Drive from an amp or pedals?

shaunm

Last night I tried to play without using any drive pedals, cranking the amp and using the guitars volume to negotiate drive and clean. I was actually really pleased with the results and because of that I seem to like my amp that I couldn't get on with before a lot.

For covers band use I don't think this set up will work because it doesn't have the versatility needed so I will still use pedals.

That being said when I find one at a decent price I will be buying an ABY pedal to use both of my amps and hopefully this will get me various drive tones without having to use pedals. That being said, I love the sound of my AC Boost so I undoubtedly will still use that.

Kebabkid

Pedals into a clean channel for me. I have various gain pedals that deliver from low to high gain - Catalinbread 5FS, Keeley TS808, Fulltone OCD and Wampler Pinnacle plus some boosters,the Xotic EP and the Catalinbread Serrano Picoso. They seem to work very well and give a consistent sound through Fender type clean channels or good SS amps, like a JC120.

I recently put my Pinnacle through a hired Fender Twin for an 80s "cock rock" set and it gave the other guitarist using a Dual Rectifier a run for his money!

The flip side - one of the most enjoyable amp gain experiences I've ever had is plugging into a Peavey 5150!

Reverend

I've yet to hear an amp with lots of gain sound as good as a low gain amp getting a little help.

I use a jmp 2203 set to break up, pushed by something. Usually a guv, but sometimes a bad monkey, sd1 or similar.

StefB

Nerine said:

Funnily enough, the amp in my avatar.
CAA OD50 CL+

I have the option of one of these at a very good price - would you recommend it @Nerine?

Nerine

StefB;470930" said:

Nerine said:

Funnily enough, the amp in my avatar. CAA OD50 CL+ I have the option of one of these at a very good price - would you recommend it @Nerine?

Well, bar a Friedman, as I have yet to try one, it's the best hot-rodded Marshall type tone I've come across.
It has the character and clarity, albeit a little darker, of my JCM800, yet has more gain, more low end etc.

It's definitely one of the best, if not THE best amp I've owned. For comparison, some of my previous amps are/were; Shiva x 2, Ecstasy 101B, Goldfinger 45, Barcelona, Bassman, Einstein, Mark V, Dual Recs, 1987's, JTM's, YJM, Superdrive 80, Orange Rockers etc etc.

The clean channel, if you're into that sort of thing is also stunning.
It's based around a fender circuit if I'm not mistaken, but you can also coax tweedy breakup sounds from it if you engage the onboard boost and goose the front with a TS or similar.

The fx loop is great. Nothing else to say about that.
The footswitch is useful; channel and boost switches and runs off regular (TRS) jacks which is nice.

The 50w rating is ideal on this particular model. They do seem to be a loud amp. I've never been left wanting whenever I've used it, and the volume dial has always looked a little conservative considering where I have had to set it on some larger wattage amps to get roughly the same levels.

I bought mine new and didn't try it out.

I think Suhr gear in general you can just do that. They make some amazing pieces. My Modern Antique is an absolute beast of a guitar. Sounds and plays phenomenal from new. One of the only guitars I've had the confidence to order sight unseen. Wasn't disappointed in the slightest.

But yeah, I'd be interested to see how the SE+ sounds in comparison, but for what I do and generally play, the CL+ is much more up my strada.

I honestly can never see myself parting with it.

The only thing I will say, actually. Make sure you have a good cab to do it justice.

I'm currently running it through an Orange 2x12 or a CS Marshall 2x12. Both with V30's

I don't particularly rate either cab, but the Orange, to be fair to it, has worked well with every amp I've had. If not a little dark. Plus it's old and beat up and has GB V30's that have seen a lot of gigs, so they do sound very nice.

The plan is to get a new 2x12 in soon. Probably another Bogner OS or their more recent CB bottom.
The difference between one of those and the Orange is literally night and day.
The Marshall has more volume than the Orange, but it's also a bit thinner sounding and more directional.
I've never particularly liked it with the OD50. Hence why my Orange sees the most use with that amp. To be fair, I've never really been a massive fan of Marshall cabs in general.
I always think they sound very "papery" for a want of a better word.

Kinda like: the difference between tapping on a cheap piece of furniture and tapping on a piece made from solid oak or something.

That sound difference is kinda how I liken Marshall cabs to better ones. Or how my brain seems to want to explain it.

Anyway, waffled enough.

Get the CAA. You would not be disappointed. Anyone that says otherwise are... Well.... Yeah....

koneguitarist

For myself, it was always amp first, but over last 35 years, venues (and punters) have insisted on more and more control on volume.

To that stage I started using pedals more for distortion especially rhythm at lower volumes, for instance my old Marshall used to sound glorious wicked up to 6-7, and using guitar volume for cleaning up, but on a big stage with large PA I was having to turn it down to be able to sit in the mix, so I used the lo input and used a drive pedal for lead. Smaller pub gigs where audiance is right up to the band, you can crank the amp without pedal. 

And I echo what ICBM says regarding pedals. Some OD pedals work so much better with some amps than others. If someone can't get a good OD sound with their particular amp, they ain't tried enough pedals. There are literally thousands of pedals and sometimes it's not the most expensive pedal that will do the trick. 

firepaulmusic

I agree with koneguitarist - I've got all sorts of drive pedals but the one I have used the most recently is my Joyo AC Tone. It was only £25 and it may only last six months but it sounds great, even direct to PA.

Maynehead

Depends on the amp you have.

If I had an old single channel amp like a marshall plexi, I'd set the gain to a lowish level according to the types of songs to be played and overdrive with pedals, cleaning up with volume control.

However, if I had a nice modern multi channel amp with a beastly preamp stage, it would just be a waste to set it to clean and basically bypass all the premium valve circuitry in favour of the tone generated by a few transistors.

thisisguitar

I've tried the pedals and clean amp approach… but now I have a Fender Twin and a Cornell Plexi. Looking forward to finding out which I prefer soon enough. Got a feeling it's the latter :-)