MXR Distortion Plus = fuzzy lows

[Dave_11]

Actually, it's a Whirlwind Gold Box Distortion, which is a copy of the 70s Distortion Plus, as I understand it. Anyway, I like the mids and highs, but I'm having a hard time dialing out the fuzziness of the lows. The lows get less pronounced as the Dist knob is turned up, but by the time I get them down, everything else is just too distorted for the sound I'm after. The most helpful is turning down the Bass and Mid on the amp, but the fuzziness is still there to a degree. Is there any secret to dialing out the fuzzy lows, or is it just the nature of the pedal?

 

[TXOldRedRocker]

For me, it's this. 3 band EQ. My Distortion+ is for sale.

 

[V-man]

How high are you pushing distortion?

 

[Dave_11]

How high are you pushing distortion?

Typically I'm staying under 12:00. There seems to be a lot of interaction between the two knobs though, so I'm kind of all over the place with both. The volume is mostly between 12:00 and max though.

 

[Dave_11]

Also I'm playing humbuckers (SD Seth Lovers in a LP, and a Squier Classic Vibe 70s Strat)

 

[Marshall Stack]

You can put an SD-1 ot tubescreamer after the pedal to shelve the lows.

 

[Dave_11]

You can put an SD-1 ot tubescreamer after the pedal to shelve the lows.

Thanks - I have both of those.

 

[TheKman76]

Maybe I'm reading this wrong, but it sounds like you need to cut the lows before the distortion, then boost them again after?

 

[Dave_11]

Maybe I'm reading this wrong, but it sounds like you need to cut the lows before the distortion, then boost them again after?

Thanks. I haven't tried anything before the pedal. I've mainly tried amp tone settings and also an EQ pedal after the Gold Box.

What I was really hoping for in my post was some knob setting on the Gold Box pedal I hadn't thought of that would cure the fuzzy lows. For example, I've had a Blues Driver for many years but never liked the sound so it just sat on the shelf. Then the other day I was watching a youtube video of someone driving a Marshall with one and noticed that the tone knob was turned way down. I had never tried that, so I got out the BD, hooked it up to my Ori 20, and boom! -- great tone. I thought maybe there was something obvious like this I was missing with the Gold Box.

 

[Casey_Butt]

It's the nature of the beast. There's a big coupling cap up front that lets a lot of bass into the clipping circuit. That makes the pedal fuzzy and loose in the lows. If you put a smaller cap there (like they did in the YJM308 pedal from years ago) it tightens up but then the bottom gets too thin.

 

[Dave_11]

It's the nature of the beast. There's a big coupling cap up front that lets a lot of bass into the clipping circuit. That makes the pedal fuzzy and loose in the lows. If you put a smaller cap there (like they did in the YJM308 pedal from years ago) it tightens up but then the bottom gets too thin.

Thanks a lot. I have a kit version of this pedal coming in the mail, so maybe I'll try a smaller cap and see how it sounds.

 

[Casey_Butt]

The kit probably has a 10nF coupling cap on the input (that would be typical). It doesn't seem "big", but in that circuit it lets enough bass through to make the pedal fuzzy in the bottom. I assume that in the mid '70s when the pedal came out tight bass wasn't a thing like it is today. A 1nF cap in that same spot would really tighten it up but you'd probably think the pedal was too thin. So the value you're looking for is probably somewhere between 1nF and 10nF.

 

[Dave_11]

The kit probably has a 10nF coupling cap on the input (that would be typical). It doesn't seem "big", but in that circuit it lets enough bass through to make the pedal fuzzy in the bottom. I assume that in the mid '70s when the pedal came out tight bass wasn't a thing like it is today. A 1nF cap in that same spot would really tighten it up but you'd probably think the pedal was too thin. So the value you're looking for is probably somewhere between 1nF and 10nF.

Thanks again -- C1 is 10nF.

https://www.musikding.de/docs/musikding/plus/PlusV2schalt.pdf

I'll try to scrounge something smaller to try.

 

[TheKman76]

As an experiment, stick your EQ pedal up front to cut lows, then boost them in the amp EQ.
If this does what you want, there are any number of ways to fix this in the kit. Looking at the schematic this has very little tone shaping going on, so I strongly suspect the pre-pedal EQ is where you might need to focus.

 

[Dave_11]

As an experiment, stick your EQ pedal up front to cut lows, then boost them in the amp EQ.
If this does what you want, there are any number of ways to fix this in the kit. Looking at the schematic this has very little tone shaping going on, so I strongly suspect the pre-pedal EQ is where you might need to focus.

Thanks -- I tried that and it did tighten up the lows quite a bit. I had been running my EQ pedal after all of my overdrive pedals, so maybe I'll move it before them.

 

[jeffb]

First thing I would ask is, what kind of amp?, and are running the pedal to boost an already gainy amp, or using it as a "distortion channel" ? Into a clean sound.

If it's the latter, it will always sound terrible. It was designed to boost an already breaking up cranked amp (works best with NMV types)

 

[Dave_11]

First thing I would ask is, what kind of amp?, and are running the pedal to boost an already gainy amp, or using it as a "distortion channel" ? Into a clean sound.

If it's the latter, it will always sound terrible. It was designed to boost an already breaking up cranked amp (works best with NMV types)

I'm using it in the first instance - to push an amp that is already a bit overdriven. I've used it in both my Ori20 and Ori5. Last night I was running it as Kman76 suggested above in my Ori5 w/10" speaker, using the EQ to filter out the lows first, and it finally sounded really, really good.

 

[jeffb]

I know people say the Origin is a great pedal platform, but I find my ori20 super finicky about how hard the input is hit. It seems to like TS and mild OD/clean boost effects best without too much level. Going Heavy on any pedal's level and certainly most heavier Distortion types seem to turn everything to a farty mushy mess.

 

[V-man]

I know people say the Origin is a great pedal platform, but I find my ori20 super finicky about how hard the input is hit. It seems to like TS and mild OD/clean boost effects best without too much level. Going Heavy on any pedal's level and certainly most heavier Distortion types seem to turn everything to a farty mushy mess.

I am inclined to believe this is a/the leading component. There is a fuzzy quality to the pedal’s character. I can only imagine this exagger the character for the worse. Also, RR ran his through 100w speakers (w graphic EQ), which took speaker distortion out of the equation.

 

[jeffb]

I am inclined to believe this is a/the leading component. There is a fuzzy quality to the pedal’s character. I can only imagine this exagger the character for the worse. Also, RR ran his through 100w speakers (w graphic EQ), which took speaker distortion out of the equation.

It's the germanium diodes. It Def will fuzz out.

My fave example is on youtube. 1983 Iron Maiden, live in Dortmund. The Trooper. Check out when Adrian Smith hits the D+ for his solo. Instant buzzofuzzorama. Sounds great to me, but in a wild wooly nasty way. Lesser guitarists would suffer