THICK lead sound pedal?

[geetarmikey]

I use a Charvel with fairly hot pickups, Friedman Runt 20w into a one speaker V30 Cab and I kind of struggle getting my lead sound to have enough brown-ness/fatness I love. I've tried a BB Preamp and a Dumble clone pedal as well as my EQ boost for volume. Tried a Blues Driver but it was a bit too harsh, any pedal to recommend for a BIG 80s lead sound?

Cheers!

 

[japetus]

That runt and a SD-1 should get you there, add in a little reverb and delay for for some thicc

 

[griff10672]

ummmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm ...........

 

[napalmdeath]

I use a Charvel with fairly hot pickups, Friedman Runt 20w into a one speaker V30 Cab and I kind of struggle getting my lead sound to have enough brown-ness/fatness I love. I've tried a BB Preamp and a Dumble clone pedal as well as my EQ boost for volume. Tried a Blues Driver but it was a bit too harsh, any pedal to recommend for a BIG 80s lead sound?

Cheers!

Put a Legendary Tones Hot Mod in it. It'll thicken the amp up by nature, and you'll have all the searing lead tones you can handle.

 

[70 Mach 1]

Roll back guitar vol and tone goose up the amp. Light OD
I can get very fat out of strat bridge.

 

[Bardagh]

If you're trying to fatten it up, maybe a Klon type pedal, even a cheap one like the MXR Sugar Drive/Fat Sugar. My experience with Friedmans though is they have plenty of fat and not enough bite.

 

[napalmdeath]

If you're trying to fatten it up, maybe a Klon type pedal, even a cheap one like the MXR Sugar Drive/Fat Sugar. My experience with Friedmans though is they have plenty of fat and not enough bite.

I've always needed an EQ in the Loop, or a Hot Mod. The Hot Mod is the way to go. The bass switch adds tons of punch, and the extra gain stage makes your leads soar with added harmonic detail and makes the Runt better all around. It sure works well for the 50. All for just over the price of a pedal.

 

[Geo]

Pedals will only thin your sound.

 

[mystixboi]

The Suhr koko boost will do it. As much as I like to pedal, I don’t use it as much because it ends up my sound too much.

 

[bubucci]

Agree with Kokoboost but I prefer Zendrive with fatter amp like my Naylor, the voice knob is magic.

 

[marvcus]

You said 80’s thick lead. The BD-2 I could see why you tried and it is more open frequency pedal as opposed to an SD-1. But I see the harshness complaint, too.

Maybe try OD-3 or even a PS-5 shifter, or the current equivalent (Super shifter?? Idk). Or maybe even a very very very short delay setting to thicken it up?

 

[stratjacket]

For a thicker lead tone I’ve always just rolled back the treble, turned up the bass a good bit and mids a little. Either on the amp or on the pedal. Turn the gain up a tad. I think you’ll get more out of that no matter what pedal or amp you’re using.

 

[GuitarVacation]

Ibanez/Maxon SD-9, turn the tone knob all the way down. You can bump it up a little, but the tone knob goes from thick to introducing ice pick frequencies fairly quickly.

SD-9 is a cheat code for thick liquid lead tone. Also, rolling some tone off the bridge PU on your guitar helps. Goal is to maintain the attack of the bridge PU, while rolling off the appropriate amount of thinness.

That attack/transient is a whole conversation to itself. Sometimes I want it for accent/emphasis, but the subdued attack like Eric Johnson and Allan Holdsworth do, where you don't hear a lot of pick is a very technique related thing. You may or may not care about that aspect.

 

[cobrahead1030]

I like the Koko set to boost low mids, and the tone control on the guitar rolled back a hair.

 

[changeofaseason]

Check out the JHS @T (Andy Timmons version of the Angry Charlie). It is an awesome JCM800 in a box. My favorite distortion pedal by far, since I generally don't like distortion pedals and prefer tube distortion and pedal overdrives. Can turn my Fender Princeton into a legit marshall...

 

[Hiwatts-n-Gibsons]

I use a Charvel with fairly hot pickups, Friedman Runt 20w into a one speaker V30 Cab and I kind of struggle getting my lead sound to have enough brown-ness/fatness I love. I've tried a BB Preamp and a Dumble clone pedal as well as my EQ boost for volume. Tried a Blues Driver but it was a bit too harsh, any pedal to recommend for a BIG 80s lead sound?

Cheers!

Stone Deaf PDF1 or PDF2 would be great for this.

Basically any parametric filter+preamp or parametric eq would be perfect for this.

 

[TheGreatGreen]

Check out the JHS @T (Andy Timmons version of the Angry Charlie). It is an awesome JCM800 in a box. My favorite distortion pedal by far, since I generally don't like distortion pedals and prefer tube distortion and pedal overdrives. Can turn my Fender Princeton into a legit marshall...

This is a great suggestion. The JHS @+ is awesome for thick leads.

Another pedal you could try in a similar neighborhood would be the Wampler Gearbox. It’s Andy Wood’s signature distortion and it’s just as good but feels and sounds slightly different. And like the @+, it also has a built-in boost you can independently tweak and toggle.

 

[JohnnyGtar]

What pickups are you running in your Charvel?

 

[JohnnyGtar]

ummmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm ...........

View attachment 436406

 

[napalmdeath]

OCD would do it too. As would the MXR M-77 Custom Badass Modified with the boost knob.