Should i get a boss foot pedal?

Question

so i play in a hardcore band, and i have a hughes and kettner head. It was pretty expensive, and its a good head, but just not great distortion for my amp. so im thinking about getting a boss foot pedal, putting my amp on a dirty, but not extremely distorted channel, and just using the distortion from the boss pedal. is this a good idea?

Answer 1

Very good idea... im getting to get a boss whoa pedal... boss is a great brand! i love my distortion pedal and it was a great price... get yours from Guitar Center(reccommended)

Answer 2

The Intenational rule is: "IF IT FEELS GOOD, DO IT!"

Answer 3

if by hardcore you mean metal, i'd probably get a metal zone pedal by boss, but if you're more 80's metal i'd get a mega distortion, read about them here:

http://www.musiciansfriend.com/product/B...

http://www.musiciansfriend.com/product/B...

Answer 4

You've got an H&K head, and you can't get the right kind've distortion out of it? Weird. It should sound really good! First off, if it's playing through some cheap speakers, that's the first thing you should fix. Good speakers will improve the sound immensely. I love my Marshall 1960a cab, it sounds great, the bottom end isn't flabby, and the highs are clear and defined without being hissy or shrieky.

Second step is your guitar. Are you using stock pickups? If so, then replace them - bump up to something hotter, like Seymour Duncan Dimebuckers, Invaders, Duncan Distortion, or even JB's if you're more rock and not metal. DiMarzio has great pickups too - the x2n is one of the hottest passives on the market, and pickups like the Evolutions, etc are also pretty dang decent. While I don't like the sound of them, you could go actives and get EMGs. I think the Seymour Duncan Livewires sound better, though.

A hot signal going into a gain stage (distortion pedal, amp, etc) equals more saturation, more crunch. You just want to be careful not to add too much gain, as gain will compress your signal, causing loss of dynamics and clarity and adding noise as the gain is added.

You want just enough gain, and if the gain stage has lots of signal to work with, it doesn't have to use as much gain to get that same sound. Does that make sense?

To that effect, how about getting an overdrive, booster, or even eq pedal that will boost your signal without adding too much gain to it? This will drive your amp harder, giving it an edgier, more aggressive sound. Well, usually. Doesn't always work. But you've got a tube amp, it should get you closer to what you want.

Finally, if you feel that nothing will help you but a pedal, you have two options - either use a pedal as the source of all of your distortion or gain stage by using your pedal to add some of the gain but not all.

If you do this you want to only add some gain - so raise the volume/level of the pedal and lower the gain to less than 1/3rd. This should drive your amp into a very suitable stage of distortion. The Proco Rat and Tubescreamer have been used for this for ages, albeit with more gain, usually. I have heard of this being done with a DS-1, an SD-1, a Digitech Bad Monkey, and various cheapo pedals.

I like the sound of fuzz, although my experiences with it when gain staging have been mixed.

A great suggestion is to get an EQ pedal and a cheap distortion pedal. Put the EQ pedal after the distortion pedal.... even better if you can put one before as well. You should be able to tweak a great distortion sound - the differences between most pedals isnt how they make the distortion (clipping) but how they filter the signal before and after. I love doing this with fuzz pedals!

Hope some of this has helped!

Saul

Answer 5

I've owned:

DS-1 distortion

DS-2 turbo distortion

Mega distortion

Overdrive/Distortion

and that Metal zone

i highly recommend the ds-2 turbo distortion or the mega distortion.  and if you get the ds-2, get the latch pedal...

http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index;...

Answer 6

I love boss distortion. I'd say definitely go for it. I used to play in darker hardcore type band and one of my guitarists used it. I always admired his tone.