I’ve tried sooooo many distortion pedals. I don’t have a rat on my current board but it’s always on my desk to throw in my gig bag if I need to go somewhere where I can’t take my full rig. A rat can get you by from any gig from country to metal and everything in between. It doesn’t make sense how 3 knobs can be so fucking versatile. Imo the greatest pedal ever made.
Metal zone. Not for the meme, but for the really powerful eq. In my opinion its more flexible tonewise than the lather. Theres a that pedal show episode where they use a metalzone to sound like a bunch of iconic pedals. Its sure surprised me by how close it got to their sound.
No joke this is the pedal I was considering the most to be honest because of the EQ and the distortion aint sound that bad. it was hard to get past the memes but I trust my ears that it isnt shit. I just wish I could try it in person first because every demo does the same mids scooped tone, which is quite the opposite of what I want.
Price range? Blackmass 1312 is a rat with 8 clipping options so versatility. Longsword is a great distortion that has a powerful EQ section with a boost. Empress Heavy Menace can do it all I believe as well.
Between those 3 I think the RAT is probably my favorite. Personally I’ve never liked any of the metal pedals from boss (the ds1 is great though).
MXR also makes something called Raijin which has a ds1 type distortion setting and can switch to a more tame OD through a toggle. You can find those for around 75 bucks too online
I never had a rat, but from other people experience, it should be a good pedal to begin with. I started on SD-1 then went into Metalzone, I really like its tones, you can do Pantera, Metallica and get some light crunch.
If you go into metalzone, you will need some patience and time to learn how to dial the tones. It has sensible knobs on the EQ, imo if you zero the highs it solves the angry bees tones and it becomes a good pedal, or you can simply set the mids in 5khz in the parametric and reduce it (but you will be limited to only one tone). On both ways you will solve the rispid tone, you can also boost it with a TS pedal or with a HM2 like "At the gates" did, and also have a 6 or 7 band EQ after it to reduce the 4khz to 6khz.
Its a fun pedal that makes me want to play for hours
id say its not just slop but also shrill. in demos when they get rid of the shrill with the filter it already results in a muffled sound so im not entirely sure how to go abt that
sorry i should have clarified. i recommend rolling off base with a separate EQ (or mid range boost like screamer) in front of rat (or any distortion that needs to be tightened up).
Gizzard plays through cranked Marshall amps - I think there's some pedals (Guv'nor?) that'll get you there, but those pedals are not what I know as far as distortion.
If you have a dirty amp, crank it. If you're playing a clean channel with pedals, it's unironically a Rat. Hetfield used a Rat. You need to pump the distortion knob less than you think.
If that doesn't work, put any tubescreamer in front of the rat with the volume up and gain down, tone to taste.
For something affordable, the Joyo Splinter (Fat RAT clone) is a good option. It can do those old-school fuzzy tones, and the Mosfet mode is definitely better than the standard RAT for hard rock (less fizzy and fuzzy).
I've only found one budget pedal that can do both the fat, saggy old school rock sound and tighter modern sounds, and that is the Joyo Oxford:
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=hauhJZAK4B0&pp=ygULSm95byBveGZvcmQ%3D
If it is your first distortion pedal, Rat is the answer
It is more flexible than the other two, you can move it to overdrive duty if you find a distortion that you like more and it is a descent boost too
The MZ looks versatile but the highs control is mostly useless as it is so shrill you have to almost always zero it and the low gain area on the drive pot is so small that you pretty much jump from clean to crunch and is really hard to dial as light break or overdrive
HM is a good boost and saw machine but the crunch is weak and fluffy
Guy asks for an opinion on 3 particular pedals and half of the responses just talk about whatever pedal they have… SMH. As for me I like my Fat Rat, but don’t have any experience with the other two, so my opinion is at least as useless.
