# Taking A New (O/D) Direction



## david henman (Feb 3, 2006)

......for the past years, i have adhered to the tried and true method of using a clean forty-watt combo as the foundation and building my tone on top of that with pedals. in other words, my tone really came from the pedals. this has proven to be, ultimately, unsatisfying. plus, i am always reading about players who use the power amp overdrive and then push it a little harder with pedals.

i auditioned the traynor ycv15blue on the weekend at an outdoor show. its a low-powered 15-watt combo with el84 power tubes that breaks up fairly early and easily. a few chords into the first song i was completely sold! wow! zero to sixty with a mere flick of the guitar's volume control. the sense of control is liberating.

i hardly touched the pedals. in fact, i could easily do a gig with just a guitar and this amp, leaving the pedal board at home.

the quest now is to clean up this huge, over-populated pedal board, starting with the o/d pedals. going forward, instead of deriving tone from pedals, i will be looking for the kinds of pedals that push the amp to new heights of overdriven glory. i'm interested in hearing about pedals like the timmy, zendrive, crunchbox etc etc etc.

any suggestions?

-dh


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## LowWatt (Jun 27, 2007)

For pushing EL84s, nothing does it better than a Hot Cake. I love the goosing it gives my DR.Z Maz Jr.


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## violation (Aug 20, 2006)

I tried the clean tone + pedals bit for about a month tops, just didn't work. 

So now my setup is real simple. Guitar with medium to high output pickups + cranked Marshall + MXR ZW44 + Boss GE-7 + Boss CE-5... done.


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## traynor_garnet (Feb 22, 2006)

Try a booster. It just gives you "more" of the amp and is great for solos. I'm selling an MJM Range Master clone but there are tons out there to choose from. 

I don't use any dirt pedals for jamming except for leads (and only at times). For the most part my guitar volume control is all I need. Amp goes on full, roll the guitar's volume down for rhythm, roll it back up for leads or more dirt. 

TG


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## Guest (Oct 22, 2007)

Here's Dave Barber's approach on how to cook a tube amp with a booster. Great little article and the results are fabulous.


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## david henman (Feb 3, 2006)

traynor_garnet said:


> Try a booster. It just gives you "more" of the amp and is great for solos. I'm selling an MJM Range Master clone but there are tons out there to choose from.
> I don't use any dirt pedals for jamming except for leads (and only at times). For the most part my guitar volume control is all I need. Amp goes on full, roll the guitar's volume down for rhythm, roll it back up for leads or more dirt.
> TG


...i have the tonebone booster/buffer.

which amp do you use?

-dh


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## david henman (Feb 3, 2006)

iaresee said:


> Here's Dave Barber's approach on how to cook a tube amp with a booster. Great little article and the results are fabulous.


...i'll give it a try but, it seems to me that this is _cooking_ the preamp tubes, not the power tubes.

anyone?

-dh


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## traynor_garnet (Feb 22, 2006)

I use a 1967 Traynor YGM-1 (Guitarmate); the early ones are different than the later ones.

Your tonebone is a "clean" boost right? The MJM is a Rangemaster clone and uses Germanium transistors to add some "hair" to the boost. The MJM also has a bright and dark switch so you can do the traditional treble boost or add more low end (works great with strats). Clapton used a Rangemaster all the time in the early days.

I read the Dave Barber article and it didn't make a lot of sense to me. If you are going to have a boost that high, with your amp set to clean, why not just crank up the amp to get all the tubes hitting harder? With a boost that way the amp is still going to be very loud even if the amp is set to lower settings . . .

TG



david henman said:


> ...i have the tonebone booster/buffer.
> 
> which amp do you use?
> 
> -dh


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## ne1roc (Mar 4, 2006)

violation said:


> I tried the clean tone + pedals bit for about a month tops, just didn't work.
> 
> So now my setup is real simple. Guitar with medium to high output pickups + cranked Marshall + MXR ZW44 + Boss GE-7 + Boss CE-5... done.


What bar allows you to play a cranked 800? Not trying to stir the pot, just want to know so maybe my band can play there.


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## Guest (Oct 22, 2007)

david henman said:


> ...i'll give it a try but, it seems to me that this is _cooking_ the preamp tubes, not the power tubes.
> 
> anyone?


Yes, it's very much cooking your preamp tubes. Or rather, about making sure your preamp isn't amplifying a weak signal.


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## Guest (Oct 22, 2007)

traynor_garnet said:


> I read the Dave Barber article and it didn't make a lot of sense to me. If you are going to have a boost that high, with your amp set to clean, why not just crank up the amp to get all the tubes hitting harder? With a boost that way the amp is still going to be very loud even if the amp is set to lower settings . . .


I have yet to try it to be honest. It just stood out as an interesting way to set up a boost.

