School me on OD Pedal!!

[nobita21]

Please do school me on OD pedal!

when i was younger and using solid state, i used tons of distortion/OD pedal etc.

Once i had my hand tube marshall amp, i only used MXR Boost Line (this is just to increase the volume for soloing).

i've noticed some people keep using distortions / OD pedal with high end amp.
My question is.

1. if you are using high end amp, dont you want to have the distortion coming from your thousand dollar amp instead of pedals?

2. i understand if people using amp such as class 5, we might need pedal to add more gain. is this the purpose of pedals?

SCHOOL ME! Thx

 

[Phildog]

When I use overdrive (which everyone's taste is different), I use more of the amp's gain and a little of the pedal to "take it over the top". It doesn't matter if I'm using the OCD or a Tubescreamer clone. But that's just my preference that works for me. In fact, come to think of it, I use all of my pedals that way. My objective is to hear my playing through my amp with as little pedal effect as possible.

 

[Marshall & Moonshine]

Well, I'm with you, but some people use the mid boost of the 808, or the treble boost of the...... well..... treble boosters. Some pedals just have a different flavor to them that they can't get with their amp. Like Fender to Marshall, Marshall to Fender, and seemingly anything to a Plexi.

 

[Phildog]

Well, I'm with you, but some people use the mid boost of the 808, or the treble boost of the...... well..... treble boosters. Some pedals just have a different flavor to them that they can't get with their amp. Like Fender to Marshall, Marshall to Fender, and seemingly anything to a Plexi.

Thanks for adding this!

You're exactly right M&M. I don't have a Marshall yet, but my Hornby Skewes treble boost doesn't sound good through my amp. But it was to die for on my buddy's 100 watt Plexi...with humbuckers.

 

[Marshall & Moonshine]

Thanks for adding this!

You're exactly right M&M. I don't have a Marshall yet, but my Hornby Skewes treble boost doesn't sound good through my amp. But it was to die for on my buddy's 100 watt Plexi...with humbuckers.

No worries! I run the Analogman Beano Boost into my 800 (set plexi-ishreamp @ 3, MV @ high as I can get away with) and love it. Sounds great with my LP, but also with my Strat.

 

[Marshall & Moonshine]

No worries! I run the Analogman Beano Boost into my 800 (set plexi-ishreamp @ 3, MV @ high as I can get away with) and love it. Sounds great with my LP, but also with my Strat.

Ha ha! Emoticons are awesome!
What I wrote was "set plexi-ish: preamp"..... Guess I should have spaced it better.
I wasn't blowing anyone a kiss.
I could edit that, but it wouldn't entertain me nearly as much.

 

[gibsonguitar1988]

For me personally I prefer the versatility of OD pedals to the amp distortion/overdrive. It's just a more usable sound to me. I have to be able to cover lots of territory and it's a tall order for any single amp or pedal. That's why I pick great amps that are pedal platforms that I build on with my vast array of dirtboxes just to cover all sorts of tones. And if I need the sound of a specific amp's overdrive sound I can pretty much get it with the great amp in a box pedals out there these days that really do sound like cranked up amps. This is the golden era of stompboxes and dirtboxes and especially amp in a box pedals. They sound like amps to me, and it's subjective but dare I say they sound even better in some cases.

I've just always been a clean amp + lots of dirt pedals kind of guy. For one amp to do what I have to do it'd have to have something crazy like a dozen differently voiced channels or something. And I'm not into hauling around a multi amp setup. Give me my clean Blackface Fender with high headroom and my wide array of drives. It's not so much different levels of gain in each one, yeah that's given, but the different flavors or voices each one has is the reason why. It's not that I have a lot for a wide range of gain (yeah I do, but that's not the reason why), it's all about flavors and voices and covering pretty much every recorded classic rock tone in a live environment. That's why I even have several different pedals in the same category. They all sound different to me. But I'm neurotic and I am very picky on what I like and am the exception, not the rule.

It depends on every person's needs/wants. Both are equally valid and good ways of obtaining distortion, it just depends what your gig calls for and what pleases your ears.

