stacking distortion and overdrive pedals... favorite combos?

[BluesGuyJ]

I've got some great OD pedals, which include a Wampler CLarksdale, Xotic AC plus, and a Ditone Smoozy. I do have a JHS mini bomb boost for a clean boost as well as a Joyo US Dream for a distortion pedal. If I'm not taking out my Dumble style amps, I am usually bringing out the Joyo and one OD.

I've really only been stacking ODs in front of the Joyo, but put the Joyo first in the chain.

I'm really loving using the Smoozy, which is a lite OD after the Joyo US Dream. The US Dream is a clone of a Suhr Riot. I'm getting some really great fat, and creamy tones, set up thorugh the Fender clean model on my Valvetronix AD15VT.

I've always done ODs into other ODs, but never a distortion into an OD.

What are some favorite combos people have?

 

[Demanic]

Re: stacking distortion and overdrive pedals... favorite combos?

Boss SD-1 into Keeley MT-2.

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[PFDarkside]

Re: stacking distortion and overdrive pedals... favorite combos?

Wampler pinnacle as a mid gain Marshall vibe, boosted by a Fulldrive 2.
(Interestingly enough, Wampler just revised the Pinnacle Deluxe to include a Tube Screamer as the boost switch... )

Also like to use the Fulldrive 2 as a base tone, then stack a multitude of fuzz face pedals into it.

 

[JB_From_Hell]

Re: stacking distortion and overdrive pedals... favorite combos?

I never loved my EHX Little Big Muff, until I stuck my Green Rhino in front of it. Any type of dirt I use in the future will get hit with the Rhino.

 

[ThisDyingSoul76]

Re: stacking distortion and overdrive pedals... favorite combos?

I've found almost every pedal I stack with a Visual Sound Open Road sounds amazing. Most of them sound best before it but I find certain pedals like my Ram's Head clone and Rat Clone sound best after it.

I've also found my King Klon (for those who haven't seen me mention this pedal it's a concept by a builder local to me that combines a part for part Klone on one side and a part for part King of Tone on the other) sounds great stacked with most pedals I've tried stacking with it too.

 

[Little Pigbacon]

Re: stacking distortion and overdrive pedals... favorite combos?

I like hitting my Carl Martin Plexitone or my Boss '59 Bassman with overdrive pedals, like

Fulltone OCD v4
DOD Overdrive/Preamp 250
EHX Soul Food

I haven't tried my Maxon OD9 with either of the platform pedals yet, but that should be fun when I get around to it.

 

[Liam1963]

Re: stacking distortion and overdrive pedals... favorite combos?

EHX Soul Food into a Keeley-modified BOSS BD-2.

 

[BluesGuyJ]

Re: stacking distortion and overdrive pedals... favorite combos?

Very cool examples... I've never tried a Klon variant. Placing some of my ODs after the Joyo, which is a bit of a bright and brash distortion, really smoothens out the ton and pumps up the mid range. I am finding it to be a really great tool when using a tube amp that cant be cranked and the amps OD just sounds like fizz on a low volume.

 

[Demanic]

Re: stacking distortion and overdrive pedals... favorite combos?

Keeley two knob compressor into DS-1 into Keeley MT-2 into Keeley Katana.

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[MasterKtulu]

Re: stacking distortion and overdrive pedals... favorite combos?

My Soul Food into the crunch channel of my PlexiTone is heavenly!

 

[Empty Pockets]

Re: stacking distortion and overdrive pedals... favorite combos?

Guitar - DS1 - Big Muff was my sound for years. Upgraded to a Black Arts Toneworks Coven a couple of years ago.

 

[Silence Kid]

Re: stacking distortion and overdrive pedals... favorite combos?

...So I've always stacked most -> least intense drive on the way to the amp.

For example, I've got my Muff running into a Fulldrive 2 ... Gives a nice muff color to the driven sound, and both are tweaked to be used independently.

For those able to make a useable sound out of running the opposite setup (drive -> fuzz -> amp...) How in the world do you keep the fuzz from just completely dominating the tone? In such a setup, I find that the drive is almost inconsequential to the sound... To a lesser extent, the same is true with drive into a distortion; the drive hardly serves a purpose; MAYBE it can add a bit of saturation, but almost no color. The volume of the drive basically acts like an on/off switch when I try to run it that way.

 

[baritone]

Re: stacking distortion and overdrive pedals... favorite combos?

The DS-1 & SD-1 make a cool pair to run into each other & switch around at different times.

My favorite was running a TS-9 into a Blues Driver.

 

[Empty Pockets]

Re: stacking distortion and overdrive pedals... favorite combos?

...So I've always stacked most -> least intense drive on the way to the amp.

For example, I've got my Muff running into a Fulldrive 2 ... Gives a nice muff color to the driven sound, and both are tweaked to be used independently.

