Members Beyer160 Posted December 15, 2013 Members Share Posted December 15, 2013 I have an Ampeg VT22 (think Fender Twin with more agressive mids), and I want to sound like a Plexi (maybe some JCM800, too). I'm especially looking for soemthing that has a separate bass control to dial in a little simulated cabinet thump. I'm looking at the Catalinbread DLS and the Tech 21 British. I tried the new EH Glove the other day and although it was cool, I couldn't sculpt the low end the way I wanted. What say ye, HCFX? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members dkonesky Posted December 15, 2013 Members Share Posted December 15, 2013 Dls Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Shine-ei Posted December 15, 2013 Members Share Posted December 15, 2013 Box of rock is great for exactly what you're after. It's a small footprint nicely priced and comes with a great independent clean boost which is very useful. I also have a VT 22 and they pair up nicely Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members BrentMpls Posted December 15, 2013 Members Share Posted December 15, 2013 http://www.harmonycentral.com/t5/Effects-Pedals-Multi-Effects-and/NEED-HELP-picking-a-quality-distortion-pedal/m-p/36101711/highlight/true#M4077910 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members companyman Posted December 15, 2013 Members Share Posted December 15, 2013 ZVEX Distortron Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members reverberlayed Posted December 16, 2013 Members Share Posted December 16, 2013 Love my DLS. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members dkonesky Posted December 16, 2013 Members Share Posted December 16, 2013 distortron and box of rock kick ass. brother has distortion. lots of bass available Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members TomCTC Posted December 16, 2013 Members Share Posted December 16, 2013 I'd look at an Angry Charlie! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Strat87 Posted December 16, 2013 Members Share Posted December 16, 2013 Xotic SL drive looks cool from what I've seen, plus it's tiny which is always a plus Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Beyer160 Posted December 17, 2013 Author Members Share Posted December 17, 2013 Thanks for all the reponses. Nobody likes the Tech 21, huh? I've got a VT Bass that is one of my favorite gear purchases of all time, but I do use it differently. In my bass rig, the VT Bass is a preamp to a solid state head, and it totally changes the character of the amp in a very righteous way. I don't want a pedal to totally take over the sound of my VT22, but to work with the "tube character" (or whatever you want to call it) the amp already has. Kinda like how a TS9 sounds like crap going into a clean SS amp, but sounds kinda cool into a cranked tube amp.Anyway, I dug the DLS when i tried it out but it seemed to have a little less gain than I was looking for. The Box Of Rock seemed a little TOO gainy, and mushy to boot. There are some clones of the Crunchbox, Plexi Drive and Riot available on the cheap, I suppose I could pick up half a dozen different pedals and sell off the ones I don't like. Which would mean I wouldn't get rid of any of them, but still. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Trick Fall Posted December 17, 2013 Members Share Posted December 17, 2013 That hot rod plexi pedal sounds awesome. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Phil O'Keefe Posted December 17, 2013 Share Posted December 17, 2013 Beyer160 wrote: Thanks for all the reponses. Nobody likes the Tech 21, huh? I've got a VT Bass that is one of my favorite gear purchases of all time, but I do use it differently. In my bass rig, the VT Bass is a preamp to a solid state head, and it totally changes the character of the amp in a very righteous way. I don't want a pedal to totally take over the sound of my VT22, but to work with the "tube character" (or whatever you want to call it) the amp already has. Kinda like how a TS9 sounds like crap going into a clean SS amp, but sounds kinda cool into a cranked tube amp. Anyway, I dug the DLS when i tried it out but it seemed to have a little less gain than I was looking for. The Box Of Rock seemed a little TOO gainy, and mushy to boot. There are some clones of the Crunchbox, Plexi Drive and Riot available on the cheap, I suppose I could pick up half a dozen different pedals and sell off the ones I don't like. Which would mean I wouldn't get rid of any of them, but still. I was very impressed with the VT Bass too... as well as the Liverpool and the Blonde. I have not tried out the Tech 21 British, but if it's as good as the other pedals in the Character series that I have tried, it's probably a pretty darned cool pedal. And I agree - that Hot Rod Plexi video sounded nice. