anybody use distortion + boost (overdrive) to get their desired gain levels?

[mbengs1]

I do this most of the time. I have two boss pedals to do this. is this a common way of getting your high gain distorted tone? coz I believe the common way is to use the amp + overdrive pedal to push it off the cliff so to speak.

[arcadesonfire]

I do I do!! I don’t know how common it is, but I have a Tubescreamer in line AFTER my OCD and Rat. So if I’ve got the Rat or OCD on and I want to do a lead/solo that really needs to stand out, I kick on the Tubescreamer (and always have its gain set all the way down). I run into a slightly overdriven Plexi clone, so the Tubescreamer doesn’t add much volume. Rather, it adds focuses by thickening the mid range and also rolling off both high highs and low lows. This focusing/thickening really helps high string lead lines cut through, and it allows me to keep the other dust pedals dialed for rhythmic sounds.

 

So yeah! I love this method.

[travisbrowning]

Not me! I typically run my amp right around breakup and use an OD for the dirtier stuff, anything with more gain than my OD-3 can provide and I'd rather use Fuzz.

[AJ6stringsting]

Heck, you can gain stack for distortion.

A guy from another band, had some unique heavy distortion tone, he had three over drive pedal set to 25%, another at 35 % and another at 40%. If he had all three going it produced a Pantera - Metallica gain kick, if he chose to lighten it to a 80's / 70's tone, he would take out the hottest over drive pedal. He took out the lower gained set of OD pedals and just cranked the hottest OD pedal alone. The dynamics of the hot pedal fully cranked had all the drive of all the three OD , but lacked dynamics such as articulation in palm muting, it wasn't as easy to get pinched harmonics and wasn't not as dynamic as when you manipulated the volume knob or tone knob.

[mbengs1]

I never really tried this. what if you put the overdrive after the distortion box? will u get the same tone as putting it before the distortion?

[arcadesonfire]

I never really tried this. what if you put the overdrive after the distortion box? will u get the same tone as putting it before the distortion?

 

They’ll be different (in my experience). It’s the difference between running a light overdrive into an amp’s dust channel vs plugging a distortion pedal into a slightly overdriven amp. Umm, set that analogy aside for now... here’s what’ll happen: If you run the overdrive first, then you can’t really use it to boost volume. That extra volume will just turn into more distortion within the distortion pedal. If you run the overdrive after the distortion pedal, you can still use the overdrive’s volume knob to control how much volume your amp actually receives.

 

Go forth and experiment w your pedals!

[WRGKMC]

I been gain staging pedals since the 70's. I typically have 5 drive pedals on my studio board plus some amp modeling drive pedals.

 

Given the fact you cant down stage a signal once a signals been crushed to death, I typically use my low gain pedals first and put my high gain pedals last. This way the results are additive. A low gain overdrive run into a medium drive pedal = a higher gain when combined.

 

If you do it the other way around, medium into a low gain you have a medium gain tone with a noise boost which isn't my favorite sound to work with. It tends to have more hiss and tends to cause microphonic feedback more. Much of it depends on the type of pedals and how its adjusted too.

[IamBurnout]

I use 4 gain pedals. The fuzz and OD are there just for stacking on the vastly different distortions, even if the combo of the two is its own cool sound.

 

[Daehtihs]

I know a guy who does the same thing, it really sounds great, I like get all my distortion from the amp though.