Distortion for heavier stuff

[jpm83]

I´m looking for distortion for modern rock like skunk anansie and etc. It would be good if the pedal has gain and volume controls, and it is easy build. I´m studying to be an musician and i noticed a need for gainier distortion in last gig. I have currently modded ts-9 and it does not have enough gain with clean channel of the amp.

Janne

[jonathan perez]

dr. boogie 

[joelap]

dr. boogie 

+1000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000

I just got mine in today and it is the BEST HIGH GAIN PEDAL I'VE EVER HEARD HANDS DOWN~!

EDIT: I actually answered before fully reading your thread... the Dr. Boogey wasnt easy to build (for me it was near impossible).  basicaudio looked it over for me and basically did extreme makeover dr. boogey edition on it.  But damn does this pedal rock and it absolutely loves my Vox AC30CC 2x12.

[jpm83]

The Dr. Boogie sounds interesting but it looks like difficult to build. Is there other good sounding high gain circuits that wouldn´t be so hard to build. Thanks for answering.

Janne

[John Lyons]

Thanks Joelap! I got a kick out of the "extreme makeover dr. boogie eddition" quote.

Jpm83, The secret to a heavy and modern sounding distortion is a mutistage circuit which is unfortunately a fairly complex build.
Have you built anu other pedals before. DId you build the TS-9?
Which amp are you using?

John

[jpm83]

I have build boutique fuzz face, rambler, sparkle boost, orange squeezer and EA tremolo which isn´t working properly. We have fender blues junior and peavey delta blues amps at my school which I mainly use now.

Janne

[Meanderthal]

 I can't really think of a 'metal' pedal that's really simple, but if you just need more distortion than a TS, the Distortion+ is a pretty ballsy sounding circuit, and pretty simple too. If you are in immediate need of a high gain distortion with a serious hostile attitude, and you don't have much time or money, the Dano FAB Metal(the black one) will definitely make you smile. (I wish I knew what, if anything it's a clone of).

Oh! I just remembered this from Joshua's gallery, Don't know what it sounds like, but it's super simple, and it's called "Evil Hate", so...

http://aronnelson.com/gallery/album02/evilhate?full=1

[ubersam]

The BSIAB2 is another very nice gainy circuit. IME, it was a not so hard to build compared to the DRBoogie. What makes the DRB challenging is the squeal factor. I will be re-doing my build using shielded wiring in certain positions, as suggested by Basicaudio.

One option would be to mod your TS9 for more gain, and while your at it, more bass. Another option is to build the AMZ MiniBooster, make the gain variable, and use that after the TS9. By itself, the miniB is not really a high-gain pedal, it is a very gainy booster. But, if you feed it with an already overdriven signal, you get a very decent high-gain sound. I just discovered this recently while testing some mods I did on a friend's SD-1 (very similar to a TS9). I wanted to see how the SD-1 would react to a boosted signal but I reveresed the order of pedals by mistake (been dancing with Saint Pauli). I was pleasantly surprised with the result. Not as big and full as the DRB or BSIAB2 but gainy enough.

[96ecss]

Hi,

Check this out http://www.olcircuits.com/olc_slowcentury.html. A clone of the Soldano SLO 100. Very high gain. I haven't built it yet but this is a complete kit so it should be pretty easy to build. Check out the sound samples, it's pretty heavy.

Dave

[Izzy]

Try Sansamp GT2 . They are pretty solid!

[5150]

It looks like that 'Evil Hate' is taking the same 'smash the balls out of an LM386' approach as the Smash Drive, both of those are ridiculously easy - and I know the Smash Drive can go metal if you have the EQ, a solid guitar, a strong attack on thick strings, and of course the usual TS-type pedal to reduce harsh high and boomy lows that just make distortion preamps and pedals unhappy.

Jeff

[John Lyons]

Jpm83

Go for the BSIAB2 it's pretty heavy and has a great modern rock sound. Very tight and punchy.

John

[tcobretti]

The Dano Fab Metal might be a good idea.  Granted, you don't get to built it, but it only costs $15 and by all accounts sounds fantastic (if you like metal pedals).

