SchnappM wrote:Harmonic percolator.

They're hard to find, and the schematics that you can find on the internet are rumored to be incorrect.

The Harmonic Percolator is a distortion pedal.

Here is something I use to get a 'Shellacky' guitar sound:
Using a single-coil pickup guitar (pickup selector in an IN-PHASE position; this is important as it does not attenuate the higher frequency string noise), I put this through one of the really cheap early 90's Peavey guitar combo amps (like the Rage, or better yet the Audition 112). Select the driven channel, and turn the pre-gain (called Supersat on Peaveys) way down to the point where the noise of the strings being hit distorts noticably, but the sustain note should sound clean(ish). Then just turn the post gain up, and turn the Low and High EQ pots up full, and the Mid pot down to nothing. This gets a really crunchy metallic guitar sound, and adding a fairly thickly modulated chorus into this setup gets a kind of Big Black/Rapeman/Slint sound to it. A DS-1 distorton into this signal flow is also pretty thick sounding.
Cheers
Toby

how about playing with a metal pick on stainless steel strings, thicker the better. try playing with a quarter even. and for recording, combine a mic'd signal with a direct out from the amp.

thanks for the suggestions...probably a lot of my issues will be with my amp...any reccomendations? I love twin reverbs...and I used to love this sunn solid state concert lead....required the footswitch to get the fuzz to work on it...which I didn't hear until I traded it in and the ding dong hooked it up for me to rub it in...ouch

...besides the peavey stuff...I will give those a try...thanks!

Buy a Travis Bean...