Grainy distortion

[radiophonic]

As title. I use a Pork Loin for overdrive and I find it excellent in that role, but sometimes I need to crank it up a notch. I don't need more distortion as such, I need a more uneven and nasty break-up. I play a Stingray and the scooped sound is a very poor match with the current crop of popular high gain distortion pedals (Darkglass, Pike for example) - you get that fizzy top / separate bass thing and the distortion sound is just too smoothed out for my taste.  I'm looking for something really nasty and grainy that I can hit with chords. The words I keep coming back to are uneven and asymmetric.  A blend control isn't essential provided there's some control over the low end. I tried an MXR Bass Distortion last week, but it was hard to get a handle on it in a shop (the amp was just too small and quiet and the bass had dead strings - thanks PMT, that was pointless again).  One of the output settings sounded promising (can't remember which) and on that basis, I wondered if maybe the Fuzzrocious Cat Tail or Cat King might be a good place to look. AFAIK these are all Rat based circuits (yes?). Anything else I should be thinking about? Mantic Vitriol maybe? Any advice?

[CameronJ]

I feel like @0175westwood29 may be able to point you in the right direction re: fuzzrocious pedals that would tick your boxes

[Lozz196]

I like the Sansamp Para Driver, it can be set to break-up only when the strings are hit very hard (which in my case is all the time). Back off and you`d never know there was any drive at all.

[radiophonic]

@Lozz196 - Sansamp's own blurb seems to suggest smoothness, like an overdriven valve amp. If I can use an analogy from the Fuzz world - I looking for the Harmonic Percolator end of things rather than Big Muff. That sort of almost broken type of nasty. 

[CameronJ]

Actually, take a look at the 3Leaf Doom. It’s labeled as a “Dynamic Harmonic Device” and can get quite synthy. Might be just what you’re after. I run it after my Pork Loin on my board and they complement each other quite nicely.

The Doom has a tighter response than the Pork Loin but driving the Loin into the Doom gives me some of the Loin’s looseness with the tone of the Doom which I quite like as a flavour.

[0175westwood29]

If you want gritty over drive the cat tail is a cool place to start, a lot of control over lows and clipping, also there moth ok you might not be interested in the treble side but sounds great a lot less eq control tho but I dnt find I loose lows from it. 

Also the lateral sound spore is very cool for this sound!! 

my cat tail is a custom so has a clean boost and kaeden drive before it aswell as a clean blend, not that I use it like a standard blend. 

[dannybuoy]

I use an Idiot Box Blower Box for this application, which is also RAT based, so I think you are headed in the right direction. The COG Mini 66 is a good shout also, as is the Fuzzrocious BDPG. Unfortunately I have not tried either of these with a Stingray!

Edited December 12, 2017 by dannybuoy

[elephantgrey]

I think I remember IronEther doing a multiband distortion. Might l be worth a look.

[CameronJ]

3 minutes ago, elephantgrey said:

I think I remember IronEther doing a multiband distortion. Might l be worth a look.

QF2 perchance?

[dannybuoy]

How could I forget - Darkglass Alpha Omega / Alpha Omicron!

[radiophonic]

Darkglass, probably not for me. PMT are carrying them though, so I can give them another try. Not keen on what I've heard so far though. What I have noticed is that the Cat King is on offer at Anderton's (although 'on offer' is just the same price as before the £ took a hit.  Oddly now cheaper than the Cat Tail). That's two levels of R/Cat in one pedal, although not stackable as I understand it. Hadn't considered COG. I'll look into them. 

Interestingly, having read a bit about the original InterFax Harmonic Percolator, I understand that it's USP was only hard clipping one side of the wave form, so my intuitive 'asymmetric' feeling turns out to be technically correct. It's that kind of vibe I'm after, only in a distortion rather than a fuzz. 

[0175westwood29]

3 hours ago, radiophonic said:

Darkglass, probably not for me. PMT are carrying them though, so I can give them another try. Not keen on what I've heard so far though. What I have noticed is that the Cat King is on offer at Anderton's (although 'on offer' is just the same price as before the £ took a hit.  Oddly now cheaper than the Cat Tail). That's two levels of R/Cat in one pedal, although not stackable as I understand it. Hadn't considered COG. I'll look into them. 

