Re: distortion pedal advice

["K. Douglas Baldwin" <dbaldwin@suffolk.lib.ny.us>]

Distortion is one of my fave fx's. Some possibilities, all of which I've
used:
    Roger Mayer's Octavia (about $150 list)is the skroinkiest
aluminum-whiskered street bum you'll ever hear. It requires real
musicianship to use well, as it is VERY touch-sensitive. Hendrix used it on
"Purple Haze and "Fire" , and more nakedly on his unfinished "First 
Rays..."
project. Adrian Belew uses it on Laurie Anderson's "Sharkey's Day", and
probably on King Crimson's "Thela Hun Gingeet"(sp?), among others.
    The Univox Superfuzz (which you might find used for under $200 if 
you're
lucky) is pretty fizzy, and has two settings. One is bright, and the other
is all lardacious fat and muffled fizz with no mids. Think John's guitar on
"Revolution".
    I've been using a dual-distortion pedal by Visual Sound (I think that's
their name). The pedal is called "Dr. Jeckyl and Mr. Hyde"(about $130 
list);
Jeckyl is bright and relatively uncolored, while Hyde is fatter and shaped
with a variable-mid-cut tone control. Gets a great fat quasi-Superfuzz
sound, and the two together can peel paint off your brain.
    The Rat (about $80 list, and one of my long-time faves, and much like
the legendary Ibanez Tube Screamer) is probably too "natural" sounding for
what you want, and probably much like the Dan-o.
    If you have the bucks, get Big Briar's Moogerfooger Ring Modulator and
load a distorted signal into the audio input. There is sickness here that
the Mayo Clinic couldn't identify. If you don't dig the different tones 
with
every different note (a symptom of the "carrier frequency" part of the
circuit), split your signal and add it to itself via the carrier input,
again with gobs of el distorto. I am currently playing with this patch AND 
a
Digitech Whammy. I am exhausted, and beads of sweat appear on my forehead,
followed by uncontrollable shivers. Then particles of nether-wasps appear
beneath my fingernails, speaking some Arabic dialect which I can understand
perfectly. They recite train schedules in sing-song tones, then whisk their
wings gently against my window....