Distortion pedal help

[NewGuy]

Whoa... u guys sure knows alot man... Keep em coming yea...

 

[alamsemu]

Yea, with the level on full at drive at zero. He used it as a boost.

Hi. Got any source on that? I always thought Vai used his amps clean, like Satch, with the distortion solely from the DS-1.

 

[Vaiyen]

no way dude. lots of sources actually; try the Steve Vai forum for starters.

 

[penguin]

NewGuy i would suggest that when u go jamming just rent both the sd1 and ds1..try them out, if u like then get it...
for me i`ll use both ..the sd1 as a boost..

on the other hand the jackhammer from marshall has both the od and dist knob..u can xperiment both setting..
this thing is loud..thats abt it..
it is one of my fav pedals to get the vintage tone..
again i`ll combine it with the sd1 ..for solos..
as for rhythm parts not sure if it is suited..
do take note that the rest is on ur finger and how u pick ..although pickup..make a difference too.

happy hunting..

 

[alamsemu]

no way dude. lots of sources actually; try the Steve Vai forum for starters.

He does use it as a boost. Thanks for the pointer. But "level on max and dist on 0" is kind of confusing. Here is what I've found so far from Vai.com.

"........With my set-up, when the distortion pedal is turned off the amp is a little dirty sounding. Kind of a chunky rhythm tone that I use as a basic sound for all the songs. If I back off the volume on the guitar the sound clears up enough to use it for cleaner songs. When I crank the volume on the guitar and hit the pedal it's usually pretty distorted but smooth. The way I set the knobs on the DS-1 are tone control to about 9 o'clock, level at about 11 o'clock and the distortion to about 11 o'clock. If your amp is set very clean then crank the distortion on the pedal all the way up but smooth it out by bringing the tone way down, maybe to 7 or 8 o'clock. The basic sound is in the tone but most improtant is the way you hit the notes. The real tone is always in your head and fingers."............"

And check this link. Watch the marker around the knobs.
http://www.robertkeeley.com/audio6v6/index.html

 

[sanXp]

I would suggest that you start with a DS-1 then proceed from there. It's cheap, but sadly out of stock islandwide at the moment. You can mod it in the future, or if you ever get another pedal you can always use the DS-1 as a solo boost, etc. Very versatile.

 

[pooo]

no way dude. lots of sources actually; try the Steve Vai forum for starters.

He does use it as a boost. Thanks for the pointer. But "level on max and dist on 0" is kind of confusing. Here is what I've found so far from Vai.com.

"........With my set-up, when the distortion pedal is turned off the amp is a little dirty sounding. Kind of a chunky rhythm tone that I use as a basic sound for all the songs. If I back off the volume on the guitar the sound clears up enough to use it for cleaner songs. When I crank the volume on the guitar and hit the pedal it's usually pretty distorted but smooth. The way I set the knobs on the DS-1 are tone control to about 9 o'clock, level at about 11 o'clock and the distortion to about 11 o'clock. If your amp is set very clean then crank the distortion on the pedal all the way up but smooth it out by bringing the tone way down, maybe to 7 or 8 o'clock. The basic sound is in the tone but most improtant is the way you hit the notes. The real tone is always in your head and fingers."............"

And check this link. Watch the marker around the knobs.
http://www.robertkeeley.com/audio6v6/index.html

I suppose it varies from time to time, depending on the amps he uses and what is required. Settings ain't a fixed thing, especially if you're out performing often at different venues with different equipment.

 

[NewGuy]

Whoa... the tonal stuff here is immense man...

Great job on all the advice... can see that every rig need a distortion pedal some way or the other right?

I noticed that the ds-1 and sd-1 are used quite often... so if I invest in one now... nxt time if wanna upgrade can use it as booster right?

haha... still deciding between ds-1 and sd-1... any tips on this, guys?

 

[hullabalooeeks]

i use ds-1 and sd-1. i think u can only get a versatile sound when a dist and OD pedal. I use the OD for more classic rock tones and combine both for high gain type of sound or the ds-1 alone for a harsh sound.