It (seems to me at least) to be based on the premise that you want to deliver the strongest signal possible to the earliest steps in your gain chain, not unlike recording where you put your mic's preamp gain as high as possible without clipping and avoid amplifying the signal again later in the chain. It's not about pushing all portions of your signal path with more gain, but about ensuring the signal coming into the amp is optimal. Barber's approach makes the signal entering the amp as strong as possible without overdriving the first gain stage of the preamp. I don't think your amp will be significantly louder even at low master volume settings but I think you'll find the dynamics of interacting with your amp will change (the controls will behave differently, volume changes and pick attack will have more dramatic effect). I suspect the resulting interaction with the amp and it's preamp tone & gain controls will depend on the circuit though. Some amps may like the high gain input signal, some may not.

It's on my list of interesting things to try some night when I'm bored.


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## Budda (May 29, 2007)

boosting is about smacking the preamp hard, it doesnt have much to do with the power section. if you want to boost the power section and you haev a master volume amp (ie volumes per channel + global vol) then you dime the master volume.

you can have a good low wattage tube amp and still have a wack of pedals for various tones, its ok . I'm getting my modded TS7 hopefully at the end of this week. after that i want a delay and reverb, and that's all i plan on owning. I've had a wah, i sold it. I had a distortion pedal, i sold it.

do not expect boosting to be some sort of miracle cure - its meant to take something good and make it a bit better, it wont turn your YCV50 into a dual rec . Tighter bass and smoother highs are the reasons for boosting, AFAIK. this is why I'm getting one.


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## GuitaristZ (Jan 26, 2007)

ne1roc said:


> What bar allows you to play a cranked 800? Not trying to stir the pot, just want to know so maybe my band can play there.


He lives on a farm


In the city:
:rockon2: -------Nearest Neighbors House 5 ft ----------> 

In the country:
:rockon2: -------------Nearest Neighbors House 5 km -------------> :zzz:


just kidding...but yeah


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## violation (Aug 20, 2006)

Thanks for quoting him... ignore list layed the smackdown.

"This message is hidden because ne1roc is on your ignore list."

Damn flawed script haha, kidding. 

You got it right though... I can't even see the next house. :rockon2:

As for gigs, the few I have played my step dad lets me borrow his 900 which is 50 watts I believe and it's a lot easier to get some chunk. Hence why I'll be getting a 50 watt Laney (but I want a guitar first... GAS + cash = an effin' nightmare). Played like once live with the 800.


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## davetcan (Feb 27, 2006)

David,
how much clean headroom do you get out of the Traynor? Are you micing the amp? Also are you using hums, singles, or both?


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## Mr Yerp (Feb 24, 2006)

those little 15s are great! I agree that a booster will do a good job. Won't colour your tone the way an overdrive/dist. would.
Enjoy the tone search!


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## david henman (Feb 3, 2006)

traynor_garnet said:


> I read the Dave Barber article and it didn't make a lot of sense to me. If you are going to have a boost that high, with your amp set to clean, why not just crank up the amp to get all the tubes hitting harder? With a boost that way the amp is still going to be very loud even if the amp is set to lower settings . . .TG


...makes sense to me. more to the point, doing it your way would be more likely to _cook_ the power tubes, yes?

-dh


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## david henman (Feb 3, 2006)

Budda said:


> boosting is about smacking the preamp hard, it doesnt have much to do with the power section. if you want to boost the power section and you haev a master volume amp (ie volumes per channel + global vol) then you dime the master volume.


...now THAT makes sense.

-dh


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## david henman (Feb 3, 2006)

*David, how much clean headroom do you get out of the Traynor?*

...just the right amount, it seems. and its a wonderful clean, lots of chime and sustain and as much or as little "hair" as i want, relative to guitar volume and pick attack.

*Are you micing the amp? *

...always!

*Also are you using hums, singles, or both?*

...on stage i've only tried singles, so far. however, at home i've been using humbuckers, and that seems to be a perfect marriage!

-dh


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## davetcan (Feb 27, 2006)

david henman said:


> *David, how much clean headroom do you get out of the Traynor?*
> 
> ...just the right amount, it seems. and its a wonderful clean, lots of chime and sustain and as much or as little "hair" as i want, relative to guitar volume and pick attack.
> 
> ...



Thanks for that, I'm going to have to check these out. :food-smiley-004:


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## Evilmusician (Apr 13, 2007)

I just got my Eternity and Im in love what a sweet od cheers!


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## Mr. David Severson (Feb 3, 2006)

I have an 18watt Marshall clone and it gets gritty fairly quick without tearing peoples heads off. I use my Klon to push it. The amp still maintains a real nice bouncy feel. If I need more than that I have a wide range of pedals...Fulltone GT 500, Heavily moded TS9DX, Fulldrive, Barber Direct SS.. I have no problem getting what I need:rockon2:


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