Overdrive pedal to use with a Marshall

[Unknown3]

So the time has come to make that final purchase that will let me play together with my drummer again. We're playing metal of various sorts; heavy metal, thrash metal, metalcore, some melodic death metal, etc. We'll be mainly playing on standard tuning or in Drop D. I'm playing with a Jackson RR3 with stock pick-ups from Seymour Duncan (SD '59 in neck position and SD JB in bridge position) on a JCM 800 50-watt combo.

Since I still want that Marshall tone, I want a good clean overdrive pedal, one that will add that extra gain that my amp is lacking. I like low-mids and mids for that hard rhythm play. I tend to reduce mids a tiny but, but I don't scoop them.

Here are the pedals I've been eyeing so far:

- MXR GT-OD
- Boss OD-3
- Radial Tonebone Hot British

I remember trying the Boss one like over a year ago, and it didn't really deliver, but I was also VERY nooby with guitars back then, so that may not count. While I haven't tried the MXR Overdrive, I did try the Zakk Wylde one, which delivered some sweet lead sound, but overall it wasn't useful for me.

Any suggestions? Care to share your experience with any of these - if you've had any? Right now the Hot British seems very attractive, but it might mask the Marshall sound too much?

 

[sojatriani]

Bro, you have to try the MXR ZW44OD, the Zakk Wylde pedal, it is the best OD for a Marshall IMHO. I have went thru the whole list, SD-1, DS-1, TS9, 808, some of the other crap. This pedal sounds the best to me, now I am going for a Metal sound only when using my pedal, the Marshall covers everything else, sounds really good with the Vintage Modern, but with the JCM 900 it just rips. I only set the gain about half way with a little boost and a MXR EQ with a little boost to the highs and lows and BAM, there it is. Any way, try it , nice pedal.

 

[Unknown3]

Bro, you have to try the MXR ZW44OD, the Zakk Wylde pedal, it is the best OD for a Marshall IMHO. I have went thru the whole list, SD-1, DS-1, TS9, 808, some of the other crap. This pedal sounds the best to me, now I am going for a Metal sound only when using my pedal, the Marshall covers everything else, sounds really good with the Vintage Modern, but with the JCM 900 it just rips. I only set the gain about half way with a little boost and a MXR EQ with a little boost to the highs and lows and BAM, there it is. Any way, try it , nice pedal.

I have tried the Zakk Wylde pedal on a Vintage Modern amp connected to a 1960 speaker, and I've tried it using two Jackson guitars (one with Seymour Duncans, one with an EMG 81) and an ESP Guitar. Like I said, the pedal was great for boosting it for some hardrock solos and all that, but it just doesn't cut it when you want to wander into modern metal (heavy/thrash/core) while still keeping away from scooped mids. So it's safe to say that this isn't the right pedal for me, as I'm using it on a moderate-gain amp.

Does the ZW-44 boost pre-amp gain more than a Boss OD-3 or GT-OD? Relativity between them would be nice to know - that way I can easily determine which ones I don't need to bother looking into, since I need more than what the ZW-44 is offering. I think.

 

[sojatriani]

If it's just gain you are going for, get a boosta grande, or a MXR Micro Amp, both boost just the gain with a flat EQ. I think the trick, with Marshalls isn't the OD you use, I think, and I am sure most would agree, getting a more modern metal sound is going to be by using the 10 band MXR EQ with level and gain controls, you can set the EQ (NOT SCOOPING THE MIDS) to the sound you like, add gain to taste and then boost if you want. Hence the ZW44 WITH the MXR EQ=my metal sound (AGAIN, NO SCOOPED MIDS), more of a MEGADETH grinding sound. AS far as boosting pre-amp gain, unless you max out the level on the pedals, (witch would cause alot of noise), you should have plenty of boost left with any of the pedals you mentioned. Check the EQ out.

 

[Unknown3]

What's the difference between a Boost pedal and Overdrive pedal? Are you sure a boost is better? I tried the MXR Boost and it REALLY didn't do much of a difference. I can't afford an MXR EQ, not until after next month, maybe.

 

[Unknown3]

So far I have tried these pedals:

TS-7 Tube Screamer
MXR GT-OD
MXR Zakk Wylde OD
MI Audio Tube Overdrive
ProCo Rat Distortion
MXR Boost

And nothing has worked. So I'm going to just take some chances and buy a Hot British. If that doesn't work, I'll sell my JCM 800 for much more than I got it for - or trade it for a JCM 900. And if that doesn't work...

 

[spaceforlease]

if boost pedals doesnt work for you, try an MXR distortion pedal. the one with 18v and needs to be plugged in with an adapter; like the MXR doubleshot distortion. that has a shitload of gain. but its not as easy to set up as a booster pedal. you gotta tweak with it a little bit. it gives a shitload of feedback too... too much...

 

[spaceforlease]

i personally prefer the boost pedals... like the zakk wylde mxr that i have than the mxr doubleshot distortion. distortion pedals are just too much for me! though i once tweaked in a real heavy sound (more like pantera, slayer) with the doubleshot distortion.

 

[Unknown3]

Well, since I'm looking for something like Anthrax/Metallica/Megadeth/Trivium/metalmetalmetal yeah I'm going to need a shitload of gain. Feedback might be a bitch, but hopefully ana ttenuator and proper EQ settings will reduce that to such a degree that the feedback doesn't ring through while playing.

But yeah, boost pedals so far seem to not work. The ProCo Rat had a decent sound (though I think some wires had some issues), but the mids were really scooped and I didn't like that. So, until I can get ahold of a JCM 2000, I think I'm going to use an overdrive/distortion pedal and back off a little with the gain so as not to color my amp's sound too much. I'm really set on going with the Radial Tonebone Hot British.