 

[NewGuy]

Oh I see... best if use together ah? But then lets say 1 day I upgrade and buy sansamp GT-2... then how I implement the ds-1 and sd-1 to the rig?

 

[ShredCow]

I don't like the MIT DS-1s personally. It has to be modded but then, even when modded to have much smoother tone, I find it a bad gain booster, more for thickening your tone for lead but its too muddy for rhythm. And for a stock MIT DS-1 as main distortion, its horrendous IMO.

Vai used the MIJ DS-1 for some time then switched to Keeley's ULTRA DS-1... then now, he is using a TS9DX heavily modified by Keeley. He no longer uses the DS-1.

IMO, the TS9DX is a MUCH more toneful and versatile booster unit. It can go thick for fattening up your lead, and it can be thinner which is great for rhythm. The DS-1 thickens a lot and anything above 10 oclock on the tone control is unusable for me.

Anyway, this is all my preference. You got to try them out. DS-1 is very cheap though.

 

[rfseet]

Oh I see... best if use together ah? But then lets say 1 day I upgrade and buy sansamp GT-2... then how I implement the ds-1 and sd-1 to the rig?

then use the gt-2 to set the clean tone, use the ds-1 when you want distortion and sd-1 when soloing

 

[ShredCow]

Thats a total waste of the GT2 rfseet. It has superior distortion to the DS-1 althought it might not be able to get warm overdrive tones ala SD-1.

The GT2 should be your main distortion. Then use the SD-1 for gain boost, DS-1 for lead boost, thought I don't think the DS-1 is a very good boost esp in live applications when you are using a hi gain tone.

 

[NewGuy]

Oic... haha sd-1 has more future upgrade prospect in that sense...

haha I may go check it out pretty soon but can anyone give me the pricing for sd-1???

cos a bit on tight budget...

 

[ictaros]

Although the SD-1 is very popular, I prefer an OD-3 over it! (how many pple here do?). Imo, i think its better than an SD-1 but perhaps SD-1 is an earlier production (around the same generation of the OD-1) so the popularization might be due to faithful history.

I've compared it side by side to a SD-1 mainly for boosting (drive at 0) and the overall richness and warmth of the OD3 far surpasses the SD-1. I find that it brings out my picking dynamics very well. I've also timed the sustain for both OD-3 and SD-1 and the OD-3 has a longer sustain of about 2-2.5 secs. But most importantly, it doesn't cut off my bass like the SD-1! (TS-9 too?) In the end, i sold off my SD-1...

Any OD-3 lovers here?

 

[NewGuy]

I will take note of OD-3 also but seriously from the samples in the marshall website I think the sd-1 sounds nicer... but most people seems to mod sd-1 and ds-1 very little mod OD-3 and I believe there is a reason for it... Thanks for the input man...

 

[sanXp]

Oh I see... best if use together ah? But then lets say 1 day I upgrade and buy sansamp GT-2... then how I implement the ds-1 and sd-1 to the rig?

guitar -> sd-1 -> gt-2 -> ds-1 -> amp

SD-1 for more gain, DS-1 for solo boost.

 

[sanXp]

Although the SD-1 is very popular, I prefer an OD-3 over it! (how many pple here do?).

The bass cut can be modified la. The reason I guess why no one speaks of the OD-3 is because it's more expensive.

 

[NewGuy]

OIC thanks man... I'll be going distortion pedal hunting this afternoon...

 

[Newbie]

Hope im not too bad to give some advice. Lol advice from newbie!


Ok erm. My pedals are... DS-1, GT-2, and SD-1. Well for distortion units that is.

i use sd-1 + gt-2 for rythm. Not heavy trust me, just turn down the drives. Plus, im using OD channel during jamming and gigs so yeah.

DS-1 for lead tones. so when im playing lead, all 3 dist units will be activated. lol. yea im a crazy bitch. haha