Basic high gain distortion

[Frank_NH]

My recommendation would be the ROG Sili-face II.  I built one recently it's a really nice one knob distortion.  The tone reminds me a lot of the Boston sound on their first album.  Anyhow, I used my own vero layout which I can post to the Verified Effects section here if there is interest.

http://www.home-wrecker.com/sili-face2.html

[motterpaul]

I just wanted to mention that when I read "ridiculously small amount of components" I said the Em-Drive. It may not be "super high gain" but also that you shouldn't be fooled by the looks - this is not just a boost circuit, it is an overdrive, with a ridiculously low component count.

The name "Em_drive" comes from a perpetual motion machine that seemingly gets its power from "nowhere" - that is kind of like what this circuit does, it gets an amazing amount of gain for  what it contains.

Demo:
<nabble_embed>https://soundcloud.com/paul-motter/em-drive-guitar-effect-overdrive-circuit-demo</nabble_embed>

The purple plexi is definitely next "go to" circuit for small but powerful" - but if you are looking for max gain in a pretty small layout, I would go for the Crunch Box. That thing has gain with the knob on "1"

[Frank_NH]

I added my Sili-Face 2 layout to the Verified Contributions section.

http://guitar-fx-layouts.42897.x6.nabble.com/ROG-Sili-Face-2-Distortion-td31690.html

[edo1123]

I finally found something small enough. The lovepedal super lead. I've not built it yet, but, from what I read it need a little more gain. I'll surely add a boost before it, but are there any mods on board I could make to get more gain out of it?

[Muadzin]

Considering that Super Lead is a modified Marshall Guvnor with simplified tonestack and you want more gain, why not build the MI Crunchbox? What the Super Lead basically is. And the Crunchbox has ungodly amounts of gain.

[edo1123]

Did you build it? I'm looking for something simple to reach Adam Jones' tone. I know he uses a Diezel so I should start to build a Diefet, but he also uses a Marshall head (maybe a plexi, not sure). I thought the super lead with more gain and a booster could get me there. I saw the crunch box and it seems to have a little more gain.

[Travis]

I've built the lovepedal super lead and the crunch box. They sound more like 70s hot rodded Marshall Iron Maiden kinda vibes rather than modern metal.

Most of the best high gain distortions are more complicated builds. Still, it may be easier to build one complicated pedal rather than several simple ones that don't satisfy

[edo1123]

Well.. I'll go with the triple wreck.

[motterpaul]

I have built the diezel diefet and the crunch box, The Diefet is a huge build. Something a little smaller that will give you the same tone is the AMT B1.  But both of those are SUPER gainy, I am guessing more than you probably want.

I personally love the crunchbox and if you turn the gain way down it is not too bad. I highly recommend the first version (not Rev 2) - Rev 2 is the one with the presence as a trimpot. Version one has a true tone control that is very effective (the tone on Rev 2 is separate from the presence and not effective, really).

[Muadzin]

Travis wrote

I've built the lovepedal super lead and the crunch box. They sound more like 70s hot rodded Marshall Iron Maiden kinda vibes rather than modern metal.

Most of the best high gain distortions are more complicated builds. Still, it may be easier to build one complicated pedal rather than several simple ones that don't satisfy

I quite like 70's and 80's hot rodded Marshall tones. While I LOVE metal I don't like modern metal tones, especially the heavy scooped ones. I've built two Triple Wrecks and a Tight Metal and I would never gig with either of them. Too much risk of getting lost in the mix.

A thing to keep in mind with the Triple Wreck is that the boost is utter shite. If you're going to build it just omit it or replace it with something else. The SHO seems to be a favorite. Putting it in front of the pedal also improves it in my opinion, instead of after, as is the current design.

[balazs.bencs]

The new JHS Andy Timmons distortion is face melting!

With a TL072 it sounds really good.

[Sensei Tim]

I know you said low component count, but IMHO the ROG/1776 effects Thunderbird is freaking amazing for those classic dimed marshall tones.

[Travis]

The JHS @ is basically a Crunch Box for the record

[edo1123]

Thought the same. What about the Krank distorus maximus? I read on fsb about a "gain mod". Someone added a 10uf between pin 1 and 7. I'm about to order components to build that and the superlead so I wanted to know if it is worth a shot.

[Suzukiscottie]

I built the ProTone Bodyrot2, and it is very good! Similar to the Krank Distortus Maxumis.

[edo1123]

Which lm386 did you use? I've tried to build one with lm386n-1 and it was a little disappointing. I can buy some lm386n-3 (I saw the Krank uses them), but I don't know if it really does change the overall result.