Do you hear only pedal tone when boosting? Or, just a better version of the amp boosted?

[rsm]

I usually want to hear my amp. I usually go direct into the amp.

Before a recent "drive pedal collecting" effort, I'd occasionally use an EQ, flat, to boost the input of the amp; or my old SD-1 with the drive down low, 1-2 and just Level around 7, and dial the tone to be neutral pedal on/off.

Now I have a few new drive pedals; some I set to transparent, some I set to change the tone. just for fun / something different.

I own the amps I own for their tone, and the optional pedal just gives me a pushed, hotter, dirtier version of that amp tone...I wouldn't call it better; I call it more like another channel of my amp. which is my goal

 

[7704A]

Before a recent "drive pedal collecting" effort, I'd occasionally use an EQ, flat, to boost the input of the amp; or my old SD-1 with the drive down low, 1-2 and just Level around 7, and dial the tone to be neutral pedal on/off.

Similar here. I used to just boost with an Orange Two-Stroke, which was good, but missed some teeth I heard when boosting with a friend's drive pedal. Got the Timmy, set the output level to drive the amp for as much gain as I wanted, and then eased the dirt on until I just started to hear the effects of the diodes.

 

[Racerxrated]

You also don't, last I checked, use high gain amps. Racerxrated is sensitive and starting threads about it because I laugh at people who go buy a high gain amp only to mod it or put a cheap diode boost in front of it.

Nah, not sensitive at all.

I just think you have no idea of what you're talking about.
TGP wants you back.

 

[cobrahead1030]

It’s always a mix of both, how much depends on a lot of factors.

You can boost a recto with damn near anything & it sounds like boosted recto, you can boost a plexi and the pedal sound is more apparent. A Koko boost doesn’t change the sound of the amp an awful lot, compared to a TS or ODR.

 

[Racerxrated]

That seems to be what he got all excited about. I have never objected to people running gain boxes into low gain amps (or amps set low gain). And the results are unquestionably affected by the sound of the box, and that's OK - buy a cool sounding box and go ape. I like the Radial Plexitube with backline myself.

But if you're going to buy an amp designed for high gain, and don't like it's high gain tone and have to start modding, boosting, EQing, etc. I'm going to question WTF you're doing.

And now, you're moving the goal posts. Boosting a Marshall is what you originally laughed at. Yet, most Marshalls are low-medium gain amps. 2203s, Plexis are not in any way a 'high gain' amp. Yet you suggest those amps suddenly turn into 'pedal tone only' when boosted.

Maybe that's the disconnect I have with your opinion. When I've had high gain amps, I've never boosted them for ADDITIONAL gain. Only to tighten up, or maybe add some upper mids to a low mid centric amp.
I've never heard any clip here where someone hits a distortion pedal to add gain to a Recto, SLO, or other high gain 3-5 stage amp.

 

[Music&Chaos]

Wow that theme is so nostalgic.

 

[Rackman]

Maybe that's the disconnect I have with your opinion. When I've had high gain amps, I've never boosted them for ADDITIONAL gain. Only to tighten up, or maybe add some upper mids to a low mid centric amp.

Ahh yes, this expensive high gain amp needs "tightening up". Classic battered Marshall player line, that is.

This is where you tell me about your wonderful mod. You're a perfect caricature of a Marshall player. Don't ever change

 

[rstites]

The tone is the combination of everything, including the amp tone, any pedal tone, the pickup, guitar, etc. going into it. Plus, it really depends on how you set any of these up. A good tube amp pushed with a good OD can get you some excellent tone, but the tone is neither strictly the amp, nor strictly the pedal.

The closest you get to strictly pedal sound is a clean amp. Solid state amps were mentioned earlier, but you can get there with clean Fenders or similar too. They all have their own intrinsic tone, of course, but the sound is more pedal.

If the question is really about pushing a classic Marshall with a classic OD pedal, there are several thousand professional recordings of some of the best players around as ample proof of how it functions in practice. Really it isn't that difficult either.....I mean, if you can't get a great sound out of a classic Marshall at volume with one of classic OD pedals (or some facsimile thereof) out front, then I wouldn't go around bragging about it.

 

[DanTravis62]

I've never heard any clip here where someone hits a distortion pedal to add gain to a Recto, SLO, or other high gain 3-5 stage amp.

Yeah that's not the reason anyone uses a boost with those types of amps AFAIK. The "amount" of gain isn't the issue, and it isn't the reason people use boost pedals; it's the way the low end farts out on palm mutes playing heavy music. That's the entire reason people use that method. They aren't even using the "dirt" from the pedal OR pushing the amp into additional gain.


While yes with a plexi you are pushing the preamp to add gain, you aren't really adding the pedal's dirt when you are using the standard method, you are clean boosting and using it to cut the bass into the preamp to keep it from getting flubby. The gain is from the clean boost pushing the preamp tubes.

