Best Distortion Pedals

Who would not dream of such a pedal-distortion that could cover the entire range in its settings starting from the light overdrive of the 1970s and ending with a violent heavy distortion used by modern metal bands? The MXR M75 copes with it not just good but also at a professional level.

First of all, this pedal attracts attention with the extended frequency control. There are three knobs for accurate adjustment of the low, middle and high frequencies. When you play using a qualitative guitar amplifier the sound is very dense with excellent low notes. It does not “hiss” but it is 100% natural as befits an analogue accessory.

It is also worth noting that this distortion is equipped with a true bypass that provides a better signal from the pickup to the amplifier and positively affects the sound quality.

Generally, as we have already noted, you can achieve both light blue distortion and much more brutal distortion using the MXR M75 due to the wide possibilities of setting up the equalizer and gain. However, each pedal can be identified by certain modes and settings whereby it sounds better and brightly stands out from the competitors. Regarding this accessory, if you unscrew the gain and low tones for 3 hours, the high tones for 12, and the middle notes for 9, you get a very convincing distortion in our opinion, which is perfect to play traditional thrash metal. However, we are sure that if you spend time and experiment with the settings you will find the desired sound. At the same time, you should not forget that the sound coloring can be quite different when you use different equipment.

The electro harmonix metal muff pedal is as good as you can get to set a crowd off with your breathtaking play combined with a hard sound. It reproduces such a dense distortion that it simply knocks you down.

However, its main uniqueness is that it is equipped with two channels. Quite often guitarists think about how to buy two pedals. The first pedal would perform the classical distortion and the second one would be used to further emphasize certain points in the music, if necessary. This is particularly important when a musician wants to add more gain during the solo or in the leading part. For this purpose, there is a second channel with a separately adjustable frequency level in the electro harmonix metal muff. Accordingly, there are two footswitches on it for the bypass and the boost, and each of them has a separate LED that shows operating modes.

It is worth noting that it is impossible to set up the distortion like a crunch effect in this pedal. It immediately produces a rather hard sound at the minimum turning the gain knob. Not everyone will like it but you can get lighter sounding if you slightly turn down the volume on your guitar.

In general, this is an excellent pedal that is definitely appropriate when used in heavy music styles.

Some pedals have a fairly long history that is measured in decades, and one of them is just the DS-1 from BOSS Company. Certainly, modern models have some insignificant differences from the original.

The accessory is equipped with three regulators responsible for the gain, level of the output signal and the timbre. Adjustment of the timbre is based on minimalism: the high frequencies are cut off when turning the knob to the left, the low frequencies are cut when turning to the right and the frequencies are balanced in the middle position. It should also be noted that this pedal is hardly suitable for rhythm parts in heavy styles because you could not really get its dense groove sounding. Not for nothing is the DS-1 used by such masters as Steve Vai and Joe Satriani, it sounds just great during solo parts. Even if you set the gain to the maximum during the solo, it sounds almost without “hiss”, but if you cut down the high frequencies then it disappears leaving the required sharpness of sounding. All in all, despite easy setup and low price, the DS-1 allows you to get a really high-quality guitar sound.

First of all, we would like to note that the distortion of the RAT2 differs from the Pro Co with its diverse and quite individual sounding. Setting the required sound is achieved by adjusting such parameters as Filter and Distortion. The filter knob usually turns in the opposite direction to cut off unnecessary high frequencies when the gain is added on a pedal. But the knob is set in parallel to the RAT2 so that all three knobs are turned clockwise. The sound is quite interesting if you analyze it in details. The RAT2 distortion fits perfectly into such styles as grunge, art rock or whatever underground trends. For example, if you set the filter knob to the far left position, the pedal starts to noticeably “hiss”, which will help you achieve dirty garage sounding. If you set distortion between 7-8 hours, you get nice natural blues sounds while you can play light rock-and-roll riffs between 9-10 hours. And between 10-12 hours and further you can get a real rock distortion, but sound colors are quite different even in these intervals. At about 12 hours it resembles fuzz, but if you set it for 2-3 hours, you can play an extremely heavy rhythm part.

We can conclude from the above that the RAT2 will be more than a successful purchase if you are going to play classic or experimental rock.

The rock music would never have been so, if not for the distortion. Much depends on the quality of this effect, and the UM300 from the world-famous Behringer Company is one of the surest ways to get it. The electronics of this pedal has a unique pre-amplification circuit that provides it with unique analog tube sounding. We also want to draw your attention to the most beautiful and long sustain as a feature of this model.

The pedal is equipped with the volume, gain and frequency regulators to set up the required parameters. And the absolute advantage is that the high, low and middle frequencies can be set separately, which makes it possible to achieve the most desired sounding. Thus, there are two knobs to set up the middle frequencies.

Due to the wide adjustment possibilities, the UM300 can be used in almost any music styles ranging from the lightest styles to more heavy and progressive directions.