Unorthodox gain sources

[codetocontra]

Anyone using something different as their main source for gain , not just a gain pedal? Things like an RMN1 or Gristleizer come to mind. Maybe not ideal but this idea intrigues me.

[JonnyAngle]

Someone was using a tape recorder during bilf.

[DRodriguez]

I use the spring verb TOMKAT built as a gain source.

[Invisible Man]

That was Nils/brands/fcknoise.

Super overdriven mic preamps sound cool on drums--not so much on guitars. I do that a lot.

[DRodriguez]

Whoa, overdrive mic pre's can be great on guitars. The Neve pre amp is popular for that. (see jhs colourbox)

[OldGeorge]

The ss reverb built intobmy sunn sceptre sucks and sounds nothing like a real spring verb. Sometimes for fun I dime it and get a strange basscut gainy sound that's fun.

[crochambeau]

Amongst other junk I've used EKG channels, galvanometer amplifiers, old discrete transistor video SEG units, tubed voltmeters, and Tektronix 545 oscilloscopes via the "vertical output" jack for signal amplification, though to be fair my source was rarely a stringed instrument. Synths, drum machines and drones more often.

This is just the shit that delivered satisfactory results, for what I was doing at the time.

Also, everything I mentioned is huge and heavy, but it gained like a motherfucker when needed.

[ognoy]

Moogerfoogers

[Invisible Man]

Whoa, overdrive mic pre's can be great on guitars. The Neve pre amp is popular for that. (see jhs colourbox)

Yeah I know--that was just my shitty opinion.

[jrfox92]

I really like the fuzz circuit in my Echo Dream 2.
I'm not crazy about it in the ED2, though, because the modulation source fucks with the power like crazy and can quickly cause annoying motorboating.

I keep meaning to clone it and the drive circuit the Reverberation Machine uses.

Also, obligatory Space Echo pre support.

[rfurtkamp]

Stick the cheapest, nastiest mic into the back of a closed-back cheap practice amp. Dime it.

Use the mic out for absolutely fuzzed out hell.

I have a 25ish year old Wal-Mart special that i love for this, it was a whopping $8.99 at the time!

[waltdogg]

i used to use an orange micro terror as a pre amp into cleaner tube amps. and when i was a kid i'd plug into shitty little guitar combos, crank the distortion, then line out into a bigger bass amp so i'd be louder. basically the same thing as the micro terror as a pre but even jankier

oh! i also used to use a an opto modded (idk what that even means) cs-3 compressor that i just turned all the way up to get my distortion for a long time between the crappy little combos and getting real amps.

[lordgalvar]

galvanometer amplifiers.

I like the higher gain setting on the Amdek DMK-100.

[tremolo3]

The sfx mode in DD-500 can get very fuzzy.

https://youtu.be/fDV6Auko4So

[repoman]

The gain in the DBA Reverberation Machine is really cool and quite weird, thats the main source of dirt I use. I also bought a Mountainking Decomposer that is a bit like a fuzz, but very unconventional sounding, lots of options in it and its probably the most dynamic OD/Fuzz pedal I've ever used, I usually set it so mostly clean stuff comes through but the drive is very crackly/broken up sounding.

I had a Realistic radioshack reverb for a while that I would use as a gain source as well by cranking up the input on it.