Choosing Guitar Distortion Pedals

Guitar-Distortion-Pedals

Choosing  Guitar Distortion Pedals

With all the Guitar Distortion Pedals on the market today, it can be frustrating to find the right one that is best for you. This is probably one of the most asked questions as a guitar player that is still working with their sound. I honestly believe that there isn’t one exact answer for this, but I can certainly shed some light on things that you’ll want to be aware of when choosing your guitar distortion pedal.

When testing Guitar Distortion Pedals you’ll need to decide how much distortion is actually needed.

One of the first things you’ll need to decide is how much distortion do you need, what kind of distortion do you want, and how much tone variation do you want? All of these elements are in direct connection to the style of music that you’re playing as well.

In other words, if you’re playing country music and need a little extra distortion for leads, you probably won’t use an extreme heavy metal pedal or Hendrix Fuzz face distortion pedal. You get the idea. Chances are you would use something that best fits your music.

With that in mind, I will say that there are several good Guitar Distortion Pedals that do the trick well. One great overall distortion box in the good old faithful MXR Distortion Plus. This gives a good amount of distortion without changing the color of your sound.

Another one of the great Guitar Distortion Pedals to consider within the MXR line is the Micro Amp.

As far as I’m concerned the MXR micro amp is a hidden gem within distortion pedals. It’s actually more of an overdrive, but it pushes any amp just enough to get into a nice over-driven sound without going off the deep end. It also does not change the color of your sound. Great with Fenders and Marshalls

I really like the BOSS Overdrive pedals the OD.1 and the Super Overdrive. The original OD.1 does not have a tone knob on it and it’s discontinued but you can still find them on ebay. They are on of the best overdrive pedals in my opinion because they actually take the exact natural sound of the amp and simply boost all of the characteristics. This pedal works perfect with all Marshall amps. The super overdrive does have a tone knob on it and allow a bit more tone shaping. This pedal is currently still available.

The best all-around Guitar Distortion Pedals for rock, metal, even country, is the Boss Metal Zone.

WHY? Because it has a ton of distortion available and can be backed down to the littlest amount of distortion.

However, the number one reason why I say it’s among best overall Guitar Distortion Pedals is because it has an on-board parametric equalizer section with 18db of boost and cut. This will allow you to shape almost any possible tone you can imagine, and frankly you can use this to shape your main rhythm sound.

You can take an everyday average sounding amplifier and make it scream with this pedal. It’s that well-rounded. It’s not un-common to see guitarists use this pedal as their main tone shaping unit, for all styles of music.

Over the years I’ve tried many Guitar Distortion Pedals, and these are definitely among the best overall.

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1 Comment

  1. Rob on June 14, 2012 at 3:59 pm

    The Boss Metal Zone?! I have to say I wasn’t expecting you to say that!

    I’ve always been a fan of the Boss Overdrive pedals- they are decent, reliable pedals. I’m not sure I can see a country player using a Metal Zone pedal, though…

    …although I have never tried it myself, so I can’t disagree with you…

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