What overdrive/distortion pedal that wont change my amp's tone?

[ozzu2000]

Hi,

Maybe this is a stupid question but here it goes.
I have an Orange crush 12w, I love it's tone, but it bugs me that it doesn't have 2 channels (clean/overdrive), so I decided to build a distortion pedal.
I went for a runoffgroove Thor, it came out fine, but the thing is that it changes the tone of the amp a lot, which was a surprise to me... (well, thinking about it, the Thor is supposed to sound like a marshall so it HAD to sound diferent... ).

So, the question it, what pedal can I build that gives me overdrive and/or distortion without changing the tone of the amp? Does this even exists?

Thanks!

[Maik]

Hi,
try a booster

[ozzu2000]

Thought of that, but it will increase volume as well

[nexekho]

So you want something that'll make no difference to the tone or volume at all but will add distortion?  Tall order 

[ozzu2000]

I imagined it might seem like an odd question...
Seeing videos of any tube screamer or even the mxr distortion+, and seems as the tone isn't altered that much...

[thedefog]

Most Distortion and Overdrive pedals will inherently color the tone, due to the way the input/output filtering and the gain/clipping stages are filtered. So a good question to ask you is what kind of sound are you looking for?

If you just want a nice mid to upper range clip with a cleaner bottom end that doesn't fart out, the Crowther Audio Hotcake is my favorite. It is my main overdrive and I've demoed and built over 50 or so different boosts/overdrives/distortions. It does change your tone, but it works well with tube amps.

For an all around overdrive/distortion that clips a broader frequency range, a DOD250 may be better, but it does alter your tone quite a bit.

[thedefog]

I imagined it might seem like an odd question...
Seeing videos of any tube screamer or even the mxr distortion+, and seems as the tone isn't altered that much...

Tube Screamer and Distortion+ alter tone pretty significantly (same with DOD250, which is pretty much identical to the dist+). If you have the parts, I'd recommend just bread boarding a DOD250 or Dist+. They'd take about 15 minutes to breadboard and test out to see if you like the tone of it. I'd try bread boarding a few different simple designs, that way you don't have to commit to anything and you'd be able to modify cap and resistor values in the filtering to let more or less bass/treble through at various stages.

[CurtisWCole]

Two different approaches

Amz MOSFET boost. No tone stack and is filtered for a flat response.

Xotic fx rc or ac booster. Has bass and treble in the tone stack for a little more control.

Curtis

[Mark Hammer]

1) ANY and EVERY distortion will change the tone.  That's what they DO.

2) I think what the OP really wants is something that doesn't change the character of the amp.  Not having heard the amp in question, I'm groping in the dark, but I think it wouldn't be too far off to assume that the amp/speaker normally has more of a midscoop than is apparent when the overdrive is used (since it will add lots of mids).  In view of this, I'm going to suggest that whatever you build/use have some way of producing a mild mid-scoop, post distortion, so that the general EQ character of the amp remains.

[Johan]

Perfect for some backwards thinking...do a forum search for antistortion
J

[ozzu2000]

Perfect for some backwards thinking...do a forum search for antistortion

Nice! I really liked it 

[Quackzed]

i frequently use a blues driver as my 'transparent' distortion, it cuts some lows, but not much at low gain settings. and i use it as a low to mid gain distortion.
at high gain it can get fizzy but with a fender type amp at least it can add some crunch without changing the 'sound' or eq of the amp.

[edvard]

Wasn't that a selling point of the original Klon?
That it was 'transparent'?

Try one of those, if you can find one for a reasonable price.

[FiveseveN]

if you can find one for a reasonable price

Just build one This forum is called DIYstompboxes, ya know.

[bwanasonic]

Ah, the dreaded "Transparent" distortion! You are attached to the clean sound of your amp, and want to use a pedal for "dirt", and don't want a sudden jump in volume when you kick it in, and don't want a sudden change in character in your sound? This can be a complicated equation, and two major factors are what volume are playing at, and what do you mean by "clean"? Also how overdriven are you looking to get? Do you want to go from a squeaky clean amp to super Santana overdrive? My suggestion for this setup would be count on using at least two pedals to get an organic transition from clean to "singing lead". One pedal for initial breakup dirt, and another pedal to kick that one's ass. There are many combinations that could work. But maybe you really like the distortion / overdrive sound of your amp. One approach to starting with that sound might be to use a fuzz Face, and using your guitar's volume knob to dial down a clean sound. Ideally this could give you that cleaner than clean sound, all the way through your amps best distortion sounds and beyond. If there was an easy solution, this forum might not be here.

[mmaatt25]

Barber LTD Silver edition.  David Barber generously supplied the schematic sometime back. It is a "low gain" overdrive circuit and sounds fantastic. Have a look the layouts gallery for the schematic.

[markeebee]

...... or maybe have a look at the Citrus overdrive (search on this forum) or Orange Peel (on the other forum). Your Crush amp is supposedly voiced to emulate the old OR series Orange valve amps. The Citrus and OP pedals are based on the same amps, so may have more of the character that you like. Maybe.

[frequencycentral]

...... or maybe have a look at the Citrus overdrive (search on this forum) or Orange Peel (on the other forum). Your Crush amp is supposedly voiced to emulate the old OR series Orange valve amps. The Citrus and OP pedals are based on the same amps, so may have more of the character that you like. Maybe.

Mark said something sensible and with nil innuendo content. I think his account has been hacked. Post reported to moderator.

[markeebee]

Sorry, I don't know what came over me. Fnarr.

[roseblood11]

Try Fred Briggs Hummingbird, or maybe Mad Professor Sweet Honey OD...