11 posts
Regarding overdrive and soloing tones. Tones being the key word here. Here are the contenders....
Pedals VS Amplifiers
What, in your opinion, sounds best. A pedal into an amp, or an amp's own distortion.
Don't ask 'what about whatever pedal into whatever amp'. Give us your dream tone scenario. One for rythm, and one for soloing. Simple as that.
I will start....
I own my dream amp for rythm AND solos. My JSX. I can go from classic crunch to heavy and it smokes both in the rythm area. I use the 'ultra' channel to achieve that. For solos...I actually use the 'crunch' channel. It has better mids, and more than enough gain to do what I want it to do.
So my selection for the debate is 'Amp'. Meaning I prefer my amp's gain over any 'pedal' in front of an amp. I simply do not use any OD pedals.
But that is me. What do you guys prefer? Build your case on your perfect rig and tell us why. This could be a great way for all of us to learn different ways to achieve GOOD tone. Cheap or expensive.....doesn't matter. If it sounds good, tell us about it.
Takers?
This should be interesting (especially since so few have achieved their "dream tone" in either way yet ;) ).
I believe that you can definitely find this combination purely in an amp, but almost always that amp is going to be pricey (which is why many try to use pedals with a cheaper amp).
Then you run into the usual "one trick ponies, but oh what a trick" amps (is your JSX one of these?). The only problem being when you want a different sound (which means you have to go buy a different one trick pony or use a pedal!).
Since I got my JVM I've not used any pedals in front of it let alone distortion pedals. No need to. So my answer is amp. (Tell a lie: I dug out my old CE2 chorus)
wah and mojo vibe are pretty mandatory for me.
'70 fuzz is too unique of a sound to get from an amp... so need that too.
but mostly, just amp.
except for overdriven blues tone (SRV-ish).. then I need the fulldrive for the mid eq shape.
so... amp mainly with pedals for color/modulation as necessary.
whatever sounds best, I guess.
I can beat everyone's tone in the world...
When I rip out the 'We Will Rock You' lead; I turn down my amp to 0 and play Milli Vanilli style to the original recording...... I don't need anamp OR a pedal to sound awesome... :D :D :D :D
Really depends on the amp for me and what it does.
I like a Mesa Boogie Dual rec....but I find you can tighten it up and make it less flubbery with a Tube Screamer in front of it.
When I've played a Bogner, Orange, H&K, Rivera Knucklehead,......There was no reason to have a pedal for distortion at all.
When I play through Marshalls.....tubey ones.....Not too much of a need for a distortion here either....though sometimes it can be useful....say around solo time.
I currently play through Peavey Classic 50. And now that I've tweaked it.....I CAN use the lead channel for dirt....but I tend to really on a couple different pedals that are just more expressive than my amp is.
So....I guess that makes me a fence rider! HAHAHAHA
When I jam, which I seem to be doing a lot more of lately, I only take my amp, my fandango covers all bases really well, and guitar straight into the amp is as simple as it gets.
I have have a fulltone fulldrive 2, which I use on occassions at home when just messing about, it doesn't seem to add anything to the distortion, but adds a fair bit to the sustain.
I have a couple of other pedals that I use at home quite regularly, phase 90, deluxe memory man, which has great vibrato. I am toying with the idea of getting a fuzz pedal, I really like that sound...probably will try a byoc fuzz.
I kinda use both methods. The reason for this is that the roadking does clean "OH so well". It also does heavy crunch and screaming lead to the same degree. However, I have found that by putting both my OD and distortion builds in front of it, I can get those 'in between' tones that the Boogie seems to have a problem with to my ears.
The way I have it set up now is to use the amp for a real clean sound and kick in the OD pedal for a nice crunch that can be controlled with a hair of guitar volume pot for good rich blues. Swap to the boogie's naturally HEAVY crunch as a base for the classic rock type stuff and kick in either the OD to just add more or the Rat clone for a screaming lead.
I think it's really all about how you want to colour the sound and for my taste a clean should be bell like in it's clarity but still rich, crunch should have the depth to make your liver shake with fear without losing definition and the lead tone should have both those qualities while making women cum, grown men cry and small animals vapourise ;).
I'll let you all know if I ever et close ::).
I'm with Spud on most every count.
I set Channel 1 of the Roadster to Tweed with gain on 3 for a more vintage type clean sound. Channel 2 I set to the middle setting in a more neutral eq'ing for dirt boxes.
With my Roadster, the only pedal I couldn't live without is my PedalWorx Tejas (boutique TS808) as a clean booster. I use it to tighten up (just like Matt mentioned) the hairier channels and slam the preamp.
For different colors, like Spud got at, I use a Keeley Fuzzface like a distortion pedal to get a more rockin'/less metal type of distortion. Stack the Tejas in front of it and it can get in your face. For less gainy/more bluesy drive sounds, I like to fire up a PedalWorx Cactus Crunch. Taste the cactus...mmmmmmmmmmmmm...
Could I live without the dirt boxes? All but the Tejas. All Rectos should come with a TS type pedal as standard issue IMHO.
I know several of my buddies who use drive pedals as clean boosters for solos. One buddy who has a Marshall uses a TS9 as a clean booster for solos. Another, who uses a Genz-Benz Black Pearl uses a Lovekraft Kronos (highly modified TS pedal) as a clean booster with great success to augment their amps tone.
Wait till Howie chimes in. He's been re-thinking some things. I think he's talking about using only 3 Keeley modded MZones for 'Howie Tone'. :D :D :D ;D ;D ;D ;)
I could do that Bogner Alchemist with a pedal for just a little more on the dirt channel. I have to say I like pedals. It's not even that I don't like amp distortion... I just like pedals. There is something so unique about the sound of a Rat, or my Sobbat Drivebreaker. Having 3 or 4 pedals in front of an amp that has one really good channel, or two really good channels, that would be all I need.
I like pedals these days.
However there is something to be said for power amp distortion for those singing leads. So if I had my dream amp it would be an old pre CBS Fender non channel switching amp with everything (but the bass) turned all the way up, using only the guitars controls to vary the distortion and tone.
However I have never gotten better tone than I get these days with my tube stomps and Digitech Reverb pedal into my Hot Rod Deluxe. So my answer is pedals.