Distortion Pedals?

[mirkok1]

how are distortion pedals supposed to be used with an all tube head? i understand using something like a tube screamer for a boost but if your using the distortion from the head why do people use distortion pedals? i know a lot of pro's like vai and wylde have them in there rigs.

 

[The JEM Ghost]

Re: Distortion Pedals?

I myself use them into the input of the clean channel, to create extra distortion channels sort of speak. It gives you extra distorted channels on top of your amp's one this way.

 

[Chickenwings]

Re: Distortion Pedals?

more bite and sustain and a slight change in eq lets legato style single notes flow more easily.

 

[mirkok1]

Re: Distortion Pedals?

gibson175 are you saying pedals give more bite and sustain. do u just run the pedal into the clean channel?

 

[Empty Pockets]

Re: Distortion Pedals?

there are no rules with this

they're tools, you either use them for what they do or you don't

 

[astrozombie]

Re: Distortion Pedals?

I use a boss turbo distortion in front of my clean fender.

90s alternative goodness.

 

[mirkok1]

Re: Distortion Pedals?

there are no rules with this

they're tools, you either use them for what they do or you don't

i'm not sure what they do, hence me making a thread to find out

 

[Sanford]

Re: Distortion Pedals?

Running a dirt pedal into a clean channel will let you create an extra setting for overdrive/boost/distortion, especially if your amp only has one channel. Using the pedal to further overdrive or distort a dirty channel will change the nature of the distortion you have going on. So let's say you've got your crunch sound coming from your amp then you kick on your distortion pedal. Depending on how the pedal is set you can get a louder lead tone for solos or more sustain because of the increase in gain, or you can get an overly saturated tone for heavier rhythms, more sustain or even just to generate feedback when you want it.

That's just a generic description of things a person could do. Once you get into mixing and matching pedals to your amp you open a huge can of options...and that's without even considering what other effects you might have going on.

 

[Sanford]

Re: Distortion Pedals?

That's why a lot of people choose to run more than one dirt pedal, they can use them for different settings and then mix together for even more distorted tones. Personally I like having a clean but loud amp and then use two or three dirt pedals for variations.

 

[Stef]

Re: Distortion Pedals?

 

[BluesGuyJ]

Re: Distortion Pedals?

Dist pedal on top of a dirty tone can add a distortion tone that perhaps has more cut and edge to it... buy a cheap DS1 and dink around with it man.

 

[drew_half_empty]

Re: Distortion Pedals?

Dist pedal on top of a dirty tone can add a distortion tone that perhaps has more cut and edge to it... buy a cheap DS1 and dink around with it man.

Yep, everyone has to own one in their life time. It's maybe the best $40 pedal you can buy

 

[Chickenwings]

Re: Distortion Pedals?

theres not many pedals that sound good on their own (as the only source of dirt) into a clean channel - a few, but not many.
However using a dirty box to spice up an overdriven preamp is a different story, and the cheap and cheerful classics like sd1s, ds1s, rats, etc etc etc can all give some pretty wicked tones.

 

[GuitarStv]

Re: Distortion Pedals?

Take your amp's dirty channel . . . turn all knobs (excluding reverb and tremolo if you have them) as far up as they will go. Next, take all distoriton/OD/gain pedals and daisy chain them before the input to your amp. Turn all controls marked 'level' and 'gain' as far up as they will go. Finally, plug your guitar in without muting the amp. Play 2 - 3 power chords. Don't worry about keeping in time or anything. Every time that I check out the local music store people are demonstrating this tone/technique, so it must be pretty popular at the moment.

 

[drew_half_empty]

Re: Distortion Pedals?

Take your amp's dirty channel . . . turn all knobs (excluding reverb and tremolo if you have them) as far up as they will go. Next, take all distoriton/OD/gain pedals and daisy chain them before the input to your amp. Turn all controls marked 'level' and 'gain' as far up as they will go. Finally, plug your guitar in without muting the amp. Play 2 - 3 power chords. Don't worry about keeping in time or anything. Every time that I check out the local music store people are demonstrating this tone/technique, so it must be pretty popular at the moment.

Stop going to guitar center

problem solved

 

[Edgecrusher]

Re: Distortion Pedals?

Keep in mind the amp you use with the distortion pedal will influence how you use it. In general with tube amps i like to use them with an already dirty tone and use the pedal as an extra boost or overdrive to push the amp harder. With most solid state amps Im not fond of boosting the signal like that and im more inclined to run a pedal into the clean channel and just use the pedals distortion. Experiment with your own rig your ears might tell you different.

 

[Artie]

Re: Distortion Pedals?

Take your amp's dirty channel . . . turn all knobs (excluding reverb and tremolo if you have them) as far up as they will go. Next, take all distoriton/OD/gain pedals and daisy chain them before the input to your amp. Turn all controls marked 'level' and 'gain' as far up as they will go. Finally, plug your guitar in without muting the amp. Play 2 - 3 power chords. Don't worry about keeping in time or anything. Every time that I check out the local music store people are demonstrating this tone/technique, so it must be pretty popular at the moment.

Smells like . . . teen spirit.


(Them, not you.)

 

[GuitarStv]

Re: Distortion Pedals?

Smells like . . . teen spirit.


(Them, not you.)

Does that mean I'm starting to smell like grouchy old man?

 

[misterwhizzy]

Re: Distortion Pedals?

I'm tempted to talk about waveforms and clipping, but I don't think that's going to translate into words very well, and I don't think normal people think in those terms anyway.

 

[devastone]

Re: Distortion Pedals?

I'm tempted to talk about waveforms and clipping, but I don't think that's going to translate into words very well, and I don't think normal people think in those terms anyway.

Agreed, but to build on the conversation, distortion pedals with the distortion/gain set low make great boosters just like overdrive pedals. ODs seem to be smoother and distortions have more edge (generally speaking), but running the gain low and boosting the output works great on either. Not so much on metal type pedals though...

FTR, Wylde uses an od pedal, originally a Boss SD-1, and his MXR pedal is based on that. Vai uses a DS-1 and a Tubescreamer on his pedal board. IIRC, he said in an interview once that the DS-1 sounds great but doesn't track as well when he's playing really fast so he for fast stuff he used the TS. I've never had a problem with a DS-1 not being able to track my playing... :smack: His Jemini pedal seems to be based on those 2 pedals: http://www.ibanez.com/news?ceId=2021&cat=4 although he says that he wanted the distortion side of that to work with a clean amp and the od side for boosting a dirty amp...

Best advice is to play around with some pedals and see what you like.