Amp Distortion vs. Pedal

[Imaduck]

Hehe, yeah I know, like I said, I was trying to make everything very general. Celestions have always been very good with being overdriven, though 90% of the people I know who have them have worn out their speakers. Most people wonder why they're tone goes bad after overdriving they're rig for a few years and never even suspect their speakers. I'm a bit biased against chunky sounds anyway, because I hate them.

Power amp sound can be good or bad, like i said, it's sort of a between tone. For blues on old tube amps though, you're right, it usually does come out quite nicely.

If preamp distortion were the holy grail in itself, all these dopey preamps with a 12ax7 in them could be plugged into a solid state power amp then into a stereo speaker and sound like a guitar. (they don't, and don't try it, you might blow your tweeters)

Actually, if you get a good DI box, which is basically a preamp, plugging it into a stereo system will sound good, however, guitar speakers are specifically designed to respond to the frequencies that are generally used for guitar tone, which means the majority of your amp wattage goes to the tones your looking for. When you have 2 or 3 way stereo speakers (or more), your power is divided up between multiple crossovers and speakers, which results in a more distibuted sound that isn't specifically suited for guitar, and therefore less of your total amperage will go to the tones you want to empasized, so yes, turning up a 100 watt stereo amp into stereo speakers will not end up with the same good, powerful sound as a 100 watt guitar amp, however this has a lot more to do with stereo speaker design and less with distortion.

Anyway though, I do agree that "Any good guitar sound is made up of all these combined."

 

[shockingcandy]

I use a Marshall VS100 for both live an studio work. Great sounding amp. Much better than the newer AVT150 (and much louder too thanks to the latter being closed back). One thing that bugs me though is I can't find a VS112 extension cabinet anywhere (in the England anyway)

 

[Neil Ogilvie]

Bought a POD II.

Never looked back...... Yet.

 

[ntnguitarist3]

I like my amp, marshall jcm dsl... im only 16 and only been plaing for 3 years but in that time ive come to the conclusion that i hate pedals and guitar prosecors... i just like the real thing all tubed no digital stuff, and i like to keep it simple rather than have dif pedal around me and what not...

 

[ecktronic]

NOT POD!! say no to POD.

I use Marshall DSL50 and 1960 half stack with the GT6 guitar processor from Boss. I think the GT6 is underrated as it is great. Only draw back is a bit of noise which is amplified a bit, but that is from my pick up wiring. Not really a problem though.

 

[futurestar]

I use a POD Pro, A 50 Caliber Mes Boogie Head, and a Marshall 1960A 4X12 Cabinet. The combination sounds really good for what it is. However, I plan on getting a DSL 50 Marshall Head at some point. Every amp I ever get ... I end up trying to make it sound like a Marshall anyway ...

 

[Farview]

Actually, if you get a good DI box, which is basically a preamp, plugging it into a stereo system will sound good

Not with a distorted sound, it won't. Any way a DI box is not a preamp. It is a level and impedance coverter. The passive ones just have a transformer in them. Unless you are refering to a pod or a sansamp, which are both amp simulators (with speaker simulators built in)

 

[Farview]

Actually, if you get a good DI box, which is basically a preamp, plugging it into a stereo system will sound good, however, guitar speakers are specifically designed to respond to the frequencies that are generally used for guitar tone, which means the majority of your amp wattage goes to the tones your looking for.

The amp wattage is already distributed by the time it hits the cabinet. What guitar speakers do is attenuate the high end (that a cheap 12 inch speaker can't reproduce) and react (slowly) to what the amp is putting out. Home stereo speakers are designed to more accuratly reproduce what is fed to them. The bottom line is that you don't want to hear an accurate representation of what comes out of a guitar amp. It is (with distorted sounds) shrill and goofy sounding.

 

[Chill]

I am talking about general rock to Phish style jam-band music.

IIRC of late Trey uses vintage Fender Deluxes with some minor mods. You might look for a silverface Deluxe and stick some pedals in front of it, starting with the Boss SD-1.

For distortion, amp vs pedal, IMO tube amp is the way to go. As a second best, tube amp on the verge of overdrive pushed into overdrive with something like a tubescreamer/SD-1/fuzz face. Part of that is sound, part of it is feel and response that you get with an overdriven tube amp. Ideally it's "the right" mix of preamp, poweramp, and speaker distortion.

 

[Fuzznut]

I have a 1968 Marshall Plexi Super Bass 100w and a 1971 Marshall Super Bass 100w. These are point to point, hand soldered amps FYI. Although they're bass amps, there's little difference to a Super Lead from the same time period. These babies are warmer sounding and have more low end.
I like amp distortion but I have to crank the amp all the way up to 10 'cause there's no master volume (and don't need one ) and it gets LOUD! You can't beat the dynamics and raw power of a cranked plexi and you can get nice clean tones aswell by rolling off your guitars volume. Usually I just plug a Strat, Fuzz Face and an Italian Vox Wah ('69) and crank the amp. But if I want to play at lower levels, I just ad a dist. pedal and use that to get the gain... It really depens..

ps. click the links to see pics

 

[cornjchob2]

Pres?

What about pre-processors? I've got a DigiTech 2112, and that baby rocks. Well, it does when you pair it with a nice tube amp. It's got 2 AX7's in it--comes with Sovteks, but I swapped 'em out for Telefunkens once when my buddy left his old Ampeg Jupiter 22/B-22X here. The clean rivalved 3/4's of the vintage Fender amps I've heard. If you're looking for some experimental effects with the classics to boot--and with a jam-band, you've gotta be ready for anything--I'd definately recomend looking into a pre like that.

 

[Dopps]

Danelectro all the way baby!

 

[Zona Mona]

Thanks for that distortion decscription duck, it was very helpful.

 

[Tadpui]

For that Phishy kind of sound, you'll definitely want a good Fender-like tube amp, a compressor(/sustainer) pedal, and a guitar w/a double-coil pickup at the neck position.

I'd say to use the amp's distortion. Although I read once that Trey would use 2 Tube Screamers in series and turn one or both of them on depending on what he was doing at the time.

 

[boingoman]

For that Phishy kind of sound, you'll definitely want a good Fender-like tube amp, a compressor(/sustainer) pedal, and a guitar w/a double-coil pickup at the neck position.

I'd say to use the amp's distortion. Although I read once that Trey would use 2 Tube Screamers in series and turn one or both of them on depending on what he was doing at the time.

That nice hand-made semi-hollow body guitar doesn't hurt, either. With the comp/sus pedal it makes sustain and feedback for days at nice low volumes.

 

[lykwydchykyn]

You may want to read some of the articles over at amptone.com.

I've been using a POD for several years now. It's not bad, but, meh, it's not real exciting either. If I were you I'd be going for a low-wattage tube combo. I used to run sound in a basement club, these high-schoolers would come in with 500 watt stacks and blow the place away. I lost several tweeters trying to get vocals and drums audible. And just try getting them to turn down!
No, get yourself a low-wattage combo you can crank and saturate the tubes without killing people.