[blindsjc]

Hey man,
What about a blackfire...
Treble and Bass at max and Mid at min...
I think you'll like it...

[petemoore]

  those are all cool, a bit harder since there is so much going on.
  They do what they do very well, and with lots of stages, gain control and tone control, pretty versatile.
  Since you ask and want 'simple', you could do what I did and 'break it down'.
  Instead of using one box that gets me to HG sound right away, I use a 'stepped gain' system of getting the 'same' thing [same in that the signal is boosted/voiced/clipped/attenuated/clip...maybe throw a revoicing in there after the first or second clipping stage, or during it.
  By having the stages separate, I can bring gain stages and boost/clipping stages in and out of the chain.
  This allows me the ability to push the voltage input to 'just the right level so that when it's multiplied then 'leveled' by the clipping, the amplitudes of the frequencies clipped can be fine tuned. Not that they can't with a super gain pedal with some controls.
  Part of my approach isn't frugal [because I have built many of the mentioned and not mention high gainers in this thread], but why waste all the gain stages on the way to high gain when these 'inbetween' tones [of fewer stages at a time] can be heard...but
  Being the gain hog that I am, I have some really nice 'inbetween and clean sounds from my PB, but most of the boosters are used as OD/Dist/Fuzz gain boosters.
  OS Compressor.
  TS [just made board again today, in box with next pedal
  DIST+ [with TS it's really nice throaty high gain
  Sparkleboost [this thing sparks up the fuzz slight HP sound, full range for Fuzz boosing.
  With those four right there I can get lots of really nice tones, starting say with DIST+, normal dirtbox sound, Sparkleboost it's input and I have bright Fuzz sound, Comp it's input and it's attackey, smoother, TS it's input and it's very high gain, Comp>TS>Dist+ another really fat HG tone, very nice options.
  Anyway that's the way I have come around to doing it, I have a two tier PB which lets loose each pedals innards by removing it's 2 screws [mostly] my Raco switcheroo PB frame makes it easy to get in and do whatever needs done to re-tweek it again.
  Then there's the FF and Rocket.
  Anyway, For high gain...hmmm, fat might be anything, say comp>TS>Dist+. I mostly like the treble rolled off toward the end,
  Most of those mentioned, OS>TS>D+ we're also chosen for their ability to get HG sound with LN, LNoise can be a hard thing to find in analog HG pedals.
  And...mostly I'm trying to push the output of my tube amp, all that^ is pretty much geared around clip-pushing the perfected plectrum of the pict.
  TS in the chain might totally not be your bag, midrange hump and all..
  I've been eyeing the 22nd seventh, CMOS muff...what a great idea for a heavily Muffed out pedal, and a great name for a Pi thing ! [22/7ths].

[Nashtir]

what about the amz overdrive pro?

[Antero]

Another good circuit if you're looking for high gain (though not metal) is the Highway 89, which was my second build, not complicated at all, and has a an idiotic amount of volume on tap which, coupled with an already-high-gain-circuit, can get plain powerful.

[MartyMart]

Here's some suggestions for "simple two knob" distortions :

Dist +
ROG Mockman ( rockman sound a-like for 80's BIG hair rock )
ROG Grace/Big Daddy - 386 based distortions
Joe's Vulcan
Rat - OK, three knobs !!
My Own "Mr Drive" in my layout gallery goes from almost clean through OD to Dist at full bore
Jordan Bosstone - HUGE sound, some other Fuzz "type" circuits have a great distortion tone too.
MM.

[John Lyons]

Good suggestions but I think the key is he wants a modern rock sound. Obviously there are a lot of variation to "Modern Rock" but it seems that the modern rock sound at least top 100 stuff with an agressive articulate sound would be simple to get with the BSIAB2 and not any harder than the TS-9 to build.
He has a modded TS-9 which is an even sounding distortion pedal so it would seem that a cascaded high gain pedal with smooth yet agressive tone is called for. But I may be way off. Maybe we need more clarification by jpm83.

John

[mydementia]

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