Who uses a stomp box anyway?

[rice_pudding]

Hello everyone, I've had something on my mind the last year or so. Simply put, what is the role/use of a distortion or overdrive pedal these days? And how does it reflect on guitar players approach to tone?

Ever since I acquired a Blackstar HT5, about three or four years ago, I've been running my guitar straight into the amp with no OD pedal. With volume all the way up I get a level of drive and bite that is perfect for solos. Rolling off I get rhythm tones for I don't know, crazy train etc. Rolling back further I end up in classic rock territory; early Ritchie Blackmore and eventually the almost clean ring of Paul Kossof.

I have the gain on the amp about three quarters up. I would consider the total available gain of the amp to be similar and probably slightly more than that of a JCM800, which is probably a better reference point for most people.

I know pedals were originally designed for use with older amps that couldn't saturate as much, especially at a healthy volume level! Obviously that is not a concern for us with modern amp design. So what do we all use our pedals for post master volume?

I remember hearing that Jake E Lee used a JCM800 and two pedals. One was just used to tighten up tone in general, particularly the bass response. The other was presumably a boost for solos. Those are two examples of augmenting an amps natural tone. In the context of modern music (death metal, shred etc.) adding crazy amounts of dirt is often a necessity for some players.

I'm interested in hearing what people actually use them for these days and what set-ups they run.

Cheers

Rob

[Stiltzkin]

I rely on high output pickups and massive volume thank you

[Paul Wolfe]

Being old, I've got a wife and three kids in the house, so I simply cannot crank the amp all the way up. I've got a Digitech GNX2 multi-effects pedal and use any number of pedals on that.

As a matter of fact, often I use the GNX2 with headphones and don't use the amp at all!

[rice_pudding]

Cheers for the feedback so far, I look forward to getting more!

Paul, I can understand the need for headphones, I have occasionally used some myself, for late night playing.

Rob

[Paul Wolfe]

Rob, I've been known to hook my mp3 player up with little ear buds and then wear the big headphones over them so I can listen to a song in the ear buds and hear my guitar to play along... I do the same when I'm working on video lessons playing on the PSP.

[sytharnia]

I have the blackstar ht5 stack and am in the same boat as paul (3 kids really do destroy your volume choices).......what I tend to do is at home I will often run clean on the amp and use my marshall guvnor2 pedal for gain, it sound better at low volume than the blackstar to me. When I play out it is usually just the blackstar cranked and a marshall bluesbreaker2 pedal set to boost for some treble/volume boost .

Often at home I just play through podfarm and headphones

[rice_pudding]

Ahh, a fellow HT5 user. I just have the head, I run it through the Epiphone cab I got with my valve junior. Thanks for the feedback, I was expecting someone to use pedals because they prefer the breakup characteristic, but I hadn't considered relative volume output as a factor.

Rob

[sytharnia]

Ahh, a fellow HT5 user. I just have the head, I run it through the Epiphone cab I got with my valve junior. Thanks for the feedback, I was expecting someone to use pedals because they prefer the breakup characteristic, but I hadn't considered relative volume output as a factor.

Rob

I'm a big fan of the blackstar stuff...to e they just sound like really really good marshalls. I have the ht408 cab stacked with a 1x12 one I made.....am going to sell the blackstar cab shortly because it sounds to dark for what I like. I have just got a cab with 4x8 rola speakers which kind of have a greenback thing going on so it sounds really cool. I primarily use the bluesbreaker to saturate the blackstars drive channel, with it on I can get instant feedback ala randy even at really low bedroom volumes so it really makes it feel "real" even at girlie level

I have a mate who has a valve jnr cab (w/eminence speaker I think) and it is a great sounding cab

[dannyahansen]

I currently use a Carvin Legacay and a modded SD-1. I really just like the edgy tone you get with a super overdrive. I can't quite get that sound with just an amp by it's self. I mean, some amps sound really good by their self. But most of those are just too much money and even if I had one I would still use the SD-1. One day I will get a few SLO 100s. And rest assure I will be using an SD-1 with those heads.

