Hello to all! Ive been in this dilemma ever since i bought my first distortion pedal and plugged it into my cheap practice amp. It sounded awful, fizzy and not defined (the lack of definition even with low gain settings is my main concern). But i dont know what is faulty about this, ive tried two pedals (boss os2 and big muff pi) through the amp and both lack definition. Is this because of my ****ty amp or because of something with my guitar (eg the pickups)? Im running the pedals on the clean channel, but the dry guitar signal (in the clean channel without any effects) sounds just fine, so i dont know what to upgrade. Does anyone have any advice on this? Thanks
Faulty amp or faulty pickups?
- Thread starter borgercat
- Start date
Re: Faulty amp or faulty pickups?
Possibly all or the above, possibly just wrong initial settings
Most pedals suck through anything except headphones (where you can't tell they suck) or hi-end amps...or just in general, too (yeah surprisingly there is a reason some cost $19.99, while others cost $299)
Also if you're new, you probably don't know how to set your amp, guitar, and pedals
Try the following:
Guitar: all knobs full throttle, pickup selector: bridge pickup (switch to the right on a strat copies)
Pedal: all knobs 12'o'clock (halfway) for low gain pedals, all knobs 12 o clock except gain 10 o clock-ish for overly crazy pedals
Amp: EITHER all knobs 12 o clock except volume adjust as needed (Marshall-style EQ).... OR bass 2, mid 10, treble 2, any other knobs halfway (Fender style EQ) ... adjust from there, as needed
Also might help to name what you're using, guitar and amp wise
PS if you have reverb and things get noisy, dial that DOWN
Possibly all or the above, possibly just wrong initial settings
Most pedals suck through anything except headphones (where you can't tell they suck) or hi-end amps...or just in general, too (yeah surprisingly there is a reason some cost $19.99, while others cost $299)
Also if you're new, you probably don't know how to set your amp, guitar, and pedals
Try the following:
Guitar: all knobs full throttle, pickup selector: bridge pickup (switch to the right on a strat copies)
Pedal: all knobs 12'o'clock (halfway) for low gain pedals, all knobs 12 o clock except gain 10 o clock-ish for overly crazy pedals
Amp: EITHER all knobs 12 o clock except volume adjust as needed (Marshall-style EQ).... OR bass 2, mid 10, treble 2, any other knobs halfway (Fender style EQ) ... adjust from there, as needed
Also might help to name what you're using, guitar and amp wise
PS if you have reverb and things get noisy, dial that DOWN
Chistopher
malapterurus electricus tonewood instigator
Re: Faulty amp or faulty pickups?
1) you HAVE hiend gear, you ain't hearing it thru some Squier 15R or whatever (see: "cheap practice amp"), and most importantly, not thru its onboard speaker... And your guitar is probably significantly better, has nice pickups, and some semblance of a setup, even.
Your results =/= newbies' results with same pedal
2) don't you have anything remotely better to do with your time?
1) you HAVE hiend gear, you ain't hearing it thru some Squier 15R or whatever (see: "cheap practice amp"), and most importantly, not thru its onboard speaker... And your guitar is probably significantly better, has nice pickups, and some semblance of a setup, even.
Your results =/= newbies' results with same pedal
2) don't you have anything remotely better to do with your time?
Jacew
New member
Re: Faulty amp or faulty pickups?
:smack:
Anyway despite belligerent and condescending attitude. I think Adieu is right with the amp: Muff quite likely is not going to sound good through SS practice amp. I don't know about OS2 though...
Some less transparent straight up distortion pedal, like MD-2, might work better. Though upgrading the amp would definitely be more productive, than buying pedals to try to make what you have to sound better.
What amp do you have?
:smack:
Anyway despite belligerent and condescending attitude. I think Adieu is right with the amp: Muff quite likely is not going to sound good through SS practice amp. I don't know about OS2 though...
Some less transparent straight up distortion pedal, like MD-2, might work better. Though upgrading the amp would definitely be more productive, than buying pedals to try to make what you have to sound better.
What amp do you have?
Re: Faulty amp or faulty pickups?
Muahahaha mere mortals bow down and pay tribute, and thou shalt receive my eternal wisdom, otherwise tremble in fear and stick out your necks in preparation to get your heads bitten off by My Supreme Majesty
.....NOT
OP asked advice OP got respectful suggestions that might even be helpful... so what y'all on about?
Muahahaha mere mortals bow down and pay tribute, and thou shalt receive my eternal wisdom, otherwise tremble in fear and stick out your necks in preparation to get your heads bitten off by My Supreme Majesty
.....NOT
OP asked advice OP got respectful suggestions that might even be helpful... so what y'all on about?
Chistopher
malapterurus electricus tonewood instigator
Re: Faulty amp or faulty pickups?
Great, now you're batting 1 for 1000.
But in all seriousness, if it's not an issue of equipment just plain not working well together, which it probably is, your tone cap on the guitar might be grounding out on something. Does the tone control work?
Great, now you're batting 1 for 1000.
