Stacking Klones

its zz top, everything is about presentation on stage. theres a rig rundown that covers his setup. it sure aint a traditional blues setup but it doesnt have six expandoras. even if he had this as his "rig" im sure it was for show and marketing

Yeah, no way I'd believe that diagram, or really, anything he told an interviewer about his rig.
 
its zz top, everything is about presentation on stage. theres a rig rundown that covers his setup. it sure aint a traditional blues setup but it doesnt have six expandoras. even if he had this as his "rig" im sure it was for show and marketing

Exactly. That's all a joke. Schtick. He does have a pretty complicated rig though.

 
I've had fun doing it. But I've never NEEDED to do it. It was just for fun.

My first overdrive device was a Wollensak tape recorder.

There were no fuzz pedals or overdrive pedals available yet.

I plugged my guitar into the microphone input of my mom's Wollensak tape recorder (it had a PA setting) and then plugged one end of a guitar cord into the external speaker output and the other end into my Supro amplifier.

It made for a cool fuzz tone before the Maestro Fuzztone had shown up in music stores.

This would have been in the early 60's.

There was a Ventures tune called the 2000 Pound Bee that I liked.

They must have done something similar to get that sound.
 
David Gilmour was pretty well known for stacking gain pedals. A lot of his fuzz sounds are a big muff into a just slightly gainy powerbooster or tube driver. I'm not sure if he does it to combine the character of the two pedals, to add mids, to cut some of the wilder highs/lows . . . but he definitely does it.
 
I've had fun doing it. But I've never NEEDED to do it. It was just for fun.

My first overdrive device was a Wollensak tape recorder.

There were no fuzz pedals or overdrive pedals available yet.

I plugged my guitar into the microphone input of my mom's Wollensak tape recorder (it had a PA setting) and then plugged one end of a guitar cord into the external speaker output and the other end into my Supro amplifier.

It made for a cool fuzz tone before the Maestro Fuzztone had shown up in music stores.

This would have been in the early 60's.

There was a Ventures tune called the 2000 Pound Bee that I liked.

They must have done something similar to get that sound.

I think Ritchie Blackmore used his AIWA reel-to-reel for the preamp. Adds a bit of compression and overdrive before it hit the 200 watt Marshall Majors. I think he is still using it into his signature ENGL these days, although his modern tone isn't nearly as good.
 
David Gilmour was pretty well known for stacking gain pedals. A lot of his fuzz sounds are a big muff into a just slightly gainy powerbooster or tube driver. I'm not sure if he does it to combine the character of the two pedals, to add mids, to cut some of the wilder highs/lows . . . but he definitely does it.

Typically you are going to get more of the character of the second pedal. It really depends on how you are dialing them in. The big thing so people are missing is the gain in both pedals can be set very subtly. The goal is not always to get face-melting tones.
 
Typically you are going to get more of the character of the second pedal. It really depends on how you are dialing them in. The big thing so people are missing is the gain in both pedals can be set very subtly. The goal is not always to get face-melting tones.

As you said: only some people, too set in their ways to see any other.
 
Have never had much luck or need to stack pedals. I believe if the amp can't get me there or 90% there then I am on the wrong amp. In my experience, the more pedals you add the more potential problems you open yourself up to and the more noise you introduce. All these "problems" of course are fixable but why even go there?
 
I'm surprised I didn't remember Eric Johnson! He stacks a Butler Tube Driver and Fuzz Face to get his signature violin tone. I use a Dover Drive to get a very similar tone and Eric hand a hand in the design of that pedal. At about 1:15 you can hear the violin tone.


And the violin tone is all through this old video. Stacked Tube Driver and Fuzz face. Kicks in at about the 1:00 mark. My Dover Drive gets real close to this tone without having to stack a Tube Driver and Fuzz face. Eric even uses a Dover Drive on his small, simple pedal board that he uses for clinics.

 
Last edited:
Have never had much luck or need to stack pedals. I believe if the amp can't get me there or 90% there then I am on the wrong amp. In my experience, the more pedals you add the more potential problems you open yourself up to and the more noise you introduce. All these "problems" of course are fixable but why even go there?

This is my view, too. But to be fair, I simply haven't bothered exploring it much. There is rarely an overdrive or amp that doesn't work for what I want.
 
I play with it a lot these days. But yes - I have always had either a single amp or pedal that did the job for me. But I totally understand what people are doing. They are essentially making unique multiple gain stages, which is what a great amp does.
 
