I've been playing more of my Telecaster recently and have grown more fond of the classic "both pick-ups on" tone.
However I've noticed that most of my Drive pedals completely trash the fundamental "chirpy" nature of this tone.
Only one of my pedals (Joyo Sweet Baby) makes a good fist of keeping it in tact. All of the others (Kalamazoo, Zen Drive, ReezaFratZitz) appear to "add" too much Lower Mids into the mix which upsets the balance.
The Joyo Sweet Baby rolls off quite a lot of low end so I'm guessing that's why it sounds pretty good with the classic Tele tone.
However, to my ears - the Joyo rolls off too much lower end and can make things overly bright as a result.
Which other drive pedals preserve the Tele tone without loosing too much low end.........or am I going about it the wrong way?
Comments
I've not tried them with a Tele (Me and Tele's don't get on) but have a try of the MXR range, all retain the tones which go into them, yet retain their own sound.
The Distortion+ tightens the low, and adds a sparkle to the top (For example)
Ringleader of the Cambridge cartel, pedal champ and king of the dirt boxes (down to 21)
My Kalamazoo does not roll off bass , neither does it "add mids" - the pedals EQ does not contain the required components to selectively boost Mids - you'd need a 3 band EQ for that or similar.
When using the Kakamazoo with Bridge Pickup - I don't get the same effect - it sounds like a Telecaster, but dirty. The Bridge / Neck combo however is completely different.
I get the same effect with the drive channel of my amp ( Dumble clone) - leaving the EQ where it is, Bridge sounds good but Bridge / Neck sounds wrong....played clean with same EQ the Bridge / Neck combo is fine. This amps "drive" is pretty much full range as well...no bass roll off. This leads me to think that the issue is related to allowing too much low end through.....in that respect a "Transparent Pedal" does not appear to be the way forward....there again that's just based on my interpretation of what a Transparent pedal is.
I should add that my main amp is not the Dumble clone - it's a basic Fender derived combo - 6l6 based , pretty clean and bright sounding.
Additionally I would also recommend you SERIOUSLY check out the Emma Stinkbug as it born for Telecasters. It is jaw droppingly good and not bad value either.
I didn't notice the sweet baby to roll off much bass? i actually use mine with bass now since it sounds really good on bass (and normally pedals which cut bass don't). Maybe mine's dodgy )