Crazy Idea

[ThrashensteiN]

So, I mentioned awhile back I was going to probably sell my Uberschall to get something smaller for personal use and maybe some gigs. I also wanted something that did more than just one thing (mostly a legit clean tone), and didn't weigh 85 lbs. I'm lazy.

 

I tried Oranges, Peaveys, Blackstars, etc etc. But until today I never even gave Fenders a second thought. At work we got in a Limited Editon Hot Rod, whats limited about it you ask? Its red with a taupe colored grill, black face and cream knobs. It looks great, but its a friggin amp so sound matters infinitely more than looks. So I sat down, great cleans, decent overdrive, usual Hot Rod shtick. So I decided to run a pedal or two in front of it, see where it got me. I play a lot of modern metal stuff and progressive and whatnot (and thrash, go figure). I ran an OCD, T-Rex Yellow Drive, Lovepedal Superlead, and a Metal Zone. I reminded myself why I never liked Metal Zones, the OCD was alright (a little squishy in the mids), the Yellow Drive was cool but kept too much a classic sound for my tastes, but the Lovepedal. . . well. I started with it on the drive channel with the More Drive engaged, using the pedal as more of a boost. Gave a super thick tone, kinda interesting once I played around with it for awhile, made chords extra thick and had sustain for days on end. Then I switched over to the clean channel with the pedal engaged, and this is where I was surprised. With the little mid switch to the left on the Superlead (I'm assuming this is without the mid boost) it has the brash, crisp straight up mean sounding modern edge. I liked it a lot, but when I switched the mid boost over it went from a evil dark grind to basically a pissed off bulldog that was crossbred with satan. I still am a little surprised at how well it worked, and most of my coworkers were too. One guy thought I was plugged into the Roadster that was behind me.

 

So here is my crazy idea. One, going from an Uberschall to a Hot Rod. And two, swapping in a Vintage 30 into the Hot Rod. I was also wondered what other distortion/overdrive pedals I should possibly check out. I was maybe thinking the T-Rex Bloody Mary, but don't have one in the store.

[colejustesen]

I really enjoyed do this with my Fender Hot Rod DeVille as well as my Classic 50. The next thing to try is using said distortion pedal into a clean boost (i.e. MXR MC-401) then into the clean channel. This seems to open up the distortion pedal and makes it sound less pedalish... I love it!

 

As far as pedals to try, I have been super fond of my Tonerider British Distortion (if you want a Marshally type vibe). I really liked this pedal into the MXR MC-401 into my Hot Rod DeVille... It sounded really great, plus it worked super for rolling back the volume on my guitar to clean up the sound. I could nail some great Foo Fighters tones by rolling back my volume on the guitar with this setup.

 

Also, the WGS ET65 speakers sound amazing in that amp!

 

EDIT: If you can find yourself a used or NOS Zoom HL-01, it is a great distortion pedal (more voiced towards a lead guitar type sound, but still great!) Also, the Lovekraft Mojo Drive is pretty killer. If you want a wide variety of gain in one pedal the MI Audio Tube Zone overdrive is a whole lot of pedal!

 

Cole