The Watering Hole

For years I've run the dirt on the board low gain to high gain with the thought that you hit the heavy stuff with lighter stuff to get variations of the heavy stuff.  I was very happy with this but there seemed to be a bit of noise as a side effect.  No problem I have a NS-2 for that and made a loop.  But I still wasn't happy.

With the addition of the pedal from charger and the BB+ the time came to figure out where these pedals should go.  I was out of room on the bottom row of pedals so I knew I was going to have to dismantle the board and rerun things.  So I figured that I might as well play with the options.  

It occurred to me about a month ago that I might be thinking about everything all wrong.  After all, the last thing I hit is the amp itself which I always set to clean.  It's a two channel Peavey Classic 50 and I HATE the dirty side of that amp.  It's just the wrong thing and the gain is way too hairy no matter what tube I put in V1.  Since I run it clean maybe I should go from highest gain to lowest gain.

Folks.....holy shit.  The difference is amazing.  

The order is now:
Tu-2->Input of NS-2->NS-2 SEND->Morley Bad Horsie 2 wah->Soul Preacher->Big Muff Pie w/Tone Wicker->OCD->BB+->Fulldrive II->charger Klon Clone a la FB specs->NS-2 RETURN->CE-5->Deluxe Memory Man->Holy Grail->AMP

What I have found is that with the heavier stuff first when I hit a softer pedal I actually get a boost in signal.  This never happened the other way.  It's fucking amazing!!!  I have so many options available with this set up it's not funny.  I have huge variations on cleans and dirty.

I have sustain like a motherfucker.  I have like Tom Scholtz sustain.  It's like I have a sustainor pick up.  I can get it at LOW settings and I can get it on clean slightly overdriven stuff.  I've never been so happy in my life with my tones.  It is absolutely bonkers the variations I can get and that's before I start working the tone and volume on the guitar.  

My main guitar is the Jap Strat I've had forever.  I've got David Gilmour EMG's in that baby and it's just the loudest most alive guitar I've ever played.  I also have an Ibanez S that is load with a PAF Joe in the neck, a Cruiser in the middle, and an AT-1 in the bridge.  Both guitars sound incredible through this rig and they are completely different beasts.

I like my dirt to be dirty and still be transparent and have notes ring without getting mushy.  The way I have it now I've managed to get that better than I ever did before.

Now I'm dying to get everyone else together again and show this rig off as I cannot record right now.  

I know that's a lot of dirt on the board.  What fucker needs 5 dirt boxes?  But I don't use them all like dirt boxes.  The Klon is very clean and acts like a boost.  The FD is on COMP cut and acts like a different flavor of boost.  On a clean setting I can go from spanky as hell to just BIG and FAT.  The Muff is amazing and with the compressor it's a liquid machine of doom.  The OCD is really a rhythm thing.  Smack in the middle is the BB+ and the cleaner side is the dirt and the gainy side is set to a much cleaner tone.  I can run this AB or BA at the push of a button.  SOOOOOOO transparent, rich, lush and big.  I simply could never part with the BB+.

The only thing I want to change out is the CE-5.  It's just not my flavor.  Bought it off e-bay years ago and just haven't found what I'm looking for until today.  Played a Visual Sound H2O today....just waiting for Santa to bring that bitch home.  Delay AND Lush ass chorus.  The board will be done when I get that.  I don't really give a shit about other types of pedals.  MAYBE a phaser some day.  But I just don't see me using that and I don't give a damn about Flangers.

yeah, I've found that to be the case as well. I tend to use lower gain/dist pedals as color/smoothers after fuzz. I even run the compressor last, if I ever use one (but before delay... delay is usually last). I remember Dar (maybe? someone anyways) was talking about using comp before distortion and how that let you use less gain and still sound distorted/liquid... and that's true... but I just like the way it sounds the other way around. more beef, less icepick. works similarly with od. only problem is noise... but that's ok by me, I live with it - can't stand gates.

Dear Mr. Fenderbender,

Please get a real amp, and then you won't have to mess with drive pedals for your OD sounds.  5 OD/Distortion pedals?   What are you?  Some kind of freak????    

Please get a real amp, and report back to us.  

DreamTheaterRules — Nov 18, 2013Dear Mr. Fenderbender,

5 OD/Distortion pedals?   What are you?  Some kind of freak????    

:D

Or at least make sure you keep the pristine factory packaging for your five dirt pedals. Because you never know what might count when the rapture hits.

charger — Nov 19, 2013Or at least make sure you keep the pristine factory packaging for your five dirt pedals. Because you never know what might count when the rapture hits.

