Git,amph and pedal volumes?

[M29]

Ok so I am trying to get a handle on the volume knob of the guitar, the volume of the amph and the level on a distortion pedal.
How do you guys set up your distortion pedal? Some play with the amph way up and back the guitar down until ready to blast. Some run the guitar wide open then use a pedal with the level up higher than the guitar to give a boost to the front end of the amp or to bring the level up for a lead.

I find with my guitars wide open I get a little edge to the clean tone that I do not like but when I back the guitar down a little to clean it up the treble drops. I understand what is happening when the treble drops on the volume pot but how do you guys correlate your volumes between the guitar,amph and distortion pedal?
I guess it really depends on the situation now that I think about it and the room size and overall volume required for the gig. Your thoughts? I haven't played out yet and really have to no idea what to expect.

TIA

M

 

[Spudman]

For me it varies between home and gig. At home I can have the guitar wide open and control the amp because there is plenty of time and no pressure so it's easy to adjust my sound that way.

At the gig I just turn the amp up to about half and usually have a drive pedal of some kind on. When I need clean I either back off the guitar volume with the dirt box on or I turn it off to get more shimmer on a clean guitar. Sometimes I'll even roll the guitar volume down while it's completely clean. I don't have a problem doing this at gigs for a couple of reasons. First the folks listening are probably happier that my guitar is not overly crisp and second it allows the vocals to be more present. I can put clarity into the vocals and the guitar doesn't fight for that part of the audio spectrum.

 

[M29]

Thank you for the insight as always Spud:AOK:

M

 

[t_ross33]

I'm the opposite of Spud - by the end of a gig I usually just say f-it and crank the everything wide open and "Let 'er Buck!" :rockon:

What I prefer to do, when I have time to play around, is have my amp just on the verge of break-up - or more truthfully, since it is a SS amp - on Ch2 with just a hint of distortion. I dial my guitar back to about 8, tone dialed to taste. If I'm using an OD or Dist pedal, I like to get the effect without increasing the volume output a whole bunch, so I dial the "Level" in accordingly.

By having a little room on the volume control, and/or changing picking dynamics I can go from pretty clean to a-touch-of-hair, then kick in the pedal to take it over the top.

 

[markb]

I like to crank my amp to breakup and back off the volume for cleans. I'd then use a pedal for extra drive but, as I'm on a no-pedal kick at the moment, I'm actually pushing the amp beyond the edge and just riding the volume. At stage level using ch2 on my TM60 (Marshallish voice, gain just past halfway) I get clean at 5/6 on the volume, crunch at 8-ish and leads wide open.

As you've noted, you don't get a really sparkling clean but it's easy enough to push the treble on the amp a bit and back off the guitar's tone control when winding on the gain.

 

[Plank_Spanker]

I like to set my amp up to where it's just starting to break up with the guitar volume wide open. That way, all I need for clean is to roll the guitar's volume back a bit. It loses a little brightness, but it sits well in the mix. I have a two channel dirt box (Tonebone TriMode). I set one channel for the dirt I need at at a comparable volume to the wide open clean of the amp; the other channel gets set to provide more punch for leads.

 

[M29]

Thank you all very much, this is just what I was looking for

M