redkirby01
I am getting an effects pedal for my guitar and im VERY new to effects pedals so i was wondering what brand would be the best to choose from?
btw im trying to get a paramore kind of sound if you know what i mean.
if you dont here are some of there videos (most of the guitar parts on all of their songs sound the same)
emergency:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JUdBXgDLhBc
Misery buisness:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VEGYgcRFKmc
pressure:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-2pOMAOf9KI
Answer
Okay, here's more information than you need.
Distortion is a sound caused by the electrical wave-form of a guitar signal "clipping," or hitting it's volume limit. Traditionally this came from turning up a vacuum tube amplifier until the signal going through the tubes was more than it could amplify. Today, it's often done with diodes, shorting the signal to ground when it reaches a certain volume. There are three types of distortion:
Overdrive is a "soft-clipped" sound most similar to a tube amp turned up loud. It has a smooth, full, midrange-heavy tone and is usually very sensitive to picking. Pedals for this include the Ibanez Tube Screamer and the Boss SD-1, but they're usually intended more to boost your amp and make the tubes distort than to use on their own.
Distortion is a hard-clipped sound similar to what you get when you really crank a high-gain amp. It makes your tone harsh and usually adds a lot of harmonics. Some examples are the Boss DS-1, Digitech Hot Head, and ProCo Rat.
Fuzz is when you clip the signal so hard it loses its dynamics, so the electrical pulse looks like a square wave. All fuzz pedals have distinct characteristics, but it usually weakens your midrange and emphasizes either bass or treble. It has a buzzy kind of chainsaw sound, normally. Some good fuzz pedals are the Electro-Harmonix Big Muff Pi, the Danelectro Cool Cat Fuzz, and the Dunlop Fuzz Face. Some old fuzz pedals are very rare and sought after, like the Mosrite Fuzzrite, the Univox Superfuzz, and the original Dallas-Arbiter Fuzz Face.
Paramore's guitar tone (like most all modern rock bands) is based on an amp called the Mesa Dual Rectifier. It's pretty much the king of high-gain amps; it can produce incredible amounts of distortion and still sound clear and defined. Assuming you can afford to go out and buy a Recto (which I assume you can't; they're expensive) the tone is still not hard to imitate.
First off, for that sound, you don't need an overdrive or fuzz pedal, you need distortion. And you need a full, bassy distortion. A lot of people will probably recommend the Boss DS-1; it's one of the world's most popular distortions. But it's a very trebly, bright sounding distortion. A lot of great guitarists have used them, but usually those guitarists also had a tube amp turned up to where the extra boost of the distortion would overdrive the tubes and fill in the pedal's lack of low-end richness. Kurt Cobain, for example, of Nirvana, used a DS-1 and later a DS-2 into a Mesa preamp, producing a very thick, harmonic-rich distortion. DS-1 is not what you need. The ProCo Rat comes closer; it was kind of the official distortion pedal of the 80s, but it has also been used a lot in metal. It has a tone control that lets you filter out the really high end of your signal, which keeps it smooth and full. But my personal recommendation is the Electro-Harmonix Big Muff Pi.
Now, I know what you're thinking: "Wow, this guy is seriously obsessed with distortion." No, not that. You were supposed to be thinking "Wait, you said I didn't need a fuzz pedal." And you're right. But the BMP is a very special fuzz; it actually sort of turns into a distortion when you roll of the gain and tone knobs a bit. It has a very dark, heavy sound with a lot of low end punch. For an example of its sound, listen to "Lithium" by Nirvana, or to any Smashing Pumpkins song with any distortion in it.
There are actually a ton of different versions of the Big Muff out there. You might want to check some of them out (like the Metal Muff) but the original pedal still comes in two versions: the New York one and the Russian one. They're easy to tell apart; the one they made in New York is silver, and the Russian one is black. The major difference is that the Russian model is smoother-sounding. I'd recommend it, because it sounds less like a fuzz and more like distortion. It usually sells for around $80 new, $30-50 used; you can get a very good copy, the Behringer VD-1 Vintage Distortion, for about $30 brand new, but it has more of the rough American quality.
If you don't like that, check out Digitech's line of analog distortions, mainly the Hot Head. Digitech makes excellent products, slightly better than Boss in sheer durability, and they tend to sell pretty cheap on ebay. The Hot Head is based on the sound of an overdriven Marshall stack, but it has high and low frequency controls that'll let you dial in a lot of different tones. It doesn't have as much pure gain as the Big Muff, but it should have enough.
Anyway, yeah. Electro-Harmonix, ProCo and Digitech are good ones to check out. The most important thing is to NOT get a digital distortion, it'll make any guitarist's ears fall off and die. YouTube has lots of demo videos.
Hope this helped!
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