Thoughts on some midrangey boost pedals?

  • Thread starter Thread starter thebigcheese
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thebigcheese

thebigcheese

"Hi, I'm in Delaware."
I am looking an overdrive/boost pedal to add to my board that will help me cut through during solos. I am running a Deluxe Strat or The Paul into an Orange Thunder 30. I love the tone I get from the amp, so I really only want something to give me a little more gain and a bit of a midrange cut, kinda like you would do in the studio. Right now, I have a BYOC OD2, which is basically a more flexible Tube Screamer clone, but the problem I am having is that it doesn't really add midrange, it kills the detail of my tone, and it adds noise. For instance, if I just turn the gain up a little more on my amp, I don't really get any more noise, but if I set the pedal to add that same amount of gain, I do get noise. And I really hate noise, so I would like as little of that as possible. So really, I just want something to stomp on when I want to cut through, for which I think something of a mids boost is most appropriate, but otherwise doesn't color the tone too much and mostly just adds volume rather than gain of its own (so that the extra gain comes from the amp being driven rather than from the pedal). I guess I could just get an EQ pedal, but there aren't very many of those out there and most of those are fairly noisy, too... Suggestions?
 
My TS9 does exactly that. More sensitivty, more volume, and more midrange. I can't imagine that your clone would be much different but maybe so. I run mine with the dials pretty much all at 12:00 and even then it does all of the above. Although I play with a relatively clean tone, just enough to drive the amp when I really lean into my guitar. So the overdriven tone is a big contrast.

Maybe even look into a clean boost pedal, or a treble boost pedal.
 
My experience with my clone is that all the detail disappears and I get less sensitivity, but I do get more volume and a little more midrange. Kinda mushier overall, which defeats the purpose of having a nice Orange amp (otherwise I would've gone with Mesa). I also can't deal with the noise. Ugh. I want mostly midrange, almost a scoop. The TC VPD1 has a mid boost feature on it, but I haven't actually tried it out yet. It also doesn't have true bypass, which is kind of a bummer.
 
thebigcheese said:
I want mostly midrange, almost a scoop.
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"Scooping" the mids means cutting them in order to emphasize bass and treble.

So WTF are you after?

Check out the Keeley Katana for clean boost or the Java Boost for Germanium treble boost. Keep in mind the Java is not a clean boost.
 
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you could always use a EQ pedal/rack-EQ linked to a volume pedal in a sub loop off your main effects loop. Then you could adjust the frequencies you require and set the volume for when you switch over to playing lead.

If you buy any boost pedal you are stuck with whatever frequencys the designer decides to alter, if you use an eq pedal or pedals you can set the sound to your own preference.

If you dont own a range of EQ pedals a cheap way to experiement is to record a snippet and play around with the sound using free vst eq's. This way you can decide whether Parametric, graphic or shelving is required for your sound [or a combination].

Then you can buy the hardware eq equivalent/equivalents.

This is a good demo for a parametric eq. YouTube - Empress Effects ParaEQ w/Boost

I have been tempted to buy one of these myself.
 
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c7sus said:
"Scooping" the mids means cutting them in order to emphasize bass and treble.

So WTF are you after?
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My bad. I realized after I wrote it that scooping was not the best term. Kind of the opposite of scooping is what I want. I do my own recording, so I know essentially what I'm looking for. I just want mostly mids when a little extra volume/gain from the amp when I kick on the pedal. Basically, the same thing I would do to cut through in a busy mix in the studio. If there's a good EQ that won't add noise (unlike the MXR and Boss EQs), I would consider that for sure.
 
Get an EQ pedal and/or try something like a Fat Boost which has a tone knob if you don't want distortion. But if you want just the mids boosted an EQ will be best, and if you want a boost with mids, then an EQ will probably be best.
 
Outlaws said:
Get an EQ pedal and/or try something like a Fat Boost which has a tone knob if you don't want distortion. But if you want just the mids boosted an EQ will be best, and if you want a boost with mids, then an EQ will probably be best.
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Alright, EQ it is. I'll have to see which one will do it for me.
 
