Distortion: Amps and Pedals?

jazzems5150

jazzems5150

New member
How do you get your distorted tone? With your amp or your pedals? I'm kind of curious as to what others do, I'm in a situation now where I'm in love with the cleans my Hot Rod DeVille has to offer, but the dirty channels aren't doing it for me. I'm heavily considering selling my HRD and picking up a DSL 50, but I like my cleans, so, on the other side I'm considering picking up a few distortions and ODs to compensate.
 
Last edited:
Re: Distortion: Amps and Pedals?

jazzems5150 said:
How do you get your distorted tone? With your amp or your pedals? I'm kind of curious as to what others do, I'm in a situation now where I'm in love with the cleans my Hot Rod DeVille has to offer, but the dirty channels aren't doing it for me. I'm heavily considering selling my HRD and picking up a DSL 50, but I like my cleans, so, on the other side I'm considering picking up a few distortions and ODs to compensate.
Click to expand...

I have always relied on pedals. The main reason being I am a Fender amp guy and they have no gain channel. But even my amps with distortion my Marshall and my old JC120 (very quirky distortion) I have prefered to use pedals. I do have a Fender M80 Pro that has great onboard distortion but my stompboxes alway prove to be +1 better. If you like the cleans and everything else about the amp I would suggest a stompbox before selling an amp you seem to like.
 
Re: Distortion: Amps and Pedals?

Depends which amp. My JCM 800 just gets a little boost from a tubescreamer close (Visual sound) and on my blues deluxe I use a mesa V twin and/or a rat for distortion. The V twin boosted with a rat is brootal.
 
Re: Distortion: Amps and Pedals?

I distort the amp tubes. At the moment, other than an occasional tube screamer into a Super Reverb, I hardly ever use pedals.
 
Re: Distortion: Amps and Pedals?

Interesting question.
As a disclaimer - I play mostly heavy music in a heavy band. But recently I have come to consider that many of the heaviest sounds I loved from the old 60s and 70s bands were not actually that overdriven after all. I have a Mesa dual recto and have found myself spending a LOT of time trying to dial in just the right level of gain; often reducing it. Especially when recording.

I have a modded tube screamer that I use to get a little bit more push sometimes, and I do like what it can add; also to effects that are after it in the chain like wah, phase, delay.

I also recently bought a Fulltone Plimsoul. It's a versatile distortion pedal and sounds good. But one thing about pedals, is that they almost always seem..."mixed" into the signal; especially at lower volumes. That Plimsoul feels that way. It sounds good, but like an effect, I guess. Whereas with real amp distortion - especially power tube distortion - I get the feel of it all over the signal. Really responsive, etc.
I played through an old Silvertone 1484 recently and fell in love with the way it sounded as it broke up. This amp does not have a master volume. I still needed a distortion box to play heavier stuff through it, but it sounded great for leads without a lot of help.

I am openly addicted to fx pedals but sometimes I think, man I should just plug the damn guitar straight into the amp and forget all that pedal baloney.
 
Re: Distortion: Amps and Pedals?

Before I got a high gain amp I just used pedals to get it. I used a Homebrew full metal jacket or a Biyang metal-end. This was just home use.
 
Re: Distortion: Amps and Pedals?

For chugging along I prefer to use the amps gain with an OD pedal, In the days when I was playing leads I did like to hit the distorted channel with another distortion or fuzz pedal...I always felt that it enhanced the harmonics....
 
Re: Distortion: Amps and Pedals?

I have done everything over the years. Always go back to the amp,and a.goose for leads. My least fave situation by far is a pedal as a gain channel.
 
Re: Distortion: Amps and Pedals?

Cannot escape how stiff and liniar od pedals are compared to an amp....
And trust me, I have done all kinds of crazy stuff to get by that feel.....hehe some are ok....but still they have that trade mark feel to them.
 
Re: Distortion: Amps and Pedals?

I'm an amp guy myself. That being said, I'd love to try a nice great clean amp (Fender probably) with some distortion pedals just for a change. That's more of a nice to have though and not something I'm doing anytime soon =).
 
Re: Distortion: Amps and Pedals?

I get my distortion from the amp (Marshalls), roll back my guitar volume for cleans and, depending on the song, either boost with an OD pedal for leads or just play leads with the guitar volume on 10. I've often thought I could achieve more versatility using pedals into a clean amp but I've never yet found a pedal I like as much as my amp distortion.
 
Re: Distortion: Amps and Pedals?

I've never been 100% happy with pedals as the main distortion sound. IMHO, it's always been so much better to just get an amp that has the distortion/od sound I'm looking for. I'm therefore a real "guitar-cord-amp" kinda guy.
I build a lot of pedals and have tons of fun with them but if I'm playing live (I play heavier when I play electric), it's gonna be either my Mesa or my Orange. If I do need any type of pedal, it's gonna be an SHO as a boost in front...that's all.
 
Re: Distortion: Amps and Pedals?

The deville is an amazing amp with the right pedals, I say skip the DSL (which sucks IMHO) and pedal it up! one of the fullest most satisfying distortion tones I have heard has come from an old USA made silver panel Deville 4x10

EDIT- The DSL does not suck per se as much as it is very boomy and thin at the same time, at least in my experience and does not cut through as well as other amps. The whole thought that you need a stack to sound big is totally wrong. I use the DSL 100 at rehearsal and my brother uses a newer Deville 4x10 or 2x12 and the deville ALWAYS sounds better and fuller in comparison.
 
Last edited:
Re: Distortion: Amps and Pedals?

'When" I play thru a reg amp,it's always w/a boost/od or dist pedal,just to goose it...

Usually it's a 3-ch Valvestate,pretty much 6 tones to use...
 
Re: Distortion: Amps and Pedals?

I have a one channel amp, and I need everything from br00tal tones to super squeaky cleans, so I always rely on a pedal more than an amp. If I need a super high gain, then my Tubescreamer into my MXR Custom Badass 78 Distortion is really really heavy.
 
Re: Distortion: Amps and Pedals?

hydro said:
Interesting question.
As a disclaimer - I play mostly heavy music in a heavy band. But recently I have come to consider that many of the heaviest sounds I loved from the old 60s and 70s bands were not actually that overdriven after all. .
Click to expand...

i've come to the same conclusion, i have also found that cleaner cuts better, and more distortion can get lost in a band situation
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

C
It has arrived
Replies
15
Views
307
Chistopher
C
I
Bridge pickup to pair with Custom Custom and 59 Custom in neck
Replies
10
Views
371
Mincer
Mincer
I
Duncan 59/Custom and Stag Mag--useful in rock/metal?
Replies
4
Views
370
GuitarDoc
G
C
Peavey JSX Review
2 3
Replies
43
Views
1K
80's_Thrash_Metal
80's_Thrash_Metal
E
Let's build the best amplifier you will ever play...
2 3
Replies
44
Views
793
justFred
justFred
Back
Top