Anybody go crazy and use straight pedals for dirt?

[Milerky2]

I personally hate this setup, reminds me of my crap tones from my broke teenage years...although I've seen many players with huge skillz doing it this way. I can't help but think their tone would be better with a different approach, but if it sounds good it is good.

Some of us suffer from Broke Adult years

 

[Wicked_Tone]

My setup currently is a Fulltone OCD V2 into the green, clean channel of my DSL 100. It works out great for a vintage hard rock or early 80s metal sound.

 

[kasperjensen]

It very much depends what your goal is.

I don't play modern hi-gain stuff, so for me a lot of the time, pedals work just fine.

Especially the HT Dual.

And I can assure you that you would be impressed with the way a Blackstar Blackfire sounds for hi gain stuff.

If you find a pedal that works for you and your vision of a good tone, then there is no reason for not using it.

 

[BenoA]

I have a little pedalboard I put together for this and the Wampler Pinnacle is the only dirt pedal I have .....its tough to dial in but once you are there its all the distortion you need in a lot of situations...... sounds really really good in front of a Fender Twin

Just got mine but barely tested it. Up to now, sounds good and very dynamic. What's your setting, I'd be curious to test it out?

 

[crankyrayhanky]

I personally hate this setup, reminds me of my crap tones from my broke teenage years...although I've seen many players with huge skillz doing it this way. I can't help but think their tone would be better with a different approach, but if it sounds good it is good.

Some of us suffer from Broke Adult years

LOL, I didn't mean to sound like a cork sniffer.
Back in the early 80s, there was no cheap way to get hi gain tones. I went American Metal pedal into the Gorilla.
Many products today will get you hi gain cheap today. I was blown away by the $100 Peavey amp I bought for my little nephew a few years ago; I would have killed for that kind of gain at 14

 

[adew]

the BB preamp is just before the loop selector thing, it's usually always on,

guitar --> tone press -> polytune --> bb preamp --> loop selector --> loop1: ht dual --> loop2 : m9 -->loop 3 : flashback + dd3 --> amp

before i was using it with more boost level to sometimes add more gain/sustain for certain lead lines to the HT dual (it was within loop1 with the HT), as i use medium/low output pickups it helps quite nicely, and adds flexibility

Cool! Thanks for that. I have a BB preamp gathering dust somewhere - I'll give it a whirl with the HT-Dual.

i'll just add that the red channel seemed to take to the boost better before i got it modded, since i got the mods done both respond really well to an extra boost in front of the pedal,

you could also try with say the green channel in 'clean' mode, with the gain turned up and level adjusted to taste, get some cool tones like that i reckon,

have fun =0 the bb preamp is one of my few mainstay pedals over the years, no matter how many times i think of maybe selling it , it kicks me in the ass with new possibilites and good tone

Thanks for the tips! I'll be playing around with the BB and HT-Dual this weekend and will post back.

 

[rlord1974]

Fake dirt sounds.......fake

Steve, I couldn't agree more.

I can't count how many thousands I have thrown away trying the new "flavour of the week" dirt pedal in the hope of it adding some new, amazing aspect to my rig.

Unfortunately, it has always ended in bitter disappointment. Some pedals didn't make it more than 5 minutes before they were back in the box and listed for sale.

I know I'll take heat for this, but the only valid application for a dirt pedal is to push an already overdriven amp into a singing sweet spot for leads.

Save the stage real estate, ridiculous tap dancing and headaches involved with batteries and power supplies and just buy a good tube amp and have a good volume pot put in your guitar.

'nuff said.

 

[rlord1974]

.....maybe I'll just sell the amps I have and go with two separate rack amps.....I could buy the Electra Dyne and Lonestar Rackmounts, then put my pedals in there as well, accessing everything with a RJM. Then just bring two Port City Wave 112s for each amp. This way, I'd have a.....

.....serious back problem in 12 months!

 

[NS10Fan]

Having started with a Bandmaster, I only use pedals for the main dirt stuff live. I think the trick is finding the right amp to take pedals, cause not all of them like to do the job well. Also, making small changes in pedals can make a huge difference. When I retired the bandmaster, I moved to the Prosonic, and the clean channel on that is great for pedals too. I have to humbly disagree with the fake dirt sounding fake comments.

 

[blackba]

Having started with a Bandmaster, I only use pedals for the main dirt stuff live. I think the trick is finding the right amp to take pedals, cause not all of them like to do the job well. Also, making small changes in pedals can make a huge difference. When I retired the bandmaster, I moved to the Prosonic, and the clean channel on that is great for pedals too. I have to humbly disagree with the fake dirt sounding fake comments.

I agree with you on low gain and mid gain pedals. Alot of nice options out there. For high gain pedals, there are not many I like and they do generally sound fake. Fuzz is a different story entirely.

Still if you can get your amp cooking and then hit it with dirt pedals, that is generally the best option. I generally can't so I work with what I have.

 

[Shiny_Surface]

Sometimes pedal gain sounds better than preamp tubes for certain applications, funny but true imo.

Just as valid as tube gain, especially with the right driver behind them.

 

[LedZep77]

Still if you can get your amp cooking and then hit it with dirt pedals, that is generally the best option. I generally can't so I work with what I have.

I could not agree more with this. Gotta get the amp volume up to get the most out of the pedals. I know that my Deluxe Reverb needs to get up around 4.5-5 or so before I'm getting the desired tone with my dirt pedals. I've actually played a few gigs this way and really enjoyed the simplicity of everything.