Yep, I'm going with this suggestion. For jam sessions I have a Fender Blues Jr. (15w tube amp) and the only pedals I run through it are a Blues Driver and a little bit of my MXR Carbon Copy delay pedal. Nothing else needed. Hell, I don't even really need the CC on that but I like the sound of a little delay going on.
MULLY

Reverb is a must for blues, slight tremolo is also nice, so is delay. I use all of them for blues. But I passed on a Blues Driver in favor of a Digitech Bad Monkey. Not to mention, the BM was about $20 used. Albert King used a MXR Phase 90, but it must of been subtle, because I could never pick it out. For a good start on using distortion or overdrive pedals, go to OLDTONEZONE.com. That guy has a compairison application for a couple dozen different pedals. Might want to go there. Boss Pedals are nice, but they are becoming more expensive.

Oh, here's a pedal on my must have list that I currently don't have...

BOSS RC-2, looping pedals. If you're the only guitarist in the band, or jam on your own, you can loop your rhythm guitar so you can play your leads over it. Great tool!

_________________
"Epitaph on a blues musician’s tombstone: “I didn’t wake up this morning”" Davy Knowles


facebook.com/313DBC

I just picked up a Digitech Jamman with the double pedal for 199 new before the new version came out .Great pedal.I use it to practice my lead stuff with.Another great OD pedal is the Digitech hardwire Tube Overdrive.True bypass for under 100 bucks.And it has a switch similar to the LP/HP switch of the OCD.

+1

Furthermore, and to add to your already substantial point, people talk about tone in terms of the bedroom: rarely are 100' snake cables, dodgy patches, or an ancient mixing desk mentioned. It never sounds quite as good coming out of the mains. As far as I'm concerned, at least in any live situation, the Dano Drive is perfect. I don't need the "FULLTONE" emblem blazing away, informing the public of my brand-name self-prostitution.

I guess it's just the "FENDER" on my headstock that does that. Oops.

Hi, all. Thanks for your suggestions. Let me clarify where I am coming from and what I am looking for.

First off, I am 56 years old and am picking up the guitar after about a 20 year layoff. Prior to that, I played (reasonably well) for about 15 years. It is just me playing in the studio of our house. No plans to be a rock star or even do small gigs. I'm doing it for me because it is fun, I miss it, and I have the time now. As much as I would love to have a Twin Reverb or one of the other Fender tube amps, the Frontman 25R is more than enough for me. I really like the clean channel sound and how the Blues Driver works with the clean channel sounds really good.

I'm not looking for something to use simultaneously with the Blues Driver (I'm not looking to drive another pedal with the Blues Driver or have another pedal drive the Blues Driver). I am looking for another pedal with a sound different enough from the Blues Driver to use at those times that I don't want the Blues Driver sound. I am not into real heavy distortion, though.

I really have no interest in other specialty pedals. They are just not my thing. The reverb on the 25R works quite well and I only use it set on "2". I had a wah and fuzz pedal 20 years ago. Never got the hang of the wah pedal and want something a little more subtle than a fuzz pedal.

I do really like the Boss pedals and would like to stay in that line. I listened to the sound clips of the FBM-1 and AC-3 and thought they sounded different enough from the Blues Driver to warrant consideration.

Hope that helps. I appreciate any and all suggestions. Thanks again.

_________________
Bill

I think I can feel where you want to go. I strongly suggest you try and audition the FBM's brother, the Boss FDR. As I said earlier, a lot different from the Blues Driver - more polished and processed sounding. The vibrato on it is really good too if you want to experiment with it.

Good luck with the search!

_________________
Fender Highway & Classic 60s Strats, Fender Toronado, Telecaster, Gretsch Projet, Charvel 3, PRS SE Soapbar II & Custom 24, Burns Batwing and many others!

Don't you mean more subtle than most fuzz pedals. A good fuzz is more like a signal altering effect than a drive pedal. Or rather it has the capability to be so.

So Bluesky you want a drive pedal to compliment a boss drive pedal??? Bit of a hard task mate, boss pedals are such generic sounding things. Their made to roughly cover a load of bases. The only thing they have really excelled in is their chorus and delay pedals. Other than using your own ears to source specific pedals to suit your purposes, I can't really offer any more information. Other than get a delay pedal, their bundles of fun and make you sound atleast either twice as good or twice as bad. Maybe add a graphic eq. Ultimate tone shaping without disturbing whats already in the signal chain, if you add it in the effects loop. If you put it into the front end of the amp, it can completely change your guitars sound.


As far as Danelectro pedals go, I love em. Their brilliant, reliable and dont cost a stupid amount cos their built by some clown who copies a long forgotten design. My graphic eq is now five years old and still going strong despite hard use.

_________________
No no and no

I'll heartily recommend a Dano to anyone, anytime. I've got a Surf & Turf Compressor (origins unknown) that appears to have been manufactured sometime between the wars. They make wonderful, and wonderfully underrated, gear. I love it when people say "you got that sound from what?"

Incidentally, the Boss TR-2 Tremolo is a great little box, if you happen to be feeling adventurous. It makes every blues song sound better.

Hi again bluesky636: thanks for the clarification, and I take it all on board.

Doesn't change my original suggestion though, or most of the others on this thread.