 

[GibsonMarshallGuy]

There is a good reason behind why you would want to use and overdrive pedal with, let's say, a good vintage marshall amp. Also keep in mind that there IS a difference between distortion and an overdrive pedal, but let's focus on od.

So, basically you have your preamp and your power tube section in your amp. If you're new to tube amps, you would probably get your gain from the gain knob on your amp. If you use your gain knob as your main source of distortion you will probably get a decent distorted tone. This is accessing your preamp for gain.

With that being said, your volume knob basically uses the power tubes in your amp. Here's the trick, the best sounding gain COMES FROM THE POWER TUBES! Basically, optimal settings would be to turn up your volume and use minimal gain. Does that make sense?

Overdrive pedals basically increases the signal output coming from your guitar, thus driving the POWER TUBES to get more gain, but this is the GOOD TYPE OF GAIN.

Again the best sounding distorted tones is going to come from when you are driving your power tubes. Overdrive pedal just drives the tubes harder, thus the term "tube screamer"/"overdrive".

 

[nobita21]

There is a good reason behind why you would want to use and overdrive pedal with, let's say, a good vintage marshall amp. Also keep in mind that there IS a difference between distortion and an overdrive pedal, but let's focus on od.

So, basically you have your preamp and your power tube section in your amp. If you're new to tube amps, you would probably get your gain from the gain knob on your amp. If you use your gain knob as your main source of distortion you will probably get a decent distorted tone. This is accessing your preamp for gain.

With that being said, your volume knob basically uses the power tubes in your amp. Here's the trick, the best sounding gain COMES FROM THE POWER TUBES! Basically, optimal settings would be to turn up your volume and use minimal gain. Does that make sense?

Overdrive pedals basically increases the signal output coming from your guitar, thus driving the POWER TUBES to get more gain, but this is the GOOD TYPE OF GAIN.

Again the best sounding distorted tones is going to come from when you are driving your power tubes. Overdrive pedal just drives the tubes harder, thus the term "tube screamer"/"overdrive".

thanks for dropping some knowledge!
if that's the case, if i use just clean channel (lower gain) + using OD pedal to get the gain (POWER gain), will it drive my tubes better instead of using pre-amp gain?

 

[Marshall & Moonshine]

There is a good reason behind why you would want to use and overdrive pedal with, let's say, a good vintage marshall amp. Also keep in mind that there IS a difference between distortion and an overdrive pedal, but let's focus on od.

So, basically you have your preamp and your power tube section in your amp. If you're new to tube amps, you would probably get your gain from the gain knob on your amp. If you use your gain knob as your main source of distortion you will probably get a decent distorted tone. This is accessing your preamp for gain.

With that being said, your volume knob basically uses the power tubes in your amp. Here's the trick, the best sounding gain COMES FROM THE POWER TUBES! Basically, optimal settings would be to turn up your volume and use minimal gain. Does that make sense?

Overdrive pedals basically increases the signal output coming from your guitar, thus driving the POWER TUBES to get more gain, but this is the GOOD TYPE OF GAIN.

Again the best sounding distorted tones is going to come from when you are driving your power tubes. Overdrive pedal just drives the tubes harder, thus the term "tube screamer"/"overdrive".

Not so fast....
Metal guys use preamp gain, due to its tighter bottom end. The classic rock guys are the ones who prefer power tube distortion. So one's not better than the other. I get a great sound from my preamp, when I need to keep the MV down. As for pedals, anything before the preamp hits the preamp, and only the preamp. If you want to step on a pedal to break up the power section, or push a broken up power section even further, put a boost in the fx loop.
I hope this clears that up.
OD/Dist pedals both work this way. The only distinction that I know between OD and distortion is a fuzzy line of the amount of gain. I could be wrong about that, but they work the same, on breaking up tubes.

 

[GibsonMarshallGuy]

I was using vintage Marshall's as an example and Well, it's all preference, man. It also depends on the amp.

I have a JVM 210 head. I barely need ANY preamp gain. Even though I mainly play hard rock and blues, I still cover Metallica, and other thrash metal stuff....

Regardless, even for playing metal saturating your power tubes sounds AMAZING compared to low volumes and preamp saturation.

