Tubes breakup

[piper19]

Hello, I was reading about the tubescreamer. I understand it is used for "cooking" the tubes of an amp. So I guess you could use it to push your tubes to distort at a level they wouldn't normally distort.

I am wondering now, is the tubescreamer the only device to do this, or do all overdrives, distortion, fuzz.... pedals use this technique.

so, if I like the distortion sound of my amp more than the one from my distortion pedal on a clean amp, I could better get rid of my distortion pedal and by me a tubescreamer is that right?

[Wilbo26]

Kinda. Any OD is going to give a slight to moderate boost in gain in a clean tube amp. Distortion just add a lot more gain. But hitting a clean amp with an OD isn't going to sound the same as having the amp cranked up into overdrive/distortion territory.

It will be close I guess, depending on the pedal and amp, but nothing is going to sound the same as a cranked tube amp.

You may want to check out a clean boost, which will slam your amp with extra volume without adding gain or color/eq changes, which can get you closer to what your amp cranked would sound like, but also let you keep the clean tones going.

Hopefully this makes sense. Hopefully somebody in here will correct me if I'm wrong or explain it better. Its been a long day.

[Tonemeister87]

What he said

[Throbak]

A Tube Screamer type pedal will boost the mids quite a bit which you may or may not like. Personally I don't like it but many do.

Another tried and true method is to use a Rangemaster treble boost clone. There are many out there to choose from but they are all the same basic circuit. It will hammer the tubes with a significant db boost. I gives a treble overtone that sounds great with a dark a Les Paul and with a Strat if you are playing with a dark sounding amp. Clapton, Brain May, Rory Gallagher, Tony Iommi all use/used one. Most of the clones also have a full boost mode to reduce some of the treble.

Here is a clip of my Rangemaster clone the Strange Master with my 18 watt clone with a Les Paul. It is in treble boost mode so you can really hear the treble overtone. In full boost mode it is less trebley.
http://gundrymedia.typepad.com/throbak_electronics/files/strange_master_treble_boost_bridge.mp3



Another option is an Overdrive. Overdrives can be used as clean boost or to add distortion. They can also give enough of a db boost to send the tubes into distortion. A Tube Screamer is not what I would consider and pure overdrive as it colors the sound too much. An Overdrive that has good tone controls will be the most flexible. Many clean boost lack a tone control which can be a problem because amps react differently to a clean boost. Some may darken up with a clean boost and others may not. So good tone controls are a real plus. The Colorsound Overdriver was a favorite of Marc Bolan and Jeff Beck. It can do clean boost or add distortion. It also gives a huge db boost. I make a Overdriver based clone as does /13, Pro Analog, Prescription Electronics and I suspect many other boutique transistor based boosts are based upon the Colorsound Overdriver circuit.