So yeah I am a pedal guy. One of the funnest recent pedals was my whammy pedal.

[Stiltzkin]

what I tend to do is at home I will often run clean on the amp and use my marshall guvnor2 pedal for gain, it sound better at low volume than the blackstar to me.

But you wouldn't get the speakers sweating...

[sytharnia]

what I tend to do is at home I will often run clean on the amp and use my marshall guvnor2 pedal for gain, it sound better at low volume than the blackstar to me.

But you wouldn't get the speakers sweating...

no that's the sad reality with having young kids......volume is a no no

But using the amps drive with the bluebreaker on boost does a pretty damn good job of "copying" that....kinda

[rice_pudding]

I currently use a Carvin Legacay and a modded SD-1. I really just like the edgy tone you get with a super overdrive. I can't quite get that sound with just an amp by it's self. I mean, some amps sound really good by their self. But most of those are just too much money and even if I had one I would still use the SD-1. One day I will get a few SLO 100s. And rest assure I will be using an SD-1 with those heads.

So yeah I am a pedal guy. One of the funnest recent pedals was my whammy pedal.

SLO 100s? You mean Soldano's right? They're good, seems strange that they don't adorn the backline of more players.

An SD-1 is a sexy pedal for sure, I borrowed one for band session years ago so I know what you mean about the edgy tone You can get real punchy tone with volume/tone rolled up, but It's true amps don't really get that kind of tone nor the same sustain imo (though i've played some very edgy transistor amps )

A modded SD-1 is on my list of pedals I'd like in my collection one day, a real classic as far as I'm concerned.

thanks for the feedback, starting to get some real interesting results

Rob

[rice_pudding]

I'm a big fan of the blackstar stuff...to e they just sound like really really good marshalls. I have the ht408 cab stacked with a 1x12 one I made.....am going to sell the blackstar cab shortly because it sounds to dark for what I like. I have just got a cab with 4x8 rola speakers which kind of have a greenback thing going on so it sounds really cool. I primarily use the bluesbreaker to saturate the blackstars drive channel, with it on I can get instant feedback ala randy even at really low bedroom volumes so it really makes it feel "real" even at girlie level

I have a mate who has a valve jnr cab (w/eminence speaker I think) and it is a great sounding cab

Well Blackstar was founded by some ex-Marshall guys so they've got some heritage to them!

The valve junior cab is pretty dependable and well rounded. I've tinkered with the idea of getting something else, but don't really have the space for a larger cab, and wouldn't know what speakers to go after anyway! I hope the new cab serves you well

Sounds like you use a lot more gain than me lol. But I've always had a tendency to take away as much gain as I can while keeping it mean sounding. Might experiment with some higher gain tones and the ISF control when I have more time. Out of interest what sort of settings do you use? I have the ISF 100% in british territory, treble 11 o'clock, mids 12 o'clock, bass and gain about 2 o'clock.

thanks again,

Rob

[sytharnia]

Sounds like you use a lot more gain than me lol. But I've always had a tendency to take away as much gain as I can while keeping it mean sounding. Might experiment with some higher gain tones and the ISF control when I have more time. Out of interest what sort of settings do you use? I have the ISF 100% in british territory, treble 11 o'clock, mids 12 o'clock, bass and gain about 2 o'clock.

thanks again,

Rob

I go pretty much for high gain most of the time (if i'm doing lower gain stuff I tend to use a modded jackhammer pedal for that)

my home settings are

ISF at around 8 o'clock (so more to the american sound)
treble is full on
mids are between 12 and 1 o'clock
bass is around 1 o'clock

usually going into a bigger cab I will move the ISF to around 11 o'clock

[rice_pudding]

Cheers! I just got back from a short break, I'll have to try your settings sometime, will be interesting to hear what appeals to other players

Rob