Best Distortion of 2018

A distortion pedal is used to create heavy and dark tone, specifically for guitar in genres like rock and heavy metal music. Distortion pedals create this sound by using very hard clipping and even signal boosting to completely change the tone of your sound and create a new sound altogether.

JHS Pedals

3 Series Distortion

The JHS Pedals 3 Series is a collection of pedals designed to give you affordability and simplicity without compromising quality. Each 3 Series pedal is made by us in Kansas City, MO, using high-quality parts, quality control, and attention to every detail. Each pedal has three simple controls and one toggle that offer a wide range of sounds, perfect for beginners and professionals alike. The JHS Pedals 3 Series will inspire your playing and help you explore new sounds at a totally approachable price point. The JHS Pedals 3 Series Distortion is a massively versatile distortion pedal with the ability to achieve medium gain crunch, heavy overdrive, distortion, and even fuzz tones. The controls on the Distortion are Volume, Filter (or Tone), and Distort knobs that give you a wide range of usable sounds in any position. The Gain toggle gives you a choice between more saturated and compressed or a more open and crunchy distortion. This switch plays a big part in how the pedal responds to your playing and touch dynamics. The JHS Pedals 3 Series Distortion runs on 9V DC Negative Center power and consumes 9mA.

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Old Blood Noise Endeavors

Fault V2 Overdrive + Distortion

Tweaking the platform of our Fault overdrive/distortion, we’ve carved out room for greater gain range, voice control, and clipping options in the Fault Version 2. The Fault remains a great overdrive with footswitchable second gain stage and three band EQ, and now excels as a clean boost and tweakable high gain distortion as well.

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JHS Pedals

PG-14

JHS Pedals is proud to release the Paul Gilbert signature distortion "PG-14!” This is a new and unique distortion pedal specifically designed to Paul's specifications. At the heart of the circuit is a FET based distortion engine that emulates the touch, feel, and the response of a pushed tube amplifier. This circuitry allows the player to have the dynamics and tone of loud stadium level amplifier at low/moderate volume levels. ALL THE MIDS CONTROL! A second unique and essential feature of the design is that an active mid-frequency preamp is located at the front of the FET distortion circuitry. This design feature gives the user a vast sweep of tonal possibilities with any amp or guitar combination. The PG-14 is an end-all pedal for adding the ultimate dirt channel to your amplifier. A bonus feature is that it gives you all of Paul Gilbert's talent, decades of experience, and countless years of practice! Just hit the footswitch!

Vaderin Pedals

HPX Harmonic Percolator

No Bullshit Rock Machine The HP-X is a harmonic percolator designed to capture the circuit’s signature even-order harmonic saturation without compromising stability or volume. It is designed to sound great on any setting anywhere in the signal chain and provide a super solid distortion/fuzz tone for any application. Stick to the Basics While other versions of the percolator circuit have a ton of knobs, switches and other options, the HP-X sticks to the basics and offers the traditional two controls plus a clipping selection switch. Despite its simplicity, this pedal is extremely versatile with a wide variety of tones that range from overdrive to distortion to fuzz with many versions of each in between. Whatever the settings, the HP-X always sounds aggressive, punchy and has plenty of output. Silicon and Silicon We A/B’d a ton of silicon transistors to replace the germanium transistor from the original circuit. Yes, this percolator has a silicon transistor instead of a germanium transistor in the PNP position. Both of the silicon transistors that make up the circuit are measured and carefully selected so the circuit biases right every time. There are no compromises in sound here. In fact, we like this version the best! The good news is you don’t have to worry about all the weirdness that might come with germanium and know this pedal is going to sound the same every time you kick it on regardless of temperature and playing conditions.

Walrus Audio

Eras Five-State Distortion

Eras is a no apologies, high-gain distortion that’s ready to chug, shred, and palm mute with tight response and multiple clipping options. Eras is a no apologies, high-gain distortion that’s ready to chug, shred, and palm mute with tight response and multiple clipping options. Use the Blend knob at max for a full distortion onslaught or roll back the Blend knob to creatively stack and mix other dirt pedals placed in front of Eras. Great for bassists that want to blend in their dry signal as well. Anywhere you set it, the Eras is ready to deliver a diverse world of speaker ripping sounds. The Eras features a five-position rotary knob that offers the following gain states: I. Tight mode with a slight mid-cut, LED hard clipping, and internal volume control. Fastest response, great for palm muting. II. Tight mode with a slight mid-cut and silicon hard clipping. Smooth with added compression. III. Dual clipping mode with a slight mid-cut and both silicon and LED hard clipping. Rich & full with added sustain. IV. Rhythm mode with a deeper mid-cut, LED hard clipping, and internal volume control. Scooped mids, tight response. V. Rhythm mode with a deeper mid-cut and silicon hard clipping. Rhythmic, warm and full. Think of each position as a different “flavor” of the pedal. Blend in dry signal or other pedals in combination with the gain states for a near-infinite amount of distortion sounds.

Vox

Mystic Edge

Iconic amp sounds for your pedalboard. The Mystic Edge valve distortion pedal offers the chime and midrange of the VOX AC30 in a compact pedal format, powered by Nutube for warm and responsive amp-like tones.

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