Best Overdrive Device: tube amp or stomp box?

[dr0]

A short while ago I posted a thread asking people what their favorite Fender 1x12 combo amp was. (In general the 22 Watt Deluxe in its many variations was the most popular.)

Like any question with a restricted set of answers some people went outside the constraints. One such response was interesting and got us into a discussion of which was better, a simple single channel amp with effects boxes, or a multi-channel amp, with one channel for tube overdrive. Here is the post from forum member Boogie Bill, (who perhaps not surprisingly given his handle) argued for the superiority of the multi-channel amp.

For the price you're talking, you could easily obtain a fully-loaded Mark III combo with EQ, reverb, Simul-Class power and EVM speaker. Mark IVs sell for not much more, and give you a more versatile R2 channel, a programable efx loop, and more power amp and tube options. Whether for stage use or recording studio, Mesa's are far better made and more versatile than what Fender has to offer. I'd much rather use the amp's natural tube distortion than spend my life (and my money) in the never-ending, eternal search for the dirt box(es) of the month.

So this leads to this week's poll question: What's your favorite way to get over-drive?

There do seem to be two main schools at this point:

• Many agree with Bill that the best overdrive tone is overdrive that comes from tubes, not something from a distortion or overdrive box (which are almost all solid state circuits). Certainly the ideal of having a clean channel for rhythm and a overdrive channel has led the the two (or more) channel amp, which are probably the majority of new amps these days. It's also lead to the "lunchbox amp" trend, with amps in the 1 to 5 amp range that can be turned up loud enough to get distortion. Call people in this camp the Tube Tribe.
  
  
• On the other side you have the fans of simple amps and effects boxes. This term "pedal platform" is now often used to describe a simple single channel amp that will be used with a bunch of fuzz-boxes to generate different tones. Let's call this group the Stomp Box Set.
  

Obviously there will be a few people who are in both camps, or neither. (And, I have provided options to cover these).

But IN GENERAL what type of overdrive do you prefer? Tube or "Fuzzbox" (meaning the entire range of overdrive from mild to wild that all the overdrive / distortion / metal / fuzz continuum provides)?

PLEASE VOTE FOR ONE OF THE TOP 4 CHOICES -- then any of the "add ons" that apply.

Thanks! Have fun!
Happy Friday Everyone!

 

[dr0]

Re: Best Overdrive Device: tube amp or stomp box?

One reason I thought of this was from watching a lot of YouTube amp demos, most of dual channel amps.

Maybe it's just my preferred type of music, but I really don't like a lot of the tube amp "overdrive channel" sounds, even on amps that are sort of famous for it.

For instance I watched a few reviews of the Marshall 50 watt JVM 2-channel combo. LIke a lot of new amps there are "modes" on both channels. My take was that the "Clean and Crunch" modes of channel one were both real nice sounds, but that both the all the overdrive modes on channel 2 were not-so-great sounding.

I *think* I like a lot of gain. I sometimes use two overdrives in a row into my amp, to get a lot of singing sustain. But I don't like the buzzy, scooped sound that is the sort of sterotype of "modern metal", which I associate with the Mesa Triple Rectifiers, 5150 and similar amps. Even on my JCM-800 I tend to use the the LOW input a lot of the time, and my Maxxon OD or OCD for overdrive.

I think I have always believed that "tubes make the best overdrive tone", but I don't act that way in practice, and may have slipped into actually preferring the sound of a good fuzzbox to most OD channels.

 

[PFDarkside]

Re: Best Overdrive Device: tube amp or stomp box?

I appreciate all of the ways to get great guitar tone...

A Super Reverb on 6 boosted by a Tube Screamer sounds different than
A Marshall Plexi on 8/9 sounds different than
A Marshall JTM45/100 on 6 with a Fuzz Face sounds different than
A Marshall JCM800 with a RAT sounds different than
A Cascaded Preamp (Boogie, etc.) style amp.

They are all great tones for different applications .

 

[dr0]

Re: Best Overdrive Device: tube amp or stomp box?

I'm not sure what the venue would be where I could play a Plexi on 9, but I'm pretty sure I'm not going to get a chance to play there anytime soon.

A couple years ago the drummer got tickets to see Randy Hansen at a club here in town. If you don't know him, he's been doing Hendrix Tribute for a long time (20 years? More?) and he's really good at it. Obviously he has all the period correct stuff, including a couple Marshall stacks (actually he had at least one 8x12 "refrigerator" cabinet, which I had never seen before). It was a large room, maybe the size of a six bay garage. It was a pretty lively room, lots of hard surfaces.

I remember thinking the music sounded better from the room next door than the room he was in. It was just too freaking loud.

Same thing when I saw the Ramones in a club in Connecticut many many years ago. Stupid loud, unpleasant.

Back in the day guys like Hendrix and Clapton in the Cream were playing very large venues like Madison Square Guarden, and the Rhode Island Auditorium (a 5,300 seat Basketball arena) and similar places. Mostly in 1968 the science of sound reinforcement was just in it's infancy, and a lot of these places didn't have sound systems. So the stacks and double stacks were there to fill these hockey and basketball arenas. That's where the legend of Plexi tone was created, but not too many people are going to get the opportunity to play somewhere like that, and if you do, the sound engineer is going to want you to play at "stage volume" and mic you for the PA.

So for me the one type of distortion I don't really consider is a non-master-volume high output amp turned up really loud. But I do love the period recordings of them, like Live Cream Vol. 2 and Band of Gypsies for the tone they got. It was glorious!

 

[Powdered Toast Man]

Re: Best Overdrive Device: tube amp or stomp box?

I've been down both of these paths.

