Dirt Pedalls and their voicings

[koula901]

Hi Folks,

 

I use a Wampler SuperPlex for my high gain sound. A funny thing happened. I cranked it up, and plugged in my tele for awhile; later, I plugged in the 150 and they sounded exactly the same. It seems the Wampler has it's own voicing, and is going to impose its sound on any guitar plugged into it. That seems to negate the whole point of having different types of guitars. Do your dirt pedals do the same - kind of take over the tone, with it's own identity?

[schundog]

My guess, and it's JUST a guess, is that the higher the gain, the more likely this phenomenon is likely to happen. Played clean, a 150 and a Tele will obviously sound very different.

[koula901]

yes, maybe it's just a matter of degree???

 

or

 

maybe it's just the dirt pedal, itself, or . . . . little of both??

[GuitArtMan]

I've noticed on some higher gain amps you can toggle the pickup switch and hardly hear a difference. The amp's gain is coloring the tone so much.

[bolero]

My guess, and it's JUST a guess, is that the higher the gain, the more likely this phenomenon is likely to happen. Played clean, a 150 and a Tele will obviously sound very different.

 

Schundog speaks the truth!!

 

in my experience, at least

[DetroitBlues]

yes, maybe it's just a matter of degree???

 

or

 

maybe it's just the dirt pedal, itself, or . . . . little of both??

 

Output volume makes more of a difference from the pickups than the settings on the pedals to me.... But you're right, a lot of times I can substitute my Epi Dot for my Strat and basically it will sound the same...

[yoslate]

Hi Folks,

 

I cranked it up, and plugged in my tele for awhile; later, I plugged in the 150 and they sounded exactly the same. Do your dirt pedals do the same - kind of take over the tone, with it's own identity?

 

Kind of like 80% of the guitar/amp demos on YouTube....

[SouthpawGuy]

A couple of classic examples of pedals that have their own voicings would be a tubescreamer and the Zendrive. Both fatten up the tone considerably. The Zendrive in particular is great for low gain single note playing, haven't come across many guys that use one for rhythm playing.

[JeffB]

Hi Folks,

 

I use a Wampler SuperPlex for my high gain sound. A funny thing happened. I cranked it up, and plugged in my tele for awhile; later, I plugged in the 150 and they sounded exactly the same. It seems the Wampler has it's own voicing, and is going to impose its sound on any guitar plugged into it. That seems to negate the whole point of having different types of guitars. Do your dirt pedals do the same - kind of take over the tone, with it's own identity?

Some pedals sound choked and forced or like a foreign layer of sound sitting on top of my amp and guitar sound. Not imbedded in it.

I made up my mind to just buy lots of od's and distortion pedals and play my way through them. Youtube seemed a pointless reference as did other peoples recommendations on the web.

When one of my own vids got imbedded on a pedal manufacturers site and it wasnt their stomp I was using (I mixed the video titles up on two vids) I realised even the builders cant tell the difference between their products and some one elses on youtube.

With the money I blew on stomps I could have bought a really nice amp and guitar. Fortunately there is so much hype on the web regarding so many of these stomps that I was able to easily sell the ones I couldnt get with, so no real loss other than time. At the end of it only a couple remain and they really work for me. Strats sound like strats and a H150 sounds like an H150.

Im fortunate to be able to try most of the stomps through my own amp with the amps Im trying to emulate set up next to my own set up.

I never found a stomp that nailed the sound, response of the amp I was aiming at but along the way I found stomps that I liked better in some ways than the amp sound I was going for.

One of or part of the Marshall sounds I was going for was a mid gain JCM800 but I ended up finding a stomp that was a little different through my set up. Side by side with the JCM800 and through the same cab my set up was more what I wanted to hear than the Jcm800 next to it, and at gigs with a different JCM800 on the other side of the stage I could hear I had a fuller sound(or rather a sound I wanted to hear)

But gain can level everything as some one else has already stated.

[Trouble]

Hi Folks,

 

I use a Wampler SuperPlex for my high gain sound. A funny thing happened. I cranked it up, and plugged in my tele for awhile; later, I plugged in the 150 and they sounded exactly the same. It seems the Wampler has it's own voicing, and is going to impose its sound on any guitar plugged into it. That seems to negate the whole point of having different types of guitars. Do your dirt pedals do the same - kind of take over the tone, with it's own identity?

 

 

My guess, and it's JUST a guess, is that the higher the gain, the more likely this phenomenon is likely to happen. Played clean, a 150 and a Tele will obviously sound very different.

I think this is pretty much the answer. Like JeffB I've had the chance to play through lots of new pedals and a lot of circuits I built, most didn't actually become a pedal. What I've ended up with is three pedals that seem to work really well for everything. A Barber LTD for lowgain sparkle, aBarber Direct Drive for my main dirty lead sound (but the gain is still pretty low), and a Proco YDR Rat for my high gain.

