Meaning of the term "This amp takes pedals well"?

[Dr. Lo]

I think I know what people mean when they say this. For instance, I have an old, all-tube, 5 watt amp that produces natural overdrive when cranked. However, when I want to add a little more drive to the amp's natural overdrive with an OD or distortion pedal (for example, Tonebone Classic dist, Keeley SD-1), it sounds like crap (harsh, unpleasant distortion).

When I use the same pedals in front of my 50 watt, all-tube head (vintage Traynor YSR-1 Custom Reverb), I can much more easily get pleasant sounding overdrive/distortion sounds. However, at really high volume levels, when the power tubes start to overdrive, the sound turns to crap (mushy, harsh, unpleasant).

My experimentation with different amps is limited, but maybe OD and distortion pedals generally sound better (to my ears at least) when the amp's power tubes aren't driven to the max. This is consistent with what I've read on Dave Gilmour, who coaxes great tones from a bunch of different OD and distortion pedals going through relatively clean sounding Hiwatt amps. He's always said that he starts with a pleasant clean tone, and just adds distortion or overdirve on top of it with pedals .

 

[Dr. Lo]

Re: Meaning of the term "This amp takes pedals well"?

If I hit the nail on the head, then how would I successfully get a little more drive from a tube amp that's running "wide open." That is, if I'm getting natural overdrive by hitting the power tubes really hard, what are my options for adding a little more grit without making the sound turn to crap?

 

[flank]

Re: Meaning of the term "This amp takes pedals well"?

i tend to have found the opposite of your observations. Getting an amp to overdrive a bit by itself, and then adding on a fuzz or overdrive pedal is what sounds best to me. With the exception of a few amps, i dont think pedals sound too great when going into any amp thats set for a clean tone.

as for taking pedals well, i think its something you have to hear for yourself, kind of difficult to describe

 

[Grandor]

Re: Meaning of the term "This amp takes pedals well"?

i tend to have found the opposite of your observations. Getting an amp to overdrive a bit by itself, and then adding on a fuzz or overdrive pedal is what sounds best to me. With the exception of a few amps, i dont think pedals sound too great when going into any amp thats set for a clean tone.

as for taking pedals well, i think its something you have to hear for yourself, kind of difficult to describe

+ 1

 

[Rushfan2112]

Re: Meaning of the term "This amp takes pedals well"?

i tend to have found the opposite of your observations. Getting an amp to overdrive a bit by itself, and then adding on a fuzz or overdrive pedal is what sounds best to me. With the exception of a few amps, i dont think pedals sound too great when going into any amp thats set for a clean tone.

as for taking pedals well, i think its something you have to hear for yourself, kind of difficult to describe

There's only one pedal I've heard that sounds great when the amp is set clean-- SFX-03 Twin Tube Classic. Everything else needs some amp drive.

Try a booster pedal, or a lo-gain pedal like a Bad Monkey?

 

[drpietrzak]

Re: Meaning of the term "This amp takes pedals well"?

I think it depends on the use. Sometimes it may mean that the amp takes many pedals and allows them to sound good. This seems to be a case where the actual effect is being produced by the pedal but is voiced a bit through the amp. A twin reverb is a case like this. So it depends.

 

[Gunny47]

Re: Meaning of the term "This amp takes pedals well"?

I love both, pedals with a dirty amp and pedals with a clean amp. Of course, I use different pedals for each situation. For example, say I'm using my Gibson GA5: small 5 watt 1x8 combo. This clean with my fuzz pedal is okay, but lacks some brightness to cut through and sounds very thin also. BUT, if I crank the amp, and use a little bit of fuzz, it has that fuzzy distorted nature that is not too muddy and fuzzy, but more like just some fuzz qualities. Like a Hendrix type tone. On most of his recordings, it's not like a full blown fuzz, but rather, like a cranked Marshall with some fuzz qualities.

However, this is only because my Gibson GA5 is small and has very little headroom. If I get a big, thick sounding clean high headroom amp, say a Super Reverb, and put a fuzz pedal in front of that, it will have the full blown fuzz sound due to the amp's transparency with the right thickness due to the high headroom. I love effects like chorus and phaser for both clean and distorted. And overdrive pedals sound great to goose a cranked amp or to make that Twin Reverb have "that edge." It all depends on the amp and guitar used of course. If an amp has a great and big clean sound, pedals will be better. Thin and whimpy, lacking some highs and lows, will not keep you effects too happy. As for distorted, anything goes IMO. Unless you have a high gain Dual Recto with the gain maxed (but still sounds good), you should be fine with using a low gain pedal or booster to rasie the gain a tiny bit or add a different flavor of overdrive.

