Members tycobb73 Posted March 3, 2013 Members Share Posted March 3, 2013 I'm thinking about a blues jr. I'm wondering how I can go from clean to dirty quickly. Someone told me to turn the volume down on my guitar for clean so I will try that. Others say to put a pedal in front of it. But isn't one of the advantages of tubes the sound they can make driven to breakup? If you're not doing this but rather using a pedal aren't you defeating the purpose of the tubes? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members jimash Posted March 3, 2013 Members Share Posted March 3, 2013 " If you're not doing this but rather using a pedal aren't you defeating the purpose of the tubes?"No. The purpose of the tubes is to amplify the sound.Distortion occurs when the tubes are overdriven.Since on most amps this involves turning them up over halfway it could get loud.So, pedal. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members tlbonehead Posted March 4, 2013 Members Share Posted March 4, 2013 there are tons of answeDepends on what you are trying to accomplish.rs to this. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members PurpleTrails Posted March 4, 2013 Members Share Posted March 4, 2013 jimash wrote: " If you're not doing this but rather using a pedal aren't you defeating the purpose of the tubes?" No. The purpose of the tubes is to amplify the sound. Distortion occurs when the tubes are overdriven. Since on most amps this involves turning them up over halfway it could get loud. So, pedal. This, especially on Fender amps, where most models run clean until you get to the top of the power band. A blues jr. breaks up relatively early, but it will still be loud when it does. My twin, on the other hand, will be at peeling the paint off the walls volume before it starts breaking up. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members OMG WTF LOLZ Posted March 4, 2013 Members Share Posted March 4, 2013 jimash wrote: " If you're not doing this but rather using a pedal aren't you defeating the purpose of the tubes?" No. The purpose of the tubes is to amplify the sound. Distortion occurs when the tubes are overdriven. Since on most amps this involves turning them up over halfway it could get loud. So, pedal. Most amps have master volumes, I'd say. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Miter Gauge Posted March 9, 2013 Members Share Posted March 9, 2013 tycobb73 wrote: I'm thinking about a blues jr. I'm wondering how I can go from clean to dirty quickly. Someone told me to turn the volume down on my guitar for clean so I will try that. Others say to put a pedal in front of it. But isn't one of the advantages of tubes the sound they can make driven to breakup? If you're not doing this but rather using a pedal aren't you defeating the purpose of the tubes? The purpose of most vacuum tubes in an amp is to amplify a signal. Putting anything in the signal chain won't change that purpose... Seriously though, I know what you meant. I would suggest experimenting with different pedals. Find one that adds some dirt without coloring the amps tone too much. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Promit Posted March 9, 2013 Members Share Posted March 9, 2013 Some distortion pedals, notably the ever popular Tube Screamer circuit, distort and clip very differently from tube amps. The layering can be a very good sound. They can also be used as level boosters to push the tubes to distort more than they otherwise would. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members 44caliberKid Posted March 11, 2013 Members Share Posted March 11, 2013 Some times the amp's overdrive channel sucks, or just doesn't compare to the pedal. I used a fulltone OCD in front of a peavey valve king and got a killer overdrive sound. Personally I thought It was better than the amps channel. But I suppose a valveking is more entry level. But I also knew a guy who used one in front of a fender twin reverb and it also sounded great. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Reverse Entropy Posted March 12, 2013 Members Share Posted March 12, 2013 OP is partly right. Pedals are there to either imitate the nice sound tubes make when they are overdriven, or the pedal increases the signal enough that it causes the first section of the amp (it's preamp tube) to overdrive before it normally would. In either case, this is happening at a lower volume than it normally would. A good pedal that really sounds great will still sound great into a solid-state amp, provided you don't accidentally cause the solid-state amp to distort (which often sounds pretty bad). Some solid state amps (like those using FET circuits) are fairly good sounding when overdriven, others are heinous. Don't be afraid to break rules, OP. Many of the 'tone secrets' guitarists have are obsessive voodoo nonsense We're suckers for stuff nobody in the audience pays attention to. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members groovy13 Posted March 12, 2013 Members Share Posted March 12, 2013 I believe it is just a personal choice--I use the distortion form the head myself. But some songs may require that extra--extra fuzziness. It's all good Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members stent Posted March 13, 2013 Members Share Posted March 13, 2013 People use distortion pedals to get more sounds than the amp is able to produce on its own. the blues junior will overdrive but, to me, doesn't sound good for metal. a distortion pedal in front of the amp allows you to switch between two different sounds by stomping on the pedal. to get the blues junior to overdrive you need to turn the preamp up. this means you need to turn your guitar volume down to get a clean sound. a clean amp with a distortion pedal may sound better or worse for your needs than a distorted amp where you turn your guitar volume down for cleans. it depends on what sort of music you want to play and, more importantly, what sounds best to you. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Mogwix Posted March 16, 2013 Members Share Posted March 16, 2013 tycobb73 wrote: [...] isn't one of the advantages of tubes the sound they can make driven to breakup? If you're not doing this but rather using a pedal aren't you defeating the purpose of the tubes? no, because you're not actually "layering" the gain, you're pushing the tubes themselves further into distortion. plenty of tube amps, usually higher gain tube amps, will have numerous gain stages which drive subsequent ones further into distortion... which is effectively the same thing as using an overdrive pedal in front of your amp.distortion pedals model the entire gain stage and are typically used with a clean amp. overdrive pedals boost the signal and add grit to drive a distorted amp... but that's just convention. you can do what you want and you'll probably get good results, just give it a shot. you can get lots of different textures this way. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members GREC Posted March 17, 2013 Members Share Posted March 17, 2013 I dig a fuzz pedal into an actual tube overdrive pedal (slightly overdriven) and then into a tube amp -only slightly overdriven. The complexities of multiple tubes is sweet -not so buzzy. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members SirJackdeFuzz Posted March 20, 2013 Members Share Posted March 20, 2013 "I'm thinking about a blues jr. I'm wondering how I can go from clean to dirty quickly. Someone told me to turn the volume down on my guitar for clean so I will try that. Others say to put a pedal in front of it. But isn't one of the advantages of tubes the sound they can make driven to breakup? If you're not doing this but rather using a pedal aren't you defeating the purpose of the tubes?" ....................................... o0o ...................................... The 1st reason that some to mind . . . is because no amp on earth sounds like this : With the exception of the all-mighty ELECTRIC AMP MVU 120, i know of no other amp that gives a Fuzz-dist tone.I too use several dirt boxes (EHX Hot Tubes / Fulltone Catalyst / Cornell 1st Fuzz / EXH Ger. OD / Throbak Stone Bender, and, and, and...) infront of my 50W Bassman !Obviously, only one at a time ;-) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members SirJackdeFuzz Posted March 20, 2013 Members Share Posted March 20, 2013 "Most amps have master volumes, I'd say." Most current made ones yes ! But, if you are the owner of a 1966 Bassman, 1970 Laney Super Group, 1972 Marshall JMP 50W, and a 1970's HiWatt . . . with NO Master Vol knob . . . and you want classic R A W crunchy goodness in a club made for 200 people, you will most deff turn to pedals. PS : guys, HOW THE F*CK TO I DO A "reply with qoute", on this sh*t nu-Harmony Forum ? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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