Tight distortion pedal?

[James Freeman]

EQ before Crunch Box, notch down some 200Hz and 400Hz until it chugs exactly as you like it.

EDIT:

Please also note: The pedal needs to provide all the tightness on its own,

Ah, nix what I said.
Leaving the post in case anyone needs another trick besides a TS.

 

[itchyfingers]

How about a Boss DS-1? Definitely checks the cheap but dependable box. Not sure how it would sound into a modeler, but it actually sounds pretty good into a decent tube amp that's set clean or edge of breakup. I think they get overlooked because everyone had one when they were learning, and we tend to equate that 'bees in a can' sound to the pedal, rather than the Gorilla practice amp we were using at the time.

 

[Sascha Franck]

How about a Boss DS-1?

Defenitely thought about that - but in case my memory is right, it wasn't that tight, either.

Fwiw, as the Solar Chug pedal has been mentioned: I'm really not looking for something along the lines of new-ish chuggachugga metal. In fact, I'm not looking for anything really metal at all, just a rather tight, distortion-alike overdrive (if i ever needed metal sounds, it'd be for recording and I'm defenitely covered there). Think mainstream rock but with more drive and tightness than your typical amp-alike MIAB pedal (which I have covered, too). Also, it's really just a color I'd like to have available here and there live, nothing my setup depends on. Hence I don't feel like breaking the bank or - even less so - rearranging my pedalboard (which I would have to do for, say, the 5150 pedal).

 

[Sascha Franck]

For the time being, I slapped my Mooer Hustle Drive onto the board - and for whatever reasons, it's doing a better job than what I had in mind.
Should perhaps just check that out for a gig or two and then maybe call it a day until I'll be re-organizing the board.

 

[V|J]

For the time being, I slapped my Mooer Hustle Drive onto the board - and for whatever reasons, it's doing a better job than what I had in mind.
Should perhaps just check that out for a gig or two and then maybe call it a day until I'll be re-organizing the board.

I have the hustle drive. In the toggle up mode, it’s tight at lower gain. Only way to keep it tight and get higher gain is to boost it.
Higher on the gain knob on its own, it flubs out, just like an OCD.

 

[Sascha Franck]

I have the hustle drive. In the toggle up mode, it’s tight at lower gain.

Yeah, I know, it stays somewhat tight until noon (obviously also depending on the input) and then starts getting pretty soft. Could do with something providing more gain but the same level of tightness (and possibly also with a tad more agressive tone), but for now, things are fine - will however have to look for something better once I rework my board (which is depending on a few things, but actually I'm really happy with it as is).

 

[Bob Zaod]

Don't sleep on the Caline Englishman. It's a cheapie but tight and has gobs of gain. Sounds great to my ears.

 

[Devin]

Almost anything by AMT

Sobbat Drivebreaker 1

AmpTweaker TightMetal

 

[spawnofthesith]

What is your power/monitoring source?

Just curious because I went through a bad time for a while trying to get a tight high gain sound out of open back combos for a bit and no matter how tight or awesome the pedal the open back always killed the deal once at volume

Although I imagine since you are modeling perhaps direct?

 

[Sascha Franck]

Although I imagine since you are modeling perhaps direct?

Yeah, all the way direct (studio monitors, studio headphones, IEM headphones, "FRFR" wedges).
No intentions to ever go back.
The type of cab isn't relevant, though. I'm getting great tight enough sounds from my various modeling options through all of my monitoring options, just can't access them in a comfortable manner on my live board, so I'm looking for another drive pedal.

 

[Sascha Franck]

And fwiw, for the time being, the Hustle Drive will serve me well. Once the pedalboard is redesigned (which will happen one day - but maybe that's further away than I thought until recently, because it's serving me so well already), I may rethink some stuff.

 

[FuzzyAce]

May not hurt to look into the Vox Cutting Edge whenever you get the urge again. Very reasonably priced (at least here in the states at $99) and does the heavy gain quite well. It can do nice boost and overdrive tones too. I've bought the whole Valvenergy set and really enjoying them.