To answer your question, there are a lot of choices you can go with. You got the Tube Screamer esq pedals, low gain warm overdrive, which will enhance your EQ if anything and add a tiny bit of edge to your sound. Then you have a booster like a Fulltone OCD which will raise your volume AND your gain. However, I like the OCD best when you have your amp on say 7 or 8 and you want to get to 11 with some added treble and british flavor (and a tight ass bass). Then you have normal distortion pedals like the DS-1 which can add some more meaty drive to your tone (I recomend getting a DS-1 modded though, I think it's too fuzzy stock, but for the money, it's good). And finally, you have those two button distortion pedals with the built in boosts, like the Fulltone Fulldrive II, great pedal BTW. Similar to a tube screamer with more knobs and switches and posesses a fatter sound, like a cranked Fender Vibroverb. But, it has the boost knob whcih can give you some extra gain for solos too. Oh yea, and you have clean boosters if you just want to increase volume and thicken up your tone a little. Do some reseach, play some pedals, listen to sound clips, and you'll find exactly what you want...

 

[Dr. Lo]

Re: Meaning of the term "This amp takes pedals well"?

Hey Gunny47!

You have the same little amp that I have (Gibson GA-5), although mine has the 10" speaker. I love maxing the volume control on that amp and getting that natural overdrive. Perfect for classic blues, aka "gritty clean," which gets dirtier the more you dig into the strings. I'd like to find an overdrive pedal that complements (doesn't ruin) that particular tone and will give me more overdriven sustain for blues-rock (think recent Buddy Guy). I have a Keeley-modded Boss SD-1 and a Tonebone Classic distortion, both of which failed to give me the sound I want through this amp. They both sound too harsh/jagged/nasal, no matter how much I adjust the tone controls on my guitar or the pedals (no tone controls on the amp). I was thinking about the OCD, but I'm just not sure. I'll probably just bring my amp and guitar to a store and try one of their OCDs along with a bunch of other contenders. Good thing that little amp is so light :dance:

 

[Gunny47]

Re: Meaning of the term "This amp takes pedals well"?

Eh, for more sustain, I would not go for the OCD. As much as I love the OCD, I would not recomend it for blues. I play a lot of blues and rock, mostly rock (From Beatles to Classic rock to GNR type stuff) and the OCD is great for turning that little Gibby into a smoking Vox or Marshall. It is also amazing as a treble booster (the tone knob controls the high end only and when you crank it, it distorts the high end). I love putting the volume knob on 9 oclock, drive at about 1130, and tone either maxed or at 3 oclock with the Gibby amp at full volume for a boost. Very transparent pedal. It is mostly for big Plexis that you can only crank to 6 and you want to tighten the bass as well as increase the gain to sound like power tube distortion. Not a very smooth pedal, made for crunch.

I'd go with the Fulltone Fulldrive II Aniversary edition with that extra switch that really helps the lead tone out. It's like a tube screamer, very smooth and warm, voiced for thick blues, and has the boost which can really be useful for a transparent solo boost and add some cool characteristics to the sound. I would also look into a compressor. The Barber Tone Press is an amazing one, my personal favorite, really smooths things out and gives you some nice sustain without the noise and is great for distorted tone too. Te thing is really cheap too for what it is, like $139 or something. More expensive than the Boss crap, but it is the best on the market IMO.

 

[callous_frigid_chill]

Re: Meaning of the term "This amp takes pedals well"?

My tubescreamer sounds awful when i use it while the amp is clean.

 

[PUCKBOY99]

Re: Meaning of the term "This amp takes pedals well"?

You'd probably do well with a very transparent pedal like a Hermida Zendrive or even a Fulldrive.

Hiwatts are tough to get to break up & stay clean for days!!! Perfect platform for tons of pedals :beerchug:

 

[some_dude]

Re: Meaning of the term "This amp takes pedals well"?

I'd have to concour both with Dr. Lo and with some of the others.

OD and fuzz tend to sound best when run into a dirty amp....but I've found the same thing that Dr. Lo has in that if the amp is too dirty (ever run a Big Muff into a Rectifiers modern channel?) or too overdriven (power tubes pushed to the max) that adding more usually takes things too far.

I like to take an amp and push it just past the verge of OD, then hit it with something else.....that's what I've found works best....and this is true for both stomps and tube preamps.

I've also found that high headroom amps seem to like pedals best....ie, Fender, Hiwatt, Orange, Plexi, ect....

 

[Vasshu the humanoid typhoon]

Re: Meaning of the term "This amp takes pedals well"?

Use a compressor or an eq-booster for that extra into an already driven amp, very very few od/dist pedals sounds good on an already driven amp.

 

[WhoFan]

Re: Meaning of the term "This amp takes pedals well"?

