Anyone prefer the sound of pedal distortion over amp distortion?

[SirAlec]

My blues deluxe with a maxed out fuzz pedal suits my needs much more than a cranked and overdriven marshall. That being said, I still love Marshalls, but I could never justify buying one when I could get a sound I love equally at a fraction of the price/volume.

[ambient]

The trick I found is to turn the cab and have it face the other way or a wall. From there just mic it. You can turn your amp up louder than if it were facing the crowd.

 

 

Depending where you are this is also a good way to get slapback delay with out resorting to those pesky pedals.

[mr benn]

my orange is never 100% clean anyway,so my pedals are always going into a slightly dirty signal,

the amp is key,the pedals just add to it

[spentron]

There's lots of amps that make good power tube distortion up to a point, but push any harder and the sound gets worse. Only if the power-preamp combination is excellent is an amp really great for this. But with a good OD all those other amps are very valid.

 

There is an aspect of pushed tube amps that sounds good on many pedals, but there's also something to be said for keeping some dirt pedals as clean as possible. It's just different.

 

I used to not have any need for a completely clean sound, but after not really having one for about a decade I've come to like it. Also, as my ears age especially, it reinforces my view that the louder a sound is, the better it has to be.

 

Experiments with solid state have convinced me that speaker distortion occurs at a lot lower levels than I previously thought. The ideal level for 2x12 V30s seems to be about 10-15 watts total unless more of the power is bass, and my 15 watt amp peaks about 28, taking on the same blurring as revealed by the big SS amp, and gets muddy if the bass is cranked at high levels. It's awesome but very inflexible.

[hangwire]

Crank a Marshall and compare it to a DLS into a Twin Reverb. You'll see why a $160 dirt box is a $160 dirt box.

 

 

Yeah, but then it sounds like boring {censored}

 

if you want a cranked Marshall sound, get a marshall

but for me, I don't, so I use a loud clean amp and dirt it up with clean blend

[PatrickF]

Personally I would rather have a Recto, 5150, JCM 800, DSL, or any other amps in that range (granted that is a spectrum) than any combination of dirt pedals out there. For what I do amp distortion is the only way to go.

[decode6]

Cranked Marshall = :bor:

[Parah Salin]

{censored}ing hate this attitude. So many guitarists are snivelling traditionalistic little {censored}s it puts me off even owning a tube amp half of the time.

 

 

*insert wahmbulance picture here*

[AnderMocs]

For most things I do. My personal style and tone is taken from david gilmour/bill frissel/kurt rosenwinkel. All use pedals for overdrive/fuzz.

[Jisatsu]

I prefer high gain amps to high gain pedals.

I prefer my silverkiss to cranked fenders.

Not many sub-$1000 amps deliever good drive and distortion. Sure there are amps with decent drive and what not in that range, but not decent enough for most budget concious players to prefer these amps over most quality made pedals.

It's subjective based on what amp and what pedals you are using.

[LR Weizel]

*insert wahmbulance picture here*

 

 

Wow, really? What next? I'm BUTTHURT because of your {censored}ty viewpoint? Or maybe you are just annoying after all?

 

It doesn't change that what you said was still immeasurably obnoxious.

[Parah Salin]

I guess I must have hit a soft spot with you.

[eudaimonia02912]

I suppose it depends on the pedal versus the amp. Since I'm a metal player, some tube amps, even when cranked, can't get me the sound I want. So, I'd rather play certain pedals than certain amps to get my sound. That said, for my genre, the best tube amps are better than the best pedals.

That said, the Blackstar DistX sounds wonderful, in fact, nearly as good as many high gain tube amps. However, it's more of a tube pre-amp (with some solid state clipping, too) than a regular old pedal.

[Loobs]

I prefer pedal gain. I also like how putting a pedal into the front end of an amp changes the feel and affects your playing.

[companyman]

I love my Orange's distortion, but I love time based effects and I have no effects loop, so I am forced to use pedals for dirt.

[LR Weizel]

I love my Orange's distortion, but I love time based effects and I have no effects loop, so I am forced to use pedals for dirt.

 

 

Always puts me off getting a cheaper Orange, so few have effects loops.

 

Too many blues/metal players I think.

[companyman]

Always puts me off getting a cheaper Orange, so few have effects loops. Too many blues/metal players I think.

 

well, I don't know about "cheaper' the Rocker-30 is $1400, but I think the 30 sounded much better that the Rockerverb 50....if only they'd put a damned loop in it!

[Flying_Milkman]

That's cool, with pedals like the DLS, Crunchbox, Les Luis, Wampler line of pedals, Honey Bee, Model H, SFT, etc., that are modeled after certain amps and sound uh-may-zing, I could see myself being swayed by pedal dirt over amp distortion, although cranking my AC30 is delicious. I also like rats too, although they don't sound amp distortion like at all imo. They have this certain badass characteristic about them that I really love.

 

 

INdeed, however, the convenience of having my sounds at my feet sure beats messing around with a cranked tube amp that's way too loud for the venue.

[Snail_killer]

[Silverburst LP]

Kinda, I love fuzz and amps dont really do fuzz so...

 

 

Depends on the amp. Some of 'em do.

 

Anyway, for gain in general, I think nothing beats a good hot tube amp. But for exotic sounds, it's all about the pedals.

 

And a tubescreamer-type pedal is always nice as a clean boost or with the gain rolled up on an already overdriven amp.

[LR Weizel]

 

Depends on the amp. Some of 'em do. Anyway, for gain in general, I think nothing beats a good hot tube amp. But for exotic sounds, it's all about the pedals. And a tubescreamer-type pedal is always nice as a clean boost or with the gain rolled up on an already overdriven amp.

 

 

Not really. Fuzz is a solid state thing really. It's different to the way gain generally works in tubes. You can get some Big Muff like tones with some high gain amps on the neck pickup but you won't get anything like a Devi Ever kind of sound out of a tube amp. You'd have to make an amp specifically for it.

 

I think though that tubes can do some "exotic" sounds. I find a lot of dirt boxes model themselves off well known archetypes, some tube amps do have some pretty interestng sounds. In theory though dirt boxes are more that area.

[spentron]

^^-- "Bypass" is a great liberator.

[Parah Salin]

Not really. Fuzz is a solid state thing really. It's different to the way gain generally works in tubes. You can get some Big Muff like tones with some high gain amps on the neck pickup but you won't get anything like a Devi Ever kind of sound out of a tube amp. You'd have to make an amp specifically for it. I think though that tubes can do some "exotic" sounds. I find a lot of dirt boxes model themselves off well known archetypes, some tube amps do have some pretty interestng sounds. In theory though dirt boxes are more that area.

 

 

You realize fuzz was created to emulate the sound of blown out speakers or a speaker with holes poked out in them, right?

[bhsbhswarp]

nothing beats the roar of a good tube amp.That said I can only crank my amp with the band.Thats were pedals come in.Even when I jam with other musicians they don't crank like our band."If it's too load your too old,go home"

[Naterel]

nothing tops a good old Metalzone into a Crate 2x12

nothing