Sascha Franck
Rock Star
- Messages
- 5,621
Apart from "tight", I'm not looking for anything this pedal has on offer.
Tight distortion pedal?
- Thread starter Sascha Franck
- Start date
Apart from "tight", I'm not looking for anything this pedal has on offer.
Buddy of mine bought one of these and I went to one of his band practices to check it out. We both kind of hated it lmao. I was quite surprised by this because I've played Rhodes/KSR amps and liked them a lot
He sold it pretty quickly
Sascha Franck
Rock Star
- Messages
- 5,621
Ok, Friedmann BE OD incoming (picking it up tomorrow), absolutely great price (€100, still going for 225 new). Form factor will horribly annoy me but I think this might be a great pedal to add to my board as it's covering more classic MIAB territory and distortion kinda sounds as well.
JiveTurkey
Goatlord
- Messages
- 16,053
TOIGHT
Sascha Franck
Rock Star
- Messages
- 5,621
Trim pot inside can be your friend.
Yeah, I'm aware already. Quite likely turning it all the way down will be the first thing I'll do.
TSJMajesty
Rock Star
- Messages
- 5,666
- Messages
- 4,171
marshall in a box
Bob Zaod
Rock Star
- Messages
- 2,872
Loike a Toiger!
littlebadboy
Roadie
- Messages
- 124
Solar Chug
Bob Zaod
Rock Star
- Messages
- 2,872
I agree. Funny thing is for years I ran distortion boxes into amps and never really noticed the feeling of disconnect that I get now no matter which OD/Dist pedal I use on whatever clean amp or clean channel. It feels much more connected when putting an already overdriven amp into meltdown. I don't mind it so much if it's something like a Timmy used to give the clean channel a little bit of hair but relying on a pedal solely for gain doesn't feel or sound right any more.
Eagle
Rock Star
- Messages
- 3,353
The degree of interaction is massively less. Often the sound is high gain but the feel is not. It’s the sustain and interactivity that I like. Great players of high gain amps control everything and sound like they use less gain than they actually do.
Cirrus
Roadie
- Messages
- 301
FUCKING DB-1 YES MATE!
I built a clone of one, I really need to buy the real deal to see if I got anywhere close but I absolutely love it.
This is a gain/tone structure thing. Amps with great gain channels almost always have, essentially, bottleneck stages early on that shave off low end to keep the subsequent driven stages tight and punchy, and roll off top end in several places to stop things getting fizzy.
Trying to get a big sounding distortion from a pedal into the front end of an amp like that is basically impossible because you can't push the full, finished tone through those early preamp stage filters without losing a bunch of frequencies & dynamics.
On the other hand, vintage amps with farty bloated distortion (I'm looking at you, AC30s) make much better clean pedal platforms because their preamp stages are so primitive and full range.
It's honestly one of my favorite distortion pedals. I also have the Sobbat DB-3 and it's cool as well but totally different - much darker and smoother; more of a fusion type sound. I'd love to try the DB-2 and DB-4 at some point but I think the 1 is where it's at for me. The DB-1 is bright and tight which is what I love about it.
While we're at it, I'll use any excuse to bring up the Fuzzbreaker FB-1R (germanium) - it's so damn good. Basically an Analogman Sunface for half the price (I've done the comparison between my FB-1R and my buddy's NKT75 white dot Sunface and they can be dialed to sound identical)
Cirrus
Roadie
- Messages
- 301
I had a DB-2 & 3 for a few months last year, the -3 stayed on my board for a bit because with everything turned up and the boost on, it becomes a gnarly fuzzy monster. I couldn't really find a use for the non-boosted side in my band, and I had to mount it sideways to fit on my board, so off it went into the unknown
The DB-2, I sold to someone in the USA. They asked for a video to see it working, so I sent them this. It's far from a Demo, but maybe gives some idea of where it sits. I kind of want it back now
Sascha Franck
Rock Star
- Messages
- 5,621
BE OD Grabbed, tried -> mounted on board.
Great drive, pretty much exactly what I needed. More and tighter gain than what I was able to get from the Tone City Golden Plexi (which will as well stay on the board for the time being).
Caveat: While wellknown (and also a symptom of the BE amps), this is defenitely not a low noise pedal. It's not unbearable but I could easily see problems coming in when using single coils at anything that isn't the lowest possible gain. Not an issue for me as I need it for live playing and all my live guitars are using humbuckers or noiseless pseudo-SCs.
Caveat #2: Had to kick the King of Kings off the board - but on the upside, I found out that my Hotone Grass (which still fits on the board next to the BE OD) might be able to sort of replace it as a soft low gain drive.
Bottomline: Problem solved. For now at least. In case I can find a comparable pedal creating somewhat less noise, I might have to change things. Fortunately, I will easily be able to sell this for the same price I paid.
Great drive, pretty much exactly what I needed. More and tighter gain than what I was able to get from the Tone City Golden Plexi (which will as well stay on the board for the time being).
Caveat: While wellknown (and also a symptom of the BE amps), this is defenitely not a low noise pedal. It's not unbearable but I could easily see problems coming in when using single coils at anything that isn't the lowest possible gain. Not an issue for me as I need it for live playing and all my live guitars are using humbuckers or noiseless pseudo-SCs.
Caveat #2: Had to kick the King of Kings off the board - but on the upside, I found out that my Hotone Grass (which still fits on the board next to the BE OD) might be able to sort of replace it as a soft low gain drive.
Bottomline: Problem solved. For now at least. In case I can find a comparable pedal creating somewhat less noise, I might have to change things. Fortunately, I will easily be able to sell this for the same price I paid.
I had a DB-2 & 3 for a few months last year, the -3 stayed on my board for a bit because with everything turned up and the boost on, it becomes a gnarly fuzzy monster. I couldn't really find a use for the non-boosted side in my band, and I had to mount it sideways to fit on my board, so off it went into the unknown
The DB-2, I sold to someone in the USA. They asked for a video to see it working, so I sent them this. It's far from a Demo, but maybe gives some idea of where it sits. I kind of want it back now
Sounds pretty damn awesome to me! Seems like it also has a smoother top end than the DB-1 - how would you say it compared to your DB-1 clone?
Cirrus
Roadie
- Messages
- 301
Yeah less hairy up top, easier to dial in low gain stuff in the bottom 1/3rd of the gain range, fairly flat EQ, less compressed than the DB-1. Did get surprisingly gainy from half-way up, I was expecting more of an overdrive if the DB-1 was a distortion, but I guess that's a fairly arbitrary distinction.
