whats a good crunch pedal - ie not high pitch fuzz distortion

hi, looking for a good (great) pedal that can give me a solid crunch distortion, something that will record well and sound crisp and defined. i can't afford to buy an expensive mesa or marshall tube amp right now so i play/record guitar through my bass rig, 300 watt ashdown and a 2x12 avatar cabinet. im using my buddies pedals for distortion and recording through the xlr output on the head but i don't like any of his pedals, he's got some cheap zoom multi effects things, and a boss metal zone but to me its all just verying degrees of fuzz, there's no guts to any of it. does a pedal exist that will give me what i want (or close to it) or is the only solution to buy a good amp?

Marshall Guv'nor

Crunch, not fuzz

Got one, and love it. However, I do wish I had the Hot British one too...

Great amp, but it's a little expensive (about $600). For just a little more, you can get Marshall like crunch by way of the Traynor Custom Valve 50Blue, which has 50 watts, independent clean/dirty tone and volume controls, master volume control, a Vintage 30 speaker, and EL34 tubes. Or, if you like the Fender crunch, the Custom Valve 40WR, which is the same as the 50Blue, but 40 watts, no master volume, and 6L6 tubes. I have the 40WR and love it.

Radial Tonebone Hot british.. really high gain to the bone

Menatone King of the Britains is a good, although pricey pedal. I use a FullDrive II. Good overdrive, the 'boost' adds lots of thickness. I liked the Marshall Guv'nor.

I haven't tried one yet, but I am keeping my eye out for a Barber Tone Pump or Burn Unit.

Good Luck!

-Phil

Steve

You might as well just ask us what kind of tires would make your Volkswagen Beetle a good off road vehicle.

Can't be done.

Tube amp cranked with boost pedal mic'd.

I would use a POD before I tried to record with the setup you listed.

DI'd bass amp for guitar? Cmon.

I have the Radial Hot British.

I find it's too hot!

a couple I could think of for crunchifying that setup:

BOSS DS-1 Distortion - the original BOSS distortion actually is pretty crunchy at lower gain levels, plus it retains much of the original tone character of the guitar plugged into it.

BOSS HM-2 Heavy Metal - this is a discontinued pedal but worth searching out - basically a hotter SD-1 Overdrive with active bass and treble controls. I had one of these for several years before giving it to a buddy for a wedding present. One of the cool things about that pedal was its ability to duplicate that low-end 'thump' characteristic of a Marshall cabinet - even with a tiny battery-powered practice amp. Succeeds where the later MT-2 fails.

Mesa V-Twin - cool looking pedal with two 12AX7 tubes inside, inside a diamond-plate chassis. This one has the even cooler function of being able to switch between clean, crunch and lead settings via its two switches, and even has a recording out for going direct into a mixing board. (They also make the less expensive Bottle Rocket, which is a single-channel pedal)

Peavey RockMaster - a 19' rackmount preamp with three 12AX7 tubes and with the ability to switch between clean, crunch and hi-gain lead. I used one of these plugged into the return of a Peavey Encore 65 (whose own preamp never really sounded good except at lease-breaking volume levels but had a great power amp) and had one of the best tones ever (that is, until I got my Classic 50). Basically the preamp section of their Triumph amp line in the eighties.

Tech21 GT-2 - a simpler version of their SansAmp pedal designed for driving the front of an amp or direct recording - and does it sound good. (Also check out the Tri-OD, the three-channel Tri-AC and rackmount programmable PSA).

Tonebone British - what the other guys have been saying about this pedal - brilliant. I've seen people in music stores try this out and buy it within fifteen minutes, it sounds so good.

Just stick an EQ *before* _and_ *after* the Metal Zone and shelf filter everything above 5k on the desk - that'll do you for a while until you get a proper amp.