Saturday, September 17, 2016

THE 6 PROBLEMS I HAVE WITH DIRT BOXES.




I have 6 problems with dirt boxes.

There are many kinds of OD/Distortion pedals. Many are highly specialized for a style of playing.
Most can be functional in some way. Perhaps a thin sounding one is great for muted notes
...another is very full and fills a space well or another sits nicely behind a vocal.
I have many of those that I choose on purpose for a task.

What I am talking about here today are the rip your face off shredding machines. Most are based of a Marshall amps..especially a JCM800 or a Gourmet company's reinvention of it.  lol

SO HERE ARE MY 6 BIG MOANS



One... missing thing is that they do not all respond to my touch and as a result will not express the note I played the same as I played it. One pedal that does respond for me with perfection is the JHS @. 

The Second... thing is the resonance point of the mid range...too high and the pedal sounds a bit thin...too low and there is no singing sound to the pedal. 


The Third... thing is I like a growl caused by clipping in the low mid and upper bass range.It gives the pedal a gutsy sound. Some have none.


Fourth...  a very low boost at 600k simulates the natural boost the a Marshall 4 x12 speaker box creates ...the pedal can sound better with at least a hint even if it is actually going thru a real 4x12 cab. With a trend to lower wattage combo's left on clean and letting the pedals make the sound ...makes this is more important then ever.


Fifth... Some lack definition or are just plain muddy in the lows. Others are tight but they do this by killing the lows.

Sixth... Some rare pedals will cause a long sustained note or a pinched harmonic to feedback and the harmonics will leap up to an octave higher then you are playing easily...and some struggle even at reasonably high amp volumes. Most are inconsistent.

In fact this is my biggest complaint. 


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