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members ry1633 Posted December 17, 2013 Members Share Posted December 17, 2013 The Barber DirtyBomb is the best Marshall-ish crunch box I've heard, and I've owned a lot of 'em over the years (inc. a Marshall Guvnor, a Guvnor Plus, Arion Metal Master, some Boss stuff, multi-efx, and others). I love Barber pedals anyway - incredible tone and value for the price. http://barberelectronics.com/Dirty%20Bomb.html -ryan Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members MyNameIsRyan Posted December 17, 2013 Members Share Posted December 17, 2013 what? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members thom Posted December 18, 2013 Members Share Posted December 18, 2013 ry1633 wrote: The Barber DirtyBomb is the best Marshall-ish crunch box I've heard, and I've owned a lot of 'em over the years (inc. a Marshall Guvnor, a Guvnor Plus, Arion Metal Master, some Boss stuff, multi-efx, and others). I love Barber pedals anyway - incredible tone and value for the price. http://barberelectronics.com/Dirty%20Bomb.html -ryan Interesting. Isn't the dirty bomb supposed to more of a scooped high gain sorta distortion though? Ever maybe tried something fancy (suhr, fulltone, catalinbread, wampler, rockett, zvex, menatone, etc...?).I'm not big on boutique dirt pedals myself, a mooer crunch box clone and my amp's on board distortion is all I really need as far as non-fuzz dirt goes... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Beyer160 Posted December 22, 2013 Author Members Share Posted December 22, 2013 The Hot Rod Plexi arrived, but unfortunately I won't have access to my Ampeg for a while. I plugged it into Jamup using the Twin patch through my iPhone just to get a general feel for it (and to make sure it worked- this was a "restock", after all). I know this isn't a fair way to evaluate a pedal, so I'll refrain from making any value judgements at this stage.Quick impressions- -Like my VT Bass, the controls (especially the EQ) are really responsive- very small movements yield audible results.-The Tone control is actually a lowpass filter- at noon, you're dumping out a good amount of highs. I imagine this means the box will get a reputation as being "muddy". I found somewhere between one and two o'clock to work pretty well. -The Thump control works as advertised, giving you that low mid "thump" like you get from a 4x12. This was the big feature for me- the bridge pickup on my VM Jazzmaster is a little thin, I wanted something that would fill it out a bit. I'm looking forward to trying it through the Ampeg.-I was afraid with the words "Hot Rod" in the name, it'd be a one-trick pony screamer pedal. To my relief, the gain ranges from practically clean to '70s rock dirt. I was really jazzed to discover that you can dial in a cool, almost Vox-y (but not as jangle-y) low gain clean-bordering-on-crunchy tone. This is especially cool considering...-The "Hot" footswitch and its associated gain knob adds another preamp gain stage- it isn't a level boost (and can't be used on its own, only when the "Stock" circuit is already engaged), it just piles on dirt. I set the pedal up with the above mentioned low gain tone on the "Stock" channel and dialed in the "Hot" channel to Bring The Rock. Verdict- Tr Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Trick Fall Posted January 1, 2014 Members Share Posted January 1, 2014 I just got one of these Hot Rod Plexi's today. Unfortunately I didn't have much time to mess with it yet and I didn't have the guitar or amp I plan on using it with handy. First impressions were favorable though. I tried it plugged into my JCM 800 with the pre turned way down and the master at three and a half or so which is pretty clean and with the pedal on it gave a decent approximation of the amp cranked. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Will Chen Posted January 2, 2014 Members Share Posted January 2, 2014 I'd love to try that new Tech 21 pedal. I got a good deal on a second hand Ecstasy Blue pedal. Lot's of vintage style Marshall-esque tones in there. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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