Drive pedal review

mike_l

Following @photek (top bloke, top player)and his quest for a drive/boost pedal for his Blackstar, photek and myself had a jam/gear test evening. So he could try a bunch of drive pedals into his amp, at reasonable volume. The finding were noted at the time, the playing was done by Photek, the findings are a joint effort. The amp was a 100w Blackstar into 2 cabs. Various guitars (Jackson/Ibanez/EVH)

The pedals tried were

Bad Monkey:-MXR Zakk Wylde:-MXR Distortion 3 :- Boss SD-1 Boss SD-2 :- Ibanez TS-9 :-Zvex distortron

Bad monkey

A little sag

Not overly bright

Less gain than the Zakk Wylde

Good boost levels

Good sustain

More natural drive sound

 

Zakk Wylde

Good saturation levels

Tube screamer alike

a bit honkier than the other pedals tried.

More gain than the Bad Monkey

Better into a dirty amp.

A bit spikier than the Bad monkey

 

MXR Distortion 3

Sounded best into a clean amp (As a basic dirty channel)

almost a "Marshall in a box"

high output level

 

MXR Microamp

has a low-end kick

good volume boost

tiny gain boost (barely noticeable)

 

Boss SD-1

Touch of drive when the unit is switched off

Definitely has it's own sound (Not that that's a bad thing)

 

Boss SD-2 (crunch setting)

Again a touch of drive when the unit is off

the bass is slightly fuzzy

cleans up nicely (ok not a Fender clean, but clean enough in a rockier situation)

not too much break-up on a clean amp setting

Good volume boost

 

Boss SD-2 (Lead setting)

best on a clean channel

Good volume kick

into a driven amp, it's too much.

 

Overall could be a good substitute for crunch/distorted channels into a clean amp

 

Ibanez TS-9

too much mid-range

 very honky sounding

 

Zvex Distortron (into a clean amp)

when the bass setting were high the low end was a little thuddy (easy to adjust the settings)

Almost a "Marshall in a box"

Overall the Bad Monkey sounded best, and is the overall winner in this shootout.

BTW Photek tried this one first, and instantly got a good sound, changing the settings the sounds remained good. 

Thanks to Photek for a good evening of excellent guitaring, and mine too ;-) gear and being able to turn stuff up and rock.

 

 

photek

Thanks very much Mike, great fun dialling in sounds and good to see that we had similar opinions on each of the pedals.

I have to admit I was shocked how well the Bad Monkey worked with the amp, it added just enough of everything without getting fuzzy or doing that weird 'notes collapsing' thing that some of the others caused.

All in all a great night of loud guitars that we shall repeat soon without me constantly mucking about with pedals (well I can't promise that of course;)

mike_l

@photek

there's nuffink wrong with messing around with pedals........

T'was a good evening though....A repeat would be good, maybe with Strats.....Or just more ROCK, next time I shall bring the Charvel too......

nickp

I'd like to make a complaint about this thread.

it has just cost me £20 buying a bad monkey on fleabay.  couldn't resist it for that sort of money.

mike_l

Nice one @nickp, both photek and myself thought it sounded best in both the Blackstar and the Marshall

ICBM

Interesting that both the SD-1 and the SD-2 had the bypass leakage problem - I've noticed it to varying degrees with the SD-1s I've owned (they do vary), but not with the SD-2 I had, and I assumed they'd fixed the problem on the more sophisticated pedal. Obviously not... and I would have noticed, it's something that really bothers me and is why I eventually sold my last SD-1 even though it was probably the least leaky one I've ever heard.

I like the sound of the Distortron, I'll have to try one - I specifically like 'thuddy' bass, as long as it's controllable.

mike_l

@ICBM, it wasn't a massive leakage, only slight, and whilst neither amp used was the cleanest it was noticable.

The distortron sounded nice, the bass could get a little over-powering when up full...

It didn't sound massively different to a MXR D3, but also not too similar

kelvinburn

Have you tried a jeckyl & hyde? I have an inferior blackstar (ht60 1x12) and I find it excellent. I use the bass boost on the jeckyl side to beef up the 1x12. I use the hyde side as solo boost. Very versatile and underrated pedal imho