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Booster without volume boost


Shawbrook

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The title is probably contradictionary, but I'm a bit confused. I'm not a pedal newbie by any means but I've never been interested in booster pedals until now. I like the idea of having a pedal that provides drive by breaking up my amp (a Vox AC15C1) instead of using an OD like my Bad Monkey that changes my sound too much away from my amp's natural sound. However I play mostly in my small bedroom and I can definitely not play louder. So my question is: is there a way to boost my amp to make it break up without raising the volume (too much)? Or can most boosters be set up to provide drive without raising volume too dramatically?
For what it's worth, I've been looking into building a DOD 250 (I noticed it has a separate gain knob next to the volume knob). Is that what I want?

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A pedal that gives you distortion without raising your output level or driving your tubes harder (which increases volume) is an overdrive pedal, which you have, and which the DOD 250 also is. If you don't like how much it changes the sound, try tweaking the EQ knobs to get the sound you want.

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Yes, no problem, that in generally called a clean boost. Clean boosts are often misunderstood since they can be used for many things. However, you may find a tube screamer, bad monkey, DS1 whatever just sounds better, often hitting the front of an amp hard isn't as good sounding as you would think, the bass frequencies build up, and dirt pedals with the drive really low and the volume and tone higher may do the trick.

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Quote Originally Posted by Bodge View Post
sounds like you're describing an attenuator
Pretty much. Your vox amp overdrives by either increasing the input signal or increasing the volume in the power amplifier section. Either way, its by {censored} getting louder. The only way you're going to get that tone at less volume is to attenuate before the signal hits the speakers, but we all know attenuators impart their own tone as well.

Maybe what you want is a Vox flavoured drive rather than a tubescreamer?
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Doesn't this amp have a Master Volume?
Turn UP the Normal or Top Boost Channel Volume, Turn DOWN the Master Volume.
More front-end overdrive. Whatever loudness you wish, controlled by aforementioned Master Volume..
Problem solved. You're welcome.
Send me a check for the $300 in pedals you were going waste your money on.

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Some odd responses here.

The answer is no - he wants his amp to break up at lower volume. The only way to do that is with an attenuator, use the master vol, modify the amp or, indeed, buy a lower wattage amp.

No pedal, clean boost, overdrive or otherwise can make your amp distort at a lower volume.

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Quote Originally Posted by gold_soundz View Post
Some odd responses here.

The answer is no - he wants his amp to break up at lower volume. The only way to do that is with an attenuator, use the master vol, modify the amp or, indeed, buy a lower wattage amp.

No pedal, clean boost, overdrive or otherwise can make your amp distort at a lower volume.
wat? This is completely wrong, overdrive pedals do exactly that.
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Quote Originally Posted by arthurdent'd View Post
wat? This is completely wrong, overdrive pedals do exactly that.
no, sorry, wrong answer.
PERIOD.

He is asking to push the front end HARDER, but wants to maintain low output.
UNLESS he has a Master Volume on his amp, an attenuator on the speaker is the only way to do this.

An OD will supply subtle (or not so subtle) harmonic distortion to the main signal, but unless you up the db-out fro the OD, it WILL NOT PUSH THE PREAMP HARDER.
To obtain amp-derived, pre-amp "push", you need to push it more. This will invariably lead to a larger signal-out from the pre-amp.
Therefore, to reduce the output signal he has 2 options....turn down a Master Volume, OR, use an attenuator.

Again, the OP is asking to push his pre-amp harder.
Sub'ing in an Overdrive pedal is NOT the same. You MIGHT find a an OD that sounds kinda-like a pushed pre-amp, but the OP wants to push his pre-amp, not emulate it.

EDIT: BTW, if the actual SOUND the OP likes happens to be the sound of his output section being pushed. OR the sound of his speakers moving into breakup, then he may not be able to achieve that exact result without a higher SPL output. The world of overdrives, distortions and emulators are AIMED at achieving those results, but they are, after all, only approximations of the real thing...I mean, perhaps the the sound the OP likes is due to a worn spot in the speaker cone (re: the first fuzz toanz) ... well then, even a speaker emulator may not do it for him, since most that I've seen don't include "ripped paper" options.

This overly long, tl/dr post is brought to you by the "Read The OP" Police.
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Quote Originally Posted by arthurdent'd View Post
ummm, well I have a non-master volume amp and keep the OD (WIIO, Red Llama) output at unity gain, and up the gain on the pedals and get distortion without extra volume.....shrug
but that's not what the OP was after.

I mean, maybe you prefer the OD's signal modification to the sound of your pre-amp pushed by a clean boost.
But the OP said he wanted the sound of his amp, pushed...but not louder.
The OP is asking (perhaps w/o the detailed knowledge of gain vs vol vs SPL vs signal distortion) for a clean boosted amp, followed by attentuation.
Again, I just hope it's not the sound of his speaker breakup that he really likes, cuz that just takes signal-deflection, period.

No hate on you AD

:wub:
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Quote Originally Posted by lefort_1 View Post
but that's not what the OP was after.

I mean, maybe you prefer the OD's signal modification to the sound of your pre-amp pushed by a clean boost.
But the OP said he wanted the sound of his amp, pushed...but not louder.
The OP is asking (perhaps w/o the detailed knowledge of gain vs vol vs SPL vs signal distortion) for a clean boosted amp, followed by attentuation.
Again, I just hope it's not the sound of his speaker breakup that he really likes, cuz that just takes signal-deflection, period.

No hate on you AD

:wub:
oh I know that
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tom, that only works if the 'clean boost' if it's added UNclean harmonics match those created by the OP's preamp when pushed.
That is not generic, one-harmonic-structure-fits-all formula. Espec if EF86's are involved.
We need to sit down in front of a audio spectrum analzyer and discuss this.


...and get an amp....

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There are some fundamental misunderstandings going on here.

If you use an overdrive pedal into a clean amp, set the volume to unity and adjust gain to taste to create overdrive, the overdrive sound is coming from the pedal. This is solid state emulation of tube overdrive. It is not overdriving the tubes in your amp.

The original poster specifically does not want this and even gave an example of doing it with a bad monkey which he does not like.

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