But in all seriousness, if it's not an issue of equipment just plain not working well together, which it probably is, your tone cap on the guitar might be grounding out on something. Does the tone control work?
Re: Faulty amp or faulty pickups?
I would say it's your amp. The really cheap ones aren't really designed for sonic variations and especially not to be pushed by an OD. The speakers are cheap as is the enclosure and it just won't resonate well.
It could also be your pick ups, though. You didn't mention what guitar you have. If they are super cheap, single coils, the noise they make may be amplified by the pedal and cause a type of feedback squeal. Hard to know without more information or a sound clip or two.
I would say it's your amp. The really cheap ones aren't really designed for sonic variations and especially not to be pushed by an OD. The speakers are cheap as is the enclosure and it just won't resonate well.
It could also be your pick ups, though. You didn't mention what guitar you have. If they are super cheap, single coils, the noise they make may be amplified by the pedal and cause a type of feedback squeal. Hard to know without more information or a sound clip or two.
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FuseG4
Our Neighbor Totoro
Re: Faulty amp or faulty pickups?
It's the amp!
Those little 15r practice amps are good for low volume clean tones or if you like a very splatty flubby messy overdrive. Like others said they're not designed for use with pedals... that's an oversimplification but it comes down to that it's solid state and those add different, less pleasing frequencies to your signal when they distort. And a pedal is a good way to get a solid state amp to distort that way. Combined with the cabinet and speaker, they are tiny and cheap and muffle the bass and treble and make the mids sound boxy and nasal, but muddy.
If you can test your pedal and guitar through something with a 12" speaker I bet that would be a great first step.
If you can find a cheap tube amp with at least a 10" speaker you will be in decent shape.
The amp does a lot more for the guitar sound than I gave it credit for when starting out. Tube amps especially tend to add frequencies that are musically related in a pleasing way to your guitar signal even if you just use a clean sound, and the way the speaker interacts with the amp itself is different (more dynamic) in tube amps. It makes a big difference in making pedals "sound right".
Give me a good tube amp and even really bad pickups can be made to sound decent, a $400 amp can make a $90 guitar sound pretty professional. But even Thousands of $ of gear into a frontman 15 will be too limited by that frontman's sound.
It's the amp!
Those little 15r practice amps are good for low volume clean tones or if you like a very splatty flubby messy overdrive. Like others said they're not designed for use with pedals... that's an oversimplification but it comes down to that it's solid state and those add different, less pleasing frequencies to your signal when they distort. And a pedal is a good way to get a solid state amp to distort that way. Combined with the cabinet and speaker, they are tiny and cheap and muffle the bass and treble and make the mids sound boxy and nasal, but muddy.
If you can test your pedal and guitar through something with a 12" speaker I bet that would be a great first step.
If you can find a cheap tube amp with at least a 10" speaker you will be in decent shape.
The amp does a lot more for the guitar sound than I gave it credit for when starting out. Tube amps especially tend to add frequencies that are musically related in a pleasing way to your guitar signal even if you just use a clean sound, and the way the speaker interacts with the amp itself is different (more dynamic) in tube amps. It makes a big difference in making pedals "sound right".
Give me a good tube amp and even really bad pickups can be made to sound decent, a $400 amp can make a $90 guitar sound pretty professional. But even Thousands of $ of gear into a frontman 15 will be too limited by that frontman's sound.
Re: Faulty amp or faulty pickups?
Thanks to everyone for the quick replys! I actually do use a 15w fender frontman lmao, and i play with a hss squier strat. And about my pedals, i do set them up at 12 o’clock and go from there with the tone knob, and i never go too overboard with the gain. So i was thinking about getting a boss katana 50, they are quite low cost, have onboard effects, more wattage, and from reviews and videos it sounds awesome. Any opinions on it and how it may interact with pedals?
P.D: The tone control does work, and im thinking that its probably the amp, because on clean ive never had any problem, or feedback or anything. Altough in the future i will change pickups and also tone caps and pots (the guitar comes stock with 250k pots and .47 caps, which are good with single coils but not with hb, also the hb isnt even wired to a pot) but i wanted to know which one should i upgrade first
Thanks to everyone for the quick replys! I actually do use a 15w fender frontman lmao, and i play with a hss squier strat. And about my pedals, i do set them up at 12 o’clock and go from there with the tone knob, and i never go too overboard with the gain. So i was thinking about getting a boss katana 50, they are quite low cost, have onboard effects, more wattage, and from reviews and videos it sounds awesome. Any opinions on it and how it may interact with pedals?
P.D: The tone control does work, and im thinking that its probably the amp, because on clean ive never had any problem, or feedback or anything. Altough in the future i will change pickups and also tone caps and pots (the guitar comes stock with 250k pots and .47 caps, which are good with single coils but not with hb, also the hb isnt even wired to a pot) but i wanted to know which one should i upgrade first
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Re: Faulty amp or faulty pickups?
Lol
It's a Fender, so set EQ treble low mids MAX bass low and see if if helps
Also....some kid on the internet proved that it's NOT the amp, it's the $5 speaker they ship it with that makes it sound like cats tortured in hell competing with a shedload of bees to give yo momma a headache.
