Distortion pedal? (White Stripes guitar tone)

[slidincharlie]

Howdy!
I am sure that this has been debated quite a lot, but maybe I can still get some advice here.
I need to get a nasty (not at tall fizzy or trebly though) distortion when I play in my guitar-drum duo set. Think of the White Stripes when they play the blues.
I have a Silvertone 1482 12W amp that nails the exact tone I need, but it lacks bass. So I plan to use my Fender Deluxe Reverb (22W) or even Vibrolux Reverb (40W), which would play too clean at low club volume though. This is why I am thinking about using a pedal. A friend of mine suggested me to use a reissue Fuzzy Face, but I am totally ignorant re: pedals, never used any, so I can't judge without trying at least a few.
Now my question is:
should I get a fuzz, a distortion or rather an overdrive pedal to get a distortion that makes my Deluxe Reverb sounds like fully cranked (and mean) with the volume around 3?
The only thing I am sure of is that I don't want to sound like heavy metal.
TIA,
Carlo

[slidincharlie]

Ok, I've found a relevant thread (http://www.thegearpage.net/board/showthread.php?t=556055) in this very forum.
Cheers.
C.

[KevinFinn]

Can you link to a White Stripes song that gives an indication of the precise sound?

When I think White Stripes, I only really think of the heavy tone Jack is known for... and I think of the Big Muff pedal.

[4nd3h]

Big Muff.

[kev1n]

big muff

[Championguitar]

big muff PI



you see what i just did there. uh huh thats right

[kev1n]

but seriously, thats what jack uses

[Jesus freak]

Ive read somewhere that he (at least at one time) used a AM peppermint fuzz for those squealy lead tones.

[cookieshoes]

Jack's foundation tone was always a Fender Twin with an MXR Micro Amp pedal left on all the time. That was his crunch and rhythm tone. People assume that it was a Twin being cranked, but it was always just the Micro Amp doing it. For total fuzz saturation, he used the Big Muff on top of that. Never just the Muff direct into the Twin. Always Twin+Micro Amp "on"+Muff.

For the first album, De Stijl, and White Blood Cells, it was a black Russian Muff. Starting in late 2001 through to the recording of Elephant, and everything after it, it was a NYC Reissue Muff.

Also, he used the Whammy for pretty much all of his soloing, as well as the drop-octave stuff. POG for Blue Orchid and the other harmony stuff on Get Behind Me Satan. Last piece is that he only used the bridge pickup on his Airline guitar (the neck pickup didn't work), and even though the pickup looks like a humbucker, it's actually a single coil.

[Dev...in]

I have a hard time believing he ever used AM stuff. I have never heard about the micro amp before... As someone who saw the stripes a few times live I would be shocked to find that his twin was ever below 12 on the volume.

[SixDemonBag]

Low volume, with a deluxe reverb, my catalinbread formula no.5 is great to add a bit of that 'tweedish' hair. Still raunchy, still dirty but clean.

[H.P. Lovecraft]

Use what he used.

Single-coil, Plastic guitar -->

A MXR Micro Amp to push you amp for dirty rhythm tones and a standard NYC Big Muff for everything else.

Fender Reverb Amp

<edit>

!@#$ Cookieshoes beat me to it.

[slidincharlie]

Thank you guys.
Below I put a pretty good sample of the kind of tone I'd love to nail with my Danelectro-made Silvertone slide guitar with lipstick pickups (starting from 01:10).
Sorry, I am not able to insert a youtube window in the post body.
I am more and more convinced that I will be using my 22W Deluxe Reverb for that nice bottom end that the Silvertone and the Gibson amps lack, since mine is a guitar+drum set as well.
http://youtu.be/1fM2qhG8mA4

[apeape]

The only affliation Jack has with Analogman is that Mike rehoused almost all, if not all, his pedals for The Raconteurs. Also the only Analogman pedal he has is an A/B switch painted in the peppermint fuzz colours. And yes, Micro Amp into a regular Big Muff plus a whammy and POG equates Jack White in the stripes.

[Sparkfriction]

in the movie "it might be loud" you can see he using a vexter fuzz factory at the jam with jimi and the edge... iirc he used also a wooly mammoth. but who knows which kind of sounds he get in combination with his hog or whammy etc.

[Whiskey N Beans]

The key to the tone - and especially for yhe OP's 2-piece - is to use the muff and micro amp with octave down settin of a Whammy pedal. Not sure who makes a good octave down-only pedal but that's how jack gets the thick bass tones and the organ sound as well. It rips IMO.

[H.P. Lovecraft]

The only affliation Jack has with Analogman is that Mike rehoused almost all, if not all, his pedals for The Raconteurs. Also the only Analogman pedal he has is an A/B switch painted in the peppermint fuzz colours. And yes, Micro Amp into a regular Big Muff plus a whammy and POG equates Jack White in the stripes.

I think Mike also modd'd a Little Big Muff to NYC specs for him too because he was crushing the bigger boxes on the road.

[apeape]

I heard about that, not too sure why he did that, but i read he ended up back to his original nyc muff. In another pic i saw him performing with a tone wicker muff.

On another note, yes he does use a woolly mammoth in Raconteurs, and also its in Dean Fertita's rig in the Dead Weather. Other effects he has on his pedalboard for Raconteurs is a Demeter Tremulator, Micro POG, Dunlop Rotovibe. He also has Zvex Trem Probe on top of his amps.

[slidincharlie]

On another note, yes he does use a woolly mammoth in Raconteurs, and also its in Dean Fertita's rig in the Dead Weather. Other effects he has on his pedalboard for Raconteurs is a Demeter Tremulator, Micro POG, Dunlop Rotovibe. He also has Zvex Trem Probe on top of his amps.
Well, this is too much for a no-pedal guy like me... :)
I have borrowed from friends a recent Tube Screamer and a Turbo Rat to give 'em a try. Just to make myself an idea of how pedals sound.
Then I'll probably end with buying a Big Muff.

[Prof.Fuzz]

You might want to consider a speaker swap in your 1482. I put a Weber Sig Ceramic 12B in mine and I have no shortage of bottom end. The Weber also delays the breakup quite a bit, providing more headroom. I then went one step further and had my 1482 rehoused with a more solid and deeper cab (the Weber fit fine in the original cabinet, but the cab rattled like Hell).

[slidincharlie]

Prof. Fuzz,
this is exactly my next project!
I want to try a different speaker that is powerful and tight on the bottom end and especially one that does not fart out when I hit the 6th string. I am currently using a reconed vintage Jensen P12Q alnico spaker in the 1482.
Re: cabinet, so far I have only replaced the original flimsy speaker baffle with a 3 mm plywood one, but haven't gone any further with cabinet mods.

[Prof.Fuzz]

Here's a pic of my rehoused 1482:

http://i51.photobucket.com/albums/f396/uncle_han/3b95e896.jpg

And the 1481 / 1482 stack:

http://i51.photobucket.com/albums/f396/uncle_han/c71242b6.jpg
(with a Pathfinder 10 watter on top).