All of my tube amps are the non master volume type. No matter the wattage of the amp my experience has been that to push the amp into "natural breakup" territory it quickly becomes too loud for a band situation. In rehearsal I am drowning everyone out. On stage my stage volume is far too loud which creates multiple issues for me, the band, and the sound man. To combat this I tried going the route of using an attenuator. They work well however the difficulty I found was the attenuator creates a hard limit on the output volume. So hitting my boost pedal for a solo resulted in more drive but no increase in volume. So I dumped the attenuators.

Basically I had to go back to the dirt pedal setup out of necessity. It gives me more ability to manage my volume and tone no matter the circumstances. It also allows me consistent tone no matter which amp I am playing through (for example at a gig where rented backline is provided). Through trial and error I have been able to find a couple of high quality overdrives that deliver the sound I am after and are convincingly similar to an actual overdriven tube amp.

Sent from my SM-G950W using Tapatalk

 

[Mincer]

Re: Best Overdrive Device: tube amp or stomp box?

I don't know...my favorite overdrive tones were found a variety of different ways: non-master volume amps, master volume amps, pedals, & modelers. Good is good to me, no matter how I get there.

 

[Aceman]

Re: Best Overdrive Device: tube amp or stomp box?

I am a fan of the sound I like. I don't care how I get it. And I often want different sounds....

 

[JB_From_Hell]

Re: Best Overdrive Device: tube amp or stomp box?

I’m really into the way my Super Reverb sounds above 5, with a stack of drive pedals in front. Unlike the me of 10 years ago, I have zero interest in multi-channel amps. One of my pedals is a Radial Plexitube, but I turn on the yellow channel and leave it alone.

 

[Chistopher]

Re: Best Overdrive Device: tube amp or stomp box?

I most often have multiple parts to my distortion chain. I set my amp so that I can go from dirty to clean with my picking dynamics, then I use a distortion (DS-1/RAT amounts of distortion) pedal at a lower setting boosted by a Klone. That's the best way I've found to do it.

 

[Little Pigbacon]

Re: Best Overdrive Device: tube amp or stomp box?

I don’t really distinguish between single- and multi-channel amps, regarding whether I would use dirt pedals with them. I used to have a three-channel tube amp where the clean channel was useful, crunch channel was useful, but the lead channel was a bit fizzy and buzzy for my taste. I would use a hot distortion pedal on the clean channel to get my third “channel”. Now I have a two-channel amp with a similar scenario. I use a couple of overdrives in front of it to give me three or so options.

Of course, I could start hanging out with a better class of amps. But Mesa Roadster money doesn’t come my way often. Maybe next bonus cycle.

 

[dave74]

Re: Best Overdrive Device: tube amp or stomp box?

As I posted on another thread recently;

There's more than one way to skin a cat, and plenty of good ways to cook it.

You can even use a full-out distortion box as a 0-gain booster into a high-gain dirty tube channel.

 

[allbutromeo]

Re: Best Overdrive Device: tube amp or stomp box?

I went with both. I'd say it's mostly 90% amp gain and 10% pedal. I use an OD/Boost on all the time with a three channel amp. On the clean channel it adds just a touch of grit, and on the rhythm and lead OD channels tightens everything up.
And on occasion I'll use a fuzz pedal through the clean channel.

 

[Lewguitar]

Re: Best Overdrive Device: tube amp or stomp box?

My favorite way is to plug into a small 20 watt amp and just crank it. But that’s not conducive to getting a clean rhythm sound and even with a 20 watt amp, it’s usually too loud for most playing situations and most Blues jams.

So I usually use a pedal for overdriven solos and usually turn it off when playing rhythm.

My Klon and my Simble (Dumble amp tone) allow me to get a cleanish rock rhythm tone by turning down my guitar’s volume control. It’s still a bit broken up but it works for rock rhythm.

If I want my tone completely clean I turn my overdrive pedals off.

My Tubescreamer (actually a Route 808) doesn’t clean up enough when I lower my guitar’s volume control so I think of it as an on or off pedal...not one I can leave on all the time.

 

[Lewguitar]

Re: Best Overdrive Device: tube amp or stomp box?

The days when I could just crank up a 100 watt Marshall and get the ultimate soloing tone ever are gone for good for me.

But here’s my favorite lead guitar tone. No pedals. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=n9ODNQPQo3A

 

[IM4Tone]

Re: Best Overdrive Device: tube amp or stomp box?

I checked BOTH. You really can't rely on some tube amp's distortion in general because of volume issues/restrictions. (Attenuaters and Iso boxes aside.)
I also checked "I hate you, stop posting these stupid polls!" only because I thought it was very funny.

 

[Darg1911]

Re: Best Overdrive Device: tube amp or stomp box?

I'm the one who checked Add On's Below

 

[dr0]

Re: Best Overdrive Device: tube amp or stomp box?

I'm the one who checked Add On's Below

Thanks! I was worried that no one would vote for that :friday:

 

[Little Pigbacon]

Re: Best Overdrive Device: tube amp or stomp box?

I checked BOTH. You really can't rely on some tube amp's distortion in general because of volume issues/restrictions. (Attenuaters and Iso boxes aside.)

If you can’t rely on a master-volume tube amp that was designed to get its distortion from preamp gain, then you probably can’t rely on a solid-state or modeling amp that does the same thing.

 

[Jacew]

Re: Best Overdrive Device: tube amp or stomp box?

Single channel tube amp with great preamp distortion.

I might use overdrive for some special tones, but I had to rely pedals for my standard tones, I'd just change my amp.

 

[Empty Pockets]

Re: Best Overdrive Device: tube amp or stomp box?

It doesn't matter as long as it sounds good.

None of this ****ing matters if you don't write good songs.

Some of the best music ever was composed on an 8bit Nintendo.

It's not the knife, or the kitchen. It's the chef.