Amp Techniques - Am I doing it all wrong?

[Bellyheart]

Clean amp and pedals do the rest.

[vrom]

Yep, loud and clean here too! (bass)

[GardenoftheDead]

I can set my guitar amp to be like, John Denver clean but it still doesn't sound that good with most distortion pedals. Thus I'm honestly 90% a preamp drive gal these days.

Can't wait until I can afford an AxeFx or something though cause seriously, fuck amps.

[D.o.S.]

I can set my guitar amp to be like, John Denver clean but it still doesn't sound that good with most distortion pedals. Thus I'm honestly 90% a preamp drive gal these days.

Can't wait until I can afford an AxeFx or something though cause seriously, fuck amps.

...I know you don't mean that.

[Ancient Astronaught]

Loud and single channel clean amps here too. I want the utmost control, and if you want to simulate having a dirty channel and still running all your effects out before it try running an OD pedal at the end of your chain. I personally prefer all my dirt pedals before the modulation / time based pedals and then into the amp.

Also if your running an AC15 its running EL84 power tubes, which I have found are VERY picky about fuzz. Things that have alot of output or alot of low end tend to overload them in a usually unpleasant way. The synth / guitar player in my old band had one of those amps and he had a heck of a time finding dirt he liked with it but usually ran it on the clean channel with a sobbat overdrive and it was pretty tasty.

[coldbrightsunlight]

I use single channel amps set to where they just start breaking up (could be a little speaker break going on too?) and
then add OD and Fuzz.

It' more versatile for me that way because it gives me 3 "channels".
Cleanish, dirty and fuzzy.

This is my preferred method too (with a very similar amp to an AC 15). Technically my amp does have a drive channel, but I almost never use it.

I want to also get a loud clean amp and try out that route though.

[backwardsvoyager]

Clean amp and pedals do the rest.

Yep.

I like amps with flexible EQ sections (at least treble, mid, bass, presence, preferably with switches for other stuff too) but never use multiple channels or amp reverb, fx loops etc.

THE AMP IS JUST FOR MAKING THE FUZZ LOUDER

[chillerthanmost]

All my amps are set loud and clean, like everyone else is posting. I like simplicity. If I can get a good eq set loud, clear, and big sounding, then I can let pedals do the rest. And even then, I stack pedals for different types of gain. For instance, I don't run a thick heavy fuzz to a clean amp, I run it into a light low gain drive, then run that to a clean amp. And I might have a medium set distortion in between them for a mid gain overdrive. Etc etc. Like someone posted, it's like turning your single channel amp into a three channel beast with the option of you choosing what pedals for your second, third, fourth, and on and on, channels.

If I was playing anything in the lower watt category, I'd find something with a good point of break up tone. I actually like the way a Vox AC30 sounds at the point of break up. I'd slap a rangemaster and tonebender type fuzz in front of it and call it a day.

[GardenoftheDead]

I can set my guitar amp to be like, John Denver clean but it still doesn't sound that good with most distortion pedals. Thus I'm honestly 90% a preamp drive gal these days.

Can't wait until I can afford an AxeFx or something though cause seriously, fuck amps.

...I know you don't mean that.

I have none of the nigh-spiritual connection to amps that other people do. Modelers have just about nailed good preamp distortion sounds and I get nothing from power tube breakup except hearing damage.

[Fuzzy Picklez]

I like both. Experiment. It really depends on the fuzz you're using I find.

[D.o.S.]

I can set my guitar amp to be like, John Denver clean but it still doesn't sound that good with most distortion pedals. Thus I'm honestly 90% a preamp drive gal these days.

Can't wait until I can afford an AxeFx or something though cause seriously, fuck amps.

...I know you don't mean that.

I haven't played the right amp yet.

Fair.

[sergiomunoz74]

Fuzzface into a slightly broken up laney klipp with a rat to boost is my taste. I don't use much stuff that I don't like going in dirty.

[GardenoftheDead]

I can set my guitar amp to be like, John Denver clean but it still doesn't sound that good with most distortion pedals. Thus I'm honestly 90% a preamp drive gal these days.

Can't wait until I can afford an AxeFx or something though cause seriously, fuck amps.

...I know you don't mean that.

I haven't played the right amp yet.

Fair.

Okay look, you're a cool dude but seriously? Don't do that shit. It's fucking infuriating.

I don't like power tube distortion. I don't need to find the right amp. I've tried plenty.

I also have a family history of hearing loss and I'm already noticing some. Even if I liked power tube distortion, I wouldn't want to use it purely for health reasons.

[D.o.S.]

You're right. I really just need to spend more time looking for a great single channel NVM amp.

and some earplugs.

If you can get what you need to get out of something like an Axe, more power to you.

[bigchiefbc]

I'm one of the few here who plays with my amp dirty (or at least slightly dirty) most of the time.

I don't use overdrive/distortion channels on amps, because I'm not a fan of most preamp distortion, so I pretty much only use power amp distortion

I use a non-master-volume tube amp, and I use a power soak to bring the volume levels down to a reasonable level. But I can still get decent cleanish volumes out of it. Some fuzzes sound better with it clean, some sound better when my amp is cranked. It's all trial-and-error