Preamp gain vs pedal (dirt box) gain

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Baba Louie

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I used to be of the school of thought that preamp and Poweramp overdrive were the way to go. I figured it was more "real"
But, I've had second thoughts on it, and here's why.
I believe you can get a bigger, less compressed sound, if you are running your preamp gain low, amp volume up loud, and get overdrive through a pedal. It just seems to be more "open" and bigger sounding. Less compressed.
When you're cranking your preamp (on you amp head) gain up, you're really compressing it. Yeah, it sounds good, but, you can get great overdriven sounds out of a good OD pedal, and feed that to a fairly clean, uncompressed amp head, and it just seems to retain more dynamics.
I think that's why a lot of people prefer the old style, non-master volume heads. They sound big and woody, and very touch responsive. Add a great OD pedal to it, and it sounds Godly.
A lot of it has to do with the style of music you play, of course.
Me, I run my preamp gain up enough so it's breaking up, (a pretty decent amount of break-up, actually), but not to the point of totally compressed, heavy metal tone.
Then, I hit it with a boost and an overdrive pedal. Seems to work pretty good for me.
And, yes, some Poweramp breakup along with it is cool, too.
So, my question is, does anybody give a f¥€<?
Haha. Just trying to start a conversation here.
 
Nah. Cool that you are happy going that way,but a well designed high gain head (diezel,vht,ksr,peters etc) will always be the better choice for me.
 
i like to use my OCD in front of channel 1 on my jvm - the clean/lower gain channel. but any of the other channels i don't use any OD pedal - just the amp.
 
I love boosting to tighten up and run the preamp lower just works for me .
 
What you (the OP) are on to is what Soldano discovered years ago; that is if you run multiple gain stages at the edge of clipping instead of one just smashed, you get a more dynamic and harmonically rich sound.
 
Yeah. I taught Soldano that trick. And I never got any royalties. My manager sucks.
All kidding aside, it really boils down to the kind of music you play. For shredding and heavy metal, you kinda want that compressed thing going on. Not just for the sound, but for the playability.
My heavy metal days are over. (I still listen to some heavy stuff, but, I don't really play it much).
I go for an Eric Johnson type sound. So, you kind of still need that compression thing happining, but, not on such a level as say, Speed metal. I like the notes to sound big, with character.
I have a Bogner fish, I've had it since like '94 or '95. Great preamp. But, now that I'm older, when I do use it (not very often anymore), I keep the gain way down. It opens the sound up. I can use an overdrive pedal into the Strato channel, and what's happening is, the initial signal from the guitar is a little compressed from the overdrive pedal, but, you're sending it into a big, open sounding amp.
So, it sounds huge. Or, Yuge, if you ask d. trump.
I don't like sending an overdriven signal into a totally clean amp, though. I still like my amp breaking up, just, not as much as I used to.
It's called GETTING OLD.
My lead tone is still a singing, sustaining, glorious thing. It's just more open, dynamic, and has more character than it used to.
 
^^This is why JCM 800s are so great. They are very low gain, and with a boost turn into amazeballs.
 
Racerxrated":wpwuskz1 said:
^^This is why JCM 800s are so great. They are very low gain, and with a boost turn into amazeballs.
Click to expand...

This.
 
JCM800. Best amp ever! edge of breakup to crunch to classic to pedal induced Jose.
 
I used to be a strictly amp only gain guy, but now I love setting up a crunch tone then pushing it with an OD pedal for more gain. I can get my tone to be more customised this way also.
 
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