If you want an alternative drive-type voicing and you want to stay within the Boss line then it really is a case of looking at their overdrive ( OD- ) pedals, or the distortion ( DS- ) ones. Bear in mind that these don't have to have the gain turned up high for full on metal type sounds. With the gain quite low you get interesting mild drive flavors, in a similar ballpark to the Blues Driver but with perhaps more saturation and smoothness.

Frankly, within the Boss camp it's either that or it is a different catagory of pedal entirely - modulation or time based. And from what you say you seem to have ruled those out.

Or it's the Boss FDR, as Adey says.

From the requirements you've set out, that's pretty much what the options boil down to.

Any use?

Cheers - C

Thanks all for the suggestions. I will check out the OD,DS, and FDR pedals from Boss.

_________________
Bill

Try the Danelectro Fuzz. It's a very good sounding box, will give some extra distortion, and it's cheap and true bypass!

I may have found something that shows some promise. And it was right in front of me all the time.

I've been feeding the Blues Driver into the clean channel of the Frontman 25R. Tonight I tried feeding it into the drive channel. The 25R did not come with a foot pedal, so I had picked up a switch, phone jack, and plastic case from Radio Shack to make a foot switch. I set the drive channel up to be equal in volume level to the clean channel but just a little bit dirtier. I tried different combinations of clean channel, drive channel, and Blues Driver and got some really cool tones. So right now, I have a nice clean sound with everything taken out of the circuit, a nice, gritty bluesy sound with the BD-2 feeding the clean channel. A slightly grittier drive channel (BD-2 switched out) and a very gritty sound with the BD-2 feeding the drive channel. To top it off, with a little plastic trimming, my homemade foot switch fits in the empty slot of the Boss panel. I'll be experimenting with this configuration over the next few days. Now I am looking for a cheap, maybe broken, Boss pedal on e-bay that I could gut and convert to foot switch duties. Paint it a different color, change the connectors around, and voila! Matching pedals. Stay tuned

_________________
Bill

My friend it seems to me you are week in two area's and i mean no offense when say this just a suggestion from a fellow blues man...

The first as others have said you have a decent guitar but you need to concentrate more in improving your amp..More so than worrying about pedals..The amp next to the guitar is the major source of your tone..After you master the ability to play...The pedals come last..Pedals should not be used as the basis of your tone..More so to color your tone or give yourself a variety of tones..

Secondly by the gear you are using i'm going to guess you are relatively new to the guitar..So lets talk a bit about your choice of pedals...First a chorus pedal is a major tool in a blues man's box of tricks..One example is Cold Shot by Stevie Ray Vaughan..That shimmery sound he gets is a chorus pedal used pretty heavy..Next you need to consider a Compressor for clipping and sustain think of Mark Knopfler and just about all he does...Next is the Delay a delay does not have to be used as a U2 sound or a long drawn out repeat Eric Johnson,Johnny Lang,Jeff Healey,Gary Moore,Clapton and almost all classic rock players use a delay to thicken there sound..Then you have the wah pedal which just about every modern Blues man uses..Then you get into phaser's,vibes and other modulation pedals that are used from Hendrixs to Trower and many others..

What i'm trying to get at is really for blues and classic rock you need to look at the whole spectrum..When it comes to pedals Overdrive /distortion is a very small part of what can be used to create your signature..Do not dismiss them outright study them all then decide what you need..To just say what other dirt pedal can i use and dismissing all others is like only learning barre chords and nothing more..You severely limit yourself on what you can achieve...

Not to steel a thread but i noticed you have the Boss PW 10 A WAH..What is your opinion of it ..Specifically what are the uni vibe Rotary sounds like in comparison to the real thing?

Ah, that's what is was. You can hear it on "In Session" with SRV. I don't know if I would have caught it if it weren't for the fact that you can compare Albert King's tone to Stevie's. You can definitely hear some kind of effect on Albert King, now I know what.


Yeah, I just got one about a month ago. Tremolo is really the only modulation effect that I use on a regular basis. You hear it a lot in blues. Recently I saw Jimmie Vaughan and the only pedal he was using was a TR-2. When you have two Fender Bassmans you don't really need anything else.



I always thought that was a rotary speaker effect, I don't really remember hearing of SRV using a chorus pedal. I'm pretty sure what he was using was a vintage Fender something or another. It's speaker didn't rotate but the cone around it did, producing a similar sound. I really wish I could remember what it was called. However, that said you can use a chorus pedal to get that sound. The chorus on my amp works very well for Cold Shot, Couldn't Stand the Weather etc. And I didn't have to pay $2000 for it.

I had a Boss super overdrive back when I first started playing guitar. I didn't really know what it was for and I bought it under the assumption that it was the same thing as a distortion pedal. And it was cheap. At the time I was very into metal and very disappointed in the pedal, so I sold it nearly immediately. It did add some nice warmth to my tone and I wish I still had it. I don't remember it well enough to give a better description.

But I generally agree with everything that's been said so far about amps. Your amp is hugely important to your tone, and a good tube amp will sound 100 times better than a pedal made to emulate it. I know you said you weren't gigging or anything, but even if you're only playing for your own enjoyment an amp upgrade would be a good thing. My first "real" amp was a Peavey Classic 30. It responded very well to pedals and for $350 (used) it can't be beat. Now I use my Fender Deluxe VM for everything. And both of those amps have good sounding drive channels, which is another tone you can use in addition to your pedals.

_________________
Website: http://www.rebeccalaird.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/rebeccalairdmusic
Twitter: https://twitter.com/beckslaird
Instagram: http://instagram.com/beckslaird