I honestly think this is just a lack of knowledge about high gain tones and how they work. Rack man has stated multiple times about how he hates heavy music and blah blah.

This would be like me joining the telecaster country forum and telling them they are retards for using a compressor with their clean chicken pickin because who needs a compressor amirite?

 

[tjnx]

Eh you can hear the eq effect, if you put it on a spectrum analyzer like voxengo you can see its doing something. Idk I have swapped out boosts because I didn't like how the buffer sounded, if ya don't like it ya don't like it I guess.

 

[Hiwatts-n-Gibsons]

I don't get why the question is an all or nothing choice, both of which are not true.

First, boosting always changes the tone, it's all in the degree to which it does.

There are "transparent" boosts that get as close as possible to not changing the character of a particular guitar/amp combo, but no matter what once you slam an input with a considerably hotter signal it is going to react in a noticably different way. It might not alter it alot, but it alters it enough for you to tell the difference in the way it responds to your playing.

Then there are character boosts that noticably alter the character of a guitar/amp combo go so far as to make a single coil sound like a humbucker, or that cut or boost specific or variable frequencies to exaggerated degrees like a Treble Booster, Systech Harmonic Energizer, or Maestro MPF-1.

Afrer that there are the overdrives and preamps that may not have originally been designed as boosts, but for many do the trick in a way they really dig. They definitely fall into the "character" range for me.

 

[Rackman]

I honestly think this is just a lack of knowledge about high gain tones and how they work. Rack man has stated multiple times about how he hates heavy music and blah blah.

You think wrong. I understand exactly what defects with Marshalls their owners are trying to fix with boosts and mods. They say it over and over again - not tight enough, farty, not enough gain. It's not some giant secret.

 

[DanTravis62]

You think wrong. I understand exactly what defects with Marshalls their owners are trying to fix with boosts and mods. They say it over and over again - not tight enough, farty, not enough gain. It's not some giant secret.

Youve said multiple times you don't like or listen to heavy metal. You obviously understand nothing because you don't need a tight low end with high gain to play "Rosanna" for the seniors at the local Elks lodge.

Just like I don't understand the nuances of different compressors playing chicken picked clean country licks.

That's fine. You can dislike the sound, or the sound isn't something you would use, but stop pretending it is something you understand when you can't even play the style of music the boost is used for.

 

[Rackman]

Youve said multiple times you don't like or listen to heavy metal.

Hmm, can't recall saying that?!?

 

[DanTravis62]

Hmm, can't recall saying that?!

Dont like gear that's "metal"

Don't like amps to be "tight"

Boosting is bad blah blah

The Crux of the issue is that if you DO like metal you're a giant hypocrite because almost every record you listen to that isn't a Larry or hermansson or highly modified Jose is going to have been boosted

 

[Mike Oxhuge]

You think wrong. I understand exactly what defects with Marshalls their owners are trying to fix with boosts and mods. They say it over and over again - not tight enough, farty, not enough gain. It's not some giant secret.

Your narcissistic insecurities show very strong in your opinions as facts. Must be tough always being the smartest guy in the room and the hero of your story.

 

[Rackman]

Hmm, still haven't found anything about me not liking or listening to heavy metal. Keep looking

You just found me pointing out how lame the internet bullshit around metal (and people trying to "tighten" $3000 amps with diode gain boxes) is.

 

[DanTravis62]

Hmm, still haven't found anything about me not liking or listening to heavy metal. Keep looking

You just found me pointing out how lame the internet bullshit around metal (and people trying to "tighten" $3000 amps with diode gain boxes) is.

Would love to hear your metal tones then - especially "unboosted". I've heard a handful of decent ones, but they are always with very specific types of amps, or rack setups where you are basically simulating a boost by cutting low end in the front. And not a single time were they ever by "anti-boost pedal crusader" guys.

If you've got some method for taming the low end that no one else has heard about, please share with the class so we can entirely change the heavy metal guitar economy.

 

[Hiwatts-n-Gibsons]

I usually want to hear my amp. I usually go direct into the amp.

Before a recent "drive pedal collecting" effort, I'd occasionally use an EQ, flat, to boost the input of the amp; or my old SD-1 with the drive down low, 1-2 and just Level around 7, and dial the tone to be neutral pedal on/off.

Now I have a few new drive pedals; some I set to transparent, some I set to change the tone. just for fun / something different.

I own the amps I own for their tone, and the optional pedal just gives me a pushed, hotter, dirtier version of that amp tone...I wouldn't call it better; I call it more like another channel of my amp. which is my goal

Whoops. This is the other "boost" category I didn't mention. EQ as boost. Probably because I never did it.

 

[Exo-metal]

Did The Clock change his screen name and bait everone lol

Divine manipulation