Getting my first pedals, need some advice!

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Bekk

New member
Hi guys, I'm finally getting some pedals after playing straight through amp for about 1 year plus. I play through a Craftsman SSH and a Line 6 spider III 15, with pretty crappy distortion, so I'm looking for some drive pedals.

I've been looking at the Danelectro Coolcat Series, especially the TOD and the Fuzz, and I would like to ask, are they recommended?

And what's the difference in terms of sound, between the TOD, Drive, Fuzz and distortion? I'm more inclined towards an overdriven sound, and am especially interested in the sound used in solos by John Frusciante in the Stadium Arcadium album, for example Strip My Mind:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NEUL48Ke98Q

Is that fuzz or distortion?

It would be great if I can have some advice on what to get, my budget is pretty low, around $50 per pedal. And where can i get the coolcats besides Davis? And how much are they going for now?

Woo, that's many questions. Haha. Thanks for reading and helping! :)
 
Line 6 Spider III distortion is bad?!?!?!?!? You gotta be kidding me, its quite good already. I don't think the Coolcat series will satisfy you then, look for a more decent drive pedal. Suhr Riot or Wampler Plextortion comes to mind, although they cost over $300.
 
I guess I have not used much of it then, have to tweak more. Haha. I actually play mostly clean stuff, and would like some light overdrive? Actually what's the difference between fuzz and distortion? Those are way out of my budget. Thanks anyway!
 
Mostly clean, then just get a compressor to tighten up your sound. Light overdrive............hmmmm.........rusty with pedals, haven't gone out and tried since 2008 when i was having Os......i think the Beta Aivin OD100 is a great pedal for the price, as is the Biyang OD7. Have only been to SV to try pedals since so those 2 are off the top of my head. Go try out all the pedals on offer and decide for yourself. Bring your guitar along too.
 
Light Overdrive? Cool Cat Transparent Overdrive, and if you want something more aggressive, get the Cool Cat Overdrive, said to rival the Fulltone OCD at a fraction of the price, waiting for next year to come and i'ma get it! Hahahah
 
I see I see. Haha. What are your thoughts on the Fuzz then. Btw, how much are they going for, $30+? or $40+. Which is the best shop in Penin to get them ah. I heard that Davis has a sale for pedals, 3 coolcats at $75. That looks like a good deal.
 
If you need a pedalboard, I've got a Modtone Powered Pedalboard for sale at cheap! :D
*ends shameless advertisement*

Anyway, that said, I recommend the Digitech Bad Monkey if you're on a tight budget. That's quite a decent pedal for its price, although its not a true bypass. If not, the ModTone Dyna Drive is quite a good pedal as well
 
I highly recommend the Cool Cat series. They're clearly equal or better than other mass-produced sub-$100 pedals from Biyang, Beta Aivin, Modtone, even Boss or Digitech with very few exceptions.

Especially the Transparent Overdrive v1. It'll do very subtle clean boost to almost bluesy overdrive. I had one for a long time, sold it, but ended up buying two more. They're just great :)

The Cool Cat Fuzz (v1 at least, not sure about v2) is not very fuzzy at all -- it's quite a tight, focused, high gain sound, might be suitable for certain lead styles. I'm letting go of one Fuzz v1 by the way, if you're interested PM me.

2nd hand, I've seen as low as $15, but $25 is an alright deal. The TODv1 sometimes fetches more. Haven't heard about the Davis deal but if you're picking a 3rd Cool Cat the tremolo is very good too.
 
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Lol I don't think I need a pedalboard to put one or two pedals just yet. Thanks for the offer though.

Hmm what's the difference between v1 and v2? I heard they don't sell v1 in shops anymore, and that the v2 can be tweaked more or something?
I'm thinking of the chorus as the third, cause it can help with clean sounds, what do you think? I guess I shall go down penin to take a look tmr.
 
