T
he more distortion boxes
I’ve plugged into over the
course of my life as a guitar
person, the more I’ve come to
appreciate the ones that do something
a bit different. This is probably because,
the more of them I’ve played, the more
I’ve come to realize that most distortion
pedals sound pretty much alike, and
have essentially the same features.
Unfortunately, many guitar effects
builders seek only to replicate common,
already known tones, often copying preexisting circuits exactly. This creates a
challenge for those among us who are
more interested in making new sounds
than chasing a guitar hero’s supposed
“Holy Grail” tone from a famous record.
The joy of unique distortion generators
is mostly in the acts of discovery they
inspire, the twisting of knobs and flipping
of switches that hopefully leads to an
unexpected, inspirational texture that
has never been heard before (at least by
you). Besides just being tremendous fun,
these acts of exploration and discovery
can make you play guitar in a way you’ve
never played before, perhaps inspiring
an original piece of music based around
a fresh and exciting tone. With this spirit
of creativity and exploration in mind, I’ve
assembled a short list of some of my
favorite unconventional distortion boxes,
both new and vintage.
ToneReport.com
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