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Post by oldandintheway on Jun 4, 2022 8:51:02 GMT -7
My Maz 18 and I have never really been able to get on well with overdrive pedals. I do love the sound of them when used by others into their own setups.
Overdrive colors tone and they can sound great. But in spite of the marketing stuff, I don't find them transparent at all. If I set the Maz to run clean, volume at 9 or so, the pedals can sound fine to me; but not great. Besides I love the Maz 18's preamp breakup by itself when I run my humbuckers directly into the amp with volume at noon or past. Stick an overdrive in now, set with modest drive, and the pedal's color comes through; but I often get an unpleasant background of un-musical clipping that I hate.
Tried something new lately, just ran my overdrive pedal in the loop, left my compressor, equalizer and reverb/delay in the front - magic. All the overdrive color without the gritty clipping. Smooth as can be.
Thoughts?
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Post by southmusic70 on Jun 4, 2022 9:37:11 GMT -7
Try a good boost pedal.
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Post by oldandintheway on Jun 4, 2022 9:49:23 GMT -7
No. The last thing I need is a boost. With the volume knob on the amp and my guitars I can get gorgeous preamp break up. What I want is all the clipping to be smooth and musical, which the preamp gives me by itself. What I don't want is additional clipping from the pedal. I just want the smooth harmonics that the overdrive pedal can deliver - without adding to the clipping. I can easily boost the front end with either the equalizer or the compressor.
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Post by Seńor Verde on Jun 4, 2022 10:53:22 GMT -7
I never thought about trying that. If it sounds good, do it! I like a variety of clean sounds so I get an amp I like that sounds good clean, then I expect the overdrive pedal to get me to a different driven sound. I have too many amps and waaay too many pedals.
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Post by adam on Jun 4, 2022 12:29:13 GMT -7
What was the overdrive pedal in the loop? I'm with you on the pedals in general, way more miss than hit, and really finicky to me. It's like you have to find the right combo of guitar, amp, speaker, and then combined with a certain pedal, "sometimes" you can get great sounds. When I mess with that stuff, I usually go through 5 pedals and don't really like any of them, but find one that is a little less evil than the rest. Just me though. The last pedal show episode with "amp in the box" pedals compared to one gain pedal and an eq... it kind of started with "here's our "neutral" clean tone to build on", but that core tone was sort of just crap to begin with. I just don't really get that, but I know a lot of people go that route and get good results too. 45 years of playing guitar, and I'm still trying to figure this stuff out, and I'm not really sure that I've learned anything along the way.
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Post by nick0 on Jun 4, 2022 12:31:26 GMT -7
No. The last thing I need is a boost. With the volume knob on the amp and my guitars I can get gorgeous preamp break up. What I want is all the clipping to be smooth and musical, which the preamp gives me by itself. What I don't want is additional clipping from the pedal. I just want the smooth harmonics that the overdrive pedal can deliver - without adding to the clipping. I can easily boost the front end with either the equalizer or the compressor. In electric guitar, I believe harmonics are caused by distortion or clipping of the signal. I would guess that you just don't care for the overdrive pedals that you're using. What have you tried? Maybe I can make a suggestion. All in all, it you like the tone through the effects loop, rock it out!
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Post by "Z" Steve on Jun 4, 2022 15:42:42 GMT -7
The only pedals I have kept since 2008 are my original Tim and Timmy - they do not color or affect my amp tone. I've tried dozens of pedals that sounded great in a Youtube demo by a session player or "star", but they wind up getting sold or traded here on the BS&T. Best of luck to you in your search and journey!
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Post by oldandintheway on Jun 4, 2022 15:51:12 GMT -7
What was the overdrive pedal in the loop? I'm with you on the pedals in general, way more miss than hit, and really finicky to me. It's like you have to find the right combo of guitar, amp, speaker, and then combined with a certain pedal, "sometimes" you can get great sounds. When I mess with that stuff, I usually go through 5 pedals and don't really like any of them, but find one that is a little less evil than the rest. Just me though. The last pedal show episode with "amp in the box" pedals compared to one gain pedal and an eq... it kind of started with "here's our "neutral" clean tone to build on", but that core tone was sort of just crap to begin with. I just don't really get that, but I know a lot of people go that route and get good results too. 45 years of playing guitar, and I'm still trying to figure this stuff out, and I'm not really sure that I've learned anything along the way. I've tried a million pedals over the years. Latest efforts, a Zendrive - okay but the high end a bit too strong in my opinion, then with the highs dialed back the pedal lost any attraction it had. The one I am working with now, and I may keep it, is a Kondo Shifuku - yet another attempt at the Dumble sound for whatever that's worth.
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Post by nick0 on Jun 4, 2022 17:43:15 GMT -7
Wampler belle? That's a really solid choice for what you're after I'd say. Small, inexpensive, low current draw, transparent. That's my vote. And you can never have too many overdrives!
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Post by j4gitr (John) on Jun 4, 2022 18:06:04 GMT -7
Timmy was my pedal of choice into my Maz. I also got along very well with a Barber Small Fry.
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Post by telejas on Jun 7, 2022 17:21:22 GMT -7
I'm the odd-man out here....
I LOVE the cleans of the Maz 18, love the natural dirt of the Maz, and also love the way it takes pedals and makes them sound like part of the amp, while still letting the characteristics of the pedal shine through.
If I take a MIAB (Marshall in a box)..... It sounds like a MIAB. If I take a TS pedal, I get those GREAT mids up front......If I use a Mesa style dirt pedal, it's going to sound like a Mesa.
I've never heard a true "transparent" OD or distortion pedal through any amp?? I think the closest I could get is using a digital modeler and dialing in the sound that way, maybe with an EQ in the chain? (Helix, Kemper, Boss GT-1000, ect...)
I will say, the Z-Wreck Jr took pedals and made them sound like the Z-Wreck Jr but with more gain. If I had a modern MIAB pedal, it sounded pretty modern through the Maz.... But, running through the Wreck Jr, it sounded more like a great vintage style amp in the vein of a Z-Wreck.
I love all dirt pedals through the Maz, I guess that's why there's so many choices?
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bcp
New Member
Posts: 5
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Post by bcp on Jun 8, 2022 6:58:13 GMT -7
I'm not a professional player but it seems like there are two basic camps. Those that get their overdrive sounds primarily from their amp. In that case a Timmy, Klon, TS, ore even a Blues Driver of Blues Breaker can be used to push your already cooking amp into higher gain territory and add the tonal quality of the boost pedal of choice. Then their are those like myself that get their overdrive tones from their pedal board. I play a Les Paul Standard 50's and run my board into my Maz 18 MKII using the low gain input. I keep the input volume low enough to maintain headroom and be just below break-up (even when boosting). I then can select any of my dirt boxes to get a wide variety of texture and tones. Currently I am using a Snooze Black Box Blues Breaker for transparent gains or stacking with other pedals down the chain. Next I am using a MLA HotLanta (Duane Allman sound) or MLA Eliminator (ZZ Top sound) for high gain textures and more mid driven tones. Have also used a variety of Wampler dirt boxes, and also a Thorpy Gunshot for the higher gains. Of course you need to dial in your Maz Tone and Cut controls to taste so it compliments whatever drive pedal mix you are using. I then run all my modulation, reverb, delay, and looper in the FX loop which works superb! What I find amazing about the Maz is the quality of the sound which is just so incredibly musical at any volume.
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