I've got the flu and that still made me laugh.

charger — Nov 19, 2013Or at least make sure you keep the pristine factory packaging for your five dirt pedals. Because you never know what might count when the rapture hits.

HAHHAHAHAAHAHAHHAHA

DreamTheaterRules — Nov 18, 2013Dear Mr. Fenderbender,

Please get a real amp, and then you won't have to mess with drive pedals for your OD sounds.  5 OD/Distortion pedals?   What are you?  Some kind of freak????    

Please get a real amp, and report back to us.  

Dear Mr. Sacks-o-money,

Some of us can't go out and buy PRS or Taylor guitars, tons of amps and pedals at will.

But since it's almost the Christmas season and you Christians are conditioned to believe it's better to GIVE than RECEIVE, I have an idea.  How about you part with some of the insurance money and donate it to the "Citizens for Fenderbender having a REAL amp" group.  

For the nominal fee of $2000 you could give poor Fenderbender a real amp and the world would be right. Then Fenderbender could sell an amp and 2 or 3 of his OD pedals for a small net gain and buy some other bullshit...like a Tele or something.

Yeah!  ;D

LMAO! ^ Never saw that. Gotta ask who photochopped the Bogner logo, lol?

Really sweet guitar though.  :)

Kabala — Nov 19, 2013LMAO! ^ Never saw that. Gotta ask who photochopped the Bogner logo, lol?

Really sweet guitar though.  :)

I'm usually the one making the changes, but I can't remember if I did that one or not.  I just thought it was a good representation of how happy FB would be with a real amp.  ;)

now we know where Miley Ray Virus got the tongue thing.   :P

Mr. Fenderbender, if I had any insurance money, I would make that happen.  Clearly anyone who needs 5 OD's to get their town just needs a better amp!  Do you use them all at once?  

DreamTheaterRules — Nov 19, 2013now we know where Miley Ray Virus got the tongue thing.   :P

Mr. Fenderbender, if I had any insurance money, I would make that happen.  Clearly anyone who needs 5 OD's to get their town just needs a better amp!  Do you use them all at once?  

All I can say to this is you must be using the wrong pedals, I've got pedalboards with two pedals, and pedalboards with 10 pedals, and both are equally useful.

All I can say to that is, you should know by now that I'm joking, my friend.  THE person who has taken more crap than anyone here about how many pedals he has, saying 5 pedals is too many.  JOKE!  

I have the best amps I've ever had.  SERIOUSLY killer amps, that have all flavors of OD sounds.  Yet, I currently own more OD/Dist/Fuzz pedals than I ever have.  

Flavors, man!  

And since we're gettin' all serious now, I'll say what I just told Matt on the phone.  There is no right or wrong, as long as you understand the relationship of the order on your tone.  If I take Guitar>Barber Gain Changer>Barber Dirty Bomb> Amp, I can have a killer high gain sound with the Dirty Bomb, and kick on the gain changer for solos.  If I flip the order of those pedals, the EQ is most heavily influenced by the last pedal.  So if I had a nice scooped high gain tone with the Barber, and throw a Screamer in front, which has the mountain curve, it again can be a great solo boost as it kicks up the mids and volume but retains my original tone.  If I put the screamer after it, it radically changes my tone when I kick it on for solos AND it doesn't sound like a high gain amps which just had a solo pedal kicked on.  The Screamers EQ chokes down my mid scooped gain tone and boosts mids while making the top and bottom completely disappear.  Radically different tone than the first example, and NOT what I'm going for.  That's an extreme example, for examples sake though.  With some pedals and/or tonal objectives, placing the lower gain pedal last is JUST what you want.  And, this is not factoring in the other things like the headroom of the second pedal, the character of the gain it has, etc.  A flatter lower gain pedal after a higher gain one, will change the tone of the higher gain one less, especially if it has plenty of headroom.   Example:  the Timmy works great before OR after a pedal, but needs to be dialed a little differently.  Another thing effects of gain staging.  My Screamer>Dirty Bomb makes for a bit more gain, a bit more volume, and more mids, but retains the basic character of the Dirty Bomb with with an added "solo voice" from the screamer in front.  Adding a Timmy after the Dirty bomb takes that tone and adds volume, and either bass or treble and gain or can tone down the bass and treble if so dialed, but doesn't radically change it like a screamer would after the DB, because it's flatter or can be.  

Again, no right or wrong, as long as you understand the differences and effects each pedal will have on the other.