Drive Pedal Heaven

I become too obsessed so I've always kept my pedal use limited. That's another one of my favorite things about Fractal gear, getting to try these things without going crazy.
 
I have far too many overdrive/distortion pedals to use with real amps, but in the Axe I'm almost exclusively amp drive. I may use a filter beforehand every now and then for tone shaping, but rarely use the drive block.
 
chrisjnyc said:
Anyone have a great thick fuzz tone? Something like the op amp EHX big muff, but more sputtering and wild
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Colorsound Supa Tonebender. I think I might still have one, but I kind of remember selling one or 2. With a Fender as the base tone, kind of ridiculous, but with a Marshall set relatively clean, the bass gets compressed enough to be ludicrous without going over the top. Bridge pickup only, mind you, turns into a swamp of slush if neck pickup is engaged. Tried to replicate with the Axe FX II and failed, and have not yet got around to trying to do the same with the Axe FX III. I need to try again!

Liam
 
LiamH said:
Colorsound Supa Tonebender. I think I might still have one, but I kind of remember selling one or 2. With a Fender as the base tone, kind of ridiculous, but with a Marshall set relatively clean, the bass gets compressed enough to be ludicrous without going over the top. Bridge pickup only, mind you, turns into a swamp of slush if neck pickup is engaged. Tried to replicate with the Axe FX II and failed, and have not yet got around to trying to do the same with the Axe FX III. I need to try again!

Liam
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No need to replicate, the Bender is already in there.
 
Probably just me but, since getting the III, I've not found the drives to work very well with pretty much any amp I try them with. I wind up with a lot of farty, frappy, fizzy mess, or ice pick in the ear nastiness. Reducing drive gain, bass roll off, EQ'ing, reducing input 1 gain level, everything else I can think of. Nothing seems to get me in the ballpark of what I was getting with the IIXL. Used various overdrive and distortion pedals for decades before going with modelers and never had this much trouble dialing in a good overdrive tone - though the drives in the IIXL were glorious. I've had more success using the preamp boost in the amp block so have just been using that when I need a good overdrive or distortion tone. There's really no great secret to dialing in a tasty overdrive or distortion tone, at least there didn't used to be, so I'm guessing it's just something I'm doing wrong. Still love the III and it's definitely my go forward rig for the foreseeable future. Just wish I could figure out what I'm doing wrong with the drives.
 
WW Audio said:
Probably just me but, since getting the III, I've not found the drives to work very well with pretty much any amp I try them with. I wind up with a lot of farty, frappy, fizzy mess, or ice pick in the ear nastiness. Reducing drive gain, bass roll off, EQ'ing, reducing input 1 gain level, everything else I can think of. Nothing seems to get me in the ballpark of what I was getting with the IIXL. Used various overdrive and distortion pedals for decades before going with modelers and never had this much trouble dialing in a good overdrive tone - though the drives in the IIXL were glorious. I've had more success using the preamp boost in the amp block so have just been using that when I need a good overdrive or distortion tone. There's really no great secret to dialing in a tasty overdrive or distortion tone, at least there didn't used to be, so I'm guessing it's just something I'm doing wrong. Still love the III and it's definitely my go forward rig for the foreseeable future. Just wish I could figure out what I'm doing wrong with the drives.
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Have you tried the latest firmware?
 
Nope, it was based (loosely) on the Maestro fuzz. The EHX Ram’s Head was released a decade later, I think.
 
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Not really into drive pedals for primary dirt when I have amp gain on tap but I'm all about ODs as boosts... Seems like most amps love that mid bump/low cut coming in...

Never really understood "pedal platform" guys . Makes no sense to me; unless you are playing mostly clean, what is the point of getting some fancy, esoteric tube amp only to get all your tone from a battery powered SS box... :D

Fuzzes make sense to me they are fundamentally different but they are also a special application in my world, I could live without a fuzz entirely.

That said, it is fun to mess with new stuff, cannot deny that other folks seem to get great results with them, and anything that improves accuracy is welcomed.

Plus: dem boosts.
 
yek said:
Nope, it was based (loosely) on the Maestro fuzz. The EHX Ram’s Head was released a decade later, I think.
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The Colorsound Supa Tonebender came out in 1973. It's the same circuit as a violet Ram's Head.

From Kit Rae's site:

THE COLORSOUND SUPA TONEBENDER - By 1973 Sola was using the Colorsound brand on its pedals, now built in wider "jumbo" sized enclosures. The Tone Bender was upgraded and moved into this new enclosure. The Colorsound Supa Tonebender (pronounced Super) featured a new Silicon transistor circuit that had no relationship to the previous Germanium transistor Tone Bender circuit at all. This new circuit was essentially a knockoff of the Electro-Harmonix four-transistor Big Muff circuit, specifically a 1973 era Big Muff, now known as the violet Ram's Head.
 
zenaxe said:
Never really understood "pedal platform" guys . Makes no sense to me; unless you are playing mostly clean, what is the point of getting some fancy, esoteric tube amp only to get all your tone from a battery powered SS box... :D
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Me too 😅 I've seen very high profile players talk at length about how they could never play thru anything but a tube amp. And then they get the cleanest Fender/Mesa amp they can find and put a Marshall-in-a-box pedal in front of it.

I've always preferred multichannel amps, but in the Axe I don't need that. I still get most of my drive sounds from (boosted) amps.
 
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ESW said:
The Colorsound Supa Tonebender came out in 1973. It's the same circuit as a violet Ram's Head.

From Kit Rae's site:

THE COLORSOUND SUPA TONEBENDER - By 1973 Sola was using the Colorsound brand on its pedals, now built in wider "jumbo" sized enclosures. The Tone Bender was upgraded and moved into this new enclosure. The Colorsound Supa Tonebender (pronounced Super) featured a new Silicon transistor circuit that had no relationship to the previous Germanium transistor Tone Bender circuit at all. This new circuit was essentially a knockoff of the Electro-Harmonix four-transistor Big Muff circuit, specifically a 1973 era Big Muff, now known as the violet Ram's Head.
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Pretty sure last time I looked it was a 3 transistor circuit, will need to dig through some boxes to find out if I still have one, but it has been the one that I missed most when I moved away from physical pedals. The Bender model doesn't have the insane out of control bass and high mid harshness. I have EQ'd to try to replicate, but never really got the same look of shock and awe from bandmates and audience as when I hit the nuclear button on the Supa Tonebender. I still have a mid 90's Russian Big Muff Pi, and I think that must be more after the Triangle than the Ram's Head (which I never tried). Massive and smooth, but never aggressive or harsh enough to make me laugh like when using a Supa Tone Bender. It's not a nice sound, but can be a very good one. ;)

Liam
 
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