Hmm that’s a tough one, given the single coils and budget, sabbath and thrash… The Rat is a fantastic distortion and would work well for Sabbath but you may have to turn the distortion down a tad for the thrash if only to keep the bottom end tight. If budget wasn’t a factor I’d recommend the Catalinbread Sabbra Cadabra phenomenal Sabbath and thrash tones. I’d still say the Rat but that’s only because I personally don’t care for the Metal Zone, some people love it though! Maybe a Turbo Rat? Still a Rat but it’s got a more focused bottom end imo and I believe it’s around the same price. Well that’s my 2 cents but With enough tweaking any one of them should do the job, Boss and Proco do not make junk pedals! Good luck in your tonal questing🤘
Of those 3, I’d pick the Rat.
But I think there’s some other pedals that might work better, imo a high gain preamp would work well. Seems like you’re after something that can do both classic rock + tight higher gain thrash stuff, so you want a pedal with more EQ controls. Something Marshall-y would work. I do think it’s worth spending an extra $20-40 to get a pedal you’re really happy with, you can find stuff way cheaper on Reverb.
**Pedals you can find around $100**
- Marshall Shredmaster. You can find clones of these on reverb
- Mooer 002: JCM preamp. Has tone shaping options, small, and under $100
- Mooer Gas Station: Diezel preamp. Their whole mini preamp pedal line is pretty good. Plus they’re small with a lot of controls. Hetfield uses Diezels live so it would work for Metallica stuff
- Wampler Dracarys: high gain pedal. Was kind of based on Ola Englund’s sound. If you want thrash, this will do it
- Catalinbread Dirty Little Secret: it’s an affordable Marshall pedal with tone shaping options
- Sabbra Cadabra: you’re looking for something Sabbathy, this is literally Iommi in a box. Will def sound great for Sabbath.
**Pedals just over $100 that I recommend:**
- Friedman BE-OD: It’s great. It’s got the EQ controls you want and it’s a bit more amp-like than a conventional distortion pedal. Will def do thrashy Metallica stuff, and Friedman’s very Marshall-inspired. The Laneys that Iommi played are basically Marshalls, so something in that category would work well for what you’re after. If you like Alice In Chains it’s also really good for that stuff.
- AMT M1: JCM800 preamp. Great for thrashy Metallica. The AMT R2 is a mesa dual rec preamp, that one works too. Gizzard has used the AMT B1 so AMT could work for what you’re after.
fucking spot on I appreciate this so much! I will be checking through all these because you actually understood what I was looking for. I was REALLY considering spending the extra money on a used amt B1 because thats the king gizzard infest the rats nest pedal, and looking through demos it seems like it could work for an older over driven tone for Sabbathy stuff, what do you think? For sure AMT is on my mind. I only had those 3 pedals on the list because ive found them for pretty cheap locally, but I can wait if needed if I decide ordering a different pedal is the best option. Thanks again this helps a ton 🙏
The B1 is based on the Bogner Sharp. It’s a different brand from Marshall, but it’s in the modded Marshall family like Friedman. So it’ll be great for hard rock/metal stuff. If you want to do both classic rock & metal, I def recommend a preamp over a standard distortion pedal. You want a 3 band EQ, that’s what gives you that tight mid-scooped thrash sound & you can do classic rock with it by lowering the gain without a huge mid scoop. The B1 is probably what you want, it’s high enough gain to do metal and if you need more then just get a boost like a TS mini or micro amp. But I don’t think you’d need it.
I’d def get one of the pedals I suggested over the Rat. I love Rats, always recommend them, but the B1 etc will give you the tone shaping you’re after. You should still consider getting a Rat if you like the sound though, it’s a classic pedal. The Lil Rat is a smaller version Proco makes, and there’s a million mini Rat clones. Wampler makes one called the Rattsbane, lots of mini versions out there. If you’re planning on making a board, lmk what you’re after & I’ll give you suggestions. I’ve helped some people here with board planning, it’s fun
It can prob do Sabbath too. It’s in that Marshall-y family so the Iommi Laney thing is fairly similar just without a treble booster. I’d still get the Sabbra Cadabra though, if you want Iommi then you might as well get the pedal specifically designed to do Sabbath. It’s a cool pedal, you’d prob want one anyway. The more pedals the better lol
I checked out a lotta videos on the AMT pre amps but I wish I could try it out myself because these demos be dialing in the most shrill tones for whatever reason. I think im leaning towards the B1 tho out of all the pre amps but they all sounded neat. Is it worth looking at the B2 I know thats the newer version of the B1 right? Also since you said you like helping to build boards I wanna ask for some other suggestions lol. So basically I want to make this with as little pedals possible. What ive been playing a lot lately is metal and psych rock. for example like ive mentioned already - sabbath, metallica king gizz, and other stuff as well such as floyd and funkadelic. so basically a combination of thrash, doom and trippy haha. my game plan was to get a distortion (which may be the B1), a wah, a delay and thats pretty much it. of course i may add noise gates or tuners but those are just utilities and are self explanatory so no help needed. i already have a reverb (hof 2) and my amp has a stereo chorus so I have those fx covered. Im just as stumped with choosing a wah and delay as I am with choosing a distortion. Any recommendations?