In all honesty though I stand by what I said, the best distorted tones comes from the power tubes. Heres an example of what I mean, notice he uses very little preamp gain..

[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3ucxzfUExzg[/ame]

 

[Phildog]

IMO I think it ALL boils down to how we use what we have, for the most part. I don't have a Marshall amp, but using my Les Paul, I CAN get some Marshall-like tones with my amp cranked and tweaking my pedals. But I have the headroom in my amp to do that. And to get some sparkling cleans, I use a clean boost. That along with the great headroom in my amp (Univox), I love playing my Strat clean. It sounds very Fenderish.

I'm intrigued hearing how you guys "skin your cats". I bet you all sound pretty darn good with your respective rigs.

 

[Marshall & Moonshine]

I definitely agree with that! I'm in the power tube sound camp, myself. My 800 sits handsomely on the line between "vintage" and "modern" Marshalls. That MV is useful. No loop though. I don't really need it anyway.
Boost pedals can be used to coax distortion from the old NMV amps by breaking up the preamp. So you can set your pedal for the amount of preamp gain you want, and set the volume for, well, the volume overall. So the boost, in effect, becomes the preamp control, and the amp's volume acts as a MV.
It's the cure to all these "C5 too loud?" threads. Throw a boost in front, and enjoy, because the only way to breakup the power section is to exceed the wattage ratings. Most people can't do that at home for too long, even with 5 watts.

 

[GibsonMarshallGuy]

I'm a plug in and play guy. Compared to other amps the JVM is a machine that has to be tuned up. You can't just go in there and expect a good tone. You MUST know what the preamp does and what the power tubes do. Hell, if you don't know what mids do you are in big trouble.

 

[Marshall & Moonshine]

I'm a plug in and play guy. Compared to other amps the JVM is a machine that has to be tuned up. You can't just go in there and expect a good tone. You MUST know what the preamp does and what the power tubes do. Hell, if you don't know what mids do you are in big trouble.

Well, the JVM is one hell of an amp, and even though I'm sure you have to do quite a bit of tweaking to get "your" sound, I bet there aren't any real bad tones to be found. It's what happens when Marshall gets something right. It's kinda the same way with my 50 watt 800.... If the volume is ok, I could play an entire set after either of my boys (6&1) mess with all my settings and be just fine.
I have a picture somewhere of the older one sitting in front of my amp, singing to himself: now they're all this way, now they're all that way. That was pretty funny, I have to say.
I play southern/classic rock, blues, americana and country type stuff, so the power section is where I live, when I can.

 

[GibsonMarshallGuy]

Ya, honestly it took me a good 2 or 4 months before I started really liking it (I just kept hearing the potential in it everyday I messed with it). Now I worship the damn thing. I mean, I was playing a peavey 6505+ before I got my JVM. You see, with the Peavey it didn't matter what setting it was in it just was what it was, I don't even know how I got a classic rock tone out of it. I just had a ton of pedals back then.


That's funny about your kids though, I have a two year old and he touches everything, so ya I have to have a pic of my settings. Sometimes I don't even notice something is off....

 

[Marshall & Moonshine]

Ya, honestly it took me a good 2 or 4 months before I started really liking it (I just kept hearing the potential in it everyday I messed with it). Now I worship the damn thing. I mean, I was playing a peavey 6505+ before I got my JVM. You see, with the Peavey it didn't matter what setting it was in it just was what it was, I don't even know how I got a classic rock tone out of it. I just had a ton of pedals back then.


That's funny about your kids though, I have a two year old and he touches everything, so ya I have to have a pic of my settings. Sometimes I don't even notice something is off....

 

[nobita21]

thanks guys.

in a limited room (where i cant crank up), "to make the best out of power tubes", than it is better to use MV and drive the OD pedal, correct?

 

[GibsonMarshallGuy]

What type of amp you interested in?

Gonna play with a band?

What kind of music do you play?

 

[68_Mustang]

Best OD Pedal

http://i305.photobucket.com/albums/...marshall_amplification_marshall_p_1822310.jpg

Seriously, an all tube Marshall amp gives you better OD than any pedal out there. I am running a JTM 60, which is great for the Old School tube OD sound.