School me on OD pedals

[Gamera]

So I've been playing with my Genz Benz El Diablo for a few months now and really come to enjoy some of the sounds I'm getting from it. Warm cleans, growly overdrive, and balls-to-the-wall crunch. But I'm having a hard time with some harmonics, squeals, tapping, and other techniques I easily achieved with my Fender SS amp and ME-50 digital overdrive.

What I'm thinking I may need is an OD pedal of some sort. I don't really want to color the amp's sound with distortion like my DS-1, instead I just want to really push the natural sound. There was a "natural" OD setting on my ME-50 that did a great job of this. And I'm hoping to avoid adding a lot of extra noise and hiss.

Am I looking for a Tubescreamer? Or maybe a Boss SD-1? What are the characteristics of each? Anything else I should consider or definitely avoid?

 

[Dr.Mavashi]

Re: School me on OD pedals

Well, I have an Invader in the bridge on 7 or 8 into the Morley Bad Horsie into the Spina Modded TS9 with drive at 2 tone at 9 Leve at 9 or 8, and I have gorgeous bends, easy ass tapping(all though I do very little of it not very complex) thick harmonics and for the pick-harmonics/sqeals i step on Bad Horsie for a second and it just freaking SCREAMS !!! but what really love it for is the ring of individual notes in double stops and dexterity of palm muted single note stuff.

 

[DankStar]

Re: School me on OD pedals

lots of peeps like an EQ in front of the input (or in the loop) not just to tone-shape (yeah, the amp has an eq section) but as a "clean booster." like a smart treble booster. just boost the frequencies that sound best through the amp, and drive it that much harder as well. happy squeeling.

 

[ImmortalSix]

Re: School me on OD pedals

you can't enough crunch out of an El Diablo?

When I played one (it was very versatile) I got intense facemelting distortion out of it...

 

[Gamera]

Re: School me on OD pedals

Yeah, it does the distortion thing pretty well. I'm just looking for a little extra "oomph" without having to max out the gain, noise and hiss. Kind of "excite" the sound without totally distorting it. I like the EQ idea and I already have a Boss GE-7 sitting around someplace. Maybe I'll give that a try.

 

[LesStrat]

Re: School me on OD pedals

I'm enjoying the Twin Tube Classic, although it can be noisy at times.

 

[Birdy]

Re: School me on OD pedals

Digitech Bad Monkey :headbang:

Cheap, green and of course, bad. Doesn't suck your tone, has good
built in gain and is great for a transparent boost.
I run mine ahead of a Boss OD-3 and get great sounds....and that's
according to others to boot.

 

[Rich_S]

Re: School me on OD pedals

I assume the El Diablo has a 12AX7 input stage and is pretty gainy in the front end. Try whompin' on it with that GE-7. I did that for years with single-channel JCM800's - works great for adding overdrive and shaping the boosted tone.

Also your DS-1 is a great basis for modding. My recently-acquired Keeley Ultra sounds great.

 

[Stratman]

Re: School me on OD pedals

Nice amp

 

[thespricket]

Re: School me on OD pedals

I have the bad monkey and its one of the best straight up OD pedals you can buy for less than 100 bucks.

 

[JB_From_Hell]

Re: School me on OD pedals

The Arion Tubulator is sweet, and you can catch them for like $10 from Musicians Friend sometimes.

 

[LesStrat]

Re: School me on OD pedals

I have the bad monkey and its one of the best straight up OD pedals you can buy for less than 100 bucks.

...and it sells for under $40.

 

[scottish]

Re: School me on OD pedals

i have a boss OD-3 and although i dont use it very much...id say it colors the tone less than a tube screamer will. i personally just love the ts-9 sound

 

[disturb]

Re: School me on OD pedals

With my high gain heads I don't use them. I only use an overdrive, for lower gain heads. The El Diablo is very high gain, I certainly wouldn't plug one into it.

 

[JB_From_Hell]

Re: School me on OD pedals

With my high gain heads I don't use them. I only use an overdrive, for lower gain heads. The El Diablo is very high gain, I certainly wouldn't plug one into it.

Try one as a boost. Turn the gain all the way down, turn the level all the way up, and adjust the tone to taste.

 

[scottish]

Re: School me on OD pedals

i dont know what your style or what kind of tone your aiming for....but id say with a boss OD-3 or BD-2 with either the supra mod or H2O mod from http://www.monteallums.com/Product_links.html then you should be good

 

[Gamera]

Re: School me on OD pedals

Just a follow-up to my situation. Thanks for the Boss GE-7 suggestion. Works perfectly. There's a lot of hidden functionality in the El Diablo and I'm still learning and tweaking it. There is more than enough gain on tap and with the 6L6's delivers a darker tone. Having the EQ boost the original signal right from the guitar seems to be just the ticket. More mids, better harmonics, and an overall richer tone. Thanks again!

 

[Gr8Scott]

Re: School me on OD pedals

The Arion Tubulator is sweet, and you can catch them for like $10 from Musicians Friend sometimes.

Not anymore. They are now discontinued last I checked.