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OD pedals in general.... Just an observation


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Maybe it's just me but there is one thing I've noticed about many OD pedals that I don't care for. At least for my tastes, it seems that many models could benefit from designing the gain/drive circuits so it comes on more gradually and with less ultimate gain at maximum.

All too often I find myself trying to find an acceptable level with the unit barely into its adjustment. At maximum the gain is so over the top I cannot imagine who would find it desirable. ( though I'm sure there are users)

 

Just my 2 cents

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I've just never been one of those types of players who does a lot of knob twisting while playing. I understand what can be gained but it's simply distracting to me to rely on it. I prefer to set my tone controls to one setting that sounds great clean and then leave them alone. Everything else comes from the pedals.

 

I know there are other ways of doing it but I like things to be simple and straightforward

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I think it makes playing a guitar more intimate; more musical but more along what I was getting at is you have at your disposal, the guitar volume as a very precise fine tuner and picking dynamics. Set the former and OD gain; play.

 

Or this:

[video=youtube;pW1SqL8k-9c]

 

There's a slew of Tim Lerch Ethos demo. Best Dumble pedal out there IMO.

[video=youtube;BrRUI4J6v3s]

 

[video=youtube;i4I5tN9_Mrc]

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You can fine tune with the guitar.

 

Good point - try rolling down your guitar's volume knob a bit and then playing with your overdrive pedals.

 

Also, a lower-gain "transparent" overdrive pedal might be of interest to the OP - I'd recommend trying something like a Klon, Timmy or Soul Food.

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I've just never been one of those types of players who does a lot of knob twisting while playing. I understand what can be gained but it's simply distracting to me to rely on it. I prefer to set my tone controls to one setting that sounds great clean and then leave them alone. Everything else comes from the pedals.

 

I know there are other ways of doing it but I like things to be simple and straightforward

 

You can always put the "volume knob" into a pedal. Some volume pedals have minimum level controls that can be useful in this application, and then there's always pedals like this one:

 

Saturnworks Deluxe volume pedal

 

 

Put one of those in front of your overdrive (using a true bypass looper pedal would be ideal so you could turn both of them on and off simultaneously with a single button press) and you can attenuate it as much as you want.

 

 

 

 

 

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Some OD pedals will not match up with some amps. Have an EQ pedal in your chain and try adding or subtracting mids etc. to see if you can pull something out.

 

That's an excellent suggestion Mike!

 

A good EQ pedal - even an inexpensive one like the Danelectro Fish & Chips - can be a powerful addition to any pedalboard. Try it both pre and post dirt for either emphasizing certain frequencies you want to grind up more (pre-dirt) or post-dirt for shaping the sound coming out of your dirt pedal.

 

Added benefit of going pre-dirt is you can use the EQ pedal's level control to attenuate the signal a bit too so that the OD distorts less quickly and not as heavily.

 

 

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I not a huge gain person most of the time, but I have used my fair share of OD boxes along the way.

 

Right now on my pedalboard is the Fulltone II and a Barber Tone Press, which can push your sound and doesn't have to be that all out distorted sound.

I have looked into getting a Janglebox, and it's on my list. Especially for my Rickenbackers.

 

It adds a bit of gain, some treble if you want it and some compression.

 

 

Something like the Boss CS3 which I have kicking around, can push the front end of an amp and give you some added gain and sustain.

 

Might be the tone, gain and sustain that the doctor ordered, but ya need to give it a try.

 

 

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That's an excellent suggestion Mike!

 

A good EQ pedal - even an inexpensive one like the Danelectro Fish & Chips - can be a powerful addition to any pedalboard. Try it both pre and post dirt for either emphasizing certain frequencies you want to grind up more (pre-dirt) or post-dirt for shaping the sound coming out of your dirt pedal.

 

Added benefit of going pre-dirt is you can use the EQ pedal's level control to attenuate the signal a bit too so that the OD distorts less quickly and not as heavily.

 

 

 

I prefer EQ before overdrive. It's like additive synthesis whereas EQ post overdrive is more like subtractive synthesis. Both have their place but I just feel like I have more control in the 'additive' mode.

 

Of course these days it's easy to have both.

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Its more to do with the pickup choice matching the Drive pedal then it is the amp.

 

If you have too much gain or it ramps up too quickly, my first question would be, what pickups and what drive pedal are you using.

 

Second is its only off a little you can try backing the pickups down. Third, maybe an overdrive is what you want to use instead of a distortion type pedal. Drive pedals can be broken down into how many gain stages they have.

 

A simple clean boost/preamp pedal may only have one gain stage, if it has more the first stage is biased low so it doesn't saturate the second. Fuzz and overdrive pedals are essentially similar but they usually use a high gain first stage that saturates the second. Distortion either uses a third (or more) stages or uses clipping diodes to flatten peaks.

