Most disappointing distortion pedal you ever tried

[rsm]

many years ago I had some kind of od/boost from Carl Martin, it was weak and useless, could have been defective...but I avoid Carl Martin since.

 

[BABMusic]

I've also never been able to get the DS-1 to sound good as a boost. The SD-1 is far easier. I also owned a Carl Martin Rock Drive long ago -- wasn't bad, but not as good as my SD-1. I sold it.

 

[psychodave]

The orange piece of shit DS-1.

 

[harddriver]

I also didn't find the Boss DS-1 to be likeable. I did love my old MXR distortion+ and Boss SD-1 into my 79 2203.

 

[CarlF]

Fulltone Distortion Pro

 

[Spaceboy]

I once acquired a DigiTech Metal Master when I was new to guitar and young… at least I think that was the name, but it didn’t even have a knob for the gain, so it was all bees all the time.

 

[paulyc]

Boss Heavy Metal pedal. Yuck

 

[napalmdeath]

BE-OD. I know, many people like them and they can sound ok, but they disappointed me, anyway. Way too much gain, too scooped.
I much prefer the underrated Hardwire SC-2 Valve Distortion pedal.

 

[ZEEGLER]

Obviously none of you have had the ultimate privilege of playing through the absolute worst joke of a distortion pedal ever made.

This piece of glorious shite!

This was my first pedal I ever owned. It was kickin' around my house collecting dust for years and I only plugged it in a couple of times just to see if it still sounded as bad as I thought it did. I have no idea what happened to it, but I kinda wish I still had it, so I could try it out again and have a good laugh. In all seriousness, it might not actually be as bad as I remember, but yeah, who knows.

 

[thegame]

Joe Satriani had no problem with the Boss DS-1.

No but everyone listening to him did

 

[CarlF]

No but everyone listening to him did

No, everyone listening to him was pretty much blown away and bought his albums. You were in diapers back then.

 

[thegame]

No, everyone listening to him was pretty much blown away and bought his albums. You were in diapers back then.

What the hell do you know? I’m in diapers now!

 

[CarlF]

What the hell do you know? I’m in diapers now!

You must remember, back in 1978, when the DS1 first appeared, there weren't alot of choices. I was happy to replace the MXR Distortion+ as my main distortion box.
First guy I saw with a DS1 was Randy Hansen in '78. Into Marshall JMP's w/ an Echoplex, it was a great sound, I quickly imitated. Gary Moore used it for a while as well.

 

[BABMusic]

I think I read that Satch also used the Marshall 30th anniversary amp on Alien that many consider the worst of the 900 period. Just goes to show that anything can be made to sound decent if you just figure it out.

 

[stephen sawall]

I have a DS-1 I bought about 30 years ago. It's in new condition. I plug it in every 5 years for 10 minutes.

 

[phillybhatesme]

Horizon Precision or whatever it’s called.

 

[harddriver]

Dimarzio Very Metal pedal.............I only bought it because supposedly Jake E Lee used one on the first Badlands album and I wanted to hear it. The Boss OD-1 SD-1 sounded better to my ears........but as with anything YMMV.

 

[webrthomson]

Ibanez Smash box - should be called the shite box

 

[Kagami]

Boss MD-2, really bad and unusable.

 

[headlessdeadguy]

I’m a mad scientist. I can usually get a usable tone out of just about anything with enough fucking around. I certainly have thrown a few pedals in the trash within 10 minutes. I’ve also sold some that I wish I hadn’t. Would like to have the SLO preamp back to give it another chance. The one pedal I hate is the OCD. it has a certain nasally characteristic to it that makes me almost nauseous.