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Simulating speaker distortion


dincz
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I've got a nice clean rig that I'm usually very happy with but there are times when I miss the slightly farty sound of a slightly overdriven speaker. Pedals I've heard seem to produce a fizzy, sizzling kind of fuzz. Is there anything that will simulate the sound of a speaker on the verge of breakup?

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Pretty much any low-gain pedal will do what you want, its just a case of finding a pedal that sounds good to your ears......there are a LOT of options :)

Some good places to start for low-gain:
Wren & Cuff Phat Phuk
Fuzzrocious Dark Driving/BDPG/Ram The Manparts
Xotic BB Bass Pre
Mad Professor Blueberry Overdrive
COG Knightfall
Fulltone OCD

So many more!

Si

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The Ibanez Tone Lok series includes at least one fuzz pedal with a multi position switch that introduces increasing amounts of "speaker damage" into the tone. Not used one myself, but the bass player from London band Generation Graveyard uses one of the Ibanez Tone Loks to get a great distortion sound.

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[quote name='Mog' timestamp='1377152184' post='2183927']
[url="http://www.catalinbread.com/SFT"]http://www.catalinbread.com/SFT[/url]

This should do it nicely
[/quote]

Definitely, especially the original MkI version with the chunky white knobs.

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there are a couple of sounds on the Renegades album by RATM which really do sound like a speaker breaking up. I don't liken this to any overdrive pedal I've ever heard - which sound more like an amp distorting than a speaker breaking. Anyone know what I'm on about? And how he got that sound?

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if you can afford one, put yourself on the waiting list for an F.E.A. Labs Dual-Band-Distortion.

it's more of a crossover-based overdrive. you can dial in anything, in fact, it's almost got too much control.

http://www.fealabs.com/products/DBD-0001.html

oh NO, sorry they've stopped doing them !!! ok, so mine has now raised in price !

fantastic kit for a clean amp-user like me.

keep an eye out for a used one.

Edited by phil.i.stein
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[quote name='dannybuoy' timestamp='1377200484' post='2184787']
Lower frequency grunt describes the SFT to a tee. You dig in harder and it has a nice throaty roar like putting your foot down with a big V8!
[/quote]

That sounds like what I'm after! Funnily enough, I bought a PCB last year for a DIY SFT clone to build in my spare time. The spare time has worked really well - shovel loads of it but I'm chronically lazy :(

I know - /sympathy

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Try the microtube vintage. I also have the B3k and just dont get on with it because it's got that fizzy sound (to my ears) which I dont like.
The vintage is just usable on all settings.
I also have Sansamp, a Tonehammer, an Agro and others, all of which sounded fizzy.

Borrow a Vintage, see if that is what you're after.

Edit: In fairness I'm not describing speaker overdrive, but if you want something which doesn't fizz, maybe that's whats important.

Edited by GremlinAndy
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This was useful:

http://johnbscott.com/preamp_shootout/

I prefer the SFT closely followed by the Tonehammer and given the price of the TH and that I've got the required PCB and FETs already, it's time to get out the soldering iron and build the SFT.

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[quote name='cheddatom' timestamp='1377186424' post='2184526']
there are a couple of sounds on the Renegades album by RATM which really do sound like a speaker breaking up. I don't liken this to any overdrive pedal I've ever heard - which sound more like an amp distorting than a speaker breaking. Anyone know what I'm on about? And how he got that sound?
[/quote]

No speaker breaking up but Tim C's recorded sound relies heavily on his cabs as well as modified amps.

Around then in sure he was using 3 SVTs of somekind.
1 ran clean, around this time it's a very woolly thump, lots of highs have been cut, the other two set with increasingly more distortion.
I've tried to get close to his Evil Empire sound, with my pedal board.
One clean channel mixed with overdrive, using two BB preamps. 1khz boost too, brings out drive well. Could get a rebegades sound if I had an EQ on the clean channel.

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[quote name='Prime_BASS' timestamp='1377286348' post='2185939']
No speaker breaking up but Tim C's recorded sound relies heavily on his cabs as well as modified amps.

Around then in sure he was using 3 SVTs of somekind.
1 ran clean, around this time it's a very woolly thump, lots of highs have been cut, the other two set with increasingly more distortion.
I've tried to get close to his Evil Empire sound, with my pedal board.
One clean channel mixed with overdrive, using two BB preamps. 1khz boost too, brings out drive well. Could get a rebegades sound if I had an EQ on the clean channel.
[/quote]

I'm a big fan of his sound, and have read all about how it's done etc. I can do Evil Empire with a TS clone blended with some parallel compression and EQ.

The sounds on Renegades that I'm on about are something else. I'll have to give it a listen and point out a specific section. It's not like anything he does on other albums, it sounds just like when you put too much low end through a crappy cab

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This is the thing, as everyone knows, trying to emulate multiple amp/cab/pedal setups simply with a few pedals is incredibly difficult.
People report that even the Billy Sheehan pedal doesn't really get his sound, as it's a combination of so many things.....plus the player themselves.

Si

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