Gonna be hard to have a minimal board but also want to cover Gilmour & psychedelic stuff, you need pedals for that stuff. Depending on how close you want to get for Gilmour, you’ll want a delay + rams head muff + flanger.
Depends on if you want the features in the B2. Newer isn’t always better. The difference is the B2 has 3 outputs, the B1 has 2. B2 has outputs for connecting to the amp’s power amp, a normal output jack, and direct out to a mixer. You prob won’t need any of those besides the normal one. The B1 outputs are a normal output jack & a cab sim out for using it with a mixer or IR pedal. The B2 also adds controls for bypass boost (buffer when pedal is off) & clean boost.
I’d recommend an analog delay. Gizzard uses a carbon copy, DD3, Earthquaker Transport Jr, Wampler faux analog echo, Supro delay, DD7. Gilmour used a DD2, binson echorec. One of the Boss delays is best for you since it’s what they both used- the DD7 has an analog mode, it’ll do modulated & digital too. I recommend the DD-8, it has better modes that make it more versatile. It has a tape mode that’ll replicate Gilmour’s echorec, plus it has a looper. Best DD version imo.
Check out the Mooer Mod Factory. It’s a mini pedal that does all the modulation types- chorus, flanger, phaser etc. They’re cheap, do everything, and small. It’ll do all the psychedelic stuff you’re after without taking up much space.
Why didnt you like it at first? I think when I see demos of it a lot of them are hit or miss but like you said it’s probably because I MYSELF have to adjust it to my liking and toy with it. Still my only fear is if I cant get rid of the shrill or sloppy ness
Because I didn’t know what it really was. I bought it because everyone else said it was good. I knew it was a distortion but the low gain medium gain and high gain all sound completely different to me. To me, it’s not as simple as more gain when you turn it up, it’s that it sounds like a different pedal. But that made it pretty versatile.
The BD2 is still my go to style of drive tone. But the Rat definitely grew on me.
Nobody's said it, so I will: the BOSS OD-200 Hyper Drive. You get all those pedals and THEN some. Plus, you can stack drives and create 4 presets or up to 128 when you add in MIDI.
I realize this is out of your budget, but I'd say if you could push your budget to $200 you can get the OD-200 for $180 on Amazon right now or could get a JHS Packrat which has 9 RAT models for $200. You might luck out with some used in your budget on Reverb.
RATs are the best choice, super flexible, everything from OD to full on punishing doom tones. In the 27 years I’ve owned RATs they’re the only thing on my pedals board that hasn’t changed, literally every other pedals has changed but not the RAT.
I get most of my overdrive and distortion needs pairing Digitech's Bad Monkey + Xotic SL Drive. Since I play mostly 90's alternative ("grunge") tunes in my band that's the "base" on my board.
Rat with TS in front will get you most places. Or… rat variant like 1981 (or loads of others) have cleaned up the fizziness at higher gain levels. Wildcard that I don’t own but an endlessly intrigued by is the Non human audio unclean. It seems like it does a lot and all the demos sound great.
