A light distortion for Church

[Shakal]

Hey fellas!

Well... What I need is an advice...

I said to the sound guy of my church that I made a Pedal for my Bass, then he told me that he needed a distortion pedal to bring the "dead eletric guitar" back to life, to sound like a real eletric guitar! I don't know anything about overdrive, fuzz, distortion, or anything like that. What would be a nice smooth and light distortion to make for him? Remember it's for a Church, we play gospel rock/pop rock.

What would you suggest?

Thanks a lot.

[Dragonfly]

something like a mxr zw-44 is nice...peppermill is a great light od....could always built a ts808 and tweak it

[JOHNO]

maybe you could try a "austin treble booster"aka "range master" its a real simple and cheap build check it out at "geofex . best with a cranked tube amp.i use mine through a fender champ and it sounds awsome.

[Skreddy]

Rangemaster is a great idea.  Very useful in that context.

For leads, try a mild FuzzFace circuit.  I used my first homemade FF, using 2N929A transistors (~150hfe) in church for a long time.  I used this schematic...

[ulysses]

everyones first distortion pedal has to be a tubescreamer

landgraff is selling them for $399 (with a pretty paint job) - why dont you get him one of those?

cheers
ulysses

[jonathan perez]

metal zone

[Auke Haarsma]

I'd say a SHO with master-mod or the ROG Omega (which can be a kind of treblebooster too).

[george]

he told me that he needed a distortion pedal to bring the "dead eletric guitar" back to life, to sound like a real eletric guitar!

Sounds like some kinda Lazarus-style Miracle is called for here ...

... but failing divine intervention, we will have to examine why is it "dead"!  Is it because the guitar is going direct to the PA without a guitar amp?  If so one of the ROG type or Sansamp emulators might be the way to go.

or maybe just get a "real" guitar amp ....?

[trevize]

change strings? 

[StephenGiles]

everyones first distortion pedal has to be a tubescreamer

landgraff is selling them for $399 (with a pretty paint job) - why dont you get him one of those?

Rubbish!

cheers
ulysses

[soulsonic]

It probably needs a DI box... with an enhancer.... ROLLS RED SQUARE!!!

[lynessmy]

Ross Distortion is very gentle...could be suitable for your application.
Else Liquid Sunshine would be another candidate.

[ulysses]

[Rubbish!

exactly which part of my post is rubbish stephen?

cheers
ulysses

[MadMac]

Hey fellas!

Well... What I need is an advice...

I said to the sound guy of my church that I made a Pedal for my Bass, then he told me that he needed a distortion pedal to bring the "dead eletric guitar" back to life, to sound like a real eletric guitar! I don't know anything about overdrive, fuzz, distortion, or anything like that. What would be a nice smooth and light distortion to make for him? Remember it's for a Church, we play gospel rock/pop rock.

What would you suggest?

Thanks a lot.

Well if you can afford it I use these distortion/overdrive pedals in church Fulltone Fulldrive 2, Xotic Effects AC Booster and Fulltone OCD.  The first two will definitely give you the tone you're after.  The AC booster is particularly good with a strat - very subtle overdrive and plenty of gain.

If you're looking to build something yourself well check out www.runoffgroove.com/ or get a kit from olcircuits.com/.

And Check this out this forum for more church based guitar info. http://guitarpraise.17.forumer.com/

[Auke Haarsma]

now I wonder, is this a request for a best-buy pedal or for a best-build it yourself-pedal?

[petemoore]

then he told me that he needed a distortion pedal to bring the "dead eletric guitar" back to life, to sound like a real eletric guitar! I don't know anything about overdrive, fuzz, distortion, or anything like that. What would be a nice smooth and light distortion to make for him? Remember it's for a Church, we play gospel rock/pop rock.
  Small tube amp, nice speaker and a simple booster ?..that's what I'd suggest..
  Not everyone wants to re-do their entire signal chain, hence take a look at the existing signal chain.
  What links are in the signal chain now?

[Mark Hammer]

In a public place like a church, one of the things I imagine one needs is the capacity to control tone and not find oneself in the midst of disruptive "surprises"; joy without chaos.  Although almost ANY overdrive will yield the sound your guitar buddy wants to have, the challenge is in making it consistent and non-distracting.  Consequently, although I realize it makes the task more difficult, I would recommend use of a compressor before whatever overdrive gets made.  The compressor will help to keep the guitar signal level within a defined range, and in so doing it will be overdriven in a smoother more consistent manner.  The gist is that the signal feeding the clipping/distortion circuit be at around the same point, relative to the circuit's clipping threshold.  You get the snarl, but without the "yelling".

Apart from that, it may also be that better control of treble in the distortion circuit itself will get him what he wants/needs.  Often the difference between what people perceive as outrageous and tame distortion is how much searing treble is part of the signal.  A wee bit of treble cut can often make the ragged sound refined.  It will also make the difference between when he plays clean and dirty a little less jarring.  Being a nice jewish boy, I'm not much of a churchgoer , but I imagine it still isn't the place you want to evoke "WTF!" from parishioners in the first few rows...or the back, when he steps on the mighty stompswitch.

[Paul Marossy]

I've used all of these pedals at church at least a few times:

Boss Metal Zone, Metal Simplex, Shaka Tube, TS808 clone, Black Cat OD-1 clone, GGG Boutique Fuzz Face, Jordan Bosstone clone, BSIAB 1, Z Vex SHO, Blue Magic, AMZ Mini-Booster, Three-Legged Dog, Shaka Express, RAT clone, Dr. Boogey and a Blue Clipper clone.

You know what I thought sounded the best overall? The TS808 clone and the Blue Magic. I used the Metal Zone quite a lot for singing violin like sustain for lead sounds.

[StephenGiles]

[Rubbish!

exactly which part of my post is rubbish stephen?

cheers
ulysses

Well, not rubbish but I think god would equally like a Rat!!

[grolschie]

My friend uses a Rat pedal at low gain with filter turned up quite alot to give a phat smooth tone in church. The church is reasonably conservative and this works well. Backing off the filter and upping the gain will yield more grunt and more highs. Many a crap guitar can sound quite good with a Rat pedal.

Another option is a tubescreamer type pedal with gain set reasonably low. I use a modified to TS808ish specs Bad Monkey with my Les Paul to get a warm sound that is not exactly clean and not overly distorted. Great forlong open chords.

Better than them all, but maybe hard to get in the USA is a G2D Custom Overdrive. Very smooth overdrive, a reasonable amount of gain without ever becoming metal or harsh or fuzzy. Ideal for church because you can go from mellow to lead and it's never offensive sounding. Never brittle or harsh.