I maybe the odd man out on this but not all pedals work with all amps... case in point is some of the fuzz pedals i use with Classic 30 clean channel sound great, the same pedals sound awful thru my 65 Deluxe amp..... Finding the right pedals for the amp is the battle.... i tried a Boss Mega Distortion unit thru a new Traynor tube amp set on clean in the store and thought wow this is pretty cool.... Modern High Gain sounds.. everyone in the store and myself thought it had a boogie feel about it. brought it home and thru my amps it really sucks big time....

 

[Stratfan]

Re: Meaning of the term "This amp takes pedals well"?

I've heard that people will set up their amp for a slight to mid dirty sound, and then use a Boost/OD/Distortion pedal to "push" the amp into higher distortion. To do this, I think that they lower the gain knob on the pedal and turn up the level/volume knob.

It makes a lot of sense, but for the life of me I can't figure out how they do it! If I turn down the gain/drive knob on the pedal and turn up the level/volume knob it just gets too loud. If I adjust everything so that the boosted amp is at the level I want, then when I turn off the pedal the amp is not loud enough.

If I ever get a few weeks free time with my amp maybe I can figure this out... this and setting up the amp and pedal so that I can use the guitar's volume to go from clean to dirty! (In my defense, I don't think that my guitar's volume pot is working properly with a full range of roll-off.)

 

[drpietrzak]

Re: Meaning of the term "This amp takes pedals well"?

I've heard that people will set up their amp for a slight to mid dirty sound, and then use a Boost/OD/Distortion pedal to "push" the amp into higher distortion. To do this, I think that they lower the gain knob on the pedal and turn up the level/volume knob.

It makes a lot of sense, but for the life of me I can't figure out how they do it! If I turn down the gain/drive knob on the pedal and turn up the level/volume knob it just gets too loud. If I adjust everything so that the boosted amp is at the level I want, then when I turn off the pedal the amp is not loud enough.

If I ever get a few weeks free time with my amp maybe I can figure this out... this and setting up the amp and pedal so that I can use the guitar's volume to go from clean to dirty! (In my defense, I don't think that my guitar's volume pot is working properly with a full range of roll-off.)

Yes, this pretty much describes the issue in most cases. YOu then usehte volume knob on the guitar to try and mediate the cleanish etc. The issue is that if you areont he edge of breakup (power tube here really) the push does not so much increase the volume as it does the distortion. But, if it is mainly preamp distortion then it is a bit of a differenet game.

 

[Robert Delahunt]

Re: Meaning of the term "This amp takes pedals well"?

Means some amps take more kindly to impedance mismatched (over-gained) pedals than others. Like my '72 Fender Twin, it's expecting you to plug in a guitar, not a multieffects. Granted, after I figured out the power problem, I don't have any more problems with my ME-50. That and my ME-50 is supposedly "designed" to be the same output level as a guitar at Level knob = 5, so that's where I put that knob.

 

[Stratfan]

Re: Meaning of the term "This amp takes pedals well"?

Yes, this pretty much describes the issue in most cases. YOu then usehte volume knob on the guitar to try and mediate the cleanish etc. The issue is that if you areont he edge of breakup (power tube here really) the push does not so much increase the volume as it does the distortion. But, if it is mainly preamp distortion then it is a bit of a differenet game.

I understand. I guess that this is something used by people who can crank their amp up loud enough to get power tube distortion. That's gotta be loud! Even with a drummer, I can't turn my Blues Junior up that much!

 

[Sludgenutz]

Re: Meaning of the term "This amp takes pedals well"?

Some amps are what they are! You just can't take a greyhound or a coon hound, and make it a pitbull.

Older, low wattage amps may certainly be working within the specs, but it does not mean it was designed, or needs to accept a "goose" from a pedal.

Power supply is everything. a weak power supply can leave the best set of tubes breathless and waiting for more.

The problem is, the power supply section of audio amplification gear is neither fancy, or gleaming in the minds of the public. Not now...not ever..for the most part. The most costly components of many amplifiers are not a "feature", but "boring", "ugly stuff" like expensive transformers. Also, capacitors do not last forever.

Now, as far as the original question: I have Sunn a 150 watt head, but it does not make for a thundercrushing amp on its own. Yes, it does put out a bunch of current when desired. It does not overdrive much at all, even when "uncorked". It was designed along the lines of a Fender Bassman on steroids. Big but clean, with huge transformers. That being said, the tube-y richness is a "palette" where an overdrive/distortion pedal is allowed to add its color.

 

[James Rock]

Re: Meaning of the term "This amp takes pedals well"?

USE A VOLUME BOOSTER it wont change the tone and will just mean the power tubes drive even more.