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Dissin' the guitar players fuzz

bassbrad

bassbrad

Supporting Member
Aug 17, 2000
16,103
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19,660
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Leander, TX (outside Austin)
#1
or is life too short for bad distortion. Am I a snob or just spoiled by all the other tone freaks I play with? So...One of the guys I play with uses a Boss DS1 which to my ear is perhaps the worst fuzz of all time, after gritting my teeth every time he stomps it i just hadda tell him. Nice PRS guitar, cool tunes, good technique and a sweet Marshall combo all ruined by the DS1, he hates the DS1 too but does not have a clue so next jam I am taking some of my own boxes for him to test. IMO he needs a nice overdrive not a distortion which is too harsh for what he's trying to do, but no use trying to explain that one.
My 2 favorites are a Dan Electro Daddy O and the Boss SD1 Super Overdrive both are warm, smooth and still articulate for chord work which he mainly does. Any other suggestions?
 
#2
The Danelectro Daddy-O is a pretty good, versatile overdrive box for the price. I wouldn't presume to make too many suggestions without hearing the kind of music the band plays and knowing what the guitarist wants out of it, but there are a lot of options at a lot of different price points out there. You might have him take a look at proguitarshop and check out demo videos or something. If you have a lot of stompboxes and you're willing to bring some and let him play around with them, that's a pretty good way to criticize without being negative, get him enthusiastic about trying different pedals out. The DS1 definitely has a narrow spectrum of usefulness. There are situations it can sound perfect for, but not many.

I've done the same thing in previous bands. Brought a box full of pedals and let the guitarist demo a bunch to see what he liked in the context of the full band. It's pretty easy to get tunnel vision on pedals and not consider how it meshes with everyone else, especially if the guitarist practices at home by himself a lot.

Lots of tubescreamer variations out there for around $100, some with more gain on tap. The Nobels ODR-1 reissue is nice, I like DOD 250, particularly the older ones, and you can pick those up pretty cheap here and there, a lot of the low end Danelectro stuff is worth checking out. Personally I think a lot of it depends on the guitar, the amp and the settings.
 
#8
Thanx guys,
Corey the style is a sort of retro rock acoustic electric it reminds me of the band Love 'Forever Changes', this guitar player does rhythm strictly half the songs on acoustic and the other half on the PRS. We have a tasty lead player which makes the DS1 poopoo tone even less acceptable. Hmm he has some other Nobels pedals so we'll have to check that one out.

Audiomitch I have a DS1 that has the Allums mod and it is certainly a much more useful beast, but he ain't gonna see it.

Thanx James, I'll put that on the short list to check out.
 
#9
There are 3 guitarists in my band one uses a Jetter Helim and that is super awesome. One uses a Catalinbread Dirty Little Secret, that is a good one too, the other uses a Bulldog tube OD pedal.
JHS Pedals does some pretty good OD pedals too
 
#12
hey, where's all the outrage over a bass player telling a guitarist he didn't like his gear? had the situation been reversed, you guys would have been yelling and screaming and calling for the guy to quit his band or replace the guitarist for daring to have an opinion.
 

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