Some of the v1's were supposedly blatant copies of other pedals -- e.g. the TODv1 is said to be a Paul Cochrane Timmy clone -- though I've never bothered to check the circuit. If it is, well, then I have a very good clone on my hands, if not it still sounds great. The v2's are slightly different and some have additional switches, I think the TODv2 has switches for different clipping styles.

But there's always the secret magic mojo associated with discontinued or highly debated gear, so I'll stick to my TODv1 :p

Chorus like all modulations are very subjective, if you like it go for it.

Budget tip: use a cheap laptop bag to carry your pedals. They're decently padded and have multiple compartments for power supply and cables. Most of them can unzip on three sides so you can flip it open and use your pedals without taking them out.
 
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i think that in terms of distortion tones you are probably going to get the best out of an amp distortion rather than from distortion pedals. if u are looking for home jamming purposes maybe u can consider getting a overdrive pedal to boost your amp distortion for a fuller tone. Like running both at the same time but with lower gain settings. If u set a light distortion on your amp you might even be able to go from distortion to clean by rolling off the volume knob on your guitar.

I think the coolcat TOD should do the job well when it comes to pushing another drive unit.

You could look into getting distortion pedals if u are looking to play around with many modulation effects n delays etc. Coz they dont work well when activated in front of where the distortion unit is placed. for example if u plug your guitar into a delay pedal and then into your amp and u use your amp overdrive u would not get a good sound( unless u have an effects loop in your amp, which i believe yours doesnt). It would be better if u plug guitar to distortion pedal and then to the delay pedal and then into a clean channel on your amp.
 
Actually, come to think of it, I think I have not fully utilised my amp's distortion. Haha so maybe I shall just get one or two cheap pedals and work on my tone from there. Thanks for all the advice guys! :)
 
I'm not familiar with the john frusciante/RCHP stuff but I think the solo on strip my mind is done with a fuzz, probably an EHX big muff since that's what he has been reported to use.

As carboxymoron said, the v1 TOD was supposedly a timmy clone. However the v2 revision deviates from that cuz of the circuit revision. I've had the V1 drive for quite some time, and clone or not, it's value for money.

A fuzz is technically a distortion as it clips the signal, but it's the way the clipping is done that gives fuzz it's sonic signature. It's pretty hard to draw a line between the two sometimes. Perhaps you could youtube for demos on the cool cat series to get an idea of their sound, plus gearmanndude has put some videos on the V1 V2 comparisions. Alternatively you could find out what gear an artist uses to get an idea of how he achieves his sound.

Another overdrive you could consider is the tubescreamer type. Very useful for fattening up a strat's midrange and boosting other drive pedals/amp distortion. Biyang's offerings seem pretty decent, perhaps you could check them out too.
 
Hmm I have seen many of those videos, but my untrained ears can't really hear the difference between them. Haha.

I was at penin this afternoon, the Davis branch selling pedals was closed, so I walked around the other shops, but could not find any Coolcats, or was I not looking hard enough? They don't sell the v1 in shops right?
 
Nope they dun sell it anymore. The v1 sounds really thick. Its prob the kind of pedals that will push other dirt pedals into the sweet zone when used as a booster but without adding much hiss and feedback.
 
Erm u can actually find cool cats in music theme which is excelsior there, just right beside penin but their range of the series is rather limited, if i am not wrong the last time i went most of them were out of stock. v1 is already not in production because of the copyright thing if i am not wrong. I think the cool cat TOD is really very good for its price, but i just run it as a 2nd stage overdrive with my main overdrive being ibanez tubescreamer. If you want extra distortion but not too hardcore and heavy ones, I recommend the modtone speedbox. Rly great sounding and only 75 at SV, its not really too heavy but also it can give sufficient gain and dist. But i think the coolcat series is the best starter for pedals because it is very very affordable and it also gives u a nice tone plus a true bypass, what more can u ask for? Even if u find it not good u probably only lose like 30 plus bucks? I recommend the cool cat chorus too, comparable in my opinion to many leading brands such as boss but at just like about one quarter the price?
 
Woo exams are finally over. Thanks for your advice. I think I shall check them out during the weekends. Davis sell them too right?
 
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