Attenuator and Non MV amps question.

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riffpowersriffpowers Frets: 344
My friend has a marshall 1959slp . He's currently running it with an od pedal in front to get a drive sound.
The huge power and headroon of that amp means he can also use a boost pedal for a solo boost.
If he gets rid of the drive pedal and uses an attenuator to get the amp's overdrive sound, will he still be able to get a solo boost on top ??
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  • peteripeteri Frets: 1283

    It will definitely change.

    Basically I'm guessing the signal chain is Drive Pedal -> Solo Boost Pedal -> Amp

    In this, if you have an amp with masses of headroom it will make it louder.

    If you change it so you have Solo Boost -> Overdriving amp.

    You'll notice a difference, basically in order to distort the amp has run out of headroom and started to compress - therefore the boost will give you more distortion and maybe a thicker sound, but less volume jump.

    That's not all bad, because maybe there's enough headroom to give the volume boost he needs - but there are other ways to skin the cat. Using a Tubescreamer as a boost for example will really push the mids which will make the guitar stand out more (often anyway) and feel like it's louder even when it's not much.


    Hope this makes sense

    Pete

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  • ICBMICBM Frets: 71963
    My friend has a marshall 1959slp . He's currently running it with an od pedal in front to get a drive sound.
    The huge power and headroon of that amp means he can also use a boost pedal for a solo boost.
    If he gets rid of the drive pedal and uses an attenuator to get the amp's overdrive sound, will he still be able to get a solo boost on top ??
    Not anywhere near as much, no. It depends on the pedal - some (eg Boss SD-1) seem to have an ability to push the volume higher even from an overdriven amp, but essentially when the power stage is overdriving heavily it's acting as a big limiter on the output.

    In my experience the best sound and dynamics comes from doing both - moderate attenuation to get the amp into the 'sweet spot' where the power stage is overdriving slightly and producing compression rather than full-on limiting, and the pedal to add gain and a bit of volume.

     A clean boost into an attenuated overdriven amp can actually make things worse sometimes, because it makes the amp try to put out too much bass which actually reduces the available power where you need it for a solo, in the mids. An SD-1/Tube Screamer-type pedal adds mids and takes away bass.

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