Amp dirt or Pedals

monquixote

shaunm said:

An amp works so long as it’s the right amp for the venue. So for a pub a JCM800 is likely not to be right on it’s own and pedals will be a great addition. 

If youre playing a gig where you can get a bit of volume then amp drive does work. 

Then the tool aspect comes into it. In a covers band I’d have thought pedals would be better as you’d have more tonal versatility. Function work, forget amp crunch and use a helix. 

Tool for the job and venue.

I like amp crunch and a fuzzface

Total myth that you need a Helix / axe with loads of patches for a function band.

No one cares about nailing tones. Best function band I saw rig was standard strat, HRD, ts, rat dd3. Every song sounded awesome crowd loved

Complex rigs are for you not the punters.

hotpickups

monquixote said:

shaunm said:

An amp works so long as it’s the right amp for the venue. So for a pub a JCM800 is likely not to be right on it’s own and pedals will be a great addition. 

If youre playing a gig where you can get a bit of volume then amp drive does work. 

Then the tool aspect comes into it. In a covers band I’d have thought pedals would be better as you’d have more tonal versatility. Function work, forget amp crunch and use a helix. 

Tool for the job and venue.

I like amp crunch and a fuzzface

Total myth that you need a Helix / axe with loads of patches for a function band.

No one cares about nailing tones. Best function band I saw rig was standard strat, HRD, ts, rat dd3. Every song sounded awesome crowd loved

Complex rigs are for you not the punters.

Totally agree. Although we do need an excuse to continuously buy kit sometimes lol

Keefy

monquixote said:

shaunm said:

An amp works so long as it’s the right amp for the venue. So for a pub a JCM800 is likely not to be right on it’s own and pedals will be a great addition. 

If youre playing a gig where you can get a bit of volume then amp drive does work. 

Then the tool aspect comes into it. In a covers band I’d have thought pedals would be better as you’d have more tonal versatility. Function work, forget amp crunch and use a helix. 

Tool for the job and venue.

I like amp crunch and a fuzzface

Total myth that you need a Helix / axe with loads of patches for a function band.

No one cares about nailing tones. Best function band I saw rig was standard strat, HRD, ts, rat dd3. Every song sounded awesome crowd loved

Complex rigs are for you not the punters.

I did a rock/pop covers gig with

• Les Paul
• Fuzz Face clone (always on)
• Amp

Sounded great all night.

Then again, a board full of pedals can be so much fun!

TTBZ

Agree, my old cover band setup was guitar - wah - amp - EQ lead boost (FX loop). Adjusted level of gain to suit the song with the guitar volume. Always sounded good and never had any complaints that I didn't quite nail that specific tone on any song. Never had to faff with anything - the other guitarist who used pedals was always mucking about with his settings.

monquixote

I was looking through old photos the other day and from the photos I had taken for the pedalboard thread I watched my gig board go through many iterations from wah, 2 drives and delay to wah, octaver, 4 drives, 2 modulations, midi programmable delay, reverb and pedal switcher with the net effect that I spent all my time fucking about tap dancing and trouble shooting with no appreciable benefit to the audience.

normula1

As much as I love amp distortion, I'm finding more and more that pedals seem to sound better. The best amp drive tone I have at the minute is the clean channel on my Mesa Studio 22+ with a boost in front of it. I run a '73 4 input Marshall into a load box as a huge pseudo drive "pedal" and even that sounds way better with drive lower than you'd think. Wide open just sounds overly compressed.

Barney

Maybe I'm old fashioned or not found the right pedal yet ..but it's amp drive for me ...it's just seems to fatten up and sustain like a pedal dosnt seem to do .. probably for low volume a pedal would be better but when I play live  I need enough volume to hear past the drums ...it's maybe I need to try pedal more but the ones I have none seem to do it the same as an amp

hotpickups

Barney said:

Maybe I'm old fashioned or not found the right pedal yet ..but it's amp drive for me ...it's just seems to fatten up and sustain like a pedal dosnt seem to do .. probably for low volume a pedal would be better but when I play live  I need enough volume to hear past the drums ...it's maybe I need to try pedal more but the ones I have none seem to do it the same as an amp

Well with you owning an RDA amp then the drive will sound great. I just saw the pitfalls of my rig which I program using a switcher that it will only work with that amp when I gig. At least with pedals I can just take a board and guitar with me for a gig if there is a back line there already. I’ve been used to amp dirt for some time though but it just isn’t working practically for me at the moment . I’ll no doubt will be returning to amp dirt again someday knowing me

Barney

hotpickups said:

Barney said:

Maybe I'm old fashioned or not found the right pedal yet ..but it's amp drive for me ...it's just seems to fatten up and sustain like a pedal dosnt seem to do .. probably for low volume a pedal would be better but when I play live  I need enough volume to hear past the drums ...it's maybe I need to try pedal more but the ones I have none seem to do it the same as an amp

Well with you owning an RDA amp then the drive will sound great. I just saw the pitfalls of my rig which I program using a switcher that it will only work with that amp when I gig. At least with pedals I can just take a board and guitar with me for a gig if there is a back line there already. I’ve been used to amp dirt for some time though but it just isn’t working practically for me at the moment . I’ll no doubt will be returning to amp dirt again someday knowing me

I was thinking the same thing as you for when backline was supplied it would be great just to turn up with A few pedals ...I ended up getting the t rex soulmate and while I could get away with it for that type of thing it dosnt really compare to the amp

ICBM

That’s why I liked the V-Twin for going into provided backline - it has a very amp-like response. I don’t know whether it’s purely to do with having valves in, or whether other similar pedals would work as well.

