I'm very happy with my Renegade and its tone.
a new band (heavy rock) means I need a touch more gain: Channel 2 remains great for heavy rhythm guitar but for solos I need more saturation to make pinched harmonics etc scream and an overall 'liquid' feel.
It still has the stock pre and power tubes. There's a strong consensus that upgrading the 12ax7s will improve things, but I don't want to buy 6 tubes to only get marginal gains.
I've also read the Renegade takes clean boosts well. I haven't tried this yet as I only have dirty pedals - a JHS Andy Timmons Angry Charlie and a Blackstar HT Dual. Both colour the sound too much and don't increase gain particularly well - just more mud (either with pedal gain on minimum and volume boosted going into amp on high gain, or amp set to just breaking up and more gain from the pedal). I know both these pedals are really meant to into clean channels so are not the right tools
Would I have more luck with a cleaner OD to really get what I want - not just a tighter gain, but tight, additional gain? I'm about to start buying several clean boost / klon klone-type pedals off fleabay with the hope one might work and I'll sell the rest on. Unlike new tubes, I can least get my money back if it doesn't work out, but I'll have wasted a lot of time.
Or should I be looking at a new high gain amp? I really don't favour this option if I can at all help it.
What's the best use of my time and money?
a new band (heavy rock) means I need a touch more gain: Channel 2 remains great for heavy rhythm guitar but for solos I need more saturation to make pinched harmonics etc scream and an overall 'liquid' feel.
It still has the stock pre and power tubes. There's a strong consensus that upgrading the 12ax7s will improve things, but I don't want to buy 6 tubes to only get marginal gains.
I've also read the Renegade takes clean boosts well. I haven't tried this yet as I only have dirty pedals - a JHS Andy Timmons Angry Charlie and a Blackstar HT Dual. Both colour the sound too much and don't increase gain particularly well - just more mud (either with pedal gain on minimum and volume boosted going into amp on high gain, or amp set to just breaking up and more gain from the pedal). I know both these pedals are really meant to into clean channels so are not the right tools
Would I have more luck with a cleaner OD to really get what I want - not just a tighter gain, but tight, additional gain? I'm about to start buying several clean boost / klon klone-type pedals off fleabay with the hope one might work and I'll sell the rest on. Unlike new tubes, I can least get my money back if it doesn't work out, but I'll have wasted a lot of time.
Or should I be looking at a new high gain amp? I really don't favour this option if I can at all help it.
What's the best use of my time and money?
