Early Break-up...

[TheRecordFable]

Do you prefer early break up on the clean channel or more headroom?

I have owned many amps over the years like: Peavey 5150, Fender Super Sonic, Trace Elliott Bonneville, and various others.

I now own and use an American Fender Hot rod DeVille 212 mainly in the studio.

I like it because you can easily bias the amp with a flat head...http://studentweb.eku.edu/justin_holton/bias.html#letsdoit

I'm only curious to see how others use breakup to their advantage or if you use drive pedals like the Fulltone Full-drive to achieve said breakup.

Eric Clapton said he only used the breakup of the amps during the Cream days which I find interesting.

[Rude Dog]

I use one channel amps & use volume and tone knobs on my gits to go from clean to mean, no pedals.

 

I have different wattage amps for different applications, and swap tubes as well to get the breakup and headroom where I want it at an appropriate volume.

[TheRecordFable]

I use one channel amps & use volume and tone knobs on my gits to go from clean to mean, no pedals.

 

I have different wattage amps for different applications, and swap tubes as well to get the breakup and headroom where I want it at an appropriate volume.

 

 

It's tricky sometimes I do use my volume pedal to me it's easier.

When strumming chords I like less break up to achieve nice rhythm sounds.

I recently watched Jeff Beck Live and he uses the volume knob extensively and it's really cool.

[Mills]

I definitely prefer even my clean sounds to have just a hint of breakup on top. Sometimes it's really cool to get the perfectly clean sound but, for most of what I do, a little bit of distortion is great. Touch sensitive amps are my favorites too as in, pick soft and it's perfectly clean, dig in and it starts to distort. I'm starting to move away from pedals to a much more raw kind of sound to try and use less of the sonic space.

 

-Nate

[tulk1]

I definitely prefer even my clean sounds to have just a hint of breakup on top. Sometimes it's really cool to get the perfectly clean sound but, for most of what I do, a little bit of distortion is great. Touch sensitive amps are my favorites too as in, pick soft and it's perfectly clean, dig in and it starts to distort. I'm starting to move away from pedals to a much more raw kind of sound to try and use less of the sonic space.

 

-Nate

 

Nate, I'm with you on the amp sound. I want just a bit of hair there on it's own. Sort of a feeling or hint at power. However, I like and use pedals ... most of the time. Aside from the amp being not quite clean I have one pedal for that crunch, another for that boostiere and another for out and out OD leads. That way the amp stays set and I just taylor the sound from there. And honestly, I rarely use the vol control. It's just how I've developed. If I want softer I play softer. That what a responsive amp is for.

[TheRecordFable]

I'm picking up a fender Prosonic tomorrow should be interesting,

it's the 210 combo version. I owned a Super-Sonic and hated the cleans.

I've heard good things about the Prosonic I hope they are true

[Steiner]

I'm picking up a fender Prosonic tomorrow should be interesting,

it's the 210 combo version. I owned a Super-Sonic and hated the cleans.

I've heard good things about the Prosonic I hope they are true

 

I have a few single channel amps but two are the type you mention. Where one can get into the heavy picking and really change the dynamics. They're fun but I haven't invested the time necessary to master the feel. Looks like tonight is going to be one of those learning evenings!

 

I had a Supersonic and Loved the cleans! The Bassman channel did do it well, It was quite friendly with the hollowbodies. The only reason I got rid of it was because it was redundant. Something tells me I should have sold the others and kept it. My hindsight really is clairvoyant

[Mills]

Nate, I'm with you on the amp sound. I want just a bit of hair there on it's own. Sort of a feeling or hint at power. However, I like and use pedals ... most of the time. Aside from the amp being not quite clean I have one pedal for that crunch, another for that boostiere and another for out and out OD leads. That way the amp stays set and I just taylor the sound from there. And honestly, I rarely use the vol control. It's just how I've developed. If I want softer I play softer. That what a responsive amp is for.

 

Oh I hear you on the pedals! This minimalization is a very recent trend for me and I'm kind of excited to see where it takes me sound wise. I am one of those guys who likes to mix up his pedal board quite often trying different combinations of effects in different orders. Give me six months and I'll have the full rig up again. A nice switcher box might be in my future.

