Catailinbread Supercharged Overdrive Issue

[Aceman]

So, I'm pulling out all kinds of pedals and comparing these days! I just have a great little zone on top of my Marshall, and I'm just plugging and playing....

Anyway - My Supercharged Overdrive makes a weird sound when I hit it with: Les Paul + Duncan Distortion.

Instead of a nice overdriven bass crunch, it makes a kind of 'dooge' sound. Almost like the distortion overloaded an input or something. So like an E chord at the 7th fret sound ok on the A/D strings. But if I hit the big e, or play a B cord at the 7th it sounds wonky.

What's that about?

 

[Demanic]

Turn the bass on the pedal down. The low end of the Distortion is overloading it.

Sent from my SM-A115A using Tapatalk

 

[Aceman]

Turn the bass on the pedal down. The low end of the Distortion is overloading it.

Sent from my SM-A115A using Tapatalk

What if that makes the pedal too bright everywhere else? Pedal defective? Or just an occasional fact of life. Never encountered this before.

And don't say adjust at the amp!

 

[jeremy]

have you tried it at 18v for more headroom?

 

[Bogner]

To me it sounds like overload on some frequencies with the amp and the pedal. I would dial everything back on the amp and the pedal and increase slowly to find out specifically what it is and where it is at knob wise and see if you can find a work around. If you have other amps, try those and see. Some pedals work great in very specific ways. Is this in the loop or out front or both?

 

[Aceman]

Straight in to a clean channel

Good call on the experiments. Perhaps tomorrow...

 

[Aceman]

Have not tried 18v either. Oldert pedal. Could I melt it down if not 18v?

 

[Hsb]

I have a SD Killing Floor boost that if the bass on my amp is over 5 and playing hard it flubs out the low end. Lowering the bass below helps some

 

[Bogner]

Have not tried 18v either. Oldert pedal. Could I melt it down if not 18v?

I wouldn't put it on 18 volts unless it says on the pedal you can do so. Even if 18 volts is possible, I don't think that is going to solve the problem. At this point, pinpointing the specifics are what I would think are most important. If the pedal is doing that on a clean channel I would think that is a bass issue and overload as long as the pedal "sounds right" in other ways and frequencies. Does it wig out differently with gain in the equation? If so, I am inclined to think there is a problem in the pedal. : /

 

[Aceman]

OK - I tried another amp. Same deal. But I also tried another guitar. It happens with my Duncan Distortion, but NOT a Duncan Custom!

Something about that pickup...perhaps in that guitar. Heavy 70's Norlin axe.

 

[Hsb]

Yep, prob the Distortion, thats the pu that gives me issue with the Killing Floor. Just drops that low note, doesnt happen with CC I have in my LTD

 

[Aceman]

So likely issue is my pickup is too hot for my pedal. That actually makes me smile....

I'll try my X2N in the morning to confirm the diagnosis.

 

[Hsb]

Yep exactly

 

[Aceman]

OK - so I broke out my F.U. Kitty Strat, loaded with a DiMarzio X2N...and here are my observations:

#1 This pickup also flubbed the bass out!
#2 It did so more intensiely
#3 It did so at progressively higher notes!
- So with a custom if I REALLY dig in I could flub a low E sometimes
- With the Distortion, power chord at the 5th fret and below went south
- With the X2N, I could crap out a C5 at the 8th fret.

Mostly seems to happen on the big string though...So it appears that some pedals, I'm thinking the milder overdrive crowd, just don't take these Uber-pickups very well! Now - any pedal that goes to "distortion" levels, does not seem to mind.

I have learned something! And it makes sense. If you have killer hot pickup, why are you using a pedal to add more gain. Use the pedal, use the pickup but not both.


Interesting side note, the X2N was breaking up the Marshall clean without any pedal!

 

[Aceman]

have you tried it at 18v for more headroom?

I don 't have an 18v adapter it appears, but I think I may try this. That said - based on the "input" issue, do you think that will help?

 

[Mincer]

Yes, mild overdrives don't take getting slammed with a hot pickup like that. You might try a compressor or limiter before the pedal, and that should help.

 

[Aceman]

Yes, mild overdrives don't take getting slammed with a hot pickup like that. You might try a compressor or limiter before the pedal, and that should help.

I was looking more into this and trying various pedals with assorted pickups. Like I said - if it can happen, the X2N will do it.

"Sag" is exactly the right word for it. I almost always run my mega output stuff into either an amp, our a full on distortion pedal. Makes sense I never noticed before. On an interesting note, I can get my Wampler Plexi-drive to do it too.

 

[Demanic]

What if that makes the pedal too bright everywhere else? Pedal defective? Or just an occasional fact of life. Never encountered this before.

And don't say adjust at the amp!

Well gee, if that's the case you certainly can adjust the amp. There's plenty of different knobs that can be turned throughout the whole signal chain I'm sure. What I suggested is based on MY experience with the Distortion.

Sent from my SM-A115A using Tapatalk

 

[ErikH]

Lower the bass side of the pickup a turn or two. That should lesson the low frequency assault.

 

[Hsb]

I dont have any other issues with my Tumnus or Pinnacle, def not the Dracarys, just the Killing Floor which is a high gain boost pedal. I could get it to happen using a CC last nite but its a lot harder than with the Distortion. If I ease up a little bit on the pick hand, it wont flub out. It also seems to take a minute of hard playing for it to get to the point of flubbing out the low note.