 

I've also found some other pedlas that I prefer the sound of in some way to the ones I'm using, but they either caused problems or lost something live.

 

What I can tell you is that through the LTD or Direct Direct drive and the pedals I've used in their place at times, single coils sound like single coils and humbuckers sound like humbuckers, and I can hear the differences in each guitar. Through the Rat and other pedals I used in it's place everthing sounded the same. Their is also a point on the Direct Drive where everthing starts to sound the same although not quite as much as the other high gain pedals, and turning the gain down on the Rat will transform it into a very open and expressive pedal where each guitar has it's own charachter.

 

The way I look at it is this. You can play your guitar and amp and use a little gain to enhance it, or you can play the gain and use your guitar to control it, but at really high gain levels all you hear is the gain.

 

 

[Trouble]

Just to add, I'm not saying there is anything wrong with using high gain Koula, there are are a lot of songs I love doing with as much gain as possible and it's so fun, none of that boutique transparency crap just loud, noisy, screaching distortion, but don't go on the lookout for a "transparent" high gain pedal there isn't one.

[koula901]

Thanks everyone. Great feedback! (no pun intended).

[SouthpawGuy]

I had a Peavey Triumph valve combo, must have been in the early '90s, every guitar sounded the same through it when using the lead channel.

[smurph1]

My guess, and it's JUST a guess, is that the higher the gain, the more likely this phenomenon is likely to happen. Played clean, a 150 and a Tele will obviously sound very different.

I would tend to agree.. But I'm not a real musician, I just play one on the radio.

[SouthpawGuy]

I would tend to agree.. But I'm not a real musician, I just play one on the radio.

 

[Kuz]

I am going to bring all the pedals on the new pedal board. They all color the tone to a degree.

 

But BELIEVE the hype on the Ethos Overdrive. Very little, if any coloration, and your 150 sounds like an overdriven 150, and your Tele sounds like an overdriven Tele. Very expensive pedal, but Wow, the tone!!!! I have never heard anything like it (plus it has a clean boost channel with separate eq).

[tbonesullivan]

Well, remember that high gain has a compressing effect. Also all overdrive/distortion, whether in a pedal or an amp, has a lot of filtering involved, and other changes to the sound so that it sounds "good". The higher the gain, the less apparent differences between different guitars will be heard.

 

It's much easier to hear the guitars sound come through when you are at relatively low gain levels.

[GuitArtMan]

Well I'm a self proclaimed overdrive junky. Like JeffB I tend to buy a bunch of OD/Distortion pedals and then see how the work with my guitars, my amps, my band. Trying to go by internet demos is hit or miss. And for me, I don't want just one OD tone - I wan't a rainbow. I want a light OD with just a hint of break up. I want a nice crunchy rhythm tone and/or low gain lead tone. I want a smooth singing lead tone. I want a melt your face lead tone. I want it all! I often find pedals sound great at home, but can get lost in the mix live (FD2 comes to mind). Other pedals may sound a little harsh or grating at home, but just kill live (Bogner Ecstasy Red comes to mind). Still others may be uninspiring on their own, but when stacked with the right pedal/amp OD sound killer (BB preamp). Don't overlook stacking of OD/distortion pedals. This can lead to some killer tones that just one pedal by itself doesn't produce. I also don't believe that amp OD is always better. There are some crappy sounding amps out there and some killer sounding OD/Distortion pedals. It would be nice to be able to play my amps loud enough to where they start to break up on their own, but this often (always?) isn't the case. I need OD pedals to get me there. I tend to by amps on there clean/crunch tones and then use pedals for my higher gain stuff.

[JeffB]

the splatty sound of a single coil run through high gain feels and sounds nothing like a humbucker run through high gain.

Even a Seth Lover run through high gain doesnt sound and feel like a high output humbucker when run through high gain.

The higher output p/up tightens up the bass and smooths out the highs. Generally.

I dont think I would play a strat with s/c's the same way as a LP using the same gain setting. Im pretty sure I would play straty type stuff with the strat and LP type stuff with the LP. There would be a difference in approach and the sound.

If I couldnt hear the difference in guitars on higher gain settings I would be going to get my ears checked.

Sure gain does level things out but there is still always the point where a strat sounds like a strat and a LP sounds like a LP.......unless the strat has a humbucker in it. Then it sounds like a strat with a humbucker in it.

I

[SouthpawGuy]

Here's one to consider ... imagine Santana and his uber smooth, creamy sustaining lead tone.

 

Then imagine him playing it on a Tele

[Yooper]

 

imagine Santana... playing it on a Tele

 

 

Bet he'd still sound like Santana...but on a Tele.

[SouthpawGuy]

Bet he'd still sound like Santana...but on a Tele.

 

Or Albert Lee doing a Santana impression.