Interestingly, having read a bit about the original InterFax Harmonic Percolator, I understand that it's USP was only hard clipping one side of the wave form, so my intuitive 'asymmetric' feeling turns out to be technically correct. It's that kind of vibe I'm after, only in a distortion rather than a fuzz. 

if you dnt want the feedback mod or kill switch thats extra on the cat king id grab a cat tail with the second distortion mod over the king, no they arent stackable but its very cool to have two sounds. 

 

[perrybassbp]

I have a mantic vitriol and I love it but it quite a scooped sound similar to the Darkglass stuff, so I don't think it will quite work in this application but I also have a rat king (cat king) and I think that could work quite nicely. obviously, you don't need the cat king unless you want the fancy stuff i should think the smaller one will work well. then you can just work and order to see what sounds better going into which.   

[perrybassbp]

just saw that deal on Anderson for the cat king that's a bit of a steal! 

[bobbass4k]

I too would avoid the Vitriol, it's a great pedal, but it's a dod grunge clone, (which puts it in the boss metal zone family), it does big booming bass and really cutting treble, which is a sound I like, but it doesn't sound like it's what you're after. 

I always think of the rat as quite a full on distortion, but it has what I've always described as a "flappy" sound, which nothing else I've found emulates. 

[radiophonic]

Thanks for the comments on the Vitriol. Even in this YouTube era, decent demos are hard to find for bass and 'smooth' is definitely not what I want.  Footprint was the major thing putting me off the Cat King, although the two levels of distortion might obviate the Pork Loin.  I'd be sorry to see it go though because it's a great pedal and has the nicest foot-switch ever. The MXR is (I believe ) almost identical to the Cat Tail, albeit with slightly different controls.  It retains the LED/Si output diode switch option though, which would be essential (I think it was the Si setting that gave the more uneven breakup that I like). Doing some measurements I can either go Fuzzrocious-size and lose a pedal or MXR-size and keep everything. 

[bakerster135]

On 12/12/2017 at 17:05, radiophonic said:

Hadn't considered COG. I'll look into them. 

Would seriously recommend looking into the COG TK-421, which is Tom's RAT clone. That and the Knightfall 66 are still my main distortion/overdrive pedals, and they stack great together as well! 

I use a pre-eb stingray a lot, and think the TK does what you describe pretty well...Had a Rat Tail before but found it a bit fizzy on top, and a bit too woolly unless I maxed the high clipping. I've had a Vitriol and Blower Box too but flipped them in favour of the COG. Still use a Tech 21 XXL, but it's a bit OTT and usually only goes on when I want to take the roof off! 

Crowella Animated (Human Gear Animato clone) might be worth considering too, though you definitely need a clean blend with that or you lose the bottom end. 

[radiophonic]

@bakerster135 I'd definitely want to avoid the clean blend issue. I can do it, but I'd need to re-think my board layout. Isn't the TK-421 discontinued? The Cat King is looking like a viable choice - it definitely has the RAT splutter and I wonder if I ran it into a Pork Loin, I'd lose any fizz (the clean side is super dark). It sounds pretty nasty anyway and I don't need it as an always on type pedal - more for piling on the chords at the end of a song

[bakerster135]

8 minutes ago, radiophonic said:

@bakerster135 Isn't the TK-421 discontinued?

 

Oh yeah, I forgot he's working on a MK2 version...I'd jump on the pedal danbowskill's selling here if I were you though, total bargain!

[radiophonic]

@bakerster135 - It's a bargain in itself, but I'd need to replace my board due to it's size. I need to keep things compact.

[Defo]

Try the bass Tube Screamer 

[0175westwood29]

9 hours ago, radiophonic said:

@bakerster135 - It's a bargain in itself, but I'd need to replace my board due to it's size. I need to keep things compact.

Just get the cat tail with 2nd distortion mod you still have the diode selection etc