Found a nice OD/Dist pedal for use with the DCs!

I like to keep my two channels on my DC-3 setup for clean and high gain. I feel like the lead channel does not do well in the low to mid gain department so I decided to give a pedal a try. Guitar Center is blowing out the MXR classic distortion pedal for $39 so I tried it out and bought it. Messed with it several times over the weekend. It is a nice transparent pedal and sounds very much like the DC's voicing. It gives me the low to mid gain tones I like while letting me keep my clean channel clean and lead channel set for high gain. The coolest thing is that it sounds/feels like an OD pedal below noon on the gain knob and like a distortion pedal past noon! Very cool. The tone knob is reponsive and is the most transparent at noon (obviously). You can darken/fatten or brighten/add some bite with the tone knob easily. It also works very well as a boost since it is a fairly low gain pedal. I really like this pedal - especially for the price.

Great info.

I've found that distortion pedals don't help out too much in the lead channel but OD does do a nice job with this amp. It's as if the amp says, "hey I do the gain thing around here, beat it." and just ignores the signal.

brungio said:

Great info.

I've found that distortion pedals don't help out too much in the lead channel but OD does do a nice job with this amp. It's as if the amp says, "hey I do the gain thing around here, beat it." and just ignores the signal.

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I know what you mean. If you use any more than like 5 on the gain knob of your DC then a distortion pedal is overkill. This pedal is great for adding some bite and meat without sounding honky though no matter how much gain you dial in on your amp (within reason). You just gotta set it as a boost with output near 10 and gain near 0 for best results. It sounds good with pedal settings set with output at noon and gain at about 11:00 as well. Its more like an additional gain stage rather than a big boost that sends the amp into Metal territory - if that makes sense.

I like using my treblebooster with my DC-5. Sounds awesome!

How does it compare to a TS9?

For my part, I use a Xotic BB preamp, set to a clean boost (low gain, high volume, and a little more treble, bass set to noon), with a mid gain on the lead channel. Really worth the try !

eschoendorff said:

How does it compare to a TS9?

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A little more gain and no mid hump

I use a TS9 or a BBE Green Screamer, both are great, though the bbe is more transparent. Although ill be getting a BB Preamp soon, and ill see how that fares, looks like an amazing pedal. Greg Howe described it as taking all the good frequencies of your guitar and making them better/sweeter.

i would try a dist+ for $40. I went to guitar center online and they are $70. Is this an in store special?

i've been digging the OCD pedal on the clean channel lately.

MusicManJP6, interestingly I am unable to find that pedal online at musiciansfriend or GC, although Ive seen them in a bunch of GC's for $39.99.

I believe the one you are referring to is the MXR M-86 Classic.


Ive used a TS9, Wylde OD, Fulltone Fulldrive 2, Way Huge Pork Loin, DS1, SD1, OS2, Sonic Stomp and a Nano Linear boost with my DC10 (yes, Im a gear junky!!) and I like the Fulltone the best, followed by the TS9.

I'll have to get that MXR now!

Chris K said:

i would try a dist+ for $40. I went to guitar center online and they are $70. Is this an in store special?

i've been digging the OCD pedal on the clean channel lately.

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It's not the distortion+, it's the classic distortion. The M-86 classic as timesignature mentioned. I don't really think it's the best pedal out there, but it is a great match for the DC amp and it doesn't break the bank.

MusicManJP6 said:

I like to keep my two channels on my DC-3 setup for clean and high gain. I feel like the lead channel does not do well in the low to mid gain department so I decided to give a pedal a try. Guitar Center is blowing out the MXR classic distortion pedal for $39 so I tried it out and bought it. Messed with it several times over the weekend. It is a nice transparent pedal and sounds very much like the DC's voicing. It gives me the low to mid gain tones I like while letting me keep my clean channel clean and lead channel set for high gain. The coolest thing is that it sounds/feels like an OD pedal below noon on the gain knob and like a distortion pedal past noon! Very cool. The tone knob is reponsive and is the most transparent at noon (obviously). You can darken/fatten or brighten/add some bite with the tone knob easily. It also works very well as a boost since it is a fairly low gain pedal. I really like this pedal - especially for the price.

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Are you using the OD with your GT-8 and if so, where do you put it? I think you said you're using the 4CM. Do none of the ODs in the GT work for you?

MJ Slaughter said:

Are you using the OD with your GT-8 and if so, where do you put it? I think you said you're using the 4CM. Do none of the ODs in the GT work for you?

