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Best British-Crunch For Pathfinder 15R?


SnowRose

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Well, I wouldn't say best, since I won't be spending more than $100. I bought the Vox Pathfinder 15R used a few days ago and noticed the overdrive on this amp is not great. The cleans are sweet though.

 

Any ideas of a good overdrive/crunch pedal for that thick crunch? Not the Peavey Hi-gain!

 

I've heard of the HotCake, but that is too expensive for now. Anything good from BOSS, etc?

 

Thanks.

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Damn, you should have bought mine. I'm about to put it up for sale soon, I believe. :D

 

I love this amp. Handles pedals great. I primarily use my modded RAT for my overdrive/distortion, although I am on the hunt for a dedicated light overdrive. But from my experience this is probably one of the most OD friendly SS amp around for cheap. It's great for practicing, but I just don't need it now that I'm out of school and I'm looking to expand my pedalboard.

 

I suggest heading up to a local GC or something playing around with the ODs like an SD-1 or the DOD 250. The GC's I've been to always have their pedals hooked up to SS amps. So if you can get a decent sound out of the amp there, it will sound better with the Pathfinder.

 

Now if you are playing through headphones, it will sound a little more icepickish. But I've dialed in good OD tones from my RAT through my headphones, but if at all possible use the speaker for output.

 

Check out some pedals like an SD-1, DOD 250, Digitech Bad Monkey, etc. No reason to spend more than $50. Test them out at the store, then search around and buy used if you'd prefer. All these pedals are readily available used.

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Welcome to the Vox Pathfinder club, you'll find there's quite a few of us at the forum with the little beauty. Best Brit crunch is a big kettle of subjective fish which opens into ...

 

$$$$ ?

What do you want?

Dist?

OD?

 

It goes on ...

 

If you want a straight up answer ... for me it's the old Marshall Guvnor Mk1 black box which I have - that defines Brit crunch into the stone age for my money.

 

If you can't find one look at the Vox Big Ben stuff ... good pedals imho.

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Wooo go Pathfinder! Thanks.

 

Well I am impressed with this amp and the cleans are really something to talk about. I agree the pedals do work well with it, since I have a crappy one and it still sounds quite nice.

 

Well, if I can spend less than $100, that would be ideal, but I don't want to cheap out. I bought this Behringer Ultra-metal pedal for like $25 and it sucked. Just my opinion.

 

Anyways, Digital Bad Monkey sounds famaliar as well. Might give that a go.

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*admires the Pathfinder in my practice area* :D

 

since you tried the Ultra-Metal, I'm assuming you like to rock hard, so don't overlook the Boss DS-1 - it's cheap and sounds kinda "Marshall-y" to me. I used to play one thru my Vox Pathfinder until I actually got a Marshall...

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Originally posted by SnowRose

Well, I wouldn't say best, since I won't be spending more than $100. I bought the Vox Pathfinder 15R used a few days ago and noticed the overdrive on this amp is not great. The cleans are sweet though.


Any ideas of a good overdrive/crunch pedal for that thick crunch? Not the Peavey Hi-gain!


I've heard of the HotCake, but that is too expensive for now. Anything good from BOSS, etc?


Thanks.

 

 

I'd recommend getting a Bad Monkey and Hot Head. The Bad Monkey will give you a nice smooth overdrive. If you kick in the Hot Head with it, you get a great midrangy distortion. Total for both pedals will be $80.

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if you don't want to spend a lot of money, try the DOD 250 and the danelectro daddy o. i have both and use the daddy o for thickening my rhythm sound and the DOD for lead boosts through my pathfinder 15r. both pedals give you "classic rock overdrive". the daddy o has a 3 knob EQ so you can really dial in lots of different flavored OD sounds.

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Hi, my first amp was a Pathfinder, so I know where you're coming from as far as needing crunch.

 

I think the Carl Martin Crunch Drive is an amazing pedal, and I'm very picky about crunch. I tried it in the store in a quiet room thru a dead-clean amp and I really think they got it right with this pedal. It was so easy to dial in a great sound because it's so tweakable. It has an attack knob for mids and an edge knob for treble. Doesn't sound too exciting, but I thought they were voiced perfectly for crunch. You can control how "in-your-face" it is, and you can control how "sharp" or "dull" the top end sounds. It did great with milder crunch, and I don't remember having any problems with more JCM800 kind of stuff. I was using a fat strat to test it. They also have the Rock Drive and Heavy Drive pedals which are higher and highest gain. I would imagine if the Crunch Drive is so good, the Rock Drive is a probably a good bet. If you're into higher gain you'd probably prefer that one. The Crunch Drive was Too bad they're so hard to find. Normally they're about $130, and I see there's one on ebay for $80. Hope this helps!

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Originally posted by fulltruth

Hi, my first amp was a Pathfinder, so I know where you're coming from as far as needing crunch.


I think the Carl Martin Crunch Drive is an amazing pedal, and I'm very picky about crunch. I tried it in the store in a quiet room thru a dead-clean amp and I really think they got it right with this pedal. It was so easy to dial in a great sound because it's so tweakable. It has an attack knob for mids and an edge knob for treble. Doesn't sound too exciting, but I thought they were voiced perfectly for crunch. You can control how "in-your-face" it is, and you can control how "sharp" or "dull" the top end sounds. It did great with milder crunch, and I don't remember having any problems with more JCM800 kind of stuff. I was using a fat strat to test it. They also have the Rock Drive and Heavy Drive pedals which are higher and highest gain. I would imagine if the Crunch Drive is so good, the Rock Drive is a probably a good bet. If you're into higher gain you'd probably prefer that one. The Crunch Drive was Too bad they're so hard to find. Normally they're about $130, and I see there's one on ebay for $80. Hope this helps!

 

 

Thanks, that sounds good.

 

How about for Marshall-stack pedals? I've heard some good stuff by Marshall Guvnor.

 

And other competitors include the Boss Super-Overdrive.

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