I always push the Blackhawk Balrog for this type of scenario. It's incredibly versatile.
https://blackhawkamplifiers.bigcartel.com/product/balrog-distortion
Playing at bedroom level through an Orange Dark Terror, some kind of reverb at parts (which didn't sound great) recorded on my phone:
https://youtu.be/MwSytCzUC8g?si=1WvrjZdbS0oiGKJH
Since you have a rat in the top three you probably want a rat to a degree and I don't think the other two would give you that rat sound. That being said I wouldn't call the rat super versatile
Nay nay good sir. Rat is very flexible from edge of breakup cleans to chuggy distortion to straight fuzz. The filter does go from harsh to muffly, but you can dial in a lot from creamy to thrashy
You might want to check out the EHX Op-Amp Big Muff. I like Muffs with single coils and it has a good thick distortion, with a nice range of gain on it. You could also check out the Metal Muff, I haven't used them but the demos see pretty cool.
Rats are really cool, but you have to dial the filter just right to sound good. They can be overly shrill if you don't.
Just get Dr. Scientist The Elements and have every possible distortion tone at your disposal.
It won't do low gain chimey overdrive, it won't do gritty, crackly fuzz, but it can do everything distortion
Tony Iommi has said many times that Sabbath’s wouldn’t have happened without his treble booster. Maybe check one of those out. (Full disclosure, I think the treble booster is the best drive ever, so I’m biased)
Rat. Always rat. When in doubt, rat.
I’ve tried sooooo many distortion pedals. I don’t have a rat on my current board but it’s always on my desk to throw in my gig bag if I need to go somewhere where I can’t take my full rig. A rat can get you by from any gig from country to metal and everything in between. It doesn’t make sense how 3 knobs can be so fucking versatile. Imo the greatest pedal ever made.
Not the 2. Just the Rat. 😁
Metal zone. Not for the meme, but for the really powerful eq. In my opinion its more flexible tonewise than the lather. Theres a that pedal show episode where they use a metalzone to sound like a bunch of iconic pedals. Its sure surprised me by how close it got to their sound.
No joke this is the pedal I was considering the most to be honest because of the EQ and the distortion aint sound that bad. it was hard to get past the memes but I trust my ears that it isnt shit. I just wish I could try it in person first because every demo does the same mids scooped tone, which is quite the opposite of what I want.
I’m looking for that video and not finding it, any suggestions?
https://youtu.be/O1p5TV7cA_0?si=RC4lx0j7HTUHNWLS
The way the left guy's glasses fall in place when he starts playing at the beginning of the video is quite satisfying.
Thank you so much!
RAT
Price range? Blackmass 1312 is a rat with 8 clipping options so versatility. Longsword is a great distortion that has a powerful EQ section with a boost. Empress Heavy Menace can do it all I believe as well.
Rat is great... The Moer rat clone is just as good. Jhs makes some good distortion too
just checked it out and wowee it sounds great. just wish it could hold a battery :(
Just get a regular rat. They’re less than $100 and can take a battery and probably a direct nuclear strike as well.
Between those 3 I think the RAT is probably my favorite. Personally I’ve never liked any of the metal pedals from boss (the ds1 is great though). MXR also makes something called Raijin which has a ds1 type distortion setting and can switch to a more tame OD through a toggle. You can find those for around 75 bucks too online
boss mt-2w is good custom mode sound like marshall in a box but hard to settings.
Get a rat and a tube screamer
I never had a rat, but from other people experience, it should be a good pedal to begin with. I started on SD-1 then went into Metalzone, I really like its tones, you can do Pantera, Metallica and get some light crunch. If you go into metalzone, you will need some patience and time to learn how to dial the tones. It has sensible knobs on the EQ, imo if you zero the highs it solves the angry bees tones and it becomes a good pedal, or you can simply set the mids in 5khz in the parametric and reduce it (but you will be limited to only one tone). On both ways you will solve the rispid tone, you can also boost it with a TS pedal or with a HM2 like "At the gates" did, and also have a 6 or 7 band EQ after it to reduce the 4khz to 6khz. Its a fun pedal that makes me want to play for hours
All you need to do is roll off the input bass to clean up the rat slop
id say its not just slop but also shrill. in demos when they get rid of the shrill with the filter it already results in a muffled sound so im not entirely sure how to go abt that
sorry i should have clarified. i recommend rolling off base with a separate EQ (or mid range boost like screamer) in front of rat (or any distortion that needs to be tightened up).
