Anyone gigging using pedals for all your dirt?

[Mr. Willy]

I'm thinking of going this route for my cover band. We play a lot of different styles from Zeppelin to Tupac, old country, rock, etc. More and more we veer away from our planned set list and play to what the crowd wants to hear. I was wanting to go w/d/w with my SLO that I've been using cause it sounds glorious in the configuration, but it's not practical considering the size of some of the stages we play. My bassist is always on my side, and sometimes we're really crammed in tight. There are a lot of really great sounding dirt pedals on the market. Seems like I could build a really versatile rig just using my amp (different amp, not the SLO) for a base tone and pedals for dirt.

Not trying to offend anyone, but I'm not really looking for input from guys that just use this set up in their bedroom. How do any of you who gig this set up like it? Also, not interested in modelers.

Thanks!

 

[billboogie]

I recently gigged with the 67 Bassman head behind me with a three button Plexitone and an
Exotic EP Booster for a couple years and it worked well. Lots of positive feedback.
I find the setup worked best for me with low output pickups (7k-9k) and a non MV amp. I play
Classic Rock so this set up filled those shoes well. All effects are all out front so you
run less cable as well.

 

[Badronald]

I gigged a JTM45 and dirt pedals for years. Absolutely fantastic tone. Did the same with a Twin and Deluxe Reverb, Matchless Lightning.

Can't even begin to remember all the dirt pedals.

Zendrive, Custom Shop Fulldrive 2, Carl Martin, Xotic BB's, Analogman, Keeley, Bogner....etc.

Drive pedals are killer these days. Have fun.

 

[Mr. Willy]

I recently gigged with the 67 Bassman head behind me with a three button Plexitone and an
Exotic EP Booster for a couple years and it worked well. Lots of positive feedback.
I find the setup worked best for me with low output pickups (7k-9k) and a non MV amp. I play
Classic Rock so this set up filled those shoes well. All effects are all out front so you
run less cable as well.

Nice. I had a 67 Bassman. I miss that thing. Pedals sounded killer though it. Here's a clip of it using an OCD and TS9 stacked.

 

[Mr. Willy]

I used a JTM45 and dirt pedals for years. Absolutely fantastic tone. Did the same with a Twin and Deluxe Reverb, Matchless Lightning.

Can't even begin to remember all the dirt pedals.

Zendrive, Custom Shop Fulldrive 2, Carl Martin, Xotic BB's, Analogman, Keeley....etc.

Drive pedals are killer these days. Have fun.

I'll bet that rig sounded great. For amps I'd run either a Bassman, JTM, or I'll get Curt Granger to build me a Hiwatt DR504 clone.

 

[Badronald]

I used a JTM45 and dirt pedals for years. Absolutely fantastic tone. Did the same with a Twin and Deluxe Reverb, Matchless Lightning.

Can't even begin to remember all the dirt pedals.

Zendrive, Custom Shop Fulldrive 2, Carl Martin, Xotic BB's, Analogman, Keeley....etc.

Drive pedals are killer these days. Have fun.

I'll bet that rig sounded great. For amps I'd run either a Bassman, JTM, or I'll get Curt Granger to build me a Hiwatt DR504 clone.

I used a Bassman and a Tele with a Zendrive for a long time. Forced myself to. Made me a much better player in the long run. Clean, unforgiving tone. You have to play with that rig!

 

[billboogie]

That Tele sounds sweet with that setup. Love that tone.

 

[billboogie]

I used a JTM45 and dirt pedals for years. Absolutely fantastic tone. Did the same with a Twin and Deluxe Reverb, Matchless Lightning.

Can't even begin to remember all the dirt pedals.

Zendrive, Custom Shop Fulldrive 2, Carl Martin, Xotic BB's, Analogman, Keeley....etc.

Drive pedals are killer these days. Have fun.

I'll bet that rig sounded great. For amps I'd run either a Bassman, JTM, or I'll get Curt Granger to build me a Hiwatt DR504 clone.

I used a Bassman and a Tele with a Zendrive for a long time. Forced myself to. Made me a much better player in the long run. Clean, unforgiving tone. You have to play with that rig!

Curious as to how to a pedal setup with a high wattage head
like a Peavey Mace or a Filmore West would sound.

 

[Badronald]

I recently gigged with the 67 Bassman head behind me with a three button Plexitone and an
Exotic EP Booster for a couple years and it worked well. Lots of positive feedback.
I find the setup worked best for me with low output pickups (7k-9k) and a non MV amp. I play
Classic Rock so this set up filled those shoes well. All effects are all out front so you
run less cable as well.

Nice. I had a 67 Bassman. I miss that thing. Pedals sounded killer though it. Here's a clip of it using an OCD and TS9 stacked.

Yeah, that sounds great.

I had a '65 Bandmaster and late 60's Super Reverb that sounded so killer. People spend all this money on boutique amps. I've never heard one sound better than a mid to late 60's Blackface Fender with a Zendrive and a Keeley TS-9. You might have $700-$800 total in the rig and nothing touches it. Perfect cleans and soaring lead tones and if you have reverb on the amp it's fantastic. They take any delay pedal. Hard to beat.

 

[Badronald]

I used a JTM45 and dirt pedals for years. Absolutely fantastic tone. Did the same with a Twin and Deluxe Reverb, Matchless Lightning.

Can't even begin to remember all the dirt pedals.

Zendrive, Custom Shop Fulldrive 2, Carl Martin, Xotic BB's, Analogman, Keeley....etc.

Drive pedals are killer these days. Have fun.

I'll bet that rig sounded great. For amps I'd run either a Bassman, JTM, or I'll get Curt Granger to build me a Hiwatt DR504 clone.

I used a Bassman and a Tele with a Zendrive for a long time. Forced myself to. Made me a much better player in the long run. Clean, unforgiving tone. You have to play with that rig!

Curious as to how to a pedal setup with a high wattage head
like a Peavey Mace or a Filmore West would sound.

Not sure. I've never played those amps.

 

[Rick Lee]

I use the Freaking Sick 30v for all my dirt on two of my Marshalls. My 68 and 69 clone builds have very little gain until at "blow your house down" volumes. So I run them very clean, which still sounds awesome with big trannies. The 30v pedal crushes all others. Will be using it with both heads for my next VH tribute gig, and I will nail the VHII-FW album tones with it.

 

[sg guy]

I recently gigged with the 67 Bassman head behind me with a three button Plexitone and an
Exotic EP Booster for a couple years and it worked well. Lots of positive feedback.
I find the setup worked best for me with low output pickups (7k-9k) and a non MV amp. I play
Classic Rock so this set up filled those shoes well. All effects are all out front so you
run less cable as well.

Nice. I had a 67 Bassman. I miss that thing. Pedals sounded killer though it. Here's a clip of it using an OCD and TS9 stacked.

-dude!!!

-that clip is bad ass!! Didn't know you were so versatile!.. Sounds/looks like that BASSMAN, a humbucker & single coil guitar, some pedals, POOF!!! there's your answer!!

-why is it some guys can go from a Les Paul to a tele like its nothing, me,.. I can't make a tele or a strat sound even half way passable no matter how much time I have with it,

 

[Les Zombie]

One of my rigs i use in band situations is a clean amp and pedals, usually a deluxe reverb or dr z prescription es, i can get some nice low and medium gain tones from pedals like the bondi del mar, selah scarlett love, khdk ghoul screamer and od1, or if i need to i can switch one of those on my board for a higher gain pedal like the khdk dark blood or vh4 pedal. With a clean amp and pedalboard i can cover alot of ground for different styles. I have high gain amps and when i know im doing alot of heavier stuff i have them and have used them live, but the past couple years i been using the clean amps and pedal and im happy with it.

 

[reverymike]

In my opinion, the way to do this best, is to run your amp, very slightly broken up, and loud. Then, roll back your guitar volume for more of a clean tone, and hit your pedals for various stages of gain. I've found that setting your amp to absolute clean just doesn't work as well when you add the dirt pedals, compared to an amp on the brink of breakup.

 

[stephen sawall]

I agree with reverymike.... A lot of pedals sound better if the amp has a little break-up.

I'm thinking about doing a rig with my THD Flexi and a Chase Bliss Brothers, TC Electronics NDR-1 Nova Drive, Elektron Analog Drive or some other analog distortion that can be controlled by digital/MIDI.

The Flexi has a boost that is remotely switchable. So it will be like having a clean and overdrive channel on the amp. The best cleans on this amp come from lowering the volume on the guitar. I will be able to program one of the pedals above to get my cleans this way.

The Atomic Amplifire 12 might be useful with a rig like this...

 

[Rick Lee]

Well, my Plexis have "Marshall cleans," not Fender cleans. I suppose there's a little breakup. But those trannies make them sound so big, no matter the settings. And my 30v pedal really grabs that bigness and keeps it.

 

[thunda]

Curious as to how to a pedal setup with a high wattage head
like a Peavey Mace or a Filmore West would sound.

For a long time I used one or two Peavey Deuce VT amps (lower 120 watt version of Mace) with pedals. They did not like OD pedals but liked straight up distortion and really shined with fuzz pedals. Quit using them as I am not as young as I used to be. These days two 80 pound combos unloading at 3 am is a bitch...

Lately when doing smaller gigs or gigs where we have to cover a big variety of genres I use a 60 watt one channel 112 tube amp set just before breakup with the gain and then I can get crunch with OD and good distortion with generic distortion pedals. For leads I use an EH LPB1 for boost. Pedal board also has phase, chorus and tremolo. Really versatile tones and easy load in/out.

 

[Mr. Willy]

Curious as to how to a pedal setup with a high wattage head
like a Peavey Mace or a Filmore West would sound.

For a long time I used one or two Peavey Deuce VT amps (lower 120 watt version of Mace) with pedals. They did not like OD pedals but liked straight up distortion and really shined with fuzz pedals. Quit using them as I am not as young as I used to be. These days two 80 pound combos unloading at 3 am is a bitch...

Lately when doing smaller gigs or gigs where we have to cover a big variety of genres I use a 60 watt one channel 112 tube amp set just before breakup with the gain and then I can get crunch with OD and good distortion with generic distortion pedals. For leads I use an EH LPB1 for boost. Pedal board also has phase, chorus and tremolo. Really versatile tones and easy load in/out.

Easy load in/out is so important, especially when you're loading up in the wee hours of the morning. I usually use a head and 2x12. I've always thought 1x12's sounded a bit boxey, but considering I throw a mic on one speaker of my cab, I don't see how that'd be any different than using a 1x12. Using two 1x12 combos with a pedalboard would probably sound killer. You could have a really portable, stereo sound. Hmm...choices, choices.

 

[Mr. Willy]

I recently gigged with the 67 Bassman head behind me with a three button Plexitone and an
Exotic EP Booster for a couple years and it worked well. Lots of positive feedback.
I find the setup worked best for me with low output pickups (7k-9k) and a non MV amp. I play
Classic Rock so this set up filled those shoes well. All effects are all out front so you
run less cable as well.

Nice. I had a 67 Bassman. I miss that thing. Pedals sounded killer though it. Here's a clip of it using an OCD and TS9 stacked.

-dude!!!

-that clip is bad ass!! Didn't know you were so versatile!.. Sounds/looks like that BASSMAN, a humbucker & single coil guitar, some pedals, POOF!!! there's your answer!!

-why is it some guys can go from a Les Paul to a tele like its nothing, me,.. I can't make a tele or a strat sound even half way passable no matter how much time I have with it,

Thanks, man. I really feel like I play the same licks over and over. I appreciate the kind words. That's the only time I've ever played that setup that way. I was just experimenting with stacking my OD pedals into it. I was surprised at how good it sounded. I really liked that Bassman, but I sold awhile back. I had had that amp in and out of the shop several times. At some point in its life someone had modded the crap out of it. I had it put back to original specs and later had a few mods done to it. I had it converted to AA864 specs and had the channels internally wired together on one input so I wouldn't have to use a patch cable. The problem I kept having with it was that every now and then there would be this wierd static noise. When the noise was there, it was even there when the amp was on standby. I got tired of trying to fix it and sold it to one of the guys who worked on it. When that noise wasn't there, it sounded fantastic.

 

[Mr. Willy]

I gigged a JTM45 and dirt pedals for years. Absolutely fantastic tone. Did the same with a Twin and Deluxe Reverb, Matchless Lightning.

Can't even begin to remember all the dirt pedals.

Zendrive, Custom Shop Fulldrive 2, Carl Martin, Xotic BB's, Analogman, Keeley, Bogner....etc.

Drive pedals are killer these days. Have fun.

I'll bet all those rigs sounded fantastic. I'll bet that dual Fender rig sounded glorious.