Distortion pedal question

[coaltrain]

I have been using a Bad Cat Cub II 1x12 amp and a Keeley mod TS808 for most of my guitar work. Lately I have been having to do some songs that use a little heavier distortion (overdrive) sound that I can't get. What would be a good pedal to use that will reach a heavier level of distortion but be a quality sound. I would like a true by-pass design pedal.

Thanks
Jeff

[taclassic]

I say try out the Fulltone OCD. I like it, but it can be a little over the top. I think I keep the overdrive at less than half.

[tom]

barber direct drive is a good one too.

[Babow2]

Hi,
I'll add another pedal for you to consider- the MXR Distortion III. I bought the Fulltone OCD and the MXR to compare them side by side, after they both got rave reviews in Guitar Player. My bias was in favor of the Fulltone, as i already have a Fulldrive 2 on my board. However, the MXR sounded more natural and richer to me. I found the OCD a little strident. Like one post said, it has a lot of over the top distortion and i had to dial it way back to get a good tone for my style, and that took a lot of the flexibility out of that pedal. i found i could get a better sounding range of tones through the MXR. So, it is worth a listen.
Brent

[FFOGG]

I like the OCD and my Eternity ...... They both work well with HB and SC ....There are two new Lovepedals out the Pro Valve and BBB 07 worth checking out also

[Suriel Zayas]

barber direct drive is a good one too.

+1 i also like the directive drive super sport, a little modded marshallish in a box.

[ckofahl]

Cream tone by g2d great amplike pedal.

[LearnedHand]

What would be a good pedal to use that will reach a heavier level of distortion but be a quality sound. I would like a true by-pass design pedal.

Thanks
Jeff
The first question that needs to be asked is what type of guitar are you going to be running it through - buckers with short scale or long scale or single coils with long scale. What some says is a great pedal you might think it is awful because the both of you have different guitars. I have determined some pedals, just like some amps, work better with certain guitars over other ones. Personally, for me I like the Barber Direct Drive in front of my 65 Twin Reverb reissue and plugged into my TA Classic with VA5s.

[coaltrain]

I would use one of these guitars shown, for heavy stuff I think the best choice of guitar would be the DTC or the Fender tele, they both have the closest thing I have to full humbuckers.

http://i91.photobucket.com/albums/k304/70NovaSS/guitars/IMG_1562.jpg

[Casper]

MI Audio Crunchbox! Almost TOO ballsy..
Barber DD if not..

Shaun

[mdrs]

For pushing your amp, I am a Klon man. But, it's mostly if you like your amps natural tone.

If you're looking for more dirt than your amps giving up, I like the Fulltone OCD a lot.

I've heard good things about Brian Wampler's pedals, but I won't have any personal experience with them for about a month. I'll try to post about my impressions when I get them.

http://www.indyguitarist.com/cubecart/

[kurt1981]

Well, it's hard to recommend just one, but do you have a particular tone in mind? I like the xotic BB a lot for gainy stuff, it's very transparent, doesn't add a lot of mids, just a big full sound. The direct drive is nice too as others have mentioned, though I found it to be a tad pickier with certain amps and guitars. I also like the old ibanez tube king pedals, they do a very nice pseudo marshall thing. I liked the OCD, but it's pretty open and not always the easiest pedal to get right. I found the most useable settings were low gain, but that's just me. You could always try keeley's higher gain or baked tube screamers, or even the maxon SD9. There's so many, if you have any tones in mind, that may help narrow things a bit. Try checking out the pro guitar shop vids on youtube, they demo a ton of pedals there, and the amp is a 65 amps soho, a I think they're kind of in the same ballpark as the bad cats.
Hope that helps some,
Kurt

[coaltrain]

Thanks everyone, I am going to give some of these a try and check out the Youtube videos.

[akivisuals]

Another vote for the MI Audio Crunch Box or if you really want an amplike sound you could buy my Stephenson Stage Hog I got on the b/s forum! :D

[crash]

Both the OCD and Crunch Box pair up well with a Tube Screamer. I have had both on the board next to my Fulldrive II (which sounds very much like a 2-stage TS.)

To my ear, the OCD is thicker through the middle, but can be a bit gnarly to control. It is very good, especially if you're using it to push the amp - it has a TON of gain.