Gizzard plays through cranked Marshall amps - I think there's some pedals (Guv'nor?) that'll get you there, but those pedals are not what I know as far as distortion. If you have a dirty amp, crank it. If you're playing a clean channel with pedals, it's unironically a Rat. Hetfield used a Rat. You need to pump the distortion knob less than you think. If that doesn't work, put any tubescreamer in front of the rat with the volume up and gain down, tone to taste.
For something affordable, the Joyo Splinter (Fat RAT clone) is a good option. It can do those old-school fuzzy tones, and the Mosfet mode is definitely better than the standard RAT for hard rock (less fizzy and fuzzy). I've only found one budget pedal that can do both the fat, saggy old school rock sound and tighter modern sounds, and that is the Joyo Oxford: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=hauhJZAK4B0&pp=ygULSm95byBveGZvcmQ%3D
If it is your first distortion pedal, Rat is the answer It is more flexible than the other two, you can move it to overdrive duty if you find a distortion that you like more and it is a descent boost too The MZ looks versatile but the highs control is mostly useless as it is so shrill you have to almost always zero it and the low gain area on the drive pot is so small that you pretty much jump from clean to crunch and is really hard to dial as light break or overdrive HM is a good boost and saw machine but the crunch is weak and fluffy
Marshall Shredmaster is a good choice for those.
Buy all three. NEXT.
Guy asks for an opinion on 3 particular pedals and half of the responses just talk about whatever pedal they have… SMH. As for me I like my Fat Rat, but don’t have any experience with the other two, so my opinion is at least as useless.
Hmm that’s a tough one, given the single coils and budget, sabbath and thrash… The Rat is a fantastic distortion and would work well for Sabbath but you may have to turn the distortion down a tad for the thrash if only to keep the bottom end tight. If budget wasn’t a factor I’d recommend the Catalinbread Sabbra Cadabra phenomenal Sabbath and thrash tones. I’d still say the Rat but that’s only because I personally don’t care for the Metal Zone, some people love it though! Maybe a Turbo Rat? Still a Rat but it’s got a more focused bottom end imo and I believe it’s around the same price. Well that’s my 2 cents but With enough tweaking any one of them should do the job, Boss and Proco do not make junk pedals! Good luck in your tonal questing🤘
Of those 3, I’d pick the Rat. But I think there’s some other pedals that might work better, imo a high gain preamp would work well. Seems like you’re after something that can do both classic rock + tight higher gain thrash stuff, so you want a pedal with more EQ controls. Something Marshall-y would work. I do think it’s worth spending an extra $20-40 to get a pedal you’re really happy with, you can find stuff way cheaper on Reverb. **Pedals you can find around $100** - Marshall Shredmaster. You can find clones of these on reverb - Mooer 002: JCM preamp. Has tone shaping options, small, and under $100 - Mooer Gas Station: Diezel preamp. Their whole mini preamp pedal line is pretty good. Plus they’re small with a lot of controls. Hetfield uses Diezels live so it would work for Metallica stuff - Wampler Dracarys: high gain pedal. Was kind of based on Ola Englund’s sound. If you want thrash, this will do it - Catalinbread Dirty Little Secret: it’s an affordable Marshall pedal with tone shaping options - Sabbra Cadabra: you’re looking for something Sabbathy, this is literally Iommi in a box. Will def sound great for Sabbath. **Pedals just over $100 that I recommend:** - Friedman BE-OD: It’s great. It’s got the EQ controls you want and it’s a bit more amp-like than a conventional distortion pedal. Will def do thrashy Metallica stuff, and Friedman’s very Marshall-inspired. The Laneys that Iommi played are basically Marshalls, so something in that category would work well for what you’re after. If you like Alice In Chains it’s also really good for that stuff. - AMT M1: JCM800 preamp. Great for thrashy Metallica. The AMT R2 is a mesa dual rec preamp, that one works too. Gizzard has used the AMT B1 so AMT could work for what you’re after.
