Rusty Box Replacement?

[sunbeast]

The Rusty box is not really transparent nor particularly tubey, so it isn't all that deserving of being the TB "OD of the week" or anything since those are the two factors that TB'ers seem to care about the most. The tone it does do is fairly specific- jagged, bright and sometimes brash- it has become a big building block for the tones I use all the time, but I wouldn't really recommend it as an OD or distortion to turn on and off. As far as the preamp argument- it is without a doubt a preamp, and that is its main strength in my opinion. Used as an effect, it can be be overly bright, noisy, and overpowering in output (depending on what you are plugging it into), whereas as a preamp it tends to be huge and authoritative, but far from transparent...Compared to the Tone Hammer, I find the Rusty much brighter and tighter for my uses. I also have a B3K for overdrive, and it is certainly more tube-like than the Rusty, though obviously incapable of the tonal spectrum of the Rusty. They are actually a great complement to one another!

JohnnyAngle- I actually have a GV-2 that's been sitting unused and forgotten in a box since a friend of mine gave it to me. I'll have to pull it out and try that mod for fun!

[fivestringgecko]

Sunbeast, that's a great description of the Rusty, and you touch on probably the biggest reasons I didn't care for it. I approached it as an overdrive because the sound didn't work for me as an always on preamp, and I like a warmer, smoother overdrive sound, so I couldn't get it to work for me that way either. Too jagged, bright and brash for the Motown/funk/R&B/urban gospel stuff I play, so in the end, that's why I ended up liking the Tone Hammer better.

But that's what's so great about all the gear out there... If one [insert gear name here] worked for everyone, we'd all sound the same!

5sg.

[sunbeast]

Totally agreed! I was pretty surprised to see all the hype on the Rusty Box here for some time because of how specific and different a tone it seemed to me. I have always loved the gnarly bass tones of Jesus Lizard and Shellac (which inspired the creation of the Rusty) specifically because of how they stood out in the dirty bass realm against the more tubey/warm bass tones that have become the standard, but I see most people on TB still looking for the ultimate SVT in a box.

[skulletwhip]

Bob Weston's (Shellac) nickname is actually Rusty, hence the name of the pedal. Also the band Rodan has an album called Rusty because Bob Weston recorded it.

[mjac28]

Sunbeast that is the best description of the Rusty Box I've read I recently got one and you are spot on it is a building block because I play at low levels I don't turn it up or use the boost feature because it is noisy and bright ditto for the Tone Hammer I use them both as a layer to my grunge sound I use them with my Holy Fire and they seem to play nice but I miss my B3K which I sold for a B7K big mistake there.

[mjac28]

I've never heard of the group Shellac before I started looking at the Rusty Box I need to check them out.