Help me decide on the best distortion pedal (Page 2 of 3)

I'm not really sure this thread neads policing... Let's not turn this place into The Gear Page please  .  The OP mentioned the Okko Diablo pedal which is a very mild, compressed, Dumble sounding pedal that IMO is more an overdrive than distortion.  Besides, where do you really draw the line between overdrives, distortions, clean boosts, fuzzes, preamps, etc?

I own a Blues Driver and believe you me, that thing can put out some wicked amounts of gain.  Regarding the Fulltone stuff... When I find a better pedal for low volume Joe Bonamassa tones into a clean platform than the Fulldrive 2, I'll be the first to sing it's praises on here.  All I try to do is share my <limited> gear experience.  Not owning or trying every flavor-of-the-week boutique pedal does not = not knowing good tone... try hearing some of the god awful demos of guys playing their $4000 pedalboards into their $5000 amp setups.

My 2 cents.

Ugh- I couldn't sell my Fulldrive II fast enough. I could only get it to work as a stacked pedal with a HBE power screamer but once I heard the Xotic pedals I ditched everything else.

Mark can be pretty prickly and is a difficult guy to work with sometimes- Still, he definitely makes some good pedals but I'm more about his Vibe and TTE effects- I still have an OCD on my pedal board but I rarely use it..ok I never use it.

I use the Amp Overdrive for one type of OD and then a AC booster for the EJ type tones-

You'd be disappointed in the KLON if you are seeking a distortion pedal-

I'm not a high gain player so....

Speaking of great overdrive- Here's a recent clip I did with a RedPlate Blackverb- - Guitar straight into the amp so no need for a 2K pedal board.....or a 5K amp 

http://www.soundclick.com/bands/page_so … ID=9793203

Caution- the noodling is incessant so don't bust balls- Still, there's some funny dialogue and it's a cool amp that is getting a ton of pub..

Thanks for posting the video so I can see how it sounds in a live band setting.  I wish more pedals were compared that way.  Never be embarrassed about your music man you rock!!

Thanks bro, I'm very flattered.  I truely value and respect your opinion as well.   

Totally we do. I could name many items that other folks get rippin tone on but fall short for me. I'm like a vortex that sucks the potential out of greatness. 

Funny that you mention the Super Reverb. The FD only worked with my Vibroking and when I stacked it with the HBE pedal it was great and thick. by itself, I couldn't get it. The Tube Screamer worked well with the cranked Marshall/Categorey5 but never did well with my fender circuits.

The Redplate was transient- I got it to check out and it's already gone. Fun amp but not my bag and the cleans were a bit lifeless. Lotta relays and filtering going on in that amp.

The TGP guys blathering on about the Redplate and how perfect it is all honeymoon tribute. I remember when TwoRock first hit and it was the same hysteria. As soon as a few hit the used market the insanity will come back to earth.

Hope all is well Justin-

Teddy

Look up gearmanndude he does a demo of the Zen Drive.

I played two years ago a ZenDrive through a Bludotone (Dumble style amp) and thought it was just just ok at best.  However, If you don't have a D-style amp and are trying to achieve similar tone, I think is a fine pedal, as D-style pedals don't usually sound great in a D-style amp. RF doesn't use ZD pedal when playing a D-style amp, he uses a Providence SOV-2, as does Matt Schofield.  RF uses or has used a ZD when not playing/touring with his main dumble or d-style amps.

A pedal I use that is pricey (over $300 new) that not many people know of that's cool (minus really strong boost pedal provides naturally, so volume on pedal rarely set past 10am), is the Dumkudo (great for Strats) made in Japan and or Zenkudo (same pedal, but designed for Les Paul style guitars, so has less OD available).  Pedal has three different voicings you can select.  Something I found on Youtube:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yus9jTY-DAQ

I've never played the other pedal.

Yeah, she's definetly an eye catcher on pedalboard.  Has almost always stayed on my board with SOV-2.  Nice pedal, but I think I paid Mr. Tanabe about $335 USD delivered.  Funny, he puts your name on label on bottom of pedal after he builds it and tests it and packages in something similar to a Crown Royal velvet pouch, then puts that into a miniature plastic lunch box....too funny.

I don't recommend it for the faint of heart, no magical zen sprirt has found me since owning it and one could almost buy a Class 5- Marshall amp for same price.

EDIT: Here's how Tanabe categorizes the three different settings:
LED RED ------- Marshall mode
LED BLUE ----- DUMKUDO mode
LED GREEN --- Dumble mode