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Yep, I use the 4CM. But, sometimes I don't feel like plugging up the GT-8 when I bring it home after practice so it's nice to have a stand-alone OD/dist pedal for my lazy days. When I plug up the GT-8 though I just place the MXR in front of the GT-8. So my chain goes: guitar>wah>MXR>GT8 input and then the rest of the chain is the same for the 4CM. If I wanted to place an effect 'in the loop' (not useful for an OD, but very useful for my looper) I just plug it up to the main GT8 output and then it goes on to the DC's return and power amp. The looper sounds best here for sure as it captures all effects from the GT8 allowing me to change my patch while the loop remains unaffected.

The ODs on the GT8 aren't bad, although they tend to sound a little digital. I mainly use the TScream model and the 'booster'. It is cool to stack the ODs in the GT-8 with the MXR. The MXR has an advantage over the GT because it is analog. But, the main appeal of this pedal IMO is that it mimicks the voicing and feel of the DC, but handles the low/midgain and crunch tones much better and I can leave my clean and high gain settings alone on the amp. It's kind of like having a third channel.

i went to gc and picked up the distortion classic for $39.99. the rep told me it was made specially for guitar center. i think its a rebranded Distortion III. It does sound ok with my dc-5, but I prefer the OCD. I'll keep the mxr on the pedal board for a little while. for 40 bucks i agree it is a nice little box for the dc amps.

hehe..the rep wanted to sell me insurance for the pedal to cover repairs for 2 years at a $9 cost. i told him for $40 bucks this pedal is basically disposible.

I bet a BB preamp would go good with any amp. It sounds pretty awesome with a mark five and a lonestar.

Got my BB Preamp, its great, took a lot of tweaking though.

It has so much gain on tap its like another set of preamp tubes. I actually put the gain on 6 or 5 now and have the BB boost the rest. Sounds great for violin overdrive leads, dirty Rush-esque rhythms, and spanking blues strat tone, and i dont even change the settings!

Chris K said:

i went to gc and picked up the distortion classic for $39.99. the rep told me it was made specially for guitar center. i think its a rebranded Distortion III. It does sound ok with my dc-5, but I prefer the OCD. I'll keep the mxr on the pedal board for a little while. for 40 bucks i agree it is a nice little box for the dc amps.

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That's my point exactly. It sounds great with the DC and only costs $40. There's better pedals out there, but not in this price range. Maybe I'm just a sucker for a good deal...

LTE said:

Got my BB Preamp, its great, took a lot of tweaking though.

It has so much gain on tap its like another set of preamp tubes. I actually put the gain on 6 or 5 now and have the BB boost the rest. Sounds great for violin overdrive leads, dirty Rush-esque rhythms, and spanking blues strat tone, and i dont even change the settings!

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Glad you like it! I'd love to have one eventually, but it is a little out of my price range at the moment...

I found a nicely made good sounding pedal for cheap as well that I like with my DC-10. Don't remember if I learned of it from a member on this site or the bossgt forum site but it's the Danelectro Cool Cat CTO-1, $40. Metal case and jacks, true bypass switch. I have been using my AC+ for lower gain applications and though it has more features I like the Cool Cat much more. Less fizz and feels more natural to me. The AC+ may be a little more transparent but for $40 the Cool Cat is a winner for me.

There is a link in this thread under effects if you want to listen to clips comparing the two.

http://forum.grailtone.com/viewtopic.php?f=13&t=39492

I like to use clean channel with the gain on 7-8 (Pull boost off). I have a turbo tubescreamer and a BBE Booster Grande next to each other on my board. The TST has the gain on zero with the tone knob dimed. The BBE is at 1 o'clock. Each pedal affects the amp a little differently but they each have something to offer with the BBE adding to the low end and the TST adding to the highs and mids. I have the option of either boosts seperate or together (great for leads, nice controlable juicey signal with a ton of sustain). I read that Stevie Ray Vaughn use to use two tubescreamers in his chain with the second one juicing the 1st one. I would suggest to anyone to give this a try. I have also had a Boss GE7 on the board in place of the BBE and that worked as well, but I like how the BBE worked better with the TST when both were activated. Also, yes I did try all three pedals together and that is when it got out of control. just too compressed by that point but two worked great. Thank you for all of the boards suggestions, I try as many as I can and found lots of great info. here.

if i have a good amp, i won't even hook up my pedals to it. likely, i will leave the amp on the distortion channel, and futz w/ my guitar volume all night.

i keep a barber direct drive for emergencies, tho'. it's a good all around / sounds like sd-1 and ts-9/ 808 type of utility pedal.

i HAVE a 1981 SD-1, but, it's so clean, i hate to risk it onstage.......ditto w/ my 1987 CE-2........great sounding pedals tho' they are.......they be tradin' bait down de road.......(i got one 'nem cool cats choruses , too........nice.......not my thang......holler if ya wanna trade me fer it.)

a good amp don't need no help.......i iz spoked. :roll: :lol: