What amp gain do you use with a distortion pedal?

[gatorbrit]

This is a pretty dumb question. But do you use a distotion stomp box with the amp set to a clean tone or a distorted tone?

Obviously you can do either - I was just wondering what common set ups folks use.


Cheers!

[Jx2]

I always used my on clean, mainly though because in the past most of my amps od channel let much to be desired imo and I could get exactly what I want out of a stompbox.

My amp now and what possibly will be my next amp are both 1 channel amps. But I really like how my cheap Danelectro Fab OD and Boss DS-1 sound together. It also allows me 3 diffrent tones with out moving a single dial. I meantion this because its probably similar to what your asking.

[hubberjub]

My "clean" amp tone has some grit to it. I then add either my Lovepedal Eternity to push it over the edge or my Analogman DS-1 for leads. I don't really care for Fender type cleans as they sound a little sterile for my playing. It sounds great for some people though.

[deeaa]

Depends entirely on the amp and what you hope to achieve.

Back when I played mostly metal type music, I always put my distortion (I used a Boss HM-2) over my Marshall's clean channel which was set to very tight ultra-clean sound. That allowed me to go from clean and tight Metallica picking cleans to a tight, focused drive sound.

But in more recent years I've grown to use cascading drives for a much more 'organic' and warmer, liveler sound. I rather use several gain stages all at very low drive. Which means my amp is set so that if I cut down guitar volume and play softly, it's rather clean, but still has some slight tube crunch to it, and when I play hard&full chords, i'll get to ACDC territory instantly.

Then I just have different gain additions and combinations available, i.e. a compressor and two OD's all set to very low drive and rather like boost, and combining those over the already slightly distorted amp I can get anything from vintage rock to very driven metal leads.

So, if you want a focused, tight&saturated sound, it's best played over clean with the pedal creating the sound almost 100% and if you want more vintage or screaming rock sounds, it's best cascading different boost/gain stages to get natural sounding crunch.

[Robert]

I get the best tone with an amp that has a bit of amp distortion already. A good tube amp can be set up to provide crunch if you hit the strings hard, with the guitar volume turned up. With the volume knob on the guitar half way up only, the tone is almost clean, at least "mellow" and can work for strumming and chording.

Then, I add a gain pedal at any time to this. Either for leads or for crunchier and fatter rhythm. Sometimes just a boost pedal is enough, since the amp already has some distortion happening. Finally, it also depends on your guitar and its pickups, how hard you hit the strings, if you use a pick at all, and what type of pick it is.

All those variables are constantly adjusted when I play, since usually my goal is to find the best tone I can produce.

For me, a gain pedal set halfway up through a semi-dirty sounding amp produces a better and more useful sound, compared to a super-clean sounding amp with the gain pedal maxed out.

[deeaa]

Wow, I guess great minds think alike :applause :dance :thumbsup

[Jimi75]

I always use a distortion in front of a "crunchy" amp. The results were never that good when I went from very clean amp to Metal distortion with a pedal.

When the amp alreasdy crunches you just push it to the limit with the pedal and the sound will be fat and warm.

I go to cleans then by kicking out the pedal and backing the volume on my guitar.

[Spudman]

I use distortion in front of a clean amph and pretend that it is another amph channel. I use overdrive in front of a semi dirty amph to push it into saturation.

[Katastrophe]

I've used distortion both ways. When using a multieffects pedal, I'll run it through the clean channel of the amph, and use the pedal as my "channel" switcher.

If using a standalone pedal, I'll use the amph's overdrive for rhythm, and use the distortion or OD pedal as a boost for solos, as I like the supersaturated, almost out of control tone for leads.

Great question!

[sunvalleylaw]

My C-30 is generally on the "clean" channel for distortion, turned a bit to where it starts to have that C-30 warmth. My Fender has only one channel, and if I can, I like to have it turned up to break up, where it starts to do a Bassman/Marshall thing, with it turned up to around 7. There, it starts to get a bit loud when I do that though. If I am playing quietly, I like to use the ZYS overdrive to give it some oomph in the mid range.

I have not used my pedals with my C-30's dirt channel in a long time. I should try it again just because.

