Moving away from pedals to straight into amp

  • Thread starter Thread starter innogator
  • Start date Start date
I

innogator

Member
I focused on building out a pedal collection for years, trying every new big deal overdrive that came out. Just had a couple good pedal platform amps. As I started to try higher gain amps, I realized I preferred that to pedals, especially when the amp is dynamic and can go from clean to mean with guitar volume. Been clearing out pedals to make room for more amps ever since and most of my drive pedals have sat unused. Wish I would've started with amps in hindsight. Anyone else transition away from or to more pedals on your rig?
 
I’m straight into an amp most of the time, using high gain amps. But I would also need certain EQ corrections, more often than not. So Boss SD, or a tube screamer type pedal comes handy. The gain is eight or nine o’clock, volume at unity gain or minimal boost and the tone knob set to cut the low end a bit to control the amp’s preamp character.
 
wall-talking.gif
 
I'm keeping my pedals and boosts for now but like you, moving more into amp distortion only. EQ in loop is badass though for sure.
 
I'm doing a post-metal sludge band without a fuzz in the mix. Fuzz pedals have defined this genre for decades, but I like raw amp sounds. My core tone is the raw amp with only a little eq, boost, and compression. I use the Fractal FX8 more for routing control for two amps than for tone shaping.

I need a phaser somewhere though. If amps had a built in phaser circuit on the clean channel, I would be all in. Phaser and reverb are the two effects I'm using for psychedelic sounds.
 
The reason I have my amps is because I like and wanted the sound of the amp. Most of my amps have at least two channels so I can get variations of sounds I want. I'm mostly a direct guitar to front-of-amp these days, but I'm also not in a band so I'm not trying to do anything but enjoy sounds I like.

I'll use an eq pedal in front of some amps to give me another sound or a boost for a lead tone. I have a few OD, Dist and Fuzz pedals but rarely use them these days.

I used a HX-Effects, now a GX-100, in 4CM with my JP-2C, and my VHX has effects built in which I really like.
 
You are absolutely right, that if you have an amp that is designed to provide searing lead tones, it is kind of a shame not to use it that way. And it is hard to replicate that kind of sound with a box of SS transistors in front of the amp. When I played out (long ago) I was blessed to be in a band that had its own full PA and sound guy. He was excellent and went on to run sound with major touring acts. Point is, the only thing I had on the floor was a wah and a footswitch to go from clean to lead on my Mesa Mark-III. Our soundman handled everything back at the board - chorus for certain songs and clean parts - delay / verb on leads. FX really do sound best through the board whether live or in the studio.

Now that I play for my own amusement and sanity, I have had a blast fiddling around with all sorts of stomps. I have a small board for rehearsals and a bigger board for the rare occasion that I do play out somewhere. Both boards are '4-cable' with a few stomps in front of the amp and time based FX in the loop.

But I will say, I am really digging the sound of a nice tight crunch from the amp and goosing it for leads with one of the myriad of different flavor boosts and ODs. When I turn off the pedal, I can get really nice dynamic cleans from the amp by rolling off the volume knob on the guitar - especially since the amp isn't wound up to 10/10ths for leads. I am also having a blast using my amp as a glorified power amp - set clean and loud, but with all the depth and 'voice' of a guitar amp. Then hit it with one of the amazing 'amp in a box' pedals that just weren't available back in the day. My current favorite tone is a JEL pedal feeding my non-mv 72 Marshall. It can go from gorgeous cleans to killer, modded JCM tones, and then with the built in boost, its like having an old TS in front of the best 80s era JCM800 I have ever heard.
 
I play more metal than rock, @innogator But I have moved back and forth between straight in and boosted. Granted, I only play high gain amps, so I use a boost say TS style with the level unity to max, tone to taste (to even out if your amp is treble or low mid dominant) and gain all the way off (the gain will muddy up a high gain amp, you don't need more distortion, just level to tighten).

However, like you, I use the volume knob to go from clean to mean, because I only like single channel beasts. This gets tricky as fuck with Noise gates. My current amp and my previous amp diddn't need noisegates until you boost. When you boost, you could get away with it, but if you gate, then you can't use the volume on the guitar or you cut the signal and either end up tap dancing or losing your clean to mean

The way I have fixed this is with a Lehle Volume pedal. It is the 90 version that has a minimum pot. So rather than going full blast to nothing, you can set the pot to where your amp cleans up at the bottom of the volume pedal range. Then, you can play with the amp clean with the gate, because gate is receiving full signal from guitar. The volume pedal is last in line before the amp.

It is very convenient, but that is not all. The coolest thing about this is if you set your amp for always boosted, then your "clean" tone becomes a boosted clean, which is really fucking sweet for single note shit.

rig.jpg
pedalboard min 2.jpg
 
Smash said:
I play more metal than rock, @innogator But I have moved back and forth between straight in and boosted. Granted, I only play high gain amps, so I use a boost say TS style with the level unity to max, tone to taste (to even out if your amp is treble or low mid dominant) and gain all the way off (the gain will muddy up a high gain amp, you don't need more distortion, just level to tighten).

However, like you, I use the volume knob to go from clean to mean, because I only like single channel beasts. This gets tricky as fuck with Noise gates. My current amp and my previous amp diddn't need noisegates until you boost. When you boost, you could get away with it, but if you gate, then you can't use the volume on the guitar or you cut the signal and either end up tap dancing or losing your clean to mean

The way I have fixed this is with a Lehle Volume pedal. It is the 90 version that has a minimum pot. So rather than going full blast to nothing, you can set the pot to where your amp cleans up at the bottom of the volume pedal range. Then, you can play with the amp clean with the gate, because gate is receiving full signal from guitar. The volume pedal is last in line before the amp.

It is very convenient, but that is not all. The coolest thing about this is if you set your amp for always boosted, then your "clean" tone becomes a boosted clean, which is really fucking sweet for single note shit.

View attachment 388645View attachment 388646
Click to expand...
What's the details on the MGL amp? Haven't heard of them before but if you like dynamic single channel amps I'm curious to hear your thoughts.
 
311splawndude said:
I'm keeping my pedals and boosts for now but like you, moving more into amp distortion only. EQ in loop is badass though for sure.
Click to expand...
Surprisingly, running an EQ in the loop is one of the things I see recommended a lot that I've never tried. Just always felt like defeating the preamp a little but I guess I just need to try it.
 
innogator said:
What's the details on the MGL amp? Haven't heard of them before but if you like dynamic single channel amps I'm curious to hear your thoughts.
Click to expand...
I am not sure if MGL still makes a single channel high gainer. They have moved to two channels, I know. But they may have some old one for sale. However, if you like to roll volume, I feel this is the best amp to do so. It has one of the sweetest gain characters I have experienced. The VHT Ultralead and maybe Fortin Hiwatt maxwatt thing also have this. All three of the amps have this clarity to the gain, so you can hear the details without being overwhelmed by distortion. But they all get mean, with the MGL and Ultralead getting much meaner. The MGL has a lot more gain than the Ultralead. For you, you would never need to boost the MGL. I only do so for very fast palm muted triplets.

The cool thing about the mgl also is the low as fuck noise floor. It is on par with wizard as far as being quiet when not playing. Where you located? You are more than welcome to drop by if in Austin area and play the thing.

I also lost my recording setup before I got it. But I will try to make a close micd clip of it later.
 
Smash said:
I have a few phone clips. I will warn you. The phone clips get kinda nasty and don't perfectly represent it. Here is a clean to mean with just a volume roll off.
Click to expand...

That does sound like great volume cleanup. Sounds good even been from a phone.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top