heating up the front vs. amp distortion only

[MrHeavyMetal]

Re: heating up the front vs. amp distortion only

I use an old rat to give a slight kick in the pants to my Marshall 1959SLP. It can get real brutal if I want it to. Rats and Marshalls are MADE for each other.

 

[Rich_T]

Re: heating up the front vs. amp distortion only

I use an old rat to give a slight kick in the pants to my Marshall 1959SLP. It can get real brutal if I want it to. Rats and Marshalls are MADE for each other.

:werd:

 

[ModestCargo]

Re: heating up the front vs. amp distortion only

To me "amp distortion" means an amp turned up to the point of power tube breakup. Not gain in the preamp - that means nothing, you might as well use pedals. And I like my tube screamer WAY better than most master volume type setups.

 

[MetalMike_II]

Re: heating up the front vs. amp distortion only

To me "amp distortion" means an amp turned up to the point of power tube breakup. Not gain in the preamp - that means nothing, you might as well use pedals. And I like my tube screamer WAY better than most master volume type setups.

yeh that's one kind of overdrive out of several kinds of overdrive, which are all types of "distortion"

gain in the preamp means nothing huh? even if it gives you a heavy metal sound, even at low volumes? even if it's solid state? even if it's a Roland Cube? means nothing??? not distortion? reminds me, I should get a Roland Cube, bet they record well.

gee, no wonder my Bogner Ecstasy sounded like crap, even though it had more preamp gain than a Chinese phonebook has chins. It meant nothing! I shoulda fronted it with a Tube Screamer!

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back to bed, lad, you need the sleep. you'll be all growed up soon!

 

[ModestCargo]

Re: heating up the front vs. amp distortion only

yeh that's one kind of overdrive out of several kinds of overdrive, which are all types of "distortion"

gain in the preamp means nothing huh? even if it gives you a heavy metal sound, even at low volumes? even if it's solid state? even if it's a Roland Cube? means nothing??? not distortion? reminds me, I should get a Roland Cube, bet they record well.

gee, no wonder my Bogner Ecstasy sounded like crap, even though it had more preamp gain than a Chinese phonebook has chins. It meant nothing! I shoulda fronted it with a Tube Screamer!

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back to bed, lad, you need the sleep. you'll be all growed up soon!

Really, I've heard amps with solid state preamps and tube power amps that would blow away quite a few all tube amps. And a good pedal might as well be a good solid state preamp.

I'm not saying stick a tube screamer in front of your amp. That's your choice. I just haven't heard/played/owned very many amps with good preamp gain. It almost always seems buzzy/fizzy to me- it seems like some manufacturers are just making money on the selling point that the amp is cascaded high gain and not on the tone, because I've heard high gain pedals sound better than a lot of amps' high gain preamps.

Of course I've heard a few exceptions, some Mesa stuff for instance, but it seems that these amps are designed for medium to high gain- I play with a breakup that cleans up totally with a soft pick attack, and it seems few amps will do what my TS does.

As for heavy metal I neither play it nor listen to it so I can't comment on that.

Roland Cube amps are pretty decent practice amps, I played a (very) small gig with one once - one of those where I wasn't planning to play but got badgered to get up and jam. I used the black face setting and put the gain at 8 or so (it's a very clean setting). It sounded good, and I was glad I could find a setting I liked unlike most amps, but didn't react like my amp setup of course, the dynamics just weren't there. It seemed like the amp was trying to fake tube breakup with a lot of compression.


Anyway the point I was trying to make wasn't "crank your amp up to 10 and be cool like me 'cause that's the only kind of overdrive and the only kind that sounds good unless you use a tube screamer". It was simply that when I think of "amp distortion" as a term, the power stage breakup is what comes to mind. Like a cranked JTM 45. But when I hear "gain" I think of a JCM 800 or a Boogie.

 

[MetalMike_II]

Re: heating up the front vs. amp distortion only

I just haven't heard/played/owned very many amps with good preamp gain.

As for heavy metal I neither play it nor listen to it so I can't comment on that.

VHT, Soldano, Bogner, Rivera, Marshall, Peavey, Egnater, CAE, Engl, Fuchs, Mesa, Randall, even Ampeg. 100s more. All with preamps that create distortion that mean something, not "nothing." Even if you line out without using the power amp. yep, buncha solid-state ones too.

since you identified one type of distortion only out of many, saying that's what you think of when you hear the term, yer thesis would have been better if you'd said, "my favorite type of distortion is..." and "I prefer a tube screamer's distortion to most tube preamps' distortion." That would have been cool.

