Drive from an amp or pedals?

shaunm

I was just wondering who uses their amp to get drive tones and who uses pedals to achieve this? 

I seem to be using only my amps clean channel now im happy with the pedals I have and when I'm playing at pretty much most venues I don't put my amp up that loud that it really breaks up. 

Someone posted one of the Victory heads on here the other day which seems to be aimed at guitarists who play the way I do. 

i should imagine that the hard rock and metal guitarists among us use the drive a lot but for people playing classic rock, blues etc  I find it much easier to use one channel as I can set my pedals so that they work well. I found that what works on the clean doesn't really work on the drive without tweaking and I can't be bothered doing that mid song.

Si_

I've always used amp drive, Iv'e never found a pedal that sounds as good as property driven amp.

failed_astronaut

A little from column A and a little from Column B depending on the situation. I was always a clean amp, drive from pedals guy but I'm a fairly recent convert to amp drive and boosting accordingly but I really like it, and it's an approach that lends itself to needing less pedals to kick around.

One day I harbour ambitions of playing in a band where all I need is a Les Paul and a JCM 800 ala Rocket from the Crypt.

Beexter

I've always played my amps clean and used pedals for drive tones. For the most part, I've used solid state amps 'cos they are suited to clean sounds but also now own a 50w valve amp. I found I needed the 50w to get the cleans loud enough - tried some smaller wattage stuff but they just got dirty too quick at gigging volume. In terms of tone, one of my absolute favourite players is David Gilmour and this is the approach he takes - amps clean, pedals for dirt (and all sorts of other stuff too!)

I find I can get a much greater variety of tones with pedals and at the volumes I want - it's often easier, cheaper and more convenient to swap pedals around than it is to do the same with amps. Having said that, I only play covers in the band I play with so I'm generally looking to "emulate" quite a variety of tones. If I was doing original stuff, an amp might help me get "my" sound.

Handsome_Chris

Before I went all AF2 I'd use both amp and pedal drive. I'm currently using the digital equivalent.

shaunm

Beexter said:

I've always played my amps clean and used pedals for drive tones. For the most part, I've used solid state amps 'cos they are suited to clean sounds but also now own a 50w valve amp. I found I needed the 50w to get the cleans loud enough - tried some smaller wattage stuff but they just got dirty too quick at gigging volume. In terms of tone, one of my absolute favourite players is David Gilmour and this is the approach he takes - amps clean, pedals for dirt (and all sorts of other stuff too!)

I find I can get a much greater variety of tones with pedals and at the volumes I want - it's often easier, cheaper and more convenient to swap pedals around than it is to do the same with amps. Having said that, I only play covers in the band I play with so I'm generally looking to "emulate" quite a variety of tones. If I was doing original stuff, an amp might help me get "my" sound.

Do solid state amps take pedals well? I was watching the adertons blues cube video last night and that seems to. I must say that as a gigging amp for covers and gigs that are a distance away I was thinking that I've got to try one out as it should be reliable and I'd use the drive from pedals.

digitalscream

Amps all the way. I've got a bit of a fetish for Soldano-style drive sounds, and I haven't found anything that can really get there without vast amounts of compromise...so I bought the real thing.

Closest I've found to a viable high-gain drive pedal was the Bogner Red, but I find it hard to justify having that much invested in a pedal when it still doesn't sound quite as good as my Jet City amps, and you still need a good valve amp behind you to let it work its magic anyway.

MattFGBI

Horses for courses. 

For covers I tend to use a clean amp with various pedals to try and get the most appropriate sounds. 

For my originals band (metal / modern rock) it's amp distortion all the way, usually from an Engl..... 

samzadgan

depends on the type of music.

 

for my style...i use clean amp with fuzz or fuzzy distortion pedals.

Solid state amps are good with pedals...when I say solid state i mean analogue solid state amps, the digital ones that do modelling not so good with pedals in my opinion.

Also, on solid state amps...some of the bass solid state amps sound amazing with pedals.

karltone

Si_ said:

I've always used amp drive, Iv'e never found a pedal that sounds as good as property driven amp.

+1

ICBM

Both.

Clean to crunch from the amp, crunch to lead from pedals. I also like heavy distortion and fuzz pedals into clean amps.

Blueingreen

I used to be strictly an overdriven amp guy but I'm more and more coming round to clean amp plus pedals, partly because it seems increasingly likely that I will end up in situations where I'm not using my own amp. Rehearsal spaces used to be schools, warehouses, country cottages where the only available gear was a ropey pa, if that.  Now it's rehearsal studios where amps are provided.  It's also gotten much more common for venues to provide back line, in some cases insisting you use theirs rather than bring your own.  It's become less about your favourite amp with "your' sound and more about getting the sounds you need from your pedals and whatever is provided.

Teetonetal

I never use the "drive" channel of an amp, to me they always sound artificial and fizzy. I like to use a low watt amp and turn the clean channel up so that the amp break's up naturally, then I use OD pedal (either Soulfood or Tone Burst) to thinken it and drive it harder.

Never been a fan of pure pedal distortion, always sounds goodat low volume, but boxey and fake at gig levels... imo

ThePrettyDamned

Both - if anyone can show me an amp that sounds like a boss df-2, let me know!

Beexter

shaunm said:

Do solid state amps take pedals well? I was watching the adertons blues cube video last night and that seems to. I must say that as a gigging amp for covers and gigs that are a distance away I was thinking that I've got to try one out as it should be reliable and I'd use the drive from pedals.

I've had success with the Roland Cubes and the Tech 21 Trademark 60...

Danny1969

For single note riff and solo  work both pedals and amp dirt sound fine. I haven't heard a pedal that handles chords as well as an overdriven valve amp though. Play a major third on top of the root and fifth on most pedals and it's not a pretty sound. Play the same thing on a Marshall plexi or Soldano though and it's great. 

I actually want a pedal to be able to do the major third thing but there's certain nasties that get filtered out by valve circuitry that don't on silicon .... so for my ears valve amp distortion for chords and cover band numbers works best, especially if your the only guitarist and need to play more than one part at a time with dirt.  

Try playing some major or minor sevenths chords on a typical pedal and your see what I mean

Dave_Mc

Depends on what tone I'm after and what amp I'm using. I can do either. If push comes to shove, though, for the main stuff I play, amp drive boosted with an OD pedal.

markslade07

I'm using a HRDlx. I use pedals!

ThePrettyDamned

Danny1969;446806" said:

For single note riff and solo  work both pedals and amp dirt sound fine. I haven't heard a pedal that handles chords as well as an overdriven valve amp though. Play a major third on top of the root and fifth on most pedals and it's not a pretty sound. Play the same thing on a Marshall plexi or Soldano though and it's great. 

I actually want a pedal to be able to do the major third thing but there's certain nasties that get filtered out by valve circuitry that don't on silicon .... so for my ears valve amp distortion for chords and cover band numbers works best, especially if your the only guitarist and need to play more than one part at a time with dirt.  

Try playing some major or minor sevenths chords on a typical pedal and your see what I mean

I think there is some truth in this.

The boss ds-1x, dyna drive and od1x are exceptions for sure. They're clearer than any valve amp I've heard, almost like the clarity you hear with bands that record tech metal with an axe FX.

It's almost unnatural, actually, but very pleasing to my ears at least.

Bucket

Both.

I generally like having as many different sounds available to me as possible.

Voxman

Like many others here a mixture depending on style of music.  For covers, clean plus pedals - for out and out rock/blues I'll also use straight amp distortion.