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Best overdrive pedal -- money is no object
- Thread starter pickles
- Start date
Everyone keeps saying that B3K does Titan... I just didn't hear it when I had one and I am familiar with both beasts... I think they sound very different.
The b3K has been mentioned, and I will +1 it.
Also the Rusty Box.
What is the qualitative difference, other than amount of gain?
Also the Rusty Box.
What is the qualitative difference, other than amount of gain?
- Jan 21, 2012
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- endorsing artist hard luck king guitars and knuckle head strings
bongomania
Commercial User
The qualitative difference is in the degree of clipping. This is technically tied to the gain, so we cannot actually say "other than the amount of gain", but it has as much or more to do with the very low headroom of the devices used for clipping--the components that the gain feeds into. Fuzz is THE most extreme amount of clipping possible, while overdrive is usually considered at the medium-low to lowest end of amount of clipping.
Even a "soft sounding fuzz" is an extreme amount of clipping, just with soft edges to the waves, or with such fast wave cycles that the sound becomes a blur.
Overdrive OTOH is where the signal typically has a dynamic response, maybe even little/no clipping on your quieter signal levels, getting stronger and more aggressive the harder you play. Depending on how you play and how you have it set up, it could even reach the point of fuzz, quite easily. But the point is that it does not "start at maximum".
- Sep 26, 2005
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- endorsing artist: Dean guitars, Marshall , Rotosound strings
Question: have all the B3K fans actually heard a Titan?
I've got nothing against the B3K... it's a fine OD. But, it just seems to me that whenever anyone asks for a recommendation, everyone just pimps their current flavor of the day.
The OP asked for a recommendation that sounded like a Mesa Boogie Titan, which IMO the B3K does not.
... Matt Dean out.
I've got nothing against the B3K... it's a fine OD. But, it just seems to me that whenever anyone asks for a recommendation, everyone just pimps their current flavor of the day.
The OP asked for a recommendation that sounded like a Mesa Boogie Titan, which IMO the B3K does not.
... Matt Dean out.
Hardwire sounds good. A little hard to tell since its a spector vs. the j-basses I play.
Listening to a a darkglass demo though -- sounds pretty impressive.
You're right it does not get that Titan sound on the clips I'm hearing. I'll try to record a clip for you guys. Its just raw, brute aggression.
I do think the darkglass sounds pretty darn good though.
RATs are awesome if and ONLY if they are blended with clean and run through a dirty sounding amp with no tweeter. Otherwise the high frequency squizz is horrible, unless you roll the tone back to the point you just get mush.
Yeah, these are B3k clips and its more polite and distortioney than the Titan. But its awesome. And I play sadowskys, so this is super helpful.
Curious about that, or what about the V-Twin? Any other experience? I'm wary of guitar centric EQ points ...
I have a Rat Tail, not a stock Rat but, mine sounds FREAKING AWESOME, no clean blend, no dirty amp. I never care for tweeters so I agree with you there.
I used to use a Mesa Bottle Rocket. It has two tubes and supposedly the same circuitry as the pre from one of the channels of the Titan (or BB750). I think that would come closest to what you're looking for.
Just bought one!
Here's a clip of the titan:
http://www.themadmonkey.com/clips/titan.m4a
That's at pretty low volume through a GS212 and an SM57.
What I use now is a combination of the Boss od-1 distortion and the boss bass eq pedal. Before the od-1 I had a pro co rat distortion pedal, but it died. Eventually I'll get around to fixing it...
The V1 is here. Just checking it out direct for now, will fire up an amp later. The character of the gain is perfect, but it does add a lot of mids to the tone ... will have to see how that plays at volume. Head and shoulders above other overdrive pedals I've tried for tone and juicieness, and having lots of great varied sounds around the breakup level. V1 with an EQ after, or a blend, would clearly do the trick ... planning to try some of the other suggestions as well.
