Overdrive/treble boost question

kswilson89

This may sound like a stupid question but help a technically inept layman out here... What's the difference between a treble booster and an overdrive with the gain turned down to 0 and the tone control set on a treble setting?

GazMoz

Treble boosters tend to cut low frequencies and boost the high ones. They're designed to push an already driving amp. If you plug one into a clean amp, I've done it, they sound garbage.
Overdrive pedals are much more friendly to both clean and dirty amp's.
As to the electronics/science why? I'm not sure. 

siraxeman

Pretty much what he said ^^ and I guess why treble boosters are pretty rare these days - and OD's are very popular. That said, Brian May using an OD pedal into his AC30s wouldn't get the same sound! They are different and need a cooking amp that isn't bright.....like old Marshalls and the normal channel of AC30's (espesh the older ones) as these amps were dark voiced....I know one time when I used to own an AC30TBX with my PRS Custom plugged straight into the normal channel it was so dark it was a jazz tone! That'd be practically useless to most folks outside of Jazz. The brilliant channel is what made Vox a legend...the normal channel is so dark that without a TB its not that good. With one and cranked its a thing of beauty though! Anyone chasing a Brian May tone really needs to use a TB to get there as its a big part of that sound, as it was for Rory G when he was using AC30s...and from where Brian got the initial idea.

Cabicular

kswilson89 said:

This may sound like a stupid question but help a technically inept layman out here... What's the difference between a treble booster and an overdrive with the gain turned down to 0 and the tone control set on a treble setting?

Functionally nothing 

TheMarlin

GazMoz said:

Treble boosters tend to cut low frequencies and boost the high ones. They're designed to push an already driving amp. If you plug one into a clean amp, I've done it, they sound garbage.
Overdrive pedals are much more friendly to both clean and dirty amp's.
As to the electronics/science why? I'm not sure. 

Agreed.  They also sound better before overdrive than after.  Whilst a very different sound, the Big Muff is similar, in that it sounds crap into a clean amp, but makes a cooking amp sound most excellent.

siraxeman

Cabicular said:

kswilson89 said:

This may sound like a stupid question but help a technically inept layman out here... What's the difference between a treble booster and an overdrive with the gain turned down to 0 and the tone control set on a treble setting?

Functionally nothing 

..only if you do it you wont get the same sonic result at all. Funny old world eh?

Cabicular

siraxeman said:

Cabicular said:

kswilson89 said:

This may sound like a stupid question but help a technically inept layman out here... What's the difference between a treble booster and an overdrive with the gain turned down to 0 and the tone control set on a treble setting?

Functionally nothing 

..only if you do it you wont get the same sonic result at all. Funny old world eh?

I don’t agree tbh
but just my experience
i have a Flynn Oc 44 that I like to stick in front of a higher gain amp like the Friedman PT20 or my Budda
I didn’t have it handy one day so I used a tubescreamer mini with a lot of level and the tone up high
if there was a difference it wasn’t noticable
I guess that’s just my use case YMMV etc but I would be happy with either

maltingsaudio

I think it depends on the amp itself, an overdrive pedal will impart it’s sound on any given amp, a treble boost will effectively amplify the amps own tone. IMHO on a good amplifier an eq pedal with an adjustable output level is the ultimate

Sassafras

I've got quite a few treble boosters and they all have different gain structures and textures. Some are spiky and aggressive, some are smoother.
Bit like overdrives really.