Out of interest, what order do you guys arrange your gain pedals (for those still not seduced by multi fx!)?
I'm thinking in terms of all types of drives and gain pedals including: fuzz, clean boosts, klones, transparent drives, low, medium, high gain overdrives, distortions etc.
Currently on my covers band gig board I have a few for versatility and chain them this way:
klone -> low gain transparent overdrive -> medium gain overdrive -> distortion -> clean boost
I always tend to have one of the drives on at any one time then use the klone for solo mids boosting. The final clean boost is there just to quickly adjust my level in the mix if the need arises, but am wondering how you guys arrange your gain pedal chains, especially if you are into pedal stacking.
Comments
- fuzz (Fuzz Head) -> light to medium gain (KoT)
or
- mid push (Boss MS-3 TS or Mid Booster) -> low to mid gain (KoT)
My KoT is set for overdrive in both channels. The first one is a med gain setting (usually for rock rhythm) and the second channel is set as a slightly dirt boost.
Tubescreamer into BB Preamp which eventually goes into the drive channels on my amps.
It sounds HUGE!
My amp has made all my other drive pedals redundant.
I don’t use clean boosts or use one pedal to push another (or the amp) harder, all are set for stand-alone use into a final clean or light crunch amp sound.
"Take these three items, some WD-40, a vise grip, and a roll of duct tape. Any man worth his salt can fix almost any problem with this stuff alone." - Walt Kowalski
"Only two things are infinite - the universe, and human stupidity. And I'm not sure about the universe." - Albert Einstein
Boss SD-1 -> TS-808 drive set to around 9 to 10 o'clock on both -> Carl Martin DC drive (if I need a little extra drive or boost), again drive level around 9 to 10 o'clock with the boost level set according to circumstances eg room size, crowd size, amp used and general band level.
A fairly simple setup that is easy to tweak for a wide variety of tones and still responds well to your guitar controls. I think the key is in not having the drive levels high (YMMV).
Well, the blue light was my baby, and the red light was my mind.”
Robert Johnson
Paul Cochrane Tim overdrive ->
Source Audio eq (set mainly as a flat clean boost)
Seems to do all I need for my covers band pedalboard.
Octafuzz into CTC Starlight gives massive fuzz filth.
(all of these are DIY clones with some tiny tweaks, but are basically stock)
Zendrive -> Skreddy Lunar Module -> BJFE/Bearfoot Honey Bee
I sometimes swap the order of the Lunar Module and the Honey Bee. I never use all three at once, but the Zendrive pushes either the Lunar Module or the Honey Bee _really_ nicely.
The Lunar Module boosted a bit but with the volume on the guitar pulled back a tad is just a great cutting but not harsh sound. Can get nice “Cause we ended as lovers” or Gilmour tones.
Like this, the pedals can work individually as different flavours and go from low to med to higher gain but I can also stack them and use all 3 at the same time.
Stacking by EQ has always made far more sense to me than stacking by gain. For example if you put a Big Muff in front of a Tube Screamer it sounds like a bloated, farty mess because the TS can't handle the huge bass of the Muff. The other way round works brilliantly - nothing to do with the Big Muff having more gain, it's all to do with the EQ.
But you can do it whatever way you want, with 'rules' or with no rules, and if it sounds good to you then it is good.
"Take these three items, some WD-40, a vise grip, and a roll of duct tape. Any man worth his salt can fix almost any problem with this stuff alone." - Walt Kowalski
"Only two things are infinite - the universe, and human stupidity. And I'm not sure about the universe." - Albert Einstein
boost into gain = more gain
boost after gain = more volume
Everything else is shades of the above depending on levels and settings.