Distortion Pedals?

Re: Distortion Pedals?

some amps get very 'bass' heavy when turning up the gain, the right OD pedal can give you that extra gain without affecting your tone...
 
Re: Distortion Pedals?

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.

I've really been liking the Lava Box lately. I use it with both the clean and lead channels of my amp and depending on which "rumble" setting I use, or where the gain and volume are, I can dial in all kinds of crunch. If you use a clean channel (less preamp gain), you can really smack the power tubes in the mouth with a pedal like that, or use the lead channel and play with the amp gain vs. pedal gain. I've been kind of enjoying getting good "woman tones" from this thing and trying both kinds of signal paths is cool. I used the Lava Box on my Ampeg B-100 solid state and it was OK but you can work with the tubes more than with transistors, as far as tones go. You can also make a tube amp sound awful with distortion pedals.
 
Re: Distortion Pedals?

With amps and OD pedals, the cleaner the amp, the more it reveals the tone of an OD pedal.

In my opinion, the best lead guitar tone that isn't completely from an amp is an already overdriven amp with a neutral sounding OD on top.

Finding that balance is the key, because if your base tone is crystalline clean, the OD pedal will always reveal it's weaknesses.

As for the Guitar Center comment......the GC MXR Classic Overdrive is the best bang for buck OD ever made. It was MXR's best OD handed to you for a measly $40. The MXR GT-OD. I've gone through a lot of OD's, and my main one is a Klon....I still love the MXR Classic OD. Forum member Gibson175 will also attest.....it's the perfect OD on a Marshall amp for a lead tone.
 
Re: Distortion Pedals?

And the word "distortion pedal".....I don't like them at all. The best tones are from a gainy amp with a quality OD pushing into the same territory you thought a clean amp with Dist. pedal would give you.

Turn a tube amp up loud with plenty of natural gain, then throw a Way Huge Green Rhino in front of it. That pedal blows me away. It's the perfect tube screamer circuit with a 100Hz knob that beefs up the tone from unison to as fat as you want it.
 
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