[gatorbrit]

Wow - some great suggestions here. Even though I have been playing for 15 years I've actually only recently started exploring stomp boxes. My main amp for years was a Line 6 Flextone (probably a classic now :D ). But I recently traded a guitar for a crate v50 with a clean and drive channel. I also have used line 6 distortion modeler. All of a sudden I have a lot of choices and combinations to play with.

What I'm hearing though is that you'll get a sharper, but perhaps less warm sound combining a distortion pedal with a clean channel. But you'll get a warmer sound using perhaps less distortion (overdrive instead) coupled with a gain channel set pretty low.

Time to try some of this out.

Thanks for the comments!

[deeaa]

What I'm hearing though is that you'll get a sharper, but perhaps less warm sound combining a distortion pedal with a clean channel. But you'll get a warmer sound using perhaps less distortion (overdrive instead) coupled with a gain channel set pretty low.


Exactly. Well summed.

[markb]

I use distortion in front of a clean amph and pretend that it is another amph channel. I use overdrive in front of a semi dirty amph to push it into saturation.

And thus we explain the difference :AOK

Rat (more recently DS-1) into clean Fender for me.

[DeanEVO_Dude]

One thing that I have recently discovered is a Bad Monkey (TS "clone") into my Crate V5 (class A, single-ended, single channel) tube amp. Volume dimed, gain between 9 and 3, just pounding the front end of this amp. Keep in mind, my amps gain has been retooled so as not to overdrive or clip the opamp stage (even with a very hot input signal, such as a Bad Monkey, volume dimed...). So, starting with an overdriven (slightly) amp, then slam the front end with this! I like it. :thumbsup

I will add, that I have not found a solid-state amp that has the same, creamy-smooth distortion sound with a pedal in front of it, they are usually very grainy and harsh. I used to have an Ashdown Fallen Angel 40, and (like the Crate) it sounded great with a pedal driving the front end the same (clean channel, overdrive channel sound like crap and mudd mixed - that why I don't have it anymore) way. My next amp purchase is leaning towards the ValveKing 112 (50 watt 6L6 tube amp) :drool

The funny thing is, when you read reviews of overdrive/distortion/fuzz pedals on HC, you usually see a few reviews that say that "(insert pedal name here) sound like crap, is too noisy, etc..." Seems to me that alot of these reviewers are cranking the amps drive channel, the plugging in the pedal and cranking it as well. Even the mildest overdrive would sound noisy when plugged into an amp set up for "metal" type gain! Just my 2 cents worth.

[marnold]

The funny thing is, when you read reviews of overdrive/distortion/fuzz pedals on HC, you usually see a few reviews that say that "(insert pedal name here) sound like crap, is too noisy, etc..." Seems to me that alot of these reviewers are cranking the amps drive channel, the plugging in the pedal and cranking it as well. Even the mildest overdrive would sound noisy when plugged into an amp set up for "metal" type gain! Just my 2 cents worth.
And ANY rock or metal distortion pedal will make noise at higher gain settings just like an amph will, unless you use a noise gate.

[sunvalleylaw]

DeanEVO, one of my favorite ways to use distortion (learned from Spud) was (especially before getting my Rodent) to go from my guitar into my Boss DS-1 into my Bad Monkey, into clean channel. The Bad Monkey just smoothes out the DS-1 a hair and gives a really nice classic distortion.

And yeah, duh people, if you turn on your dirt chain, the noise typically increases, like Marnold says.

[deeaa]

Ayh, Steve, that's why pedal order is so critical in many cases. I had huge problems getting things to sound like I wanted until I got me the CM Octaswitch which put all my pedals in loops instead of in series. Especially the OD needs to be very close to the amp to sound 'right' to me, but if I put more than maybe one pedal after it, especially a digital one, it does 'smooth' it up quite clearly. Could be also desired to have just that, like in your case.

[Commodore 64]

DeanEVO, one of my favorite ways to use distortion (learned from Spud) was (especially before getting my Rodent) to go from my guitar into my Boss DS-1 into my Bad Monkey, into clean channel. The Bad Monkey just smoothes out the DS-1 a hair and gives a really nice classic distortion.

And yeah, duh people, if you turn on your dirt chain, the noise typically increases, like Marnold says.

Interesting. I may try running my DS-1 through my BD-2 to see if that gives me anything I like.