 

[Sascha Franck]

May not hurt to look into the Vox Cutting Edge whenever you get the urge again. Very reasonably priced (at least here in the states at $99) and does the heavy gain quite well. It can do nice boost and overdrive tones too. I've bought the whole Valvenergy set and really enjoying them.

That's been under my radar so far. Looking decent, gotta check some sound files. €149 here, though - but that'd be within affordable range.

However, I changed some small things, Hustle Drive had to leave the board in favour of a Pure Boost (RC Booster clone), which I was missing already anyway (best utility drive/boost pedal ever), in combination with my Tone City Golden Plexi (MIAB, who would've guessed...) I'm getting a very decent distortion-alike sound, with some Marshall-esque vibes still staying intact. Quite tight, too.

 

[FuzzyAce]

That's been under my radar so far. Looking decent, gotta check some sound files. €149 here, though - but that'd be within affordable range.

However, I changed some small things, Hustle Drive had to leave the board in favour of a Pure Boost (RC Booster clone), which I was missing already anyway (best utility drive/boost pedal ever), in combination with my Tone City Golden Plexi (MIAB, who would've guessed...) I'm getting a very decent distortion-alike sound, with some Marshall-esque vibes still staying intact. Quite tight, too.

Awesome, go with what works! Some of my favorite tones are cascading two drive pedals.

 

[NKP]

MXR 5150 OD is awesome.

One of the best for sure

 

[NKP]

Also the boss metal core is their best .

 

[dronerstone]

Don't sleep on the Caline Englishman. It's a cheapie but tight and has gobs of gain. Sounds great to my ears.

View attachment 4328

Caline does build surprisingly solid stuff, tbh.

Some sleepers in their line-up - of course they're clones, but if you're on a tight budget....?

 

[bigcupholder]

Alright folks, the one thing I still seem to be missing on my pedalboard is a distortion pedal acting as tight as it gets. Will be used to run into a clean or almost clean amp (model).
What I'm using right now is a cheap but excellently sounding Drop Kick from Harley Benton, apparently a Suhr Riot clone - but while the sound is great, the tightness could be vastly improved (but the same goes for the original, at least AFAIR). I also still have an MXR 78 Custom Badass Distortion, pretty much the same thing (just that it doesn't sound too great, either).
Yeah, I know, pedals running into an amp (or model) usually don't give as tight a response as a decent overdriven amp, but as I'm quite happy with the dynamics of especially a J.Rockett "Dude" but also a Tone City "Golden Plexi", this isn't an issue for me.
Standard sized pedals pretty much would not work (space restrictions), but a TC/Rockett sized one with the jacks on the top end would work, same goes for any typical mini pedals (Mooer and the likes).
Would love B and T controls, but a typical 3-control pedal would likely be fine as well.
Wouldn't want to break a bank, especially as these kinds of drive are just a "side dish", I rarely really need them. Want to have that color on my board, though.
Also, quite unfortunately, Germany isn't exactly the greatest place for endless gear flip-flopping, so I wouldn't want to wade through gazillions of options (hence asking here).
Please also note: The pedal needs to provide all the tightness on its own, so any of the common "TS in front" tricks are out (as said, space is tight).

Any decent candidates?

What is the amp model (and modeler) you're using?

 

[Sascha Franck]

What is the amp model (and modeler) you're using?

For pretty much all overdriven sounds usually the Bman model of an Amplifirebox, with some pre and post EQ going on to avoid flubbiness.
It's set to almost completely clean, getting just a tad hairy when you push the input (which I do for, well, logistic reasons).
I already know that this might be the reason why tight distortions aren't working just *that* great, but as said, the combination of Pure Boost and Golden Plexi is probably sufficient for my needs (I don't need any metal tones).

 

[Desertdweller]

KSR Ceres. Tight. Brutal. 3 channel.