Line 6 Flextone III Plus Hates Pedals

[Butch Snyder]

I have a Fender Hot Rod Deluxe that consider my main amplifier. But, I also have a Flextone III Plus that is a fantastic amplifier. I have the extension cab too. I use a pedalboard that has a compressor, OD, volume pedal, tuner, chorus, phase shifter, delay, and clean boost. The tone of this amp is great, but it doesn't like my ODs or clean boost. I have my signal chain with the clean boost first from the amp. Through my Fender, everything works and sounds great. Through the Flextone III, the clean boost and OD doesn't really do anything. Any suggestions?

[Mincer]

I think earlier digital amps are sort of like that. Maybe it has to do with the full range speaker, or the resolution of the modeling engine. More modern amps don't really have this issue- I use a Tone Master Deluxe that is great with pedals.

[PFDarkside]

The point of a clean boos is to overdrive the input stage of the amplifier. On a digital amp the first stage is an Analog/Digital converter. On the older modeling amps they level set the input so it could be converted to digital for processing. Best case it sounds the same with/without the boost, worst case you get digital clipping.

i think the newer ones model the behavior of a tube amp even at the input so it's more realistic.

[dystrust]

The point of a clean boos is to overdrive the input stage of the amplifier. On a digital amp the first stage is an Analog/Digital converter. On the older modeling amps they level set the input so it could be converted to digital for processing. Best case it sounds the same with/without the boost, worst case you get digital clipping.

i think the newer ones model the behavior of a tube amp even at the input so it's more realistic.

THIS.

If the OD/boost are set for more of a level increase than clipping themselves, it sounds like the OP is hitting a limiter on the input.

[Seashore]

I have a Flextone II HD head which I've had to pull out as a backup here and there. Distortion and overdrive can work alright in front of it for a bit of extra grit and sustain as long as you're careful not to push the input level. That works best as a layer on top of a less distorted amp tone, like the "Brit Classic" model. I even lent it out to a guy who just ran it on a clean amp model and got his distorted sounds all from his own pedals. Just, like other people point out, don't "hit the front" like you might with another amp.

[playas]

Through my laney, a clean boost (a raptor) doesn't do a lot... through a fender prri the same boost makes a huge difference.
Both are tube amps.
Thankfully the pedal has an o/d side also, so it can still be useful with the laney.

...some amps take pedals better than others.