[Dave_M]

I always thought the best strings were elixir nanoweb electric. Plain steel covered some sort of ultra thin polymer so protect them from corrosion.



I got my Fulltone OCD today

I was looking for a better pedal than TS-808. After all, that's an old, discontinued pedal that doesn't even have true bypass. There must be somthing better out there by now I thought.

The OCD is excelent. Feels sturdy and well made. All the controls have a very good range (perfect in fact). And both the drive and tone have a really nice quality as well. The best thing about it that sets it apart is the ability to control the amount of distortion depending on how hard you pluck the strings - it's going to give me good practice, learning to control how hard I pluck instead of bashing all the notes out.

I was trying to find out what the HP/LP control actually did. I prefer LP, it makes the pedal more dynamic and behave like I just described. On HP, the noise floor is raised slighty, and the sound is more compressed and less dynamic. I think you should use HP to give you better sustained distortion.

The pedal is great but not perfect. My only minor gripes with it are... The power socket is in the wrong place, it also uses the non standard center as negative. The LED is a little too bright. And the pedal isn't quite good enough to use as a clean boost. There is a little distortion with the drive turned all the way down. But overall as an overdrive pedal (not distortion pedal), it is excelent and very highly recomended by me.

 

[pne]

I absolutely love the fender blues series. Their clean tone is sweet and intoxicating. When shopping for a tube amp, I originally ordered the blues deluxe. Unfortunately arriving at my door, one of the tubes was smashed open. I returned it and bought a crate vfx 50watt tube amp, a move I've come to regret deeply.

If you're shopping for a tube amp for practice/playing in your bedroom, look for something with low low wattage. 1-5 watts would be perfect. This lets you drive the tubes and get that sweet overdriven sound you will never get with a higher wattage tube amp. That is, unless you turn the big tube amp up and bring the house down.

 

[Hermitt]

I put a set of 10-46 elixur nanowebs onmy strat and really like them. Thay have great tone and last a lot longer than the d'addarios that came on it. I recently put a set of DR Strings Xtra-life coated Red Devils 10-46 on my Ibanez Arondite, only because the red strings look pretty sweet on a jet black guitar

On my Colonel and my Black Falcon, I use Dean Markley Blue Steel Cryo treated 11-52s because i love the fuller tone on the hollow bodies.

 

[nothing101]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dave_M /img/forum/go_quote.gif I always thought the best strings were elixir nanoweb electric. Plain steel covered some sort of ultra thin polymer so protect them from corrosion. I got my Fulltone OCD today I was looking for a better pedal than TS-808. After all, that's an old, discontinued pedal that doesn't even have true bypass. There must be somthing better out there by now I thought. The OCD is excelent. Feels sturdy and well made. All the controls have a very good range (perfect in fact). And both the drive and tone have a really nice quality as well. The best thing about it that sets it apart is the ability to control the amount of distortion depending on how hard you pluck the strings - it's going to give me good practice, learning to control how hard I pluck instead of bashing all the notes out. I was trying to find out what the HP/LP control actually did. I prefer LP, it makes the pedal more dynamic and behave like I just described. On HP, the noise floor is raised slighty, and the sound is more compressed and less dynamic. I think you should use HP to give you better sustained distortion. The pedal is great but not perfect. My only minor gripes with it are... The power socket is in the wrong place, it also uses the non standard center as negative. The LED is a little too bright. And the pedal isn't quite good enough to use as a clean boost. There is a little distortion with the drive turned all the way down. But overall as an overdrive pedal (not distortion pedal), it is excelent and very highly recomended by me.

Im unsure about the ocd. is it a distortion or an overdrive pedal??

Also, i just realised by using my guitar amp's distortion channel that my boss distortion pedal is actually making my amp sound really tinny. What pedal has a rich, thick distortion? My ac15 doesnt have much gain so i am in the market for a distortion pedal that will produce rich tones to compliment it. I am looking for distortion not overdrive.

 

[infinitesymphony]

Apparently pro-audio manufacturer Mackie is releasing their own guitar amplifier, the Hotwire VT-12. It has some interesting features, like selectable wattage.

 

[Dave_M]

Quote:

Originally Posted by nothing101 /img/forum/go_quote.gif What pedal has a rich, thick distortion? My ac15 doesnt have much gain so i am in the market for a distortion pedal that will produce rich tones to compliment it. I am looking for distortion not overdrive.

The OCD does up to very heavy overdrive. Not quite into distortion pedal territory.

High gain distortion? I would go for a electro harmonix little big muff. This guy on youtube does a nice demo of it.

 

[Hermitt]

Quote:

Originally Posted by infinitesymphony /img/forum/go_quote.gif Apparently pro-audio manufacturer Mackie is releasing their own guitar amplifier, the Hotwire VT-12. It has some interesting features, like selectable wattage.

Nice amp. My vox ad30vt also has a selectable wattage control on the rear of the cabinet. that way you can still crank up the gain and/or the master to get that 12ax7 working but keep the volume down to a reasonable level for in doors. Usually I keep mine at around 15 watts

 

[nothing101]

im actually now looking at fuzz pedals. I like the looks of the zvex fuzz factory but can it sound thick? I am looking preferably for germanium fuzzes which is why i am considering the fuzz factory over the big muff.

 

[jellybones]

The ZVEX Fuzz Factory has a wider range of things you can do..considering all the tweaking you can do with the 5 knobs. Matt Bellamy from Muse uses one that's actually built into his guitar (one of them anyway) with the knobs of the FF next to the volume and tone knobs of the guitar for changing sounds on the fly live.

 

[nothing101]

the question to me is really CAN the fuzz factory pull off a thick sound through a bright amp.

 

[bloodydoorknob]

Using the tone control on your guitar to turn down the treble, and raising the mids and the bass on any given pedal usually yields smooth and chunky distortion. I've tried various pedals through the deluxe reverb, which is notorious for its bright tone, and it works most of the time. Sometimes, depending on the pedal, the sound can get muddy using these settings, but with quality pedals, such as the zvex fuzz, I'm sure a little tweaking will do the trick.

 

[Jahn]

Quote:

Originally Posted by nothing101 /img/forum/go_quote.gif im actually now looking at fuzz pedals. I like the looks of the zvex fuzz factory but can it sound thick? I am looking preferably for germanium fuzzes which is why i am considering the fuzz factory over the big muff.

that said, the big muff gets THICK and sustains for days if you want it to, and is seriously raw. it's more of a fuzz/distortion hybrid than a straight fuzz. haven't found a setting on the FF yet that can do the Muff like the Muff can Muff. But the FF can do its own thing very well of course.