Keefy

ICBM said:

That’s why I liked the V-Twin for going into provided backline - it has a very amp-like response. I don’t know whether it’s purely to do with having valves in, or whether other similar pedals would work as well.

This is what the Revival Drive is designed for. Not a cheap solution mind...

hotpickups

Keefy said:

ICBM said:

That’s why I liked the V-Twin for going into provided backline - it has a very amp-like response. I don’t know whether it’s purely to do with having valves in, or whether other similar pedals would work as well.

This is what the Revival Drive is designed for. Not a cheap solution mind...

Yes that has spring to mind but as you say not a cheap option lol

Grumpyrocker

I was always about the amp. A channel for each of the sounds I want.

But in recent times I feel I'm going to the other side. I don't crave a massive multi-channel high gain amp anymore. I like the idea of a bit of amp dirt plus pedals.

ragingben

monquixote said:

Yeah I did all that then one of the cables in my loom failed and we were late starting the set  while I fucked about. After that 1 cable and two drive pedals seemed much more appealing.

Same thing with bloody pedal switchers. Great until they fail at a gig then you are shafted.

Couldn't agree more, same story here. In the end I found it really stressful. Tried gigging with a kemper and I found that a bit stessy too, so in the end reverted to my back up amp which is a small 5w Blackheart Little Giant and a simple board, the only pedal I *need* is a Amptweaker Tight Drive Pro which covers all my gain needs, bypassed for cleanish sounds. There are other pedals on there but all of them are for adding a bit of colour only. Happiest I've ever been and means if there's a backline there's no stress at all as everything is on the board. If patch cables go, just rip the Tight Drive off the board, bung a 9v in a rock on! After being through channel switchers, loop switchers, digital options at different price points, big boards, small boards, midi switched boards, fx loops etc I've just accepted the fact I'm happier with a single channel amp set cleanish and a good drive pedal.

57Deluxe

I use this analogy:

poor AM signal @ 20w
or
FM signal @ 5w

Modulus_Amps

For home office use I almost never use my drive pedals, sometimes a fuzz as you don't really get that sound with an amp.

For live then two channel amp with a boost drive pedal is still my preferred way to go, or a single channel amp with two mild drive pedals is very effective too.

There is no wrong or right way to do this

shaunm

monquixote said:

shaunm said:

An amp works so long as it’s the right amp for the venue. So for a pub a JCM800 is likely not to be right on it’s own and pedals will be a great addition. 

If youre playing a gig where you can get a bit of volume then amp drive does work. 

Then the tool aspect comes into it. In a covers band I’d have thought pedals would be better as you’d have more tonal versatility. Function work, forget amp crunch and use a helix. 

Tool for the job and venue.

I like amp crunch and a fuzzface

Total myth that you need a Helix / axe with loads of patches for a function band.

No one cares about nailing tones. Best function band I saw rig was standard strat, HRD, ts, rat dd3. Every song sounded awesome crowd loved

Complex rigs are for you not the punters.

That’s my point re function bands. Use a Helix as nobody cares about tones anyhow. 

ESBlonde

I can relate to @monquixote and his pedal board experience. At present I'm in 3 bands and depping others, so my board 'needs' to be flexible (read heavey and unweildy). So I have Wah, 3 drives, Chorus, flange, tuner, Tremelo, Delay, Aural Exciter and Comp/gate. The radio receiver goes direct in and a single cable comes out to the clean amp. I use this mainly as a set and forget. All favourite knob settings are marked with bright tape so ensuring a consistent start is easy. Playing just uses a combination of pedals on or off, I have mastered the tap dance routine.

I'm very particular about but happy with my sound at present, nothing new for several years. It all fits in a custom tray with a lift off lid, just pull out the mains cable and the lead to the amp, connect in the receiver, check by eye the standard settings and you're off. But the weight and size is starting to bother me now I'm 60, so I might have to compromise. If I make that jump it will be to a helix FX, but then you need a Wah and end up with a board again!

Dopesick

Clean amp and pedals always from now on. Well...until I can find an Ampeg VH140C anywhere.

gearaddict

I'd like to go clean amp & pedals - I was always jealous of the other guitarist in our band who would just turn up at a gig, plug his pedalboard into the front of his Fender HRD and be good to go in 5 mins...I spent half an hour messing about with cables setting up 4CM, setting channel levels etc.

I struggle with a couple of things though - firstly, I have an amp with a filthy dirt channel that I really like to use. It also has a pristine clean channel that would make a good pedal platform but it seems a shame not to use the dirt channel. Secondly, I struggle with getting a clean boost for solos, unless I have a boost in the loop...in which case I may as well set up 4CM anyway.

I suppose I could run all my pedals into the clean channel, with a boost at the end...and just keep the dirt channel for boosted leads...but then my delay would be in front of the amp and not in the loop. Although, recently I've heard some really cool sounds from having the delay before the dirt rather than after...I might experiment with that setup...