 

An overdrive can usually be set to be the least destructive to the musical note. You will need to dig in harder to get the drive to happen but the dynamics between clean and driven will be greater.

 

Others mentioned, setting the pickup volume. My preference is to have the sound clean up when I turn a guitar volume knob down from 10 to 8. I can have cleaner chords that way. On Strats and Tele's with single coils that may not work the same. I often have to dial up a different drive setting or use a different drive because the pickup impedance is 50% or more lower. The pot may have a treble bleed cap or the pot linearity is very different. Finding the right settings is what the tone game is all about.

 

One big key is, the louder and bigger you want to sound, the less gain you should use. Gain gives your strings more sustain and allows you to play with a lighter touch but its a trade off. The more you use, the sound smaller the instrument sounds in either a recording or live mix.

 

The room you play in has a huge influence too. I played a gig a month ago and brought my little vox pedal which I had programed to sound great for recording. The room had massive amounts of reflection and when I tried to use my driven lead settings my guitar sounded like white noise. I dialed up my clean settings that only had a little hair on them and the guitar sounded wonderful. The reverb in the room provided all the sustain I needed to play well.

 

Dialing drive back so you have silence between the notes lowers the noise floor and increases the dynamic strength of the notes being produced, Keeping the drive closer to the bare minimum will also make you work harder playing to produce those notes.

 

Because you work harder with less gain, the audience interprets this as the performer giving the notes more emotion. Drive is addictive. Learning to use drive dynamically is what separates the pros from the beginners.

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Maybe it's just me but there is one thing I've noticed about many OD pedals that I don't care for. At least for my tastes, it seems that many models could benefit from designing the gain/drive circuits so it comes on more gradually and with less ultimate gain at maximum.

All too often I find myself trying to find an acceptable level with the unit barely into its adjustment. At maximum the gain is so over the top I cannot imagine who would find it desirable. ( though I'm sure there are users)

 

Just my 2 cents

May I ask what kind of amp are you using? pedals? Tubes/valves?
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.... it seems that many models could benefit from designing the gain/drive circuits so it comes on more gradually and with less ultimate gain at maximum.

 

He's right, you know. :) Well, Tomm, this happens because pedal designers are lazy and pedal companies are cheap. They *could*, (and sometimes do) add a resistor or two here or there to limit the maximum gain or smooth out the 'sweep' of controls. But those extra resistors cost money and add complexity. I think another reason there's extra gain is for people with low output pickups and kids playing in their bedroom. :D

 

My solution is to just play with the drive or gain control barely turned up, like 9 o'clock on both my tubescreamer and RAT. I got to play through a Digitech Bad Monkey OD pedal last week, and I really liked it., nice low-gain OD.

 

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Originally posted by Tomm Williams View Post .... it seems that many models could benefit from designing the gain/drive circuits so it comes on more gradually and with less ultimate gain at maximum.

 

That's pretty much how your amp should be working depending on the tubes you're using. Some can take a fuzz and a od pedal and get nothing but mush flubby mud farts. others, beautiful on edge of break up cleans to sweet lead sounds that sustain so sweetly with all the clarity you could want.. is it the gear or the player?

 

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Maybe instead of an OD pedal you can try a clean boost pedal like a catalinbread super chili picoso or something along those lines. I used one for years to boost my signal enough that I'd have some natural OD come through a low watt tube amp but stay relatively clean overall and use my guitar's volume control to dial back a bit if needed or just use different picking dynamics to get a softer cleaner sound and really dig in for a light crunch.

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He's right, you know. :) Well, Tomm, this happens because pedal designers are lazy and pedal companies are cheap. They *could*, (and sometimes do) add a resistor or two here or there to limit the maximum gain or smooth out the 'sweep' of controls. But those extra resistors cost money and add complexity.

 

If you can take the pedal apart and know how to solder...

 

I've sometimes added resistors not to limit the overall amount of gain, but to alter a pot's taper so that it's easier to hit the "sweet spot."

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^^^ If you have the space adding a switch along with the resistor will let you switch between a stock or modified taper.

 

Not all circuits can be modded easily however. Many are built with micro components and tight builds where it takes allot of effort to do anything inside.

 

I bought one of those Dan Electro Rocky Road Leslie emulator pedals a few years ago. The drive and Leslie tone were actually pretty good but trying to hit the buttons to turn it on and off or change speeds was a joke. I'd need to play barefoot and use my big toe to activate them.

 

I lucked out and had just enough space to install a tubular TRS jack which I wired into the switches. I was then able to connect a decent sized two way foot pedal and it actually wound up being a usable pedal. I still have to add some resistance to the gain pot however. I get a 1:1 gain with the pot turned all the way down. Turned up its way to loud compared to the bypassed tone.

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