Best OD or Distortion Pedal to Compliment Fender Twin Reverb???

[josephpnorman]

I am looking for the perfect OD or Distortion pedal to go with my fender '65 twin RI. I normally use a Fender American Std. Strat or a Rickenbacker 330. My current pedalboard is boss tuner<cry baby wah<keeley nova wah<keeley modified ts9<hot cake<small clone chorus<keeley compressor<mxr boost. I also use the built in vibrato. To give you an idea of the kind of music I play....my favorite current bands are stephen malkmus and the jicks, kings of leon, dr. drog, built to spill, strokes, etc. I am currently unhappy with my rig, though. I bought the twin reverb before I really knew anything about anything....and now I'm disappointed because I can't get any crunch from the amp, making my tubescreamer sound weak even with the drive all the way up. I like the hot cake, but it gets a little too muddy when playing chords. I want to dumb down my pedal board and only use the bare minimum...any suggestions? I really just want to have amp<tuner<od<distortion for lead<and a good tremolo pedal. Also, I have been looking into getting a new amp but really don't know that much about all these boutique amps. Any suggestions? I have heard great things about Matchless, Orange, and Bad Cat. Thanks!

[dk123123dk]

Ampeg Reverbrocket R-212R (King's Of Leon)
Vox AC-15 (King's Of Leon)
Matchless DC-30 (King's Of Leon)
Carr or Fender Hot Rod Deville (Strokes)

- MXR M-133 Micro Amp (both)
- Route 66 American Overdrive Guitar Pedal (King's Of Leon)
- Big Muff Pedal (King's Of Leon)
- Visual Sound Jekyll & Hyde Ultimate overdrive pedal (Strokes)
- Demeter TRM-1 Tremulator (Strokes)
- Vox Cooltron Bulldog Distortion (Strokes)


Good Luck

dk

[josephpnorman]

are the route 66 and jeckyll and hyde pretty much the same thing?

[Brian Maestro]

Originally Posted by josephpnorman

are the route 66 and jeckyll and hyde pretty much the same thing?

Route 66 OD and compressor
J&H- OD and distortion

[sfarnell]

Jetter GSR

[capnrock]

Blackstone OD works well with a twin. Also, I know folks who get good results with a FullDrive.
I personally dig a germanium fuzz like the Sunface, which does a killer OD with the volume on your guitar backed off.
If you like your hotcake, why not set it for light OD and hit it with a treble booster for leads (or your mxr boost)? Worth a shot, since you have both those pedals.
Basically, a Twin has the best clean tone w/ reverb that you are likely to get. I feel your pain trying to get decent OD tones at low volume, but live your tube screamer probably sounds pretty decent. I think the trick is getting the tone knob dialed in right so it's not too muddy or too icepick.
For crunch, you might like a Rat. I have a Brown Rabbit and I really like it with my Silver Face Twin, but I think everything sounds good through that amp.
Is there no master volume on that amp? Another trick I've found is using the MXR boost to blast your amp and using the volume knob on the amp as a master volume. That way, you might be able to get the amp to break up at a reasonable volume. You might also try an attenuator. I'm rambling. Hope some of that is useful!

[thedroid]

You can try any number of higher-gain pedals: Rat, Visual Sound Hyde, fuzzes. But judging by your taste in music, I'd say you want a new amp. You can probably get a used AC30 for what you'll sell the Twin for, or get a used Hotrod Deville and pocket some change. I think Malkmus uses Orange amps. All of those amps will crunch better than a Twin, which is all about the clean headroom.

Matchless and Bad Cat are great amps, but I don't think you need to go boutique to get those sounds of those bands.

[oldmanmetal]

Landgraff Dynamic Overdrive

[dotlikeimpact]

I keep pimping this thing, and few believe me, but the Blackstar HT Dual is the single best sounding dirt box available for a clean amp like a Twin. It's also $200 brand new, two channels, and tube based, with an excellent buffer built in.

[Isaiah4Autumn]

OCD...hand's down...goes great w/a fender twin...I have a 71 twin reverb and it blows me away...You can't go wrong with a matchless, badcat or a tophat. All great amps...I believe must of them use EL84 tubes and will give you more of the mid range the fenders lack...matchless is on my christmas list (yes I said Christmas not xmas or holiday list ) Good luck on your search...

[1973Marshall]

Originally Posted by Isaiah4Autumn

OCD...hand's down...goes great w/a fender twin...I have a 71 twin reverb and it blows me away...You can't go wrong with a matchless, badcat or a tophat. All great amps...I believe must of them use EL84 tubes and will give you more of the mid range the fenders lack...matchless is on my christmas list (yes I said Christmas not xmas or holiday list ) Good luck on your search...

Let me add to this by saying the OCD combined with a Fulldrive 2 used as a post booster or into the OCD - the most amazing combo and you can buy it at any GC.

[apoyando]

Try a Hartman LM308, a Rat ( very similar in concept) or an OCD...

[jokerjkny]

the TR is like sonic velcro.

IME, pretty much every freakin' OD pedal is tested and maybe even voiced on a fender style amp, so you cant really go wrong.

[Merelington]

I was in a similar predicament:

I loved my fender twin reverb for the cleans but it didn't have enough crunch & tight bottom end and I didn't have the right OD/Distortions. After a couple years of searching and loads of green wasted on trial & error:

Got a Fender Dual Showman Head (same as the twin but in head form) and am running it through an Orange 4x12 cab. I've got my beautiful cleans and my tight bottom end. For OD I use a Barber Small Fry (the Fulltone Fulldrive 2 works great as well) and for distortion I use a BYOC shredder. Of the 10 or so pedals I tried I find these to be the most amplike without the shrill high end associated with 6L6 amps + dirt pedals.

Hope this helps!

[bettset]

i like a paul cochrane tim. the ocd works--i agree. look at the music electronix line of drives--he has several styles. also the lovepedal drives could be the ticket. i have the kanji 9. another i like is the mi audio blues pro--to me it's kind of like the timmy--may be a bit grainy if you like that tone. not a bad tone, just not for everybody's style. it can be smoothed out as needed--warms up nice. the one i'm looking at now is the fulltone catalyst--it has several tonal possibilities. his demo's on youtube are thru an old fender amp--the only kind of fender he will use. check it out. as for boutique amps, boogie may have been the 1st. they have the lonestar--a good amp. the new electra dyne looks impressive. carr makes good stuff--the rambler is a black face tone & takes drives great. divided by 13 has good stuff too. his fender tones are big. his vox or marshall tones can be had too--ask him which amp would be best for you--he takes the time to answer questions--he wants to do right by you. if you want dumble like me, then look to fuchs, bludotone, 2 rock, carol ann, brown note, ceriatone, & make sure you get the right speaker set up to bring out the tones you want. are you an ev sound, celestion 30's or 65--don't go boutique without answering those questions as well. here's a sleeper--jca circuits amps. the amps you mentioned are good amps, so happy amp hunting