OD and Tube Amphs

[marnold]

I just wanted to know what some of your favorite settings are for using an overdrive pedal with a tube amph. I'm mainly looking for ones you use when you want to give an already dirty amph an extra boost to 11. I know that fiddling with things is 1/2 the fun, but I've had so little time to play this past week, I just want to get down to business with some good jumping off points. FWIW, I've got a DVM-made tweaked OD2. It's similar to but not quite as cool as the latest Zonkin' Yellow Screamer. Mine has cooler graphics though.

 

[mainestratman]

I'll let you know when I get home and a chance to play with settings.

 

[Kazz]

Rev Rawk's pedal is decidely more Lutheran than any other pedal known to mankind.

 

[FrankenFretter]

I use my Tube Screamer with the gain at about 3 O' clock, the tone at 9 O' clock, and the level just shy of noon. Typically, anyway.

 

[marnold]

Just to bump my own thread here: I spent a bit of time putting my OD2 in front of the Jet City. I had the pedal in stock Tube Screamer tone (aka mid hump and default TS clipping diodes), level at noon, gain a little less than 9:00, and tone rolled all the way off. Yes, you read that last part right. Probably would sound like crap with a regular TS, but my OD2 is brighter by its very nature and the Jet City is a bright amph. FWIW, the amph was set with the gain, bass, and mids at 6, the treble at 3, and the volume and presence at 4.

The difference was subtle but definitely there. Not sure how to describe it . . . more saturated maybe? But it didn't lose any clarity. It's kind of like adding salt to a dish. You don't want people to taste salt, you just want to kick the existing flavors up a notch. Mission accomplished. It gave some nice bluesy tones when I moved the amph to some clean settings (gain about 1 and volume to 5 or 6) and switched to the neck pickup.

Mind you, I have yet to mess with the Full or Fat tone switch settings, to say nothing of the diode lift or MOSFET clipping. There's more to be played with.

I'm still interested to hear how others use an overdrive, especially with an already overdriven amph.

 

[tunghaichuan]

The classic way to use a tube screamer type pedal is to turn the output volume all the way up and turn the gain/drive all the way down. Then adjust the tone control for the best sound. It works with tube screamers and the Boss Blues Driver, but not with their SD-1 Overdrive and some of the DOD OD pedals.

With the classic approach, you're not adding any distortion to the amp, rather you're pushing an already distorting amp further by overloading the preamp with a clean boost.

Just to bump my own thread here: I spent a bit of time putting my OD2 in front of the Jet City. I had the pedal in stock Tube Screamer tone (aka mid hump and default TS clipping diodes), level at noon, gain a little less than 9:00, and tone rolled all the way off. Yes, you read that last part right. Probably would sound like crap with a regular TS, but my OD2 is brighter by its very nature and the Jet City is a bright amph. FWIW, the amph was set with the gain, bass, and mids at 6, the treble at 3, and the volume and presence at 4.

The difference was subtle but definitely there. Not sure how to describe it . . . more saturated maybe? But it didn't lose any clarity. It's kind of like adding salt to a dish. You don't want people to taste salt, you just want to kick the existing flavors up a notch. Mission accomplished. It gave some nice bluesy tones when I moved the amph to some clean settings (gain about 1 and volume to 5 or 6) and switched to the neck pickup.

Mind you, I have yet to mess with the Full or Fat tone switch settings, to say nothing of the diode lift or MOSFET clipping. There's more to be played with.

I'm still interested to hear how others use an overdrive, especially with an already overdriven amph.

 

[deeaa]

Well...

I always tend to set them vol slightly over half and gain maybe around 1/4 or less.

What I want an OD to do is 'fill the gaps' of pure tube OD, but no more.

Pure tube OD is like a diesel idling; it's like B-R-B-R-B-R-B-R....just ugly, or at least not my preference.

And when you add some diode clip it gets smoother:
RBRBRBRBRBRBRBRRBRB...

But what I don't want is BRRRR or BSSSSSS especially...

LOL if that makes any sense.

 

[duhvoodooman]

On the OD2's I build (including the ZYS Mk II), my favorite setting is MOSFET clipping, EQ toggle on Full, Drive at about 1 - 2 o'clock, and Level and Tone to taste. My preferred Tone setting moves around quite a bit, depending upon the amp and guitar I'm using. On the ZYS with the effect order switch, I'll often set it for the boost in front of the OD stage, and use it to kick up the gain when I want more "dirt".

 

[deeaa]

Rev Rawk's pedal is decidely more Lutheran than any other pedal known to mankind.

LOL yeah! But...how about now that I'm a Lutheran no more but a pagan instead (listed as a Jedi in some places actually, heh), what might be the stance of my pedals?

 

[mainestratman]

Jedis weren't pagans, per se...

 

[deeaa]

I suppose, LOL. In some places in forms there's a spot for religious stand or something, and in those I always write Jedi. But actually of course I just don't belong to any religious group or such...but actually, yeah, does the word pagan mean sort of anyhow believing 'old' gods or something in English, not complete atheism? Hm. In Finnish it just means non-religious.

 

[marnold]

LOL yeah! But...how about now that I'm a Lutheran no more but a pagan instead (listed as a Jedi in some places actually, heh), what might be the stance of my pedals?

It's not just more Lutheran because it's owned by me. See the pics in the link below:

http://www.thefret.net/showpost.php?p=140535&postcount=24

 

[marnold]

On the OD2's I build (including the ZYS Mk II), my favorite setting is MOSFET clipping, EQ toggle on Full, Drive at about 1 - 2 o'clock, and Level and Tone to taste. My preferred Tone setting moves around quite a bit, depending upon the amp and guitar I'm using. On the ZYS with the effect order switch, I'll often set it for the boost in front of the OD stage, and use it to kick up the gain when I want more "dirt".

I guess I'm somewhat surprised by the amount of drive. Is that into an otherwise clean amph or an overdriven one? Do your other OD2 have the gain increase like mine?

 

[mainestratman]

LOL @ deeaa... I didn't mean to turn this into a religious discussion.. I just really like that LOLZ. :-D

Using "Jedi" is brilliant.

 

[duhvoodooman]

I guess I'm somewhat surprised by the amount of drive. Is that into an otherwise clean amph or an overdriven one? Do your other OD2 have the gain increase like mine?

That's into a clean amp setup, and typical gain setting for my single coil guitars. The humbuckers don't need that much gain--maybe 11 o'clock to noon. Keep in mind that I have other overdrive pedals for lower gain stuff. My modified BD2's are great for very transparent, low gain overdrive. When I use a TS-type overdrive, I like to have some grunt with it. "YMMV", as they say....