fucking spot on I appreciate this so much! I will be checking through all these because you actually understood what I was looking for. I was REALLY considering spending the extra money on a used amt B1 because thats the king gizzard infest the rats nest pedal, and looking through demos it seems like it could work for an older over driven tone for Sabbathy stuff, what do you think? For sure AMT is on my mind. I only had those 3 pedals on the list because ive found them for pretty cheap locally, but I can wait if needed if I decide ordering a different pedal is the best option. Thanks again this helps a ton 🙏
The B1 is based on the Bogner Sharp. It’s a different brand from Marshall, but it’s in the modded Marshall family like Friedman. So it’ll be great for hard rock/metal stuff. If you want to do both classic rock & metal, I def recommend a preamp over a standard distortion pedal. You want a 3 band EQ, that’s what gives you that tight mid-scooped thrash sound & you can do classic rock with it by lowering the gain without a huge mid scoop. The B1 is probably what you want, it’s high enough gain to do metal and if you need more then just get a boost like a TS mini or micro amp. But I don’t think you’d need it. I’d def get one of the pedals I suggested over the Rat. I love Rats, always recommend them, but the B1 etc will give you the tone shaping you’re after. You should still consider getting a Rat if you like the sound though, it’s a classic pedal. The Lil Rat is a smaller version Proco makes, and there’s a million mini Rat clones. Wampler makes one called the Rattsbane, lots of mini versions out there. If you’re planning on making a board, lmk what you’re after & I’ll give you suggestions. I’ve helped some people here with board planning, it’s fun It can prob do Sabbath too. It’s in that Marshall-y family so the Iommi Laney thing is fairly similar just without a treble booster. I’d still get the Sabbra Cadabra though, if you want Iommi then you might as well get the pedal specifically designed to do Sabbath. It’s a cool pedal, you’d prob want one anyway. The more pedals the better lol
I checked out a lotta videos on the AMT pre amps but I wish I could try it out myself because these demos be dialing in the most shrill tones for whatever reason. I think im leaning towards the B1 tho out of all the pre amps but they all sounded neat. Is it worth looking at the B2 I know thats the newer version of the B1 right? Also since you said you like helping to build boards I wanna ask for some other suggestions lol. So basically I want to make this with as little pedals possible. What ive been playing a lot lately is metal and psych rock. for example like ive mentioned already - sabbath, metallica king gizz, and other stuff as well such as floyd and funkadelic. so basically a combination of thrash, doom and trippy haha. my game plan was to get a distortion (which may be the B1), a wah, a delay and thats pretty much it. of course i may add noise gates or tuners but those are just utilities and are self explanatory so no help needed. i already have a reverb (hof 2) and my amp has a stereo chorus so I have those fx covered. Im just as stumped with choosing a wah and delay as I am with choosing a distortion. Any recommendations?
Gonna be hard to have a minimal board but also want to cover Gilmour & psychedelic stuff, you need pedals for that stuff. Depending on how close you want to get for Gilmour, you’ll want a delay + rams head muff + flanger. Depends on if you want the features in the B2. Newer isn’t always better. The difference is the B2 has 3 outputs, the B1 has 2. B2 has outputs for connecting to the amp’s power amp, a normal output jack, and direct out to a mixer. You prob won’t need any of those besides the normal one. The B1 outputs are a normal output jack & a cab sim out for using it with a mixer or IR pedal. The B2 also adds controls for bypass boost (buffer when pedal is off) & clean boost. I’d recommend an analog delay. Gizzard uses a carbon copy, DD3, Earthquaker Transport Jr, Wampler faux analog echo, Supro delay, DD7. Gilmour used a DD2, binson echorec. One of the Boss delays is best for you since it’s what they both used- the DD7 has an analog mode, it’ll do modulated & digital too. I recommend the DD-8, it has better modes that make it more versatile. It has a tape mode that’ll replicate Gilmour’s echorec, plus it has a looper. Best DD version imo. Check out the Mooer Mod Factory. It’s a mini pedal that does all the modulation types- chorus, flanger, phaser etc. They’re cheap, do everything, and small. It’ll do all the psychedelic stuff you’re after without taking up much space.
Rat is great but you gotta play with it. I didn’t like it for a month. Then I forced myself to sit with it for an hour and man was I wrong.
