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I've been on an exhausting journey for a distortion pedal. I've traversed through overdriveland which was disappointed and unsuccessful. Owned ocd,klon,sd1,bluesbreakers, jfet and mosfet style drives and went through fuzz land where I've had devi ever style fuzz, russian and usa muffs, harmonic percs, fuzz faces, fuzz factories. I've experimented with ds1 modded and unmodded, expanders, rats both vintage, reissue and clones, distortion pluses and dod250s. Ross distortions and the boss hm2 and hm3.

What else is there thays more aggressive than a rat? I want punchy bass, strong mids and kerrang in the high end. Aggressive but not metal. Playing a jaguar through a Traynor bass master and various other amps and guitars. Just can't seem to get a good distortion with this rig and I'm losing my mind. Save me ILF

My bassist has couple Traynor bass masters that'll be freshly serviced and home soon, what sort of pickups are you running in the Jaguar? I wouldn't mind setting up an approximate rig to see if I can make a solid recommendation. Do you bridge the channels at all on the Traynor?

Without experimenting, I think the Dr. Scientist Elements might be good option to look into, if it's not too overkill with the knobs/switches. Also the Electronic Audio Experiments Dagger and Longsword have been popular choices lately if you haven't explored those options yet.

I also do not see a DOD Death Metal mentioned, there are some clones like the Lastgasp Deviltail that adds a gain knob for lower intensity and the EQ is accessible from back panel with trim pots. Might be a bit excessive still but thought I'd throw it out there.

Another thought is sometimes putting an always on pre-amp, overdrive, or boost at the beginning or end of a chain can add the desired character to a distortion pedal. I have a DOD Bifet Boost that sometimes does the trick to give drives that little extra oomph.

Have you tried one of these?



Based on a Rat, might be what you wanna hear.

came here to say that ^^Chank beat me to it (only fair b/c i am a Landphil proselytizer because of Chank)

so good on bass, but goes far beyond its origins as a bass distortion and works great on guitar or what have you

one of the things i like about the bass response is that it's big and present without resorting to clean blend tricks but it retains definition. kicks as hard as a muff but way more clarity imo.

the key is you basically have two eq'able gain stages but it's def not as blunt force as like stacking two RATS

so, yeah, it gets way more aggressive than a RAT if you want, without totally splatting out, but it can def be ratcheted back to milder territory

well - listening to mr excane's demo, i take that back - obviously you can get it to splat, bc it splats like hell in that demo, but in my personal experience you have a lot of leeway before that happens, especially with relatively lower output pickups....

Maybe have a look at kma: https://kma-machines.com/machines.html

They put very powerful EQs in their pedals, up to +/-15db range per band, parametric mids, selectable center frequencies and whatnot.

I just got a Dead Stag, which is based on the Big Muff and it's really quite impressive. I might get the Wurm, too: HM-2 with 4 band EQ and 2 different frequency settings. They get extra bonus points for excellent graphics on most of their pedals.

The rig for this band is actually an eae dagger and an echo dream 2. My other board has a halberd and mask audio maybe on it but that's more noise orientated.

The channels are jumpered and the dagger is running in the higher gain position. The lower one is very wimpy and frail sounding. The amp is about halfway up volume wise which is very loud. I think the dagger is based on rat ocd hybrid thing. It feels and sounds like it to me. The pickups in this jaguar are hotter wound fralins.

Ghost Hip wrote:I also do not see a DOD Death Metal mentioned, there are some clones like the Lastgasp Deviltail that adds a gain knob for lower intensity and the EQ is accessible from back panel with trim pots. Might be a bit excessive still but thought I'd throw it out there.

To the OP: Go check out the DOD Death Metal Sephora thread if you haven’t already. Lots of real talk there. How’s your skincare routine?

Just got a Dirt Monger DOD Death Metal clone in the mail with a gain knob. It cleans up but gets super savage, loud as all heck and lots of tonal options. Haven’t spent even 10 min with it but it’s great. And it’s got super sick vintage RAT style knobs.

Also maybe I’m being obstinate here but is maybe a Boss Metal Zone what you’re looking for? Lots of room to tweak that lovey four band active EQ. I feel like the days of it being “loathed” by tone purists are over. I like it more than an HM2.

Basically in my opinion you probably want a 3+ band EQ distortion pedal to bring out that punch. I know this is a fuzz forum but I’m a distortion convert through and through. Maybe an HM2 clone with a mids knob?

Try stacking a RAT with something that has extreme EQ controls?
I don't like the way rats lose clarity once the gain goes over 11 o'clock or so but I find setting it like an overdrive and throwing something like the EAE surveyor before it set as a dirty treble booster makes for a way more articulate heavy distortion.

maybe put a graphic eq after your Rat. I feel like that can be the secret ingredient to a cool distorted tone.

Yeah, stacking EQ with your Rat (or whatever else) is a good option. I'd try something like the Stone Deaf PDF-2 (or 1X), I've played the 2 on a friend's board with several drives/fuzzes and it can totally transform them. OR maybe their Warp Drive, which is a high gain distortion with their para EQ/boost already built in and seems like it can get real gnarly. Can find them cheap used, too (and aren't all that expensive new, really).

The Elements is the only answer

fat rat?

My suggestion is the Turbo RAT. I had one and I liked it more than a '90s RAT of a friend.

Maybe change the pickups in your guitar.
Revv G3 or G4 might do the thing for you.
Maybe a tone bender MKIII/IV - they're much more of a distortion sound than a true fuzz (and also they rule).

If we’re talking aggressive response but not necessarily more distortion, I would have thought about a Driving Notion. Yadig’s starter post looks like someone looking for the clang.