Is anyone else stacking overdrives or boosts?

[Myaccount876]

Re: Is anyone else stacking overdrives or boosts?

I've tried, and it doesn't usually work out for me. WAY too much noise, and treble boosters can be a real PITA to mix with other pedals. What I will do sometimes, is run the treble booster into the Bogner Blue on the plexi setting, into the Bassman 70 set really clean. But I don't think that is what the OP is talking about, because I'm basically using the Bogner as a preamp.

[TwilightOdyssey]

Re: Is anyone else stacking overdrives or boosts?

Too much hassle for me….

I can always find a single that does the job

^ Not really.

Anyway ... I do this as a matter of course these days.

Stacking, and switching the order, does weird and wonderful things to my tone.

For distortion pedals I typically only use a compressor in front, unless it's the distortion+.
Each boost adds its own flavour and many times I use the Horus for my base tone and then build on it with multiple drives and boosts.

What IS a pain is dealing the resultant increase in noise floor, so the gain staging needs to be carefully monitored.

[Diego]

Re: Is anyone else stacking overdrives or boosts?

Lately I've been testing OD pedals before my Marshall Jackhammer (main dirt source) to fatten up and mimic a hotter humbucker signal without dealing with guitar controls. It also helps when playing with split humbuckers (I do that a lot) for a faux HB tone without using your hands.

I like it since the Screamin' Demon doesn't compress much, so it doesn't exactly do "liquid lead tones" and it could use a bit of that, IMO. I don't use much gain for rhythm playing so I need that extra gain for leads.

[DrNewcenstein]

Re: Is anyone else stacking overdrives or boosts?

Back in my pre-rack days I ran a Boss SuperOD into a Distortion+ (SOD set for boost - level up, drive about 9 o'clock), into a pair of Baby Gorillas, or a home stereo receiver.

When I first got my Digitech Legend, I'd max the Input volume knob to boost the internal drives, but couldn't get cleans. Once I backed the Input volume down and cranked the Output, I got cleans, but the drives were too weak, so I found out that if you max the Compressor in it, it boosted the distortions nicely, and even without the internal Noise Gate, was surprisingly quiet.

I keep the Input volume on it about 9 o'clock, and the Output volume about 3 o'clock, and the input meters are still bouncing halfway up.

With the M13, I've been experimenting with boosting the unit's distortion pedals with the internal OD/boost pedals, but haven't yet settled on a combo I'm happy with, so I just use my 2 BK Butler Tube Drivers, one into the other. By itself, just the one doesn't really do it for me, even when acting as a boost for the Marshall. To be able to get cleans from the Marshall, I gotta back its Gain down, which means the Tube Driver has less to work with, so the TD in front of that helps.
I can use one for most rhythms, except the really heavy stuff, and kick on the other one for solos.

[Liam1963]

Re: Is anyone else stacking overdrives or boosts?

Maxon OD808 into a Keeley Modified Blues Driver...

[lucaspaço]

Re: Is anyone else stacking overdrives or boosts?

^

What IS a pain is dealing the resultant increase in noise floor, so the gain staging needs to be carefully monitored.

True

[Rex_Rocker]

Re: Is anyone else stacking overdrives or boosts?

The Electro Harmonix Black Finger can get a mild amount of tube grit going, and it does great for solos before my TS808 > high-gain driven amp.

I'm hoping the TC Electronic Spark does the job of mid-boosting better than the Black Finger, though.

[Metalman_666]

Re: Is anyone else stacking overdrives or boosts?

For the last 6 months or so, I go Wampler Ego comp (set for unity volume, blend very low at 8 or 9 o'clock) --> FatBoost 3 (slight volume boost, gain at 1 o'clock, bass rolled off). I have left the FatBoost on all the time, kicking on the comp only when using my G&L or if I needed some more sustain with the humbuckers. Once in awhile I would put the Fulldrive between the two and use it only for solos, to really get some cream without switching channels.

Last week at a bigger gig, I left the Fulldrive on the whole time (vol at 12, tone at 11, drive at 7, FM mode and MOSFET), I took the gain and treble down on the Fatboost, and used the comp only with the G&L again. The result was glorious once I dialed back the gain on my Rhythm 2 channel, I just had so much control at my guitar's volume knob. And when I switched to Lead channel, I almost ran offstage for a towel mid-song.