Fulltone OCD is one suggestion ...... a good mid range heavy OD with nice note definition and it cleans up a lot like an amp if you back off on the gits' volume.

Also, as Tadpui suggested, a TS9'll do the boosted midrange thing nicely too.
I personally think the Fulltone'll give you better note definition though.
 
BARBER DIRECT DRIVE SUPER SPORT


1 of my all time favorite drive pedals, it has a lot of internal trim controls that let you really dial in certain tones.

"New internal controls- The Super Sport Direct Drive can dial in Note Shape, Harmonics, Bass, Midrange and presence."


Direct Drive Super Sport

read up on it, check out some reviews....
i use the midrange in it, to specifically dial in the mid tone to slightly CUT on my sound ( i have a vintage mesa boogie, very middy to begin with)... but the trim can be set for boosting the mids as well...
 
Get some of these pedals as mentioned and try em out. You can never really have too many good pedals.
 
I tried out pretty much all of the overdrive pedals we've got at GC today--TS9, OCD, Green Rhino, Fat Boost, Sparkle Drive... none of them really has what I'm looking for. The mid boost feature of the VDP1 is pretty much what I want, but I don't like that you have to have both sections of the pedal on to get at it. The Lovepedal Superlead is actually fairly close to what I want, too, but it is a distortion instead of an overdrive, so I'm going to start looking at more of those to see if that's the ticket. What I'm going for, essentially, is something like the tone from Boston's guitarist--normally, I hate his tone, but it really cuts through and it works in solos. Almost like a fixed wah. The various Tube Screamer clones don't really have that kind of mid boost--more of a mid bump at best.
 
CaptGoldenEars said:
Get some of these pedals as mentioned and try em out. You can never really have too many good pedals.
Click to expand...

Says you. I like as few pedals as possible. I've got a tuner, Whammy, overdrive, and Nova Delay. And a channel switcher, if that counts. I have a wah, but it rattled when I played, so I took it off the board. That's how obsessive I am about noise.
 
thebigcheese said:
Says you. I like as few pedals as possible. I've got a tuner, Whammy, overdrive, and Nova Delay. And a channel switcher, if that counts. I have a wah, but it rattled when I played, so I took it off the board. That's how obsessive I am about noise.
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They all don't have to be used at the same time. Use one at a time if you like. But you could have more than a couple in your arsenal. That's all i'm saying. I only use 2 or 3 at a time myself, most of the time anyway. When i feel like getting crazy i will use as many as five. I'll borrow a friends pedal and see what i can do with that. Ever use 2 overdrive pedals at once? 2 wahs? It can be fun. And you don't have to set them both on kill. Screw around with them, see what you can get out of them. Or use just one, but you could have just one of a few different drive and boost pedals. I also use Noiseless pups in my Strat and that really helps with the noise.
 
And you didn't like the MXR EQ pedal? Because it sounds like you want an EQ pedal where you can set it for a midrange bump and/or an increase in volume when you need it. I think that the guitarist from Boston uses an EQ pedal with the sliders set to alternating all the way up/all the way down for each slider.
 
Tadpui said:
And you didn't like the MXR EQ pedal? Because it sounds like you want an EQ pedal where you can set it for a midrange bump and/or an increase in volume when you need it. I think that the guitarist from Boston uses an EQ pedal with the sliders set to alternating all the way up/all the way down for each slider.
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I don't like that it adds some hiss, especially if I move the volume up to get some boost, and I don't like that it goes on 18v. And I also don't like that it isn't true bypass. I think I read that Boston's guitarist actually uses a distortion pedal for his tone. I was playing with my OD2 again and if I turn the tone knob way clockwise, it gets close to what I want. I'm going to retry the OCD and give the Full-Drive 2 a shot, see if they have a little extra mid boost. I don't think I'm really going to get any extra volume from any of them, though. If I crank the level on my OD2, all I get is more gain from the amp when I'm in the dirty channel. If I'm in the clean channel I do get extra volume, but I don't know that I'll really be using the pedal there.
 
Sorry, double post. Stupid new Firefox browser.
 
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