 

[jeremy]

Re: heating up the front vs. amp distortion only

more than half the time i plug a guitar into the amp with a length of cable and that is what i use all night. no pedals.

i have a variety of amps so i can get the amp loud enough to get the goods with out using a pedal. a 10w amp with a greenback sounds great in small rooms, my celtic tweed deluxe with the g12h sound great in a slightly bigger room, the deluxe reverb with celestion gold and celtic aislin with red fang and p10q cover louder venues.

i have pedals and they can help in certain situations. i think amp distortion sounds better than pedals in most situations

 

[some_dude]

Re: heating up the front vs. amp distortion only

I've hated every OD/Distortion/Fuzz pedal I've had or tried. Others can make them sound good but not me. Every amp I've owned - high gain or low gain - has gone unboosted.

I'm currently using an Orange AD140 unboosted. Not a whole lot of gain in it, but I use all of it.

The only thing I 'boost' with is a compressor. I like the extra compression on my solos but I don't like how OD pedals impart their own gain structure onto my tone.... particularly the way they accentuate the pick attack. I normally wouldn't bother with a compressor as I prefer to roll my guitar's volume pedal up and down, but the Orange doesn't have enough natural gain to get the compression I want on it's own.

Prior to the Orange I used a Dual Rectifier. It was also unboosted. Boosting a Recto sounds like sh*t, and if you pick the right pickups in the first place you don't need a pedal to 'shape your tone'.

IMO.

 

[MetalMike_II]

Re: heating up the front vs. amp distortion only

I've hated every OD/Distortion/Fuzz pedal I've had or tried. Others can make them sound good but not me. Every amp I've owned - high gain or low gain - has gone unboosted.

I'm currently using an Orange AD140 unboosted. Not a whole lot of gain in it, but I use all of it.

The only thing I 'boost' with is a compressor. I like the extra compression on my solos but I don't like how OD pedals impart their own gain structure onto my tone.... particularly the way they accentuate the pick attack. I normally wouldn't bother with a compressor as I prefer to roll my guitar's volume pedal up and down, but the Orange doesn't have enough natural gain to get the compression I want on it's own.

Prior to the Orange I used a Dual Rectifier. It was also unboosted. Boosting a Recto sounds like sh*t, and if you pick the right pickups in the first place you don't need a pedal to 'shape your tone'.

IMO.

thank goodness

for me and for my styles, I agree with all this

+infinity

 

[The Golden Boy]

Re: heating up the front vs. amp distortion only

The only thing I ever use a OD/Fuzz/Distortion has been for a solo/boost-y type thing.

It's horses for courses, if you dig what you can do with pedals and amps... cool.

I do, however, think it's funny when people "can't" play because they don't have their pedal board in front of them.

 

[Gunny47]

Re: heating up the front vs. amp distortion only

I do both...Les Pauls I tend to go straight into the amp and crank it up. Strats I like to use effects, but I love either with or without. There is a time and a place for everything. The tone I like best at gigs is when I use I have my Tweed Twin goosed with a pedal (Tweak Fuzz or Tube Screamer). I just have more options. I can turn the pedal on as a solo boost, or use the volume knobs on the guitar for a boost or adjust gain level etc etc etc. So whatever I'm in the mood for, but pedals are just fun!

 

[blueslegend8]

Re: heating up the front vs. amp distortion only

anyone left in the world who prefers amp gain only, with no pedals or boosters in front to push it?

yeah I know, even SRV pushed the front with a tube screamer (from what I've gathered). Did he do that even with his Dumbles? Just seems like sacriledge.

Stevie Ray didn't just use ONE amp - it was a combination of Fender Super Reverbs, Vibroverbs, Custom-made Dumbles, and a couple of Marshall amps running through 4 X 12 cabs. Many people just assume that Steive would have played through the famous "OverDrive Special." That was not the case; SRV actually owned two "Steel String Singers" which are actually single channel 150 watt amps built for Steel guitars. Stevie loved them because he could turn them all the way up and they didn't distort, they just got louder.

Anyways the point is Stevie used many amps all simultaneously, cranking the volume on each of them and used 2 tubescreamers. I don't really know why I felt compelled to clarify this. I just enjoy talking about it. sorry for hijacking.

here's a nice pic of his amps just for drooling.