joe's Obsidian (any version)
ROG 3 legged dog/DoubleD bounce channel
ROG Multiface with two 2n7000

And maybe(haven't tried these):

Mark Hammer's Chaos
Aron's Insanity
Many, many others i don't recall right now

And yes, i have a mt-2 to compare

[Mark Hammer]

Don't know the MT-2 well, but I've built Joe Davisson's "Blackfire", and I don"t think I will live long enough to stop seeing steam coming off of that one.  Very hot pedal.  Mucho gain.  Mas gain.  Unlike a lot of designs (including my own), responds very nicely to guitar tone control changes and pickup differences, but given the amount of boost this thing has, there is plenty of signal to spare if you feel like sticking in some sort of passive tone control for scooping things..

[WGTP]

I have to agree with Mark. the Blackfire smokes.  I also like Doug Hammon's Sweet 16.  It has a notch built in.

[FatMike]

Hm... notch filter... read that in an MT-2 schematic. But I don't really know what a notch filter is... Does it simply surpress some frequencies? Maybe someone could try to explain it to me.
And thanks for your answers so far!

[Mark Hammer]

Go here ( http://www.geofex.com/Article_Folders/EQs/paramet.htm ) and you'll find lots of info towards the end.

[Doug H]

A notch filter is used to scoop the mids. It can be pretty drastic, for that "modern" sound.

Doug

[Ansil]

Hm... notch filter... read that in an MT-2 schematic. But I don't really know what a notch filter is... Does it simply surpress some frequencies? Maybe someone could try to explain it to me.
And thanks for your answers so far!

combine a low pass and a high pass

[The Chris]

Any way to turn OFF that freakin' notch filter in the Metal Zone?? I like the distortion, but hate that midrange honk.. Even if I dork with that Parametric EQ (that I can't stand) it never totally opens up...

Has anybody done that???

Thanks.

[petemoore]

Tried a Metal Zone.
 Highly variable tones.
 Some People swear by it, I guess. I found it hard to dial in, probably because it sounds much different than what I'm used to, but I personally didn't find all that much use for it.
 I like to take a FF, tone it down a bit by cutting the bass, then driving that into an OA clipper that has a tone control. yet one more OA is quite high octane, the dialing in is trickier...oh yes there's the amp and guitar...getting super high gain can be a trial and error process, especially if you like dynamics, huge crunch, sustain, well controlled harmonic feedback, reasonable noise levels, high end slice/low End Punch...it's like the closer you get to the tips of the envelopes, the harder it is to tune. "some' experimentation may be necessary.

[petemoore]

Guitar and amp make these devices act much differently. Achieveing any particular closeness to desired tone depends as much on that as on anything.

[brett]

The notch filter idea is a good one.  I've run a bazz fuss (MPSA14 for heaps of gain) through a modified Muff tone section (2 x 47k, 4.7nF, 10nF to ground) and output stage which gives nice little scoop and plenty of output.  The result is excellent.

I totally agree with Mark and others about the Blackfire.  Hotter than Hell.  Joe Davisson has a wicked ability to make heavy stuff. :twisted:

cheers

[Bucksears]

On the Blackfire distortion, wherrrrrrrrrrrrrrrre would you put a tone control on that bad boy?

[Mark Hammer]

You can just plunk it between the .1uf cap and the 100k volume pot at the end.  More than enough output level to still provide a smokin hot signal even after a passive tone network has eaten some signal up.

Personally, I've found the Blackfire really responds well to guitar tone-control changes, much better than many other fuzzes.  So, a simple Rat-style treble rolloff tone control just seems a redundant control and a waste.  I'd take a look at the "presence" article in the lab notebook section of Jack Orman's site.  It discusses ways to get different kinds of responses out of the basic Big Muff tone control., including notch-filter type sounds.

[WGTP]

Some of Joe's designs have a tone control at the end.   Might try that.