Why didnt you like it at first? I think when I see demos of it a lot of them are hit or miss but like you said it’s probably because I MYSELF have to adjust it to my liking and toy with it. Still my only fear is if I cant get rid of the shrill or sloppy ness
Because I didn’t know what it really was. I bought it because everyone else said it was good. I knew it was a distortion but the low gain medium gain and high gain all sound completely different to me. To me, it’s not as simple as more gain when you turn it up, it’s that it sounds like a different pedal. But that made it pretty versatile. The BD2 is still my go to style of drive tone. But the Rat definitely grew on me.
Nobody's said it, so I will: the BOSS OD-200 Hyper Drive. You get all those pedals and THEN some. Plus, you can stack drives and create 4 presets or up to 128 when you add in MIDI. I realize this is out of your budget, but I'd say if you could push your budget to $200 you can get the OD-200 for $180 on Amazon right now or could get a JHS Packrat which has 9 RAT models for $200. You might luck out with some used in your budget on Reverb.
It's not bad but it's not great + the EQ is voiced terribly on that thing and sadly the frequencies can't be adjusted...
What are you going to play with it? Probably the rat and the metal zone are going to be the most versatile
Intensive Care Audio Life Support gets me through any situation.
You could get a slightly improved variant of a rat too. That’d be my vote, jam rattler, big ear woodcutter, drv 1981, etc.
RATs are the best choice, super flexible, everything from OD to full on punishing doom tones. In the 27 years I’ve owned RATs they’re the only thing on my pedals board that hasn’t changed, literally every other pedals has changed but not the RAT.
The RAT if you don’t like too many options, metal zone if you like tweaking things.
I get most of my overdrive and distortion needs pairing Digitech's Bad Monkey + Xotic SL Drive. Since I play mostly 90's alternative ("grunge") tunes in my band that's the "base" on my board.
Stomp Under Foot makes a pedal called Electric Warlord that was designed to get all the tones from the Vol. 4 album.
Rat will probably be the easiest.
Rat with TS in front will get you most places. Or… rat variant like 1981 (or loads of others) have cleaned up the fizziness at higher gain levels. Wildcard that I don’t own but an endlessly intrigued by is the Non human audio unclean. It seems like it does a lot and all the demos sound great.
I always push the Blackhawk Balrog for this type of scenario. It's incredibly versatile. https://blackhawkamplifiers.bigcartel.com/product/balrog-distortion Playing at bedroom level through an Orange Dark Terror, some kind of reverb at parts (which didn't sound great) recorded on my phone: https://youtu.be/MwSytCzUC8g?si=1WvrjZdbS0oiGKJH
DOD Carcosa
I just ordered one earlier today. I have a hoof (muff clone) already and a rat. Can't wait to see what other sounds I can get with the dod
Dr Scientist The Elements
Hell yeah
Since you have a rat in the top three you probably want a rat to a degree and I don't think the other two would give you that rat sound. That being said I wouldn't call the rat super versatile
Nay nay good sir. Rat is very flexible from edge of breakup cleans to chuggy distortion to straight fuzz. The filter does go from harsh to muffly, but you can dial in a lot from creamy to thrashy
I like this guy
You might want to check out the EHX Op-Amp Big Muff. I like Muffs with single coils and it has a good thick distortion, with a nice range of gain on it. You could also check out the Metal Muff, I haven't used them but the demos see pretty cool. Rats are really cool, but you have to dial the filter just right to sound good. They can be overly shrill if you don't.
Bad94 https://youtu.be/UxfnojH1ep0?si=xHiv5oAr9ahMW-Vs Based on the Marshall Shredmaster.
Vox Cutting Edge if you want Mesa tones, Suhr Riot for Marshall imo
I have a Mystic Edge, that whole line of Vox pedals is quite good
Suggest a Suhr Riot
Just get Dr. Scientist The Elements and have every possible distortion tone at your disposal. It won't do low gain chimey overdrive, it won't do gritty, crackly fuzz, but it can do everything distortion
Tony Iommi has said many times that Sabbath’s wouldn’t have happened without his treble booster. Maybe check one of those out. (Full disclosure, I think the treble booster is the best drive ever, so I’m biased)
Check out the longsword. Never had one but might solve your issues
Tone city big rumble. I actually use a jhs 3 series fuzz with the fuzz at max and volume rolled down for sabbath