I think for smaller gigs the above would be too much gain, but with the amp opened up and set for more headroom, it worked perfectly and really helped my guitar to cut like a knife. As a rule I try to be very tame when stacking gain/OD pedals, as my young self even three years ago had a tendency to overdo it.

[jeremy]

Re: Is anyone else stacking overdrives or boosts?

What IS a pain is dealing the resultant increase in noise floor, so the gain staging needs to be carefully monitored.

true. i usually only stack em for big solos so typically would kick at least one off as soon as the wanking is over

[IMENATOR]

Re: Is anyone else stacking overdrives or boosts?

I was stacking a Fullton PlimSoul with a Boss Super Overdrive, that was crunchy but I really had activate my noise suppressor.

[Matt42]

Re: Is anyone else stacking overdrives or boosts?

I run anywhere from two to four ODs on my board at a time. I typically run one for rhythm and stack a second for leads. Occasionally I'll run two for rhythm and add a third for leads.

That all being said, my board will be changing radically in the next few days as I find the right pedals to use with my new amp.

[Chickenwings]

Re: Is anyone else stacking overdrives or boosts?

Ive been working on getting my nashville/bakersfield chops down for a new project.
Ive found that a tele into a Princeton Reverb (with a 12) via a blues driver with the gain set low covers a lot of great rhythm sounds, then i step on a compressor for leads which works equally well for pure clean leads as it does for pushing the blues driver into more of a lead tone. Its a pretty simple but effective setup for lower volumes which is great when playing with a double bassist and brush drummer.
If i want to rock out a little harder then i switch off the blues driver and use an SD-1 instead with the gain also low, and boost that with the compressor for leads.

[PFDarkside]

Re: Is anyone else stacking overdrives or boosts?

Ive found that a tele into a Princeton Reverb (with a 12) via a blues driver with the gain set low covers a lot of great rhythm sounds, then i step on a compressor for leads which works equally well for pure clean leads as it does for pushing the blues driver

Sounds cool. Did you mod the PR for the 12"? What speaker?

[treyhaislip]

Re: Is anyone else stacking overdrives or boosts?

It's a work in progress for me...

Boss SD-1 > Joyo Us Dream > 3ch Marshall VS100 combo.

Lotsa knob twiddlin' when I can get to it(housemates,y'know),but it's getting there,I think...

How's that Joyo US Dream treating you?

I use the Suhr Riot as a lead pedal–turn it on over either my Suhr Shiba or my Mad Professor Golden Cello.

[Chickenwings]

Re: Is anyone else stacking overdrives or boosts?

Sounds cool. Did you mod the PR for the 12"? What speaker?

Mine is a Princeton Reverb II, so it was built with a 12 back in 1981. I've had a few speakers in there, firstly the fender spec. design (flabby), then a celestion g12t75 (too scooped but it was better than the fender), then a jensen c12n (too piercing) then a 75 watt greenback style clone (nice and thick), then a texas heat (also nice and thick) and now a cannabis rex- fat loud and warm.
My good buddy and sometime jazz guitar duo partner has an old princeton reverb he has been gigging since the 70s. He was jealous of how the 12 sounded, and when his baffle developed a crack he had a new cab built for it and installed a cannabis rex. Then it was my turn to be jealous cos his sounded so fat, so i installed a cannabis rex. I think we are both happy now.
I reckon you can get a very similar sound with either a vintage or reissue deluxe reverb and a cannabis rex. I was recommended the cannabis by jeremy who uses this combo. I know there are a lot of other cats out there running a deluxe with a CR as well and getting great sounds for jazz blues, country or rock (actually ive used it a lot doing classical gigs too).

Interestingly (for me at least and maybe a few other guys who are interested in country) it turns out that Guthrie Trapp's main amp is also a princeton reverb in a 1x12 cabinet. I don't really know what speaker he uses tho. Maybe some kind of vintage jensen. Turns out Kenny Vaughan also loves his princetons but i dunno if he uses them stock of with the 12 inch speaker.


Sorry to derail the thread and rave on about amps and speakers...but they are good platforms for stacking pedals so i guess we are still on topic.

Oh yeah...final piece of the puzzle when using a tele....roll the tone back to halfway and set the amp and pedals up from there.