Low gain OD / clean boost before or after dirt?

[conky]

Right now I'm using my Black Forest as a clean(ish) boost to give me a tiny bit of volume and low end increase. I'm running it in front of my Rat and it sounds awesome stacked. I'm waiting on my custom job from BAT to get in and that is the Ritual and Revelation in one enclosure that will be used for the main dirt. (I have both of these pedals already but neither are on my board at the moment.) Once that comes in, the Rat will either stay and be used for an extra flavor of heavy dirt or be Ruetz modded and used with the Black Forest for lower gain stuff. My question is this.. How would you guys run the BF and Rat if they were both set up for lower gain stuff? One before and one after? Both before? Both after? I'll have a shit ton of options to play around with, but it'd help if I had some input from you guys who have done this with either the BF and Rat.

[chillerthanmost]

I like running any/all my low dirt pedals at the end. I have used a Rat Tail set low gain after a Revelation and a Ritual and I dug it. I'm sure same goes for the Black Forest. I imagine they both have different flavors, but whichever one you like best I'm sure will sound great low gain. When I do a low gain pedal at the end of my chain, I pretty much set it up as part of my amps sound and leave it on always. So I'm basically turning my amp, which is set loud and clean (maybe a tiny hair of break up), into a low gain dirty amp, I set it and forget it (unless I need to do any clean playing, which is hardly ever). Essentially, it's like having a second channel on my amps, which are all single chan.

Anyways, if you want to set both pedals low gain, then you'll just have two different flavors to play with, and although all pedals will sound different with different amps and guitars, as well as playing style and subjectivness to how much you like it, leaving it up to you as far as setting them before or after your custom BAT, or one each, I have always preferred low gain od / clean boost at the end of my chain, like previously mentioned, as an extension of whatever amp I'm using. Woah, long sentence. Good luck.

[conky]

I like running any/all my low dirt pedals at the end. I have used a Rat Tail set low gain after a Revelation and a Ritual and I dug it. I'm sure same goes for the Black Forest. I imagine they both have different flavors, but whichever one you like best I'm sure will sound great low gain. When I do a low gain pedal at the end of my chain, I pretty much set it up as part of my amps sound and leave it on always. So I'm basically turning my amp, which is set loud and clean (maybe a tiny hair of break up), into a low gain dirty amp, I set it and forget it (unless I need to do any clean playing, which is hardly ever). Essentially, it's like having a second channel on my amps, which are all single chan.

Anyways, if you want to set both pedals low gain, then you'll just have two different flavors to play with, and although all pedals will sound different with different amps and guitars, as well as playing style and subjectivness to how much you like it, leaving it up to you as far as setting them before or after your custom BAT, or one each, I have always preferred low gain od / clean boost at the end of my chain, like previously mentioned, as an extension of whatever amp I'm using. Woah, long sentence. Good luck.

This is what I was planning on doing with the Black Forest. I just gotta fuck around with stacking to see if it'll work better before or after my Ritual. I imagine those two willl be the ones that might not play well together if anything.

[benjuro]

As long as you're using the BF on the lower side of the gain spectrum, you'll likely be able to use it in either place. BAT stuff tends to stack AMAZINGLY well...as long as you're not sending high BAT output into something "lesser". Some pedals definitely can't handle what they put out, but they tend to take about anything you can throw at them. Ritual may be the one exception I've run into, I have not had great luck putting other dirt/boosts before it.
That said, your custom Ritual/Revelation sounds AMAZING...genius idea...

[t-rey]

With that setup I would probably run the BF before the custom and the Rat after. That way you have the option to run the Rat high gain and boost it with the Revelation and/or BF.

[whiskey_face]

lower gain does not compute.

sorry I cant help

[conky]

As long as you're using the BF on the lower side of the gain spectrum, you'll likely be able to use it in either place. BAT stuff tends to stack AMAZINGLY well...as long as you're not sending high BAT output into something "lesser". Some pedals definitely can't handle what they put out, but they tend to take about anything you can throw at them. Ritual may be the one exception I've run into, I have not had great luck putting other dirt/boosts before it.
That said, your custom Ritual/Revelation sounds AMAZING...genius idea...

That combo has been my main dirt ever since I got the Ritual. Sounds so fucking heavy. I talked to Mark awhile back about combining them in one enclosure to save space and power. The only holdup is the enclosure finish. Should have all that sorted out soon though. Can't wait to get it back in.

With that setup I would probably run the BF before the custom and the Rat after. That way you have the option to run the Rat high gain and boost it with the Revelation and/or BF.

I've always ran lower gained Rat into heavier stuff like my Pharaoh and it always sounded awesome. Never tried it the other way, but I'll be sure to do that though. Now that I think about it though I know what will pretty much happen. The Ritual, Revelation, Black Forest combo will end up on my board, and the Rat will probably migrate to the bassists board. That is what has happened to my Pharaoh, Ritual, and OCD so far.

lower gain does not compute.

sorry I cant help

[celticelk]

Just been messing around with this type of arrangement today. I really like the Laney set for clean-clean with an always-on Boss OD3 at the front of the chain for my "clean" tone. It stacks well with the Catalinbread DLSIII for a JCM-type crunch, and with the Acid Age Supercollider for bringing the noise. So guitar -> OD3 -> Supercollider -> DLS -> amp.

[AxAxSxS]

My main dirt is Low gain Pharaoh > Low gain ocd> revelation > medium gain Quantum mystic. All my different dirt options end up going through a The Elements, which is set as clean boost. I find that using lower gain when stacking allows each pedals nature to shine through. to much gain early on and it just reaches a point where nothing after that makes any difference in the sound.

[benjuro]

too much gain early on and it just reaches a point where nothing after that makes any difference in the sound.