 

[sojatriani]

The tonebone sounds best played on the clean channel, If you try to juice the distorted channel with a tonebone, you for one will get a shitload of noise, but you would waste a lot of $$$ on a Tonebone that definantly wouldn't work. The tonebone will completely change the sound of your tone used as a OD/boost, used on the clean side they are OK. If you look at Slayer and all of the old skool metal guys who pump mids, you will see a EQ pushing the front end, it is clean gain and you can contour your sound exactly the way you like. If you can't find a good sound with the MXR 10 you are too picky. The tonebone is like $200, a MXR 10 band is like $125. Spend the money before you sell the 800, although the 900 is wayyyy better for metal. At least mine is. Don't give up on it.

 

[Unknown3]

I haven't tried the GT-OD with the MXR 10-band, I'll admit that- Also, it's not that I'm picky. It's not about the sound, you see. It's just that there's a certain character to the sound that I'm looking for. A certain character everyone playing heavy metal/thrash metal is looking for, and you get that from playing one one string and palm muting that string. If you play metal, you know what I'm talking about. It's that chewy, chuggy sound. What sound and tone that will have is a different question.

So if I buy a GT-OD (which I will admit is a good boost) and an MXR 10-band, then I can pick up my guitar and play any given thrash metal song? You know, a boost will do me no good if palm muted playing will give me a round, relatively clean bassy sound. Also, I'm buying it from the store only if I can't find it in the second-hand market. What did you mean by "spend the money before you sell the 800"? I'd trade it for the 900 in that case, but if I could, I'd sell it for $800-$900 and then contribute with the last $100 myself to buy a 2000 and all my problems would be solved really ^^

A GT-OD + MXR 10-band will cost me $470 bought from stores (as no one is selling them 2nd-hand). I've found a Hot British for $150. Both are taking chances. Now you tell me what I should do I'm also buying a T-Rex Fuel Tank because I don't want to bother wiht a bunch of wires and batteries/adapter power sources. We want to start playing as soon as we can and compromising a little with the sound I want isn't a problem since I can fix that later, when I have the money to do so

I'm going to look into the MXR deal a bit more. It might be worth it, but then again, if I can't afford it within the month of October, it's a no-no. I have a $1000 guitar lying around that I've barely used and it's starting to get to me

 

[sojatriani]

Play that guitar!!!! I think really the best thing for any thrash metal, death metal, 80s metal, any metal, and I know well the low E or even D string chug, my favorite is older slayer, lots of mids and just chugging, would be(in a perfect world) to get the MXR EQ and start putting OD pedals in front, each will add a different character to the sound, until you find your sound. I know it's repetitive, but the Marshalls really have to be EQd to do metal, and if you need more, experiment until you find the right combo of OD/EQ. It is half the fun, trying to get the sound in your head to come out of your speakers, it's why we all still play.

 

[Unknown3]

We'll have to see about that in the future, right now I can't see myself affording all that stuff, so I'm just going to go with a 2nd-hand Hot British in the meanwhile. I'm definitely going to buy an MXR 10-band EQ some time later. Depending on what Iäm using then, I may not even need a boost/overdrive pedal. But when I do want an OD, I'm definitely getting the MXR GT-OD. They're seriously good.

Like your inputs though. I'm going to see how things work out. I've put my JCM 800 up on sale, and if I sell it, I'll be able to buy a DSL 100 or DSL 50, which will definitely stop me from getting a bunch of pedals. You see, I prefer to keep things as simple as possible due to practical reasons, really ^^ Sound quality reasons as well, but mainly practicality.

 

[spaceforlease]

hey, you ever think of getting TWO booster pedals? some people do that too

 

[Unknown3]

Yeah, I have. Worried about feedback and noise overload, though.

Right, so... I find myself back to square one. I honestly don't know what to buy. I think that, for now, I'm going to try finding a different sound. The sound I tried to achieve was a plain, pure Marshall sound but with lots and lots of gain. Now, distortion pedals have their own sound. Maybe one of them can work for the time being? I notice that distortion pedals seem less lively than all-tube distortion, but maybe I can make it sound good enough to play with until I can get me the stuff I want?

 

[psphill27]

Metallon,
I use an old Boss SD-1 with my Marshall, but I'm only boosting for solos. I played JCM 800s in my 80s medal days and never used any more distortion. Although pricey, you might want to check the Fulltone OCD. They're seriously good. If you're looking for more distortion in stead of "drive/boost" might want to look at the MXR Dimebag distortion. Good luck..
Pete

 

[Unknown3]

Thanks, but I uhh, solved the issue. Weird, but I did. Posting a topic about it now (it really IS weird).

 

[travismbrown]

So far I have tried these pedals:

TS-7 Tube Screamer
MXR GT-OD
MXR Zakk Wylde OD
MI Audio Tube Overdrive
ProCo Rat Distortion
MXR Boost

And nothing has worked. So I'm going to just take some chances and buy a Hot British. If that doesn't work, I'll sell my JCM 800 for much more than I got it for - or trade it for a JCM 900. And if that doesn't work...

Trade you for my JCM 900!!

 

[travismbrown]

So far I have tried these pedals:

TS-7 Tube Screamer
MXR GT-OD
MXR Zakk Wylde OD
MI Audio Tube Overdrive
ProCo Rat Distortion
MXR Boost

And nothing has worked. So I'm going to just take some chances and buy a Hot British. If that doesn't work, I'll sell my JCM 800 for much more than I got it for - or trade it for a JCM 900. And if that doesn't work...

Trade you for my JCM 900!!

 

[HOT TUBES 70]

Has Anyone Used The Amt Line Of Pedals,the Sound Clips On There Web Page Sound Great?