Distortion?

Lisakanon

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Hi! So I want to try out distortion on a ukulele when I get my vorson bc distortion on a ukulele sounds pretty sick. Any suggestions for good (and preferably cheap) pedals and amps that would work well with my uke?
 
Thanks so much but the distortion pedal doesn't say distortion anywhere on it unless I'm missing something
 
Basically, yes. :)

A nice amp to get is the Roland Micro Cube, it has many built in effects to try out, great little amp in my opinion, (costs just over £100).
 
You can extend your search by looking for what are good quality Electric Guitar amplifiers and good distortion/overdrive effects for Electric guitars in general.

Electric guitar is a far more widely played instrument than Electric ukulele, but all the same principles apply since Electric ukulele is just a small Electric guitar in form and function.

My personal recommendation is start off with a good quality starter amp - my personal recommendation being a VOX SOUNDBOX MINI or the VOX MINI 3.
The Vox Soundbox Mini is the better out of the two, but the Mini 3 might be cheaper.

These amps have distortion and overdrive settings built in (as well as some effects too). So you might not need to buy a separate effects/distortion pedal. Those are optional items if you're after a very particular sound - but for general purpose, most amps with built-in effects and distortion are sufficient.

I owned several Roland Microcubes across the years, and even compared the latest ones side by side with the VOX'S, and to my ears, the VOX's simply sounded better and more powerful at the same cost and size.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DdpJpJIuTlk
 
Pawn shops are a good place to find that stuff. Petals and amps that is. My only suggestion is that if you are going to get into playing around with pedals, buy an acoustic amp, not an electric guitar amp. It will save you some money. I know, I have three electric guitar amps sitting in the corner collecting dust. But when you talk distortion, or any effects, get ready to spend a little time and money. The only way you really know what they will do is to experiment around with them. The nice thing about pawn shop pedals is that sometimes they let you bring them back and trade. If you don't want to play around with pedals, disregard everything I've said and buy a guitar amp with effects built in.
 
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The nuts-ness of clipping flavors goes: overdrive > distortion > fuzz. Personally, I find fuzz works the best with a piezo pickup, but for steel strings, any electric guitar pedal will be fine. A Boss DS-1 or Proco RAT are pretty much the standard.

Do you have a sound in mind that you want to achieve? Could probably point you in the right direction just from hearing what sort of vibe you want.
 
I have been using a Fat Fuzz Factory (fuzz pedal + octave pedal). It can make even a CFG progression sound interesting.
 
To me, one advantage of using a small amp with effects (I have a Roland MicroCube -- actually two) is that you can use it by itself or -- at least with the MicroCube (not sure about all the other options, and I haven't tried the Vox amps that Kissing recommended) -- connect it to a PA to get more volume, in which case the mini amp becomes a very simple multi-effects pedal. The MicroCube can be battery-powered, too, in case that is needed. Of course, we all like what we like (or think we need), and I bet that using a dedicated pedal provides a better effects sound.
 
To me, one advantage of using a small amp with effects (I have a Roland MicroCube -- actually two) is that you can use it by itself or -- at least with the MicroCube (not sure about all the other options, and I haven't tried the Vox amps that Kissing recommended) -- connect it to a PA to get more volume, in which case the mini amp becomes a very simple multi-effects pedal. The MicroCube can be battery-powered, too, in case that is needed. Of course, we all like what we like (or think we need), and I bet that using a dedicated pedal provides a better effects sound.

My recommendation is the same. Amps like the Microcube and Voxes are the best starting point for distortion and basic effects. Even if you wanted to use pedals, you can use them with these amps.

Pedals are more for if you're after a very particular sound that is signature of that specific pedal, or if you're using it with amps that dont have much diversity of sound in itself (eg: basic tube amps).

I have pedals, but I dont find myself using them due to the amps features.

And yes, microcubes and voxes are similar in function
 
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