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Transparent Distortion?

#21
Veldar said:
That's kinda the problem though, my rig ATM is a 6 string Ken Smith into a Aguilar DB751 into a Fearful 1515/66/1, that tone is PERFECT for me, I know the baked in sounds of a lot of different dirt pedals. I've got maybe 4 - 5 baked in pedal sounds I like that could be used but I want to find my distorted tone. Essentially can I take my current tonal characteristics and have it dirty.



I might have to at this point, I didn't think I realised how blasphemous it was to say transparent :p

I've got a multiband dirt pedal already and I've been eyeing off the pumpernickel for the last couple of months anyway.

If that doesn't work I'll just get a westwood and stick it before hand to dirty up the "clean" lowend
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The answer to your question really is no: you already have your “perfect” sound, and you’re asking how to change it without changing it.

The best you can do if find a pedal with a blend that you like the dirt characteristics of.

You can try someonething like a Barbershop or 5th Gear for light, relatively transparent drive, but there really is no such thing as a transparent high gain drive unless you’re using a parallel blend to just dial in a little bit of that heavy grind underneath your clean sound.
 
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#23
Most transparent low to medium gain pedal I've played is the Electrofoods Germ Warfare. Totally in love with it. Higher gain? I'm not sure what a transparent high gain sound would be. Maybe something like an overdriven tube amp? Is that a sound you'd associate with transparent/high gain? Check out the demo that was made of the Electronic Audio Experiments Longsword on bass. Pedal wise, maybe something like that?
 
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#24
estimated_eyes said:
Pork Loin has trim pots on the inside that allow you to back off the OD being fed into the clean signal. Can do this to the point of using it as a clean gain. Have one and love the versatility and tone with this pedal.

EHX Bass Soul Food?
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I have one of those EHX things. Not much more than a noise maker. In all fairness, it does have that "Soul Food" tone that EHX made for guitar, but works somewhat better with low frequencies. The distortion cntrl. adds the tone with slight break-up and has to be offset by the volume cntrl. for unity gain purposes. The treble cntrl. is completely useless since the distortion kills your low frequencies anyway. Finally, the blend cntrl. is meant to give you more or less original signal offset by the affected signal, but if the internal buffer switch is set to "on" you never really have just your unaffected original signal. So, once this pedal is engaged in one's signal path, there is an immediate loss in low frequency, even if you set it to a non-buffered, 0 distortion, un-blended signal and only use it as a "clean" boost.
Having said all of this, when using the Bass Soul Food as a buffered, clean boost, there is a somewhat transparent Soul Food character that is a useable, sonically pleasing asset. I had to place it before my Eden tube preamp pedal so I could set the low frequency crossover where any lost signal from the EHX pedal could be added back by the tube gain. Needless to say, the Bass Soul Food is rarely used, but has some purpose when I need to use a pick. I have intended to get a Source Audio Aftershock as mentioned earlier in this thread. It should easily replace the EHX pedal.
 
#26
I'd steer clear of this one if I were you

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#27
You can achieve this with any normal distortion (not-high gain, not fuzz)

You just turn down the distortion knob on whatever pedal you happen like the sound of. That's how distortion and coloration are related. An increase in distortion is an increase in coloration. So the more transparent you want the effect to be the less distortion you apply, and the more distortion you apply the less of your original tone there will be.

Also if the effect you like has an EQ put all the knobs to noon.

We can't tell you which one to get because we aren't you, so we can't decide if they sound good to you. You just have to listen to them and find one you like.

If I were in your shoes I wouldn't be fixing to buy anything, though. If you could fix this problem by buying a pedal then the problem is not your sound you hear, but the money burning a hole in your pocket. Because distortion pedals all do the exact same thing and nobody but you will ever notice the difference in your mix. You already have distortion pedals, so just use whichever one you like the most and spend 3 minutes getting the best possible tone you can out of it and be done. Because that's exactly what you're going to do either way, only you could also decide to be a few hundred dollars poorer at the end of it. This is not a problem that requires that you spend money.
 
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#31
willsellout said:
The most transparent dirt box Ive seen is the Reiner a Gasoline. It’s not really a high gain pedal though. It can get there but it’s best, IMO, as a light to medium.

Guess I’m one the ignorant folks...
Click to expand...

The Gasoline would get vote as well: it's really the only pedal that I'd call both a "distortion" AND "transparent".

Definitely not what I'd call "high gain" though.
 
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#32
Veldar said:
Hi all,

I know transparent overdrives are kind of a meme at this point but I was wondering if there are similar pedals but higher gain?

I've messed around with clean blends and lowpass cleans mixed with a higher freq distortion but I can never get the mix right, I feel like I'm always losing out on something when it's compared to my normal clean signal. I know you can dime the EQD westwood and get it a bit hairyer but I was hoping to see some other options.

Cheers, Sam.
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The problem is that as the gain increases, the bass becomes muddy. Almost any true distortion is going to shelve some bass in an effort to retain clarity. If you truly had a “transparent” distortion, it would become very muddy.

This is why Darkglass distortion has a blend control, to keep the bass dry but add dirt to the higher frequencies. It’s far from transparent, but it’s the most pleasing way to do it.
 
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#34
Veldar said:
That was easy, the long sword seems like it retains the bass tone REALLY well there, I think I'll be finding one for myself now
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Yup. Truly one of the very best I've played that can be high gain without being all breakup with no relation to the original sound. For that sound I have other pedals (which I personally prefer for high gain...muffs and Rats), but the Longsword is something really special.
 
#35
estimated_eyes said:
Pork Loin has trim pots on the inside that allow you to back off the OD being fed into the clean signal. Can do this to the point of using it as a clean gain. Have one and love the versatility and tone with this pedal.

EHX Bass Soul Food?
Click to expand...

Pork Loin is nice. However, the clean tone it blends in is colored/voiced and thus not “transparent.”
 
#37
ihaveaquestion said:
Can you please explain a bit? what models don't have those diodes?

if the model does have, could a guitar tech easily take it out or put an on/off switch?
Click to expand...

Off the top of my head, here are a couple of boutique pedals based on the RAT with clipping diode options including no clipping diodes:

- Broughton Locust Star
- Dunwich Volt Thrower
- Iron Pig
- Fuzzrocious Cat Tail

I am sure there are more.

With no clipping diodes, all the crunch comes from the LM-308 and it sounds just glorious.
 
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