For me, it is all about sustain and touch sensitivity more than chasing tone. I would reference the solo in Comfortably Numb the notes go on forever.
 
dont know if i noticed the seymour duncan amps on stage for the live cliffs of dover clip.

also... does he actually stack the tube driver and the fuzz face? seems like his rig is clean rhythm (twin reverbs with delays and chorus) dirty rhythm (marshalls with tube screamer, fuzz face, flanger, and delay) then lead (marshalls with wah, echoplex, and tube driver)
 
dont know if i noticed the seymour duncan amps on stage for the live cliffs of dover clip.

also... does he actually stack the tube driver and the fuzz face? seems like his rig is clean rhythm (twin reverbs with delays and chorus) dirty rhythm (marshalls with tube screamer, fuzz face, flanger, and delay) then lead (marshalls with wah, echoplex, and tube driver)

He does stack the Tube Driver into the Fuzzface into a Marshall for his normal lead tones. He uses the Tubescreamer into a Marshall for crunchy rhythm. These days he uses Twin Reverb amps converted into heads into Marshall cabs for his clean tones. I don't know if he uses his signature speakers or not. I've never heard him mention them in interviews. He does have some Vintage 30's in those Marshall cabs bu they're not all Vintage 30's. I forget what other speakers he uses. Maybe EV's or JBL's?

When I saw him in Fort Collins this winter I stood right at the front of the stage between sets and spent a few minutes checking out all of his stuff close up.

I've seen him a bunch of times though. That was the best band he's ever put together. Roscoe Beck on bass and Tom Brechtlein, who's played with Chick Corea and a jillion great bands, on drums and he had a second guitarist/keyboard player who could hold his own on guitar with any band. Forget his name but he played his a$$ off.
 
Last edited:
David Gilmour was pretty well known for stacking gain pedals. A lot of his fuzz sounds are a big muff into a just slightly gainy powerbooster or tube driver. I'm not sure if he does it to combine the character of the two pedals, to add mids, to cut some of the wilder highs/lows . . . but he definitely does it.
I think that he may have even used an MT-2 on the opening riff of "Sorrow".

Sent from my SM-A115A using Tapatalk
 
I think Ritchie Blackmore used his AIWA reel-to-reel for the preamp.

My first "delay" was a Teac R2R using the delay time from the record head to the play head. It's still one of the sweetest delays I've ever heard.

But back on topic . . . a pair of Arion Tubulators, running in series, was a killer distortion sound. When MF was blowing them out for $10 ea., it was a sweet pedal for $20. I still have one.
 
My first "delay" was a Teac R2R using the delay time from the record head to the play head. It's still one of the sweetest delays I've ever heard.

But back on topic . . . a pair of Arion Tubulators, running in series, was a killer distortion sound. When MF was blowing them out for $10 ea., it was a sweet pedal for $20. I still have one.

Something like that was my first delay & looper, too. I didn't realize that has been done for years by people like Brian Eno. But man, it sounded great.
 
This is my view, too. But to be fair, I simply haven't bothered exploring it much. There is rarely an overdrive or amp that doesn't work for what I want.

That is what the channel switching button or the gain pot is for. ;)

I hear ya though. I am just being silly but my point still stands.
 
He does stack the Tube Driver into the Fuzzface into a Marshall for his normal lead tones. He uses the Tubescreamer into a Marshall for crunchy rhythm. These days he uses Twin Reverb amps converted into heads into Marshall cabs for his clean tones. I don't know if he uses his signature speakers or not. I've never heard him mention them in interviews. He does have some Vintage 30's in those Marshall cabs bu they're not all Vintage 30's. I forget what other speakers he uses. Maybe EV's or JBL's?

When I saw him in Fort Collins this winter I stood right at the front of the stage between sets and spent a few minutes checking out all of his stuff close up.

I've seen him a bunch of times though. That was the best band he's ever put together. Roscoe Beck on bass and Tom Brechtlein, who's played with Chick Corea and a jillion great bands, on drums and he had a second guitarist/keyboard player who could hold his own on guitar with any band. Forget his name but he played his a$$ off.

ive only seen him twice but i swear the tube screamer and fuzzface were in his dirty rhythm chain. two a/b boxes. first for lead/rhythm, the second for dirty/clean rhythm. im sure there is a rig rundown some where that will tell us for sure.

not sure what he uses for his twins but i think he uses 30w celestions in the dirty rhythm cabs and 80w celestions in the lead cab
 
Back
Top