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Post by LT on Sept 15, 2018 16:30:21 GMT -7
For those of you that stack OD's, do you prefer lower drives into higher, or vice-versa, and why?
For years, I've been a low gain into higher gain guy, but lately I've been trying the opposite (with the amp set clean).
I know there are MANY variables here, including adding clean boosts, but what's your preference for your dirt pedals?
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Post by big ( Al Z. ) on Sept 15, 2018 21:25:08 GMT -7
Z Drive -> Speaker Cranker -> Keeley Katana. That's what I've come to decide as the best order for me using my amp (Z28) mainly as clean. My theory is the amp is "Channel 1/Clean", the Z Drive as "Channel 2/OD" and "Channel 3/OD+" and then using the Speaker Cranker to add a little more to each when needed. And then the Keeley when I just wanna be loud for leads or end of night stupidity.
Don't know if that helps but it's what I got !
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Post by BritInvasion on Sept 16, 2018 5:28:32 GMT -7
I run higher into lower , in my case the Xotic AC > Xotic RC. I used to do the opposite but when I ran them together I wasn't really happy with the sound .So even though , to me , it seemed counter-intuitive I switched them around and have been really happy with it. I think that the higher drives are really cooking the signal , and goosing them with another drive creates some gritty artifacts into the end mix. Which some people might like , I don't. Running the "cooked" signal into the lower unit seems to just boost up what's going on without adding a lot more dirt. Just my 2 cents , FWIW.
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Post by doctorice on Sept 16, 2018 6:14:50 GMT -7
Lou, I've got my board currently set up to do both. It's configured Strymon Sunset --> Cali76 --> Strymon Riverside. The Sunset is set up so the high-gain OD is running into the low-gain when both are switched on. The Riverside has both low and medium-gain options via the favorite switch. This also gives me a choice of compressor before or after OD. Very flexible.
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Post by digs57 on Sept 16, 2018 7:24:35 GMT -7
Timmy > RC boost...'what frank said"
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Post by Deleted on Sept 16, 2018 7:46:17 GMT -7
I generally keep a medium gain OD, a somewhat compressed, sustaining distortion and a boost on my board, in that order. I don't play clean a whole lot, so it's basically either the OD or distortion, then I kick in the boost as needed for solos. It works well, and it's easy to control--set it and forget it. I find that stacking drives is fun in practice but harder to control on-stage--it generally requires a fair amount of tweaking on the fly--and I like to keep things as simple as possible at a gig, since I'm bouncing between rhythm and solo playing, vocals, attempted stage banter, etc. Fewer moving parts is better.
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Post by Deleted on Sept 17, 2018 10:10:23 GMT -7
I have my rhythm OD set where I like it then run that into a slightly hotter OD pedal for leads...my set up is Xotic Soul Driven into BB Preamp. Works great!! These two pedals have different voices so it's been the best set up for me to date. Like Flealux, I don't play a lot of clean stuff. Most of the tunes we do have dirty guitar.
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Post by LT on Sept 18, 2018 8:31:02 GMT -7
Thanks for the answers and tips guys. I totally agree with Jon in keeping it simple, as I too am a singer so a lot of my concentration goes there.
I really like what Mike said, and that's to do both. I'm going to try this: 1st level of OD is EQ Bypass, then on the board I'll have the 1st POT set for low drive, then #2 POT for higher. This gives me low>high>low, so I'll have any combination I want. I don't think that will be too complex for my feeble mind!
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Post by Don on Sept 19, 2018 5:45:04 GMT -7
I saw a great video, and I believe it was by Andy Timmons. He explained that some OD pedals are meant to be placed in front of an amp set up for clean headroom, to get the sound and tone from the pedal. This is Joe Walsh's approach, clean amp, overdrive and dirt from the pedals.
Some OD pedals are not meant to be used that way, and are meant to accentuate or push the amp a little bit further when the amp is set up for higher gain, or a crunch or overdrive setting.
He even points out what pedal is best for each.
Here's a great video by Mick Taylor and Daniel Steinhardt of That Pedal Show demonstrating the same concept:
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Post by doctorice on Sept 19, 2018 12:59:28 GMT -7
I've got the Z-Plus set to be pretty clean on its own, and the eq boost is set so it adds just a little volume and breakup. Like having a clean amp and a (slightly) dirty amp in one box. I can compensate for the volume difference with the level controls on the pedals or the volume knob on the guitar.