 

A lot of what I play is U2 esque so I end up using one Boss delay (I'm experimenting with using two just to see) and I use a Fulltone OCD for a little bit of Marshall crunch that the AC30 doesn't provide. I just had a lot of trouble with my pedals sucking all of my tone. I want to give a Memory Man a shot because I've heard such good things about them. More money out the door though!

 

-Nate

[TheRecordFable]

I use the Stereo Electric Mistress in front of my Full Drive 2 and use the Mistress for the filter matrix configuration, it fattens up the drive.

It sounds strange but It's unique to my ears.

[barrymclark]

For higher gain (rock and metal) I want earlier breakup. Why I go with 50w amps.

 

For clean, really depends on what I am doing but generally I want as clean as I can get it. So... I take the AC50CP2 and use the pre-gain as a channel volume. NOT SUPER SUPER CLEAN.... but does the trick.

[Kuz]

Nate, I'm with you on the amp sound. I want just a bit of hair there on it's own. Sort of a feeling or hint at power. However, I like and use pedals ... most of the time. Aside from the amp being not quite clean I have one pedal for that crunch, another for that boostiere and another for out and out OD leads. That way the amp stays set and I just taylor the sound from there. And honestly, I rarely use the vol control. It's just how I've developed. If I want softer I play softer. That what a responsive amp is for.

 

Yep, pedals to tighten up the natural tone of the amp. To date I have yet to find an amp (and believe me I have enough amps) cranked that sounds better than a little pedal augmentation to round out the tone.

 

And despite what you have heard, all most every guitarist from SRV to Robben Ford to Larry Carlton to Gary Moore to David Gilmore...... use some OD &/or boost pedals with their amps running hot.

[totonka]

I took this shot of Jim Dalton's (from Roger Clyne & The Peacemakers) foot switches. Hopefully ya'll can enlighten me as to what he has going on here. I've figured out the tequila and tuner...still a NooB learning this stuff.

 

 

 

[tulk1]

[totonka]

 

Good Lord, man. You're a riot! I should have mentioned that I figured out the power strip and set list too.

[smurph1]

I really like a pristine, almost jangly clean tone with lots of headroom and sustain..I actually like a three sound set up..Super-clean, a bit of hair, and paint-peeling tube overdrive..You can cover a lot of sonic acreage that way..

[iim7v7im7]

Yep, pedals to tighten up the natural tone of the amp. To date I have yet to find an amp (and believe me I have enough amps) cranked that sounds better than a little pedal augmentation to round out the tone.

 

And despite what you have heard, all most every guitarist from SRV to Robben Ford to Larry Carlton to Gary Moore to David Gilmore...... use some OD &/or boost pedals with their amps running hot.

 

Hi,

 

Larry uses no OD pedal in front of his amp. He uses his guitar with varying pick attack, a modified show bud volume pedal (modded not to loose high frequencies) and a Dumble Overdrive Speacial amplifier. Even on Larry's really old steely dan stuff it was just a 335 into 5E3 Deluxe. Robben Ford does not as well when using his Dumble. When he is touring and using a rented Fender Twin or Super, he uses a Zendrive OD pedal to try to capture the sound of his Dumble. SRV did as you state use OD pedals such as tubescreamers.

 

Have you tried any attenuators? I have found it to be a good alternative. I have one that does not mess with the sound and allows me to turn my amp up to its sweet spot, without being too loud. I like some OD pedals like yourself in front of my amp and I own way too many. With Fender blackface circuits, they naturally scoop the mids a bit so a TS mid its mid-range hump is a sound that many folks enjoy together with these. Perhaps that is what you mean by "tightening"? What amp and pedals are you using?

 

My $.02

 

 

Bob

[Rude Dog]

Different strokes for different folks; yep lots a big time players use pedals... and lots of them also use the volume and tone controls on their guitars - SRV, Robben Ford, D Gilmour, Gary Moore, Jimmy Page, Rory Gallagher, the list goes on and on.

 

I think pedals can be great to tweak your tone in a wide variety of rooms to get what you want... overcome acoustics that aren't the best, gives a bunch of flexibility.

[rjsanders]

gotta have clean headroom here. will use a pedal for low-vol breakup, if necessary