# With Overdrive/Distortion Pedals, How is your Amp set?



## jb007 (Dec 6, 2006)

Hey.

Just wondering how everyone sets their amps up when using overdrive / distortion pedals?


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## Budda (May 29, 2007)

what do you mean?

I have my OD on all the time, so I EQ my amp w/ the OD on.


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## keto (May 23, 2006)

I get a tone I like from the amp and then adjust the pedals to taste, but it's not always that black and white...some knob twiddling on both is part of the process.


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## hollowbody (Jan 15, 2008)

Even though I play mostly overdriven stuff now, I like to have a good clean sound to base it off even if I never use it. Depending on what pedal I'm using, I might either try to get a transparent driven sound so that it sound like my amp, just grittier, or I might set it to suit certains songs, like I do with my OCD.

Bottom line: a lot of tweaking involved and very little satisfaction


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## Rwinder (Oct 20, 2008)

weird poll options...

I set my amp eq to a good clean tone then hit the OD and then set it so sound good with my amp... 

I think this would be the standard... (for a clean amp + OD )


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## cheezyridr (Jun 8, 2009)

Rwinder said:


> weird poll options...
> 
> I set my amp eq to a good clean tone then hit the OD and then set it so sound good with my amp...
> 
> I think this would be the standard... (for a clean amp + OD )


me too, although i notice that if i go somewhere, what sounds good in my bedroom isn't neccesarily the settings i use for somewhere else.


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## Rwinder (Oct 20, 2008)

cheezyridr said:


> me too, although i notice that if i go somewhere, what sounds good in my bedroom isn't neccesarily the settings i use for somewhere else.


yeah bedroom settings and gig settings are definitely different. well all rooms sound different... thats how you get good at dialing things in. ;-)


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## Alien8 (Jan 8, 2009)

There is a balance to be had between both. Volume is a factor in the settings too. Generally it's an always changing thing depending on the room, speaker placement and mix. I have an ideal sound in my head for my rig, and I always strive for that whenever I'm setting up. Sometimes it's less bass, sometimes is more tone on the dirt pedal.

I'm all about stacking smiles and frowns in the EQ game. Frowns before the pre-amp, and smiles after.


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## forum_crawler (Sep 25, 2008)

I first set my amp to taste, then set the EQ pedal accordingly, and finally the OD for the high gain.


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## Gee-ter Guy (Dec 21, 2009)

I love the heavy bass sounds so i always have the low cranked! i use a digitech Grunge pedal and i love it!


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## Scottone (Feb 10, 2006)

For the rock stuff, I set my amp so that it breaks up slightly when I pick harder (fairly easy to do on my amp since it's powerscaled).

That becomes my basic rhythm tone (and sometimes lead tone), then I layer dirt pedals on top of that. I'm currently using a Mad Professor Sweet Honey Overdrive to add a moderate amount of distortion, and a Mad Professor Little Green Wonder for the heavier, more compressed tones.


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## jmb2 (May 18, 2009)

amp is set for 'clean' and pedals are used to push it from clean to mean ... usually with a Flying Dragon/Draconis, Sole Pressure, J-Drive and/or BB Pre ....


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## blam (Feb 18, 2011)

depends on my mood and what im trying to achieve.

lately, my amp has been doing 90% of the distortion/OD and occasionally I use a pedal for that little bit extra, set to taste.

I used to set a nice clean tone, then use my pedals for distortion, but now I find it easier to set a tone i like and roll the vol. down for cleans.


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## sulphur (Jun 2, 2011)

I set the amp to a clean tone I like and adjust the pedals accordingly.


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## georgemg (Jul 17, 2011)

Neither of my dirt pedals (OCD and Plimsoul) have much in the way of tonal adjustment, so most of my 'tone-shaping' comes from the amp. I just adjust the tone/hi-cut on the pedals to keep the drive sound from getting too harsh. If I change guitars on a gig, I'll make any adjustments on the amp and the pedals still sound fine. Works well for me.


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## mhammer (Nov 30, 2007)

sulphur said:


> I set the amp to a clean tone I like and adjust the pedals accordingly.


I'm with ya on that. I can't always nail it, but I love the glassy clean SC sound of a play like Robert Cray. And there's precious little about that which anticipates an overdrive or distortion pedal. So, I just design or mod any overdrive pedals to have the sort of complementary tone control so that switching over from clean to pedal tone is not objectionable. I'm still rejuvenating the old solid-state Heath amp I bought earlier this year, and that has two channels with independent EQ, but my others have one set of tone controls.

OTOH, I don't gig, so it's not like I need to have any particular tone instantly available.


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## prodigal_son (Apr 23, 2009)

Here's what I have been doing: Fender Hot Rod Deluxe - bass, treble, presence are all at max., Ibanez SD9 - tone knob at 10 o'clock, gain knob at 3 o'clock, volume knob at noon. 

I run the pedal into the clean channel for rhythms and the pedal plus the amp's 'more drive' channel for leads. The drive dial on the amp is set fairly low and the drive volume is set slightly higher than the clean channel. These settings on the drive channel also works well as just a plain old tube drive channel without the SD9. The point of the SD9 volume being set at noon is so that there is a reasonable balance between cleans, rhythms and leads. Crank it too high and feedback becomes extremely uncontrollable. 

Here is a vid of my band and you can see how it sounds:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pUFbXfgkCFQ


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