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.
Comments
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.
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.
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.....
contactemea@fender.com
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.
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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
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.