Properly overdriving a tube amp

[ural]

If we talking about "properly" cranked amp as far as I can tell - one should be very careful with gain/volume settings on pedals as well as on amp side. The things should be well balanced to work together. Trick is keep everything "not too hot" - you should hear overdrive from each pedal and from preamp tubes of your amp and also from power tubes of your amp. It is never "11" at least on my setup.

[mathias]

Yeah, I'm not enjoying the "crunch" on this amp past about 3 o'clock on the volume. (there's no other gain control.)

I start with the volume around noon -- if there was no attenuator then this would be loud and on the edge of breakup. Then I have a Boss EQ-7 at the end of my chain that is also bumped up a few more overall dB, and near the beginning of my chain is the Sparkle Drive with gain at about 1 o'clock and tone either rolled completely off or at noon, depending on what sound I'm trying to to get. Volume for the Sparkle Drive quite a bit past unity, but I have to be careful not to cause clipping in my modulation effects. (That's why I've got a Volume pedal between gain pedals and modulation.)

It's an ok sound, sort of. I had to boost the mids with the EQ-7 to get the sound through the attenuator sounding good. And then on the amp I had to turn up the treble a lot more than I thought I would need - around noon. Before I'd been playing at low volumes on the amp with the treble at 9 o'clock. I could take pictures of all these settings, but it doesn't mean much, so I'll spend some time with my computer today and the line-out from the attenuator trying to record where I'm at with tone.

Thinking a compressor might help for soloing. I know Nels Cline has a Boss CS3 on his board. Thoughts?

[Jero]

Good idea, putting a vol pedal between dirt and modulation

[mathias]

Good idea, putting a vol pedal between dirt and modulation

The funny thing is, I never used my EB Vol Jr before this. Like, it would sit at the front of the chain, neglected, and I thought it was easier to just use the vol pots on the guitar.

Now that I am so used to hearing the sound I'm getting ("Oh crap, the univibe is clipping..") and dialing it down in response, as well as adjusting the overall sound getting to the amp (and letting me have max volume from guitar to overdrive), it's become second nature. I roll down the volume pedal before I step away, rather than roll down the volume on the guitar. I was baffled by the amount of string noise and feedback I was getting at Guitar Center when I tried some amp, until I realized I don't have the volume pedal and that's typically how I fade in/out that stuff to play, not the guitar knobs anymore. I gotta learn to balance it so I can do whatever

The original idea behind this, came from some silly tumblr: http://guitarpedalboard.tumblr.com/post ... rder-order

the logical place for a volume pedal, since it won’t alter the signal level entering the overdrive pedals maintaining this way the fully affected tone. Also will let the delay finish its job (delay-ing) when the volume pedal is minimized.

[Jero]

Awesome! Will be trying this in a minute. Reorganizing my gear today so this is perfect. Hmmm, thinking about it, my situation might be a bit different as my volumepedal actually boosts (modded crybaby to wah/vol toggle)

[mathias]

Awesome! Will be trying this in a minute. Reorganizing my gear today so this is perfect. Hmmm, thinking about it, my situation might be a bit different as my volumepedal actually boosts (modded crybaby to wah/vol toggle)

Does it cut volume too? Then you should be set.

[mathias]

Wait, wait, let me restart this thread as if it was on TGP:

So I'm playing my custom shop '59 Strat into my Klon into my Dumble (which I got on a good deal for only $85,000 on eBay), and I'm not getting enough low-gain overdrive sound. I don't want to actually hear anything when I play, just silence, because I play with a church band. Please help. Thanks!

[CaptainWampum]

Getting an amp to sound good shouldn't be this big of a problem. Find something you like.

[mathias]

Getting an amp to sound good shouldn't be this big of a problem. Find something you like.

I do like this amp, just getting it to overdrive is a pain.. as stated a couple times, it's like 15 watts with only a Volume control, no master volume or gain.. And it was designed to be a high-headroom amp. Using the Attenuator sort of like a master volume to bring down the loudness so I can play in my room, but when I use the attenuator, I don't like the sound I'm getting.

Kind of wish I just knew folks who owned buildings that could let me practice there as loud as I want.. But I don't know anyone like that

I guess if this amp still isn't cutting it in a few months I'll sell it off and find something else. Finding an amp I liked and could afford was a real PITA..

[MEC]

Getting an amp to sound good shouldn't be this big of a problem. Find something you like.

[bob the r0bot]

you could always turn the amp volume down and boost the front end.

[mathias]

you could always turn the amp volume down and boost the front end.

Already doing this to some degree: I've got a BYOC triboost and Sparkle drive at the beginning of my chain, and a Boss EQ-7 with mids bumped up a bit and a few dB overall boost. Not a fan of just driving the preamp into saturation alone, it doesn't sound right either? I dunno. I'll play saturating the preamp some more.

[Blurillaz]

Overdrive pedal, considering you don't like your amps overdriven sound.
Or a new amp.

[DarkAxel]

well if it was designed to be a high headroom amp, i'm not surprised you have trouble getting it to overdrive

you know - that's the think builders tried to... prevent

if you want to use your amps natural overdrive, you should probably get a different amp. or do what other people do and find a great overdrive the options are endless

for example i'm not really psyched with my amp's drive so i'll probably buy Earthquaker Monarch in the future, i already have Cbread DLS but i could use a gainier drive

PS: getting a new amp kinda isn't an option for me - for lots of reasons

[mathias]

I think I'm getting the hang of balancing like, 3 different pedals volume/gain into the amp. It's just not the sound I want, and I don't have many controls on the amp to dial it in Hard to tell without being here and hearing it, I guess.

I'd get another amp, but the problem is there's mostly-clean-until-they're-loud amps (Fenders, etc) and the ZOMG-BRUTALZ-DISTORTION "let's do some coke!" amps that I don't want either. High gain sounds lame. I tried to get around the mostly-clean-until-they're-loud with an attenuator and didn't find what I was looking for. I'm after more of a classic rock overdrive most of the time, and the country-licks amp-is-cookin' sound some of the time, too..

I guess I'll have to procure an amp more like what I'm after, (which it seems to be a vintage Marshall half stack, or an amp designed to be like a vintage Marshall) and a place to play it where I can get LOUD.