For those able to make a useable sound out of running the opposite setup (drive -> fuzz -> amp...) How in the world do you keep the fuzz from just completely dominating the tone? In such a setup, I find that the drive is almost inconsequential to the sound... To a lesser extent, the same is true with drive into a distortion; the drive hardly serves a purpose; MAYBE it can add a bit of saturation, but almost no color. The volume of the drive basically acts like an on/off switch when I try to run it that way.

Right. The fuzz is the primary tone and the drive just bumps the mids and saturation up a little. If you want the overdrive to be the main sound, reverse the order. My board has drive pedals of all kinds in different places based on what they do and how they sound together.

 

[jeremy]

Re: stacking distortion and overdrive pedals... favorite combos?

i also find that high gain->low gain tends to work best for me. currently running a keeley blacktop fuzz into timmy. timmy is set to give a mid, gain and volume boost so a "more" type tone. the fuzz by itself is just over unity volume when full up but about unity when i roll the guitar volume back a touch. both on together gets a thick sustaining lead tone with lots of different shades of distortion available by using the guitar volume knob. kicking the fuzz on top of the overdrive changes the character of the tone a bunch. you still get the extra mids and a refinement to the fuzz but it sure dont sound the same

 

[Silence Kid]

Re: stacking distortion and overdrive pedals... favorite combos?

Thanks for the clarification. I find that the DS1 sounds much better with a fuzz behind it or an OD in front of it, I used to think that pedal was useless without stacking but feel I'm fine with it alone more often now.

I have a bunch of Devi Ever Fuzz pedals, fun to stack those... The ZG/nofi almost must be stacked with another fuzz prior as it gates out anything less than a full line-level guitar signal. The Soda Meiser does not stack well in my experience, oddly.

 

[MakerDP]

Re: stacking distortion and overdrive pedals... favorite combos?

I'm really digging my Soul Food into my new Full Drive 3.

I use the Soul Food more or less as a boost with just a slight bit of hair on it to push my amp's clean tone just a bit for "clean" leads and as an overdrive boost for the Full Drive 3.

 

[Spudman]

Re: stacking distortion and overdrive pedals... favorite combos?

I've run a Boss DS1 into an early Ibanez TS9 for man many years and it seems to get the job nicely done.

 

[mantis]

Re: stacking distortion and overdrive pedals... favorite combos?

My new out in front set up is as follows for OD and Distortion:
Guitar>>>(input)BOSS NS-2(send)>>Tc Electronics Mojo Mojo>>>Tc Electronics Spark>>>Tc Electronics Dark Matter>>>BOSS NS-2(return),(output)>>>front of amp.
So I use the noise gate with a built in loop to isolate my guitar noise if any and the pedals when they are on. There is very little noise but the Boss keeps it dead silent which is what I like. I work hard to keep my rig noise free with power conditioners high quality cables and shortest runs possible.

The combo I really like and use in a few ways
1) Dark Matter - to give me that Marshall like AC DC type tone. Rock tone if you will. I'll BOOST it with either the Mojo Mojo or the Spark depending on the flavor I want. The Mojo Mojo Darkens things up a bit and the Spark adds some punch and clarity like a touch of treble. I also work hard to make my pedals sound as transparent as possible. I only use tone controls to retain my amp and guitars natural sound with the effect just added in. Color to me sucks unless I need more color which I love my amps natural clean sound so I like to retain it as much as possible.
2) Mojo Mojo - This is a darker sounding slower OD sound. It has it's own sound like no other OD pedal I have ever used. But I like how it sounds on it's own and I can create some nice tones with it. I do however use the Spark to JUICE up the sound and make it tighter and more punchy. I use the Spark mostly in the Mid range setting. I also use it as a OD for my drive channel.It ads some darker more dragging like gain structure. My amp has a tight gain structure to it and the Mojo Mojo looses it's belt just a bit with some added darkness. I dig the different kind of sound. Kinda Mesa Boogie like gain when I add it to my gain channel which compared to a Mesa is much brighter and edgier sounding.
3) Spark - by itself I use it as a light BOOST. I don't go crazy with it. I like to have very little gain, retain my amps natural sound and just give it a slight OD sound. Way lighter then how you would use a typical OD pedal. I use this pedal to add some grain to my drive channel of my amp. Again I work hard at setting it up so it's transparent but adds that touch I'm looking for. Just to give ti a slighty more higher drive sound. MY amp on it's own is killer. I love how it sound but there are times I want it to just change ever so slighty. I use it how most use a OD pedal to overdrive a gain channel. I use it lighter then how I use to use the Ibanez tube screamer which added a lot of color. It's a sound I have loved for years until I got the spark which was the first out of the TC pedals I own. It's so good I put the Ibanez tube screamer up for sale. Nothing wrong with the Ibanez I just prefer the Spark more and don't want both on my board.

 

[PFDarkside]

Re: stacking distortion and overdrive pedals... favorite combos?

Wampler Clarksdale -> J. Rocket Archer Ikon -> Princeton Reverb

PR set to just compress and sound good, Archer set to boost into a little breakup, then Clarksdale to add sustain and mid punch. Awesome heavy blues tone!