I have never owned or used one, but I once saw a show featuring DJ Raw doing beats, and a bass player with a Holden 50. I remember it because the bass tone was so damn fat. I have heard [hearsay alert] that these are not as well constructed as the Jansens, but no arguing with the sound.
Slightly off topic, but the "Waves" plugins, eg. Renaissance Compressor, are made by an Israeli company. That actually does make me feel a little less bad as I crack them.
And for god's sake try before you buy if it is at all possible. Especially if you are buying from a store, there is no reason not to go in and have a good try of the pedal before forking over your $$$. Preferably take in your own guitar, plug into an amp that is similar to your own, and play the same stuff that you actually plan to use the pedal for.
I agree with what most people have said so far, but I would also add that you should probably have your amp looked at anyway. If the distortion is "not working" that could mean many things. Tell us some more about what sort of amp you have, what sound you want and what your price range is.
If you are after fairly extreme distortion or fuzz, the most fun thing to do is go out and buy lots of cheap second hand pedals until you find something you like, for instance Ibanez Mostortion or DOD FX-55 Supra Distortion. Get the ones with the silliest names, as they are usually best.
OR
Hotcake - A very classy pedal. Worth mentioning though that the hotcake is really more of an "overdrive" than a full on "distortion". It is meant to work _with_ your amp by pushing the preamp harder. It doen't do really extreme stuff, in fact it is quite subtle. Ibanez TS808, TS9, TS10 are also in this category.
Electroharmonix Big Muff - comes in several variations. This is a good and widely used pedal. It can provide more distortion than a hotcake.
Tonebone Hot British distortion - sounds good and really is quite "British" sounding. has a few knobs and dip switches so more options if you like to fiddle.
5) Which drummer once jumped his motorbike over a fence into an actors backyard and tore up the lawn?
My guess is Keith Moon
6) Name the guitarist who had a successful solo career before joining "Eagles"?
Joe Walsh
8) Who was nicknamed Bonzo?
John Bonham
15) Name 3 bands that are named after american city's or states
Kansas
Aye, frames are a bitch, and CSS rocks. Just answering the question that was asked, folks.
Disclaimer: I am not a professional web designer. Frames have many pitfalls, which I may not even know about. Here is the basic info and a link.
As you will note, I have used curly brackets, 'cos I'm not sure if this forum likes html. You would use the normal "<" and ">".
1. Give your frames NAMES in the index page, eg.
{html}
{frameset cols="20%,80%"}
{frame src="left_contents.html" name="left_frame"}
{frame src="right_contents.html" name="right_frame"}
{/frameset}
{/html}
2. Then, when you make the links which are supposed to open pages in the right frame, you specify a TARGET, eg.
{a href ="new_contents.html" target ="right_frame"}Load New Contents In Right Frame{/a}
[ external link ]
Always interested in other bands to play gigs with, dwidget, and it sounds like you might fit reasonable well with our (Percy Feral) sound. Need to see or hear you live (or rehearsing). How can we arrange that?
my e-mail is gaskrankinstation at yahoo.com
Thanks for posting the family link. I will now rely totally on that to determine how I treat everyone.
Do you know what STFW stands for?
I could be that much of an asshole if I wanted to be. But I'm not. It stands for Low Frequency Oscillator.
I am having a great time here chucking posts in all the wrong places. Probably best I make these mistakes now, and in my own thread.
Low Frequency Orchestra. Nah it's really Low Frequency Oscillator which is more a keyboard thing than a bass thing, but it's still about low frequencies. Nice and easy to spell, too.
Percy Feral [shameless plug] are back in business. We've been out of circulation for a while, initiating a new band member and working on some new material. Our sound could be described (maybe by someone on crack) as a cross between the Bad Seeds and the Beegees, but better you come along and hear for yourself.
We will be playing a gig with Sullen Moon, Cherry and Cherry's Gemstones on 11 June @ Valve.
This is my first post.
I thought I'd better say hello lest I become the most epic lurker these boards have ever known. I am quite an aficionado of NZ music as well as music in general, so I suspect you will see more of me.
I play bass too (hence my nick - couldn't believe it wasn't taken) and some of you may know me in the real world as Andy from Percy Feral. If you know me, speak up! Especially if I have one of your CDs!
Nobody has yet mentioned that the two amp technique was pioneered by John Entwistle of The Who.
Also, Tim Commerford (sp?) of Rage Against The Machine and now Audioslave, does indeed have a rig incorporating 3 separate amps. One is clean and is on all the time. The other two provide progressively more distortion as they are switched in. There is an article covering this in the latest Bass Player magazine.
I'm very tempted to try this myself one day.