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Post by Rik on Oct 4, 2018 6:56:50 GMT -7
I use a flying dragon into either an OCD or a Wampler Plexidrive. I’ll also,stack the OCD and Plexidrive for the ZZ Top sound!
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Post by Papa Juan (lanier816) on Oct 4, 2018 17:41:08 GMT -7
I Run an RYRA Klone into a Matchless Hot Box 3. It's thick, harmonic and truly sublime.
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Post by John E. on Oct 5, 2018 9:40:55 GMT -7
Just depends on what effect I want. Low gain/clean boost into Higher gain drive adds more distortion on generally the same volume. High gain pedal into boost makes the high gain tone louder.
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Post by premiumplus (Dave) on Oct 7, 2018 3:48:21 GMT -7
I've discovered that a low gain drive into a high gain/distortion pedal gets really noisy and too compressed. I've got a lot of drives on my board, with good boosts at the front and the end of the chain, but I almost always settle on one high gain drive for the amp/guitar/venue I'm playing. Then I can run the boost before or after the distortion, but like a lot of you I have come to like high to low.
EDIT: So recently I've taken the one low gain pedal at the front of the chain and moved it to the end.
If I need more gain, I can get it by cranking the gain knob on a high gain pedal; and it has the same effect as having a low gain pedal cranked in front of the high gain one...so I have found it's kind of redundant.
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Post by nmz on Oct 7, 2018 13:24:36 GMT -7
Current drive arrangement Rat>model G>Tim>KTR (set to clean/boost). That covers it all for me.
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Post by gibsonguitar1988 on Oct 8, 2018 18:10:58 GMT -7
Lower into higher. Less compression and brighter sounding to my ears. There's no such thing as too much treble in my book, so I like bright and stringy tone.
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Post by John E. on Oct 9, 2018 8:01:58 GMT -7
Lower into higher. Less compression and brighter sounding to my ears. There's no such thing as too much treble in my book, so I like bright and stringy tone. I thought the same thing about "no such thing as too much treble" until I saw Buddy Guy live, he was slinging ice picks into everyones ears that night
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Post by premiumplus (Dave) on Oct 10, 2018 5:37:15 GMT -7
I saw the Outlaws at a small club about 25 years ago and the second guitarist (not Huey Thomasson) was playing a Boogie MKII sitting on a folding chair. I was in the front row and in the "Cone of Death" of that Boogie. That cat had his amp so trebly that it wasn't ice picks, more like ice spears. It ruined the show for me.
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Post by gibsonguitar1988 on Oct 15, 2018 0:41:38 GMT -7
Haha, I can see where in some cases it'd be too much.
Still though, I'm kind of allergic to the whole idea of warm, throaty guitar tone. I like bright, stringy, and crunchy. To me I like a lot of upper mids and treble and less bass and low mids.
I come from the "iPod generation" and back before Apple put in a volume restriction to save your ears. Like an idiot, I would listen to my music as a teen with the volume all..the...way...UP! And as a result, warm tone = blanket over speaker and muddy. It's a balance of me liking my tone and not killing birds as they fly by. It's something I regret for sure. I'm only 30 and I still say "what did you say?" more than I'd like to admit at my age. It's also a balance of not furthering my hearing loss with my amp settings. It's the high frequencies...
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Post by 2Cents on Oct 21, 2018 1:46:36 GMT -7
An Xotic SL Drive into an Xotic EP Booster works for me.
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Post by ineedtherapy (Stuart) on Oct 28, 2018 20:02:11 GMT -7
Like a lot of folks have said, I stack high to low. My only non-fuzz pedal is a King of Tone. If I start out with higher gain and want a volume boost, then I’ll hit both sides. But if you stack low gain into high gain, you’ll get more of a gain boost. So it really depends on your needs. I prefer the volume boost as a lead player in large part because it helps me cut in the way I want to cut (more volume, not more gain). I essentially use my eq bypass and other pedals to set my gain and use a boost (the yellow side of my King of Tone) to do the volume lifting.
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