Three in One Pedals for Fuzz, OD, Distortion

[YnJ]

I do have a Boss OS-2 and I think it's pretty versatile actually, but I'd say it's sort of it's own thing and you need to listen to what it does and find the settings where it sounds good rather than just blindly expecting "standard" overdrive or "standard" distortion by turning the color knob all the way to one side

I have the Behringer plastic casing version of it. I don't know how close to the Boss pedal it is, in any case I found it disappointing, as I found out exactly what you wrote, that you need to stay in or around the mid setting. I found using a splitter, two pedals, and a summer more interesting. Though you are basically stuck to the mid setting, at least you have separate tone, level and gain controls

[mountainmaster]

A Big Muff is in between a fuzz and a distortion. It has way too much gain to do overdrive, even at minimum settings.

Not saying you're wrong. What about the Boss Super Overdrive, that has just as much gain as the Big Muff

I have no experience with the Super Overdrive but I doubt it. After all, it is still a soft clipper.

The Big Muff is my favorite dirt pedal. It clips hard. Very hard. This creates that typical "hollow" square wave character on the high notes. A beautiful sound that can make a guitar sing. For years I tried in vain to find a distortion pedal which could do that.

Now I have always hated those harsh fuzz sounds that people describe as "velcro". And since Big Muffs are usually categorized as fuzz I used to ignore these pedals in my search. Until finally I realized that they have the exact sound I was looking for.

The Big Muff is a beast that needs to be tamed.

• First off, it is a scooped circuit by nature which can make your guitar disappear in a mix. A mid boost will remedy this, but if you add too much mids its character may change and it will lose its magic. Classic Big Muffs do not come with a tone knob for mids but many builders have created their own versions that do.
• Secondly, there be noise. While a good Big Muff should not add noise, its hard clipping circuit will amplify any noise that goes into it and make it unbearably loud. Especially with P90 pickups you need to put a noise gate before your Big Muff. And preferably even another one behind it.

[Uncle E]

Agreed. Just listen to Smashing Pumpkins or Dinosaur Jr, a Super Overdrive can’t make those sounds.

[YnJ]

A Big Muff is in between a fuzz and a distortion. It has way too much gain to do overdrive, even at minimum settings.

Not saying you're wrong. What about the Boss Super Overdrive, that has just as much gain as the Big Muff

I have no experience with the Super Overdrive but I doubt it. After all, it is still a soft clipper.

You're right. I've only used my Super Overdrive with distorted amps, as I should I guess, there's not much gain left when used on a clean amp. I've also only used my Big Muff with distorted amps, that thing has a lot of gain, when used with distorted amps it needs to have the sustain dialed down quite a bit compared to the Super Overdrive. I guess I just forgot this

I have to try to use a booster in front of the Big Muff, as some of you have written about. I have the Electronic Harmonix Linear Booster, probably my most useful pedal, which in addition to bass and treble tone controls has a parametric mid tone control. It even has a gain knob, very clean and transparent, and doesn't go into distortion when used on a clean amp, it really helps on a distorted amp if you need more gain though

[Mister Natural]

https://www.zvex.com/guitar-pedals/fuzz ... ects-pedal
I like this one so much more than Big Muff. I also like that it is almost uncontrollably wild

[kvotchin]

Stoned Grasshopper from Wilson FX is close. I used to run one in front of a tube amp that can seriously roar, so I didn’t need distortion anyway. But it’s a three way: mosfet boost, tubescreamer and fuzz face.

Closest I can think of..

edit: No, Empress Multidrive is the one.