Should an overdrive pedal be voiced similar to your amp?

[canucker1981]

Or should it have a different voicing? Hmmm, what I mean is... If you have a midrange heavy amp should you seek out a scooped sounding overdrive pedal? And vice-versa. Or is it better to stick in the same range as your amp. I would assume that a midrange heavy pedal(tubescreamers I guess) would be overkill in midrange based amps. At the same time it could be more of a natural, transparent sound that way. what do ya'll think?

[GuyaGuy]

 

Originally posted by canucker1981 Or should it have a different voicing? Hmmm, what I mean is... If you have a midrange heavy amp should you seek out a scooped sounding overdrive pedal? And vice-versa. Or is it better to stick in the same range as your amp. I would assume that a midrange heavy pedal(tubescreamers I guess) would be overkill in midrange based amps. At the same time it could be more of a natural, transparent sound that way. what do ya'll think?

 

 

depends on yr usage. most OD pedals kill yr bottom end--but on purpose. they're treble heavy to cut through. i don't play "lead licks" so i look for evenly-EQ'd pedals and boost the mids just a bit to simulate the tubieness of tubes.

 

but having a reverse EQ on yr OD as on yr amp will basically just kill those frequncies in most cases. example: a treble-heavy Od that cuts bottom end + a bottom-heavy boogie=mud.

[riffdaddy]

Every sound I use has a midrange hump. That's just the sound I go for. The OD pedals only serve to give me multiple gain levels to work with (I can deal with two or three, but five or six is better). Having an OD pedal that is voiced significantly differently than the dirt on your amp will primarily serve to prevent you from achieving a unified sound. That can be good or bad, depending on what you're trying to accomplish.

 

 

Oh, hell. I tried to answer your question. That's probably more confusing than it is helpful. Sorry.