In Search for Guitar Gear: Part 1 - Stompboxes

Part 1 should have been searching for guitars not stompboxes but the past two weeks, I've been searching for stompboxes. So, this latest search is on my mind. And boy, I have to say, during those times when I was waiting for my runs at work to be finished, all I was doing was listening to different samples of various stompboxes an watching some videos of people using them.

So, let's start with what I do have. I have an Ernie Ball Volume Pedal that controls what goes into my amp (a Marshall MG30 DFX) or the church amp (Randall RG75 G3). The Boss TU-2 Chromatic Tuner keeps my guitar in tune and sounding great. I have a Boss PW-10 V-Wah Pedal which models various famous and vintage wah wah pedals. To round out my effects is the Line 6 DL-4 which is my delay and loop stompbox. The DL-4 models 16 vintage delay pedals with a max delay of 2 seconds and can do loops up to 14 seconds. The ultimate delay pedal if there ever was one. Now, you may say...hey, don't you have a Line 6 POD? Yes, I do but I don't think I'd use it for a live setting which is what I am trying to set up. I might incorporate it into my pedal board but the Line 6 POD is more of an amp modeller rather than an effects box to me (unless I use the clean amp and just use the various modulation effects...which is something I'm thinking about...ok....this is rather confusing but right now, I'm leaving it out...lol).

With the pedals that I have, I can do a lot of things but one set of pedals that I am missing is distortion and overdrive stompboxes. And, this is where the whole search for the ultimate combo of distortion/overdrive pedals began. It actually started way back in 2006 when I got my Line 6 DL-4. Line 6 makes quality stuff and one thing that they do best is model stuff from amps to effects. They even modelled guitars too! Line 6 made a stompbox similar to the DL-4 called the DM-4, a distortion modelling pedal. So, I assumed that it was a good pedal as well. I listened to some samples and it sounded pretty good. I read some reviews but it was really mixed. I went into Guitar Center in Seattle and asked if they had the DM-4 in stock. They didn't and the guy there said it wasn't very good compared to the Boss OD-20. And so, I tried out the Boss OD-20, demo'ing the different effects model and well, I don't know...if this was better than the DM-4, man...

Anyways, I went home and did some research and found that Boss OD-20 was slightly better than the DM-4 to my ears. The effect models were basically the same between the two pedals so, I was set to get the OD-20. It was a lot cheaper than the DM-4 and a lot cheaper than getting individual pedals. It was settled. I just needed to find time to pick it up. Fortunately, work got in the way of buying this pedal because I found out one thing about the OD-20 that I didn't know about.

Boss pedals are good. I have the PW-10 V-Wah and the TU-2 Chromatic Tuner. They make good stuff. Yet, one thing I found out about this pedal that I didn't before was that one cannot have two or more effects on at the same time. It's only one pedal model at a time and to make it challenging is that to get to a pedal model, one needs to press the stompbox pedal multiple times to find the right one. That got me thinking...would I ever chain the multiple pedals together or would I just use one pedal at a time? And so began my journey into finding multiple stompboxes instead of an all in one.

So, which pedals? There are so many distortion and overdrive pedals. Well, no better place to look than the Line 6 DM-4 and the Boss OD-20. What? Didn't I just say that I was going to go the multiple stompboxes route? Why look at these two pedals? Well, they are suppose to model the best of the best distortion and overdrive pedals. So, it's those pedals that I started to look at first.

The first pedal was the Ibanez overdrive pedals, specifically the TS-808 and the TS-9. The DM-4 and the OD-20 have the TS-808 modeled and the Digitech DF-7 also models this overdrive pedal. So, it's gotta be good. I did some searches, listened to some samples and yup, it was definitely a good overdrive pedal. Unfortunately, it was super expensive. It was pretty much twice the cost of the TS-9. Ok then, let's find out about the TS-9. I really couldn't tell the difference between the two. The TS-808 did sound a bit better but really, I couldn't tell. I stumbled across a video by gearwire.com that demo'ed both the TS-808 and the TS-9. And for some reason, the TS-9 sounded a lot better than the TS-808. Maybe it was because the guy playing was using a different guitar or something but the TS-9 was the one for me. And to solidify my decision was that Long and McQuade is having a sale on this pedal. Whoot!

The second pedal was a distortion pedal. Again, looking at the list of distortion pedals that the DM-4, OD-20, and the DF-7 modeled, I was thinking about getting the MXR Distortion+. After a few listens, I didn't find the range very satisfying. It was distortion but very plain to me. Ok, how about the Boss DS-1? It was a cheap distortion pedal, it was modeled by all these other multi-effects stompboxes, and it was made by Boss. You can't go wrong. I listened to a few samples and yeah, it wasn't bad. So, I pretty much settled on it when I decided to try out this one pedal that I've never heard of...the Pro Co Rat. I was totally blown away when I started to listen to some samples and watch some videos on it. It wasn't your normal distortion pedal. It had a lot of variety especially with the filter knob that tamed the distortion or that let loose the distortion. The only problem with this pedal is that there is absolutely no dealers in BC that sells it. Well, I might have to order it in from the US or go down and do some shopping down there. =)

The third pedal was pretty much settled and didn't have a dramatic search as the previous two...although, who knows...since I don't have any of these pedals yet, I can change my mind again. Hahaha. The third pedal is the Electro-Harmonix Big Muff Pi USA. It is the fuzz pedal out there.

So, there you have it. The overdrive pedal, Ibanez TS-9, the distortion pedal, Pro Co Rat2, and the fuzz pedal, the Electro-Harmonix Big Muff Pi USA. Shopping starts next year! =)

jos