Overdrive + Amp Distortion?

[barbarianbrute]

i've noticed that a lot of pedal sound demos have a slightly distorted channel before the pedal is clicked on, so it more common to use an overdrive pedal on a clean channel or in combination with amp distortion?

i've heard a lot of people even use pedals together, like an overdrive+distortion or a boost+overdrive. how does this work? wouldn't that be noisy? i know that i've tried these combinations and neither pedal can be set very high or the amp gets noisy.

can anyone explain these things?

 

[Gr8Scott]

Re: Overdrive + Amp Distortion?

Unless the pedal is extremely noisy or the amp is noisy, the combination of overdrive and slightly or fairly distorted amp is not noisy IMHO. Only when gain reaches vicious levels does it get noisy. OD pedal being goosed by a boost pedal is usually a tad noisy.

 

[barbarianbrute]

Re: Overdrive + Amp Distortion?

Unless the pedal is extremely noisy or the amp is noisy, the combination of overdrive and slightly or fairly distorted amp is not noisy IMHO. Only when gain reaches vicious levels does it get noisy. OD pedal being goosed by a boost pedal is usually a tad noisy.

i wasn't talking about noise with the pedal + amp, i was referring to using two pedals together. like an overdrive+distortion or boost

 

[alex1fly]

Re: Overdrive + Amp Distortion?

I like to use my boost for two different kinds of distortion- for one I just overdrive the clean channel, and for the other I add gain to the Modern channel, pedal boost set at half for both. It does add a little noise with the dirty channel, but nothing you can hear while you play. It adds extra chunk and saturation without having to turn the gain up, so its bolder and not as fizzy than without the pedal. The clean channel with the pedal just sounds like a nicely overdriven amp.

 

[Iron Horse]

Re: Overdrive + Amp Distortion?

It's usually good to get that overdrive pedal and use it for clean boost or just VERY little distortion from the pedal, it gives more gain, but it also gives different sound and character than just amp distortion, so many people use od's with MESA's and ENGL's to tighten the sound, and push the midrange. And some dumb fellas like Randy Rhoads, Tony Iommi, Ritchie Blackmore, Priest boys, Zakk Wylde, Yngwie, and everybody else who use Marshalls use a booster or OD pedal.

 

[barbarianbrute]

Re: Overdrive + Amp Distortion?

can od pedals help get better tone at lower volumes? my amp tends to sound fizzy if it's not cranked up quite a bit.

 

[Iron Horse]

Re: Overdrive + Amp Distortion?

Well, it depends on the amp and the OD. But, usually, certainly it can.

 

[shaka]

Re: Overdrive + Amp Distortion?

One of the best uses of an overdrive pedal is to run in through an already distorted amp. In fact, I think this is one of the primary uses. I've been using a Tube Screamer as a lead boost for years. It's also handy for helping me to play hard rock through an amp that just doesn't do that kind of high gain sound by itself.

 

[James Rock]

Re: Overdrive + Amp Distortion?

i wasn't talking about noise with the pedal + amp, i was referring to using two pedals together. like an overdrive+distortion or boost

I have now started boosting my indyguitarist Pinnacle 2 with my sd-1 to thicken it up for lead tones. Has less gain and is smoother then the DIST mode on the Pinnacle 2 (which is similar to a boost) but I still use that mode too. Hopefully if I get the sd-1 modded it will sound even better. I don't find that noisy at all and I'm using a fender CIJ Jaguar. I find even small amounts of gain on a line 6 spider way worse (but that was with a 412 cab so that might of made the difference).

 

[bloodswords]

Re: Overdrive + Amp Distortion?

i'm happy with my Marshall JVM at full-on gain; superb drive. however, i do connect my Rocktron Austin Gold to it for a slightly different voicing + more saturation (especially harmonics trigger).

 

[barbarianbrute]

Re: Overdrive + Amp Distortion?

dam that's a lot of gain. my jvm never went on the red channel. then again, i could never get teh volume past 5 and i only had it for a couple of weeks. that's a badass amp

 

[chuckbat]

Re: Overdrive + Amp Distortion?

I have my Peavey head set on the clean channel and have the Uber Metal distortion set before my Fulltone OCD. I can kick on the OCD and get a pretty good boost for doing leads. It is noisy though. I don't know. Maybe I have to much gain set on the Uber Metal. If you need a OD pedal an OCD from Fulltone is the way to go. I use it mostly when I play the Tele through the Hughes and Kettner tube amp. The OCD is very versatile for an OD.

 

[barbarianbrute]

Re: Overdrive + Amp Distortion?

i don't know. the fulltone to me seemed to lack some low end and it was rather transparent to my ears. i don't really like having a gritty clean tone or transparent overdriven tone. i prefer something more in the line of adrian smith or michael schenker

 

[Loserchief]

Re: Overdrive + Amp Distortion?

I use my modded SD-1 as a boost(low drive/high volume) for my Engl's distorted channel four to add some edge, tighten things up and clear it up even further.

 

[tc]

Re: Overdrive + Amp Distortion?

well boosting an amp is nothing new, and what ive seen with using two or more distortion/od pedals is that you can get different flavors (obviously you wont dime them all!!) and different levels of saturation and different tones. But the classic one is boosting a cranked amp