The Mystique of Dirt

[raj007]

I had a conversation with a friend of mine recently and thought it’d be a fun topic here.

When it comes to dirt pedals...I am picky as fuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuck.

Delay? I’ll likely love it. Reverb? Likely love it. Trem? Likely love it. And so on. It’s very rare that I will flat out dislike a pedal that isn’t dirt ...

But when it comes to dirt, my ears enter the realm of insanity —What happens if Malkovich goes into his own portal?—A good chunk of them will sound boxy...like a wet blanket is over my amp and no amount of EQ tweaking will remedy it. Then I can be extremely bored by a lot of them. Sterile, predictable . Meh.

Maybe it’s because DIRT is my favorite “effect”...so the search for the mythical beast of perfection is never ending.

And I do like all kinds...Muffs, Benders, Fuzz Faces, etc. But, most get flipped to continue the quest.

The Mini is probably my favorite dirt pedal yet. The Fuzz Mutant probably second.

Maybe it’s time to just start “collecting” so I have options (which goes against my minimalism).

How are you with dirt? Are you picky? On a seemingly endless quest to find “the one”?

Have you found the one? If so, what is it?

Cover me with your dirt, baby. Get me drunk with your fuzz. Distort my butthole.

[Chankgeez]

There is no bad dirt pedal, only a poor application of said "bad" dirt pedal.

Of course, not all dirt pedals are created equally.

[K2000]

A lot depends on your other equipment, IMO... guitar/pickups, amp, speakers, other pedals, all that makes a difference. Trying to find a fuzz you like, to match with an amp you don't like, is an exercise in frustration.

Also, a lot depends on whether you are playing in a loud band, or jamming at home. Also, playing style (no solos vs. solos, etc). And we all have different expectations/taste too (lots of individual note definition vs. big monolitic wall of sound).

Likes: Meathead (OG), Fuzz Factory, rats in general, Op Amp Big Muff and Green Russian reissues, Earthbound Audio Supercollider, Mountainking Megalith, Malekko B:assmaster, Noise Ensemble (<---- !!!), HBE UFO

Dislikes: most Fuzz Faces, Way Huge Fat Sandwich, NYC Big Muff, most Big Muffs actually, any fuzz that oscillates when you're not playing.

[Mudfuzz]

There is no bad dirt pedal, only a poor application of said "bad" dirt pedal.

Of course, not all dirt pedals are created equally.

This

And then are those thingys called tube amps...

[fuzzisokiguess]

Wooly wet blanket tones from way too many of the dirt pedals I’ve tried too.

Have (almost) given up buying dirt, and luckily now there’s so much to explore I don’t miss that chase.*

Agree on playing style, amp headroom, and one that I’ve found- bright caps. Have an ac30 clone that has a non-switched bright cap that is magic for low volume chime city, but it destroys dirt, eats mud pies, knits wool. Need to swap in a switched vol pot.

*tho tempted by the mini and brothers. Once a dirt herder, always a dirt herder I guess

[dubkitty]

i don't think i could narrow it down to "the one." i tend to accumulate fuzz pedals that work for something or another that i do in a Kevin Shields sort of way...until i tore it down recently my board had six fuzzes on. i like Tonebenders, other weird 60s British designs, older FuzzHugger, and my W&C Tall Font Russian. inclined towards germanium Fuzz Faces and Shin-Ei Companions, but i've never played one. love my old Distortion+. can't use Rats or IC Muffs; Tube Screamers are unbearable. if i could try anything i'd probably go with the Roger Mayer Hendrix boxes in the spaceship-shaped enclosures.

[harpies]

Have you tried the source audio la lady or king maker? Suggesting because with the app editor you can tweak so many damn parameters on it, that you might tweak it to perfection. even if you don’t really like the sound of the pedal, the tweaking might help you determine what aspects (frequencies, cutoff, etc) are key to getting the sound you are after. Bonus, either pedal can be loaded with the sounds of the other, and it’s got onboard presets, so you can load od, fuzz, and distortions. It helped me a lot with narrowing down styles of pedals that worked for me.

[calfzilla]

I’m down to a buzzaround, fuzz face, muff, and Godfather. I shouldn’t have let a MK1.5 go but I needed to pare down and it just felt like what I enjoyed about that pedal was being covered by others. I’m kind of enjoying the minimalism right now; so much dirt is just a shade or two different.

[odontophobia]

Cascading gain stages from preamp tubes has been my preferred diet of choice for the past few years.

I have been curious to try out one of the Mesa Boogie Dual Rectifier Preamp Pedals and after watching the Pelican rig rundown the Soldano preamp pedal is what the one dude runs into his Plexi reissue. Despite the boring drums I do dig their guitar sounds a lot.

I haven’t used a dirt pedal as my main sound since I bought a high gain amplifier. Recently switched to the Orange Rockerverb and couldn’t be happier.

The low volume playing is all accomplished via headphones using a Mesa Cab Clone which offers dummy load for headphones and silent recording as well as Direct Out. The Pelican rig rundown was pretty interesting because apparently they send a direct signal for mix live and on record. Definitely something I may consider in the future as the Cab Clone does sound stellar.

[frodog]

Since having the RMA tourbox on loan every other dirt seems normie, tame, vanilla.

Other than those (Tetanus, Monobius, STONE SPLITTER especially) a Fuck in addition and I'm set. Maybe an HM-2 for a different flavor.

I'm not too picky about dirt otherwise, but I don't like TS-style ones too much. Diode clipping I want to be able to toggle in or out. Also like to have a very thin, spiky drive sound available, which the Tetanus indeed cops gained up with guitar vol way down.

[ts50b]

I think this is why I own so much dirt. With delay or reverb or anything else I can say "this does x better so I can sell the other one", but with dirt it's the tiny differences that make it better or worse for some situations.

Right now my favorites are the Buzzz, Double Muff, and Ugly Twin

[D.o.S.]

RMA dirt is excellent. I'm going to see if I can use the Doper as a bass DI before I try and hunt down a rusty box. It's got enough volume on tap for sure.

[odontophobia]

RMA dirt is excellent. I'm going to see if I can use the Doper as a bass DI before I try and hunt down a rusty box. It's got enough volume on tap for sure.

Rusty Box does seem great for bass though.

[coldbrightsunlight]

I've wanted to try a rusty box forever. Just never.. quite enough to buy one.

I really wanted to come in here and say I'm not picky with dirt. But the amount of dirt pedals I have now and have bought and flipped in the past proves me wrong on that point.

I agree that there's no such thing as a bad dirt pedal. I'm just trying to find the ones that work nicely with what I want to do, that feel fun when I play them.

[D.o.S.]

I feel like "I am not picky with dirt" really means "I know what type of circuits I prefer to use". Which is true. I could get by with any type of Hotcake, DOD250/Distortion+, and Russian/Civil War style Big Muff on bass if I had to.

The fact that I have custom/one-offs for the Big Muff and the DOD250 (soon to be one custom and one one-off) is because I seem to have successfully articulated which variation on those flavours I like best.