Distortion pedal with tube amp.

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Necromaniac

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Is anyone out there using a heavy distortion pedal with a tube amp. Does is sound good?
 
what kind of sound are you looking to get? i use a big muff and a rat on occasion (both vintage). i also use a blue box, but thats less of a distrotion effect and more of "AHH! my guitar is breaking through the amp!" effect. usually i just use the amps distortion though (jcm800 2205).

jacob
 
when I used to gig I used a Rat ped. with MesaBoogie Mark 3's..I used it for a slight change up of my lead sound.Worked great for me...Also used a 61' Bassman in the studio quite a bit with the same Rat ped..That setup had a great nasty sound...It was perfect for what I was doing at the time.Good peds sound great with tube amps IMHO



Don
 
Well Im looking for a really heavy thick sound. I play in a death metal\Gridcore band and my amp head needs thrown out(literally). I guess im not sure If I want solid state or tube amp. Everyone seems to love the tubes for heavier music though. I have a Boss metal zone mt-2 pedal and a Dod eq pedal that im running right now.
 
I think Randall makes an amp that you would find to your liking.
 
I actually think that people doing the heavy stuff are using solid state, or they should be. Runnin a lot of heavy distortion before the amp takes away the subtleties of tube distortion. If you're relying on a pedal for your sound, solid state would probably be your thing.

So in closing, metalheads give me your tube amps!! You'll save enough money in tubes in a year to come out ahead! Or something...

Pat
Tube Ampless in Cincinnati
:(
 
I find a disortion/overdrive pedal (any kind) with the level cranked and the effect as low as you can go works well with tube amps for wailing lead sounds and feedback. This works especially well with my Marshall JCM 800 2203. Hides your mistakes a little too;)

Never tried a clean boost pedal - but that's probably what I'm trying to do.

There's a guitarist that I record who must use 10-15 pedals. I first got him to use a tube amp, and then try to get him to figure out which pedals are unnecessary and get rid of them. It always improves his sound.
 
That Santana sound

I really want to get that nice warm Carlos Santana sound. I have a number of guitars, but no PRS. I have a POD, and I have a tube preamp. But I still cant get that nice sound. What's the secret?!
 
Santana

Put the POD on something that is high gain, take a LesPaul or simular, flip on the neck pickup, and back off the tone a hair.....then toss on a heap of reverb.
 
If it's for live gigs I'd go and find some old 50 or 100w tube head that doesn't have too much preamp distortion (preferably a brand that no ones heard of for the cool factor :) ) and crank a decent pedal through it. Piling up too many different distortions can leave the sound too complex.
 
Necromaniac said:
Is anyone out there using a heavy distortion pedal with a tube amp. Does is sound good?
Click to expand...

"I' personally hate dist pedals, your better off finding a head w/ good distortion. Two for the price of one(power & pre) If you had the money i reconmend a VHT Pitbull.
 
LocusLarsen said:
I think Randall makes an amp that you would find to your liking.
Click to expand...

I just checked out their cyclone head. Looks like it would be perfect for me. Does anyone have one?
 
I don't know what my buddy had.........it was a long time ago. It was a Randal, might have been the WarHead. It was solid state all the way, but I didn't pay much attention. Its good for grind and crust.
 
I use a Laney with a Digitech pedal, but here is the disclaimer: I use it with the clean channel, with a slightly "pinched" EQ. I use a lot of phase and chorus for "shimmering" angellike lead riffs.

When I run the pedal thru the "drive" channel, it always sounds overprocessed for my tastes. But hey, "thats me"!

My opinion is that tube amps have something for everybody....Tube amps, in my opinion, will improve everyones sound, no matter what they play.

BTW, I subscribe to Guitar Techniques (a British publication) and every issue, they put together a schematic re the signal chain of famous guitarists. You would be amazed about how complex and how simple some of your fav guitarists route their signal.

Hope this helps.
 
I had a marshall jcm 900 but when I turned up the clean channel it had a slight bit of distortion. Which in effect made the distortion pedal sound crappy when turned on. But I want to give tube amps another try everyone loves them.
 
I have found with the majority of tube amps that a distortion pedal has no use. If you back off the gain and up the level, you might find a whole new type of distortion.......:)OVERDRIVE:)
 
For really heavy stuff, if you're looking for a tube amp, try a Boogie Dual or Triple Rectifier first. Everyone uses them for this, and for a reason. Remember to use the solid state rectifier, it's going to give you a more solid bottom end.

As you work your way up the money chain, other amps might interest you too... the Egnater 50 watt modular, the Bogner Uberschall, the Diezel V-4. Egnater has a really cool modular system that lets you choose your preamp modules, and their heavy modules sound great. Bogner has great sample clips (http://www.bogneramplification.com/) of all of their amps, and the Uberschall has "that" sound. Diezel kicks pretty much everyone's ass, but they cost 4 grand, their website sucks, and htey're hard to find.

For solid state, Randalls are the way to go.
 
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