Connected to serious speakers, the fender/squier 15watter sounds like a decent solid state approximation of a Mesa Rectifier (of all things).
Yes, on that horrendous-when-stock Drive channel
As this kid himself says, "you know for a fact the Messuh [Mesa lol] sound better, BUT... for $20... actually gets a lot of similar sounds"
And don't let people tell you it's the cab... mesa cabs sound good, but what they do NOT do is make other amps sound like rectifiers all by themselves.
So get anything with 12" speaker or speakers from craigslist for like $100-150 and connect that in place of the Fender's atrocious onboard speaker, and you're good to go
Lol
It's a Fender, so set EQ treble low mids MAX bass low and see if if helps
Also....some kid on the internet proved that it's NOT the amp, it's the $5 speaker they ship it with that makes it sound like cats tortured in hell competing with a shedload of bees to give yo momma a headache.
Connected to serious speakers, the fender/squier 15watter sounds like a decent solid state approximation of a Mesa Rectifier (of all things).
Yes, on that horrendous-when-stock Drive channel
As this kid himself says, "you know for a fact the Messuh [Mesa lol] sound better, BUT... for $20... actually gets a lot of similar sounds"
And don't let people tell you it's the cab... mesa cabs sound good, but what they do NOT do is make other amps sound like rectifiers all by themselves.
So get anything with 12" speaker or speakers from craigslist for like $100-150 and connect that in place of the Fender's atrocious onboard speaker, and you're good to go
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FuseG4
Our Neighbor Totoro
Re: Faulty amp or faulty pickups?
The video sounds better than I thought.
My Fender Champion 20 sounds good through my 12" Fender Supersonic cab. Not the $1100 of the Supersonic good, but the champion was $99. So I have done my version of what the Messuh dude did.
Regarding the katana with pedals
I'm pretty sure when Boss/Roland designs pedals they always did testing and development with Boss/Roland amps, so probably solid state jazz chorus amps and later cube amps.
I find the boss distortion into a roland amp tone kinda fizzy a lot of times, with a brittle high end. I haven't played the katana but I can't imagine it would be light years different.
The important thing to watch with solid state amps and drive pedals is the "level" or "volume" control on the pedals.
With tube amps it's common to have the pedal provide some or even a lot of volume boost as well as the distortion, the goal is to get the tubes working.
In a solid state amp and modeling amp, they have a threshold of signal they like to see and go above with hotter pickups and boosting the volume level with pedals, and you may like or hate the results. So just keep that in mind if you continue down the solid state or digital paths.
If you're going for a tone with the big muff that someone else got by pushing the front end of a tube amp with the volume boost as well as the gain from the big muff, doing that on the katana, or your amp with a 12", is probably not going to be as good. It might be horrible.
The video sounds better than I thought.
My Fender Champion 20 sounds good through my 12" Fender Supersonic cab. Not the $1100 of the Supersonic good, but the champion was $99. So I have done my version of what the Messuh dude did.
Regarding the katana with pedals
I'm pretty sure when Boss/Roland designs pedals they always did testing and development with Boss/Roland amps, so probably solid state jazz chorus amps and later cube amps.
I find the boss distortion into a roland amp tone kinda fizzy a lot of times, with a brittle high end. I haven't played the katana but I can't imagine it would be light years different.
The important thing to watch with solid state amps and drive pedals is the "level" or "volume" control on the pedals.
With tube amps it's common to have the pedal provide some or even a lot of volume boost as well as the distortion, the goal is to get the tubes working.
In a solid state amp and modeling amp, they have a threshold of signal they like to see and go above with hotter pickups and boosting the volume level with pedals, and you may like or hate the results. So just keep that in mind if you continue down the solid state or digital paths.
If you're going for a tone with the big muff that someone else got by pushing the front end of a tube amp with the volume boost as well as the gain from the big muff, doing that on the katana, or your amp with a 12", is probably not going to be as good. It might be horrible.
Re: Faulty amp or faulty pickups?
...especially when you consider that his MESA tone is kinda meh.
This could probably be improved upon. A lot.
Anyway, not saying "go spend $500ish (or worse yet, $1300 or whatever full retail) and buy that same Mesa cab".... Just that the massive 15R letdown is coming from the speaker.
Btw, something like a craigslist v30 or c90 installed in a junk or empty 112 cab, monitor or combo chassis can be achieved with $100 or less. Budget 150-200, and you get all kinds of options
Note: preferably use 8ohm for a single, or two 16ohm speakers in parallel for 2x12
...especially when you consider that his MESA tone is kinda meh.
This could probably be improved upon. A lot.
Anyway, not saying "go spend $500ish (or worse yet, $1300 or whatever full retail) and buy that same Mesa cab".... Just that the massive 15R letdown is coming from the speaker.
Btw, something like a craigslist v30 or c90 installed in a junk or empty 112 cab, monitor or combo chassis can be achieved with $100 or less. Budget 150-200, and you get all kinds of options
Note: preferably use 8ohm for a single, or two 16ohm speakers in parallel for 2x12
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