Overdrive or Distortion??

     Are you confused if you're going to get an Overdrive pedal or a Distortion pedal? First, check the genre that you will be playing, (is it for solos or riffs). Second check your influences, and at least get the idea of the sound you're trying to achieve. Good knowledge of the tone you’re trying to get will result to a good tone.




Distortion is like a generic term for all the Dirt pedals. This can be Overdrive, Fuzz, Distortion or Metal. So this means Overdrive is a type of Distortion. In my opinion Overdrive is like the sound of a motorbike engine and Distortion sound like a chain saw cutting or slashing a metal object.





Here are some tips before getting your Dirt pedal

             If you’re aiming for clean and warm over drive. I suggest get a good overdrive like Ibanez Ts9, Ibanez Ts808, Digitech Bad Monkey, Boss OD-3 or Boss SD-1. 

If you want that overdriven sound but has a touch 

of some dirt you may try Boss BD-2, Boss OS-2, or MXR Dist+

 

If you’re a fan of classic rock or Grunge you can get Boss Ds1, Boss Ds2, Digitech Hothead or a Vox Satchurator. 

Lastly if you’re into metal you might try Boss MT-2, Boss MD-2, Boss ML-2, Digitech Metal Master or an MXR Dime Distortion. 

Always remember each of them has its own characteristics and variety of sounds they will have a certain sweet spot when it comes to your choice of tone!

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My Modified Distortion pedal

 

Few years ago I’ve been using Digitech Rp80 that I borrowed from a friend. It’s a nice multi effect pedal that has a lot of patches where you can actually edit and create your own patch. But during that time I was looking for a specific sound for distortion. I decided to buy my own guitar pedal. As a newbie in buying pedals I bought a Boss DS1 distortion pedal because it is famous and I heard a lot of good things about this pedal. During the time that I bought it I don’t know that there are a lot of differences for each distortion pedal. What I know is that, whatever brand you got it is the same with the others since it is a distortion pedal. I thought that I just wasted my money because I was never really satisfied with it because I’m not getting the right distortion for the genre that I like and it doesn’t have a natural sound when you use it live. So what I did is I had it modified by a friend who is a fan of Marshall amps. He made my Boss DS1 sound like a Marshall Amp! I was really amazed with the transformation of my pedal. He called it Boss DS1 Britmod now my pedal has clarity, better tone, open mids and has a higher volume than a stock Boss DS1. I can say that It’s an amp in a box  rather than bees in a box! Right now I can get the sounds of  Nuno Bettencourt, Paul Gilbert or ACDC.

Stomp Box against Multi-effects

       After purchasing your guitar amp the second thing on your mind is getting an effect pedal which can spice up your songs or even adding a different tone to your face melting solos. Effect pedal is a guitar gadget. Instead of directly plugging your guitar to your amplifier, you plug-in your instrument to the effect pedal and it will modify the tone of your instrument.  There are two kinds of Effect pedals which are “Stomp boxes” and the “Multi-effect” units.

            Stomp Boxes are single effect units wherein you place on the floor and step them to switch from a clean tone to a distorted or modulated effect going to your amplifier. In this type of pedal you can choose which pedal will suit your needs. One of the biggest advantages for this is that you can easily replace the stomp box from the pedal board if it gets broken or if you find another pedal that sounds better than what you have. The Disadvantages for this is that sometimes the unit that you want is difficult to find.

 

             Multi-effects units are compact effect pedals which stores a lot of overdrive/distortion or modulation effects. It has effects which the manufacturer has set and you can combine those effects in one patch. The good thing about this is that, it is sometimes it tends to be a lot cheaper than combining each stomp box.  The sad thing about this type of pedal is that sometimes you can’t really appreciate some of the patches, and once it is broken you lost it all since it came from one box.

           

            Effect pedals are quite expensive and a little bit addictive. Before buying an effect pedal make sure you also check for sound quality and durability compare to other brands.

           

The Right Amp

You finally got your electric guitar and thinking of buying a guitar amplifier. Selecting an amplifier is a little bit confusing. Some base it on the looks, from its price and others consider where they'll use it. 

Each guitar amplifier has its own voice, its own behavior and for some, even the looks matter.  But for me, the right amp means that can respond best to my playing style with the least processing (i.e. no compression or overdrive/effect pedals) and at the same time can get the sound that I want.  And it should also work well in a given musical situation.

Before getting an amplifier, here are some checklists that you can consider.

1. Where will you use it? (I.e. Room, Garage, Church, Road shows). If you just want to use it at home for practice you can consider getting 15 to 30 watts of power which has just the right sound amount for your room. Of course if you use it for road shows you also might need to consider of getting a bigger amplifier which has more than 100 watts of power.

2. Sound – The most important thing to consider in getting your amp is its sound. Even if you got the most expensive and most good looking amp but if its sound is cheap. It will make you a bad player.  So expect people one by one clearing your gig.

3. Durability – Some of the guitar amps have what protective cloth for the speakers which can protect the speakers. There are also amps that have kick grill instead of cloth to protect the speakers. 

4. Price – if you’re considering in buying your first amplifier, price will be one of your primary concerns. Guitar amplifiers prices differ from their brands, wattage and materials used (i.e. tubes, wood etc.)

Before buying an amp, make sure try as many amps as you can that attracts you. It would be great if you try your own electric guitar on some stores. Play them from minimal volume to the loudest volume with or without the Overdrive or Effect pedals.