# Poll: Pedal distortion vs preamp distortion



## david henman (Feb 3, 2006)

...i'm curious to know your preference, and why.


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## sulphur (Jun 2, 2011)

I think that the only amp I've had that I used the amps drive, was one of my first,
a Peavy Backstage. Ha! Oh that blue knob, Saturation!

I got into all in one FX for a few years, Zoom, then Digitech.

Since then picked up a rk Twin, notorious drive channel, but it still has the Fender cleans,
I had to use accessories for my drive. Just got used to it, I suppose.

Now, with a loaded pedalboard, I have a few different flavors on tap.
For me, if I can get a nice clean tone out of an amp, I'm good.


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## Morkolo (Dec 9, 2010)

I used preamp distortion for a while but could never get it the way I liked it. This past year I started using pedals again and I'm finally getting the sound I like.


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## mhammer (Nov 30, 2007)

I can often never tell where it's coming from.

And even when I'm reasonably sure it's the amp clipping because I'm pushing it, it's the *what* I'm pushing it with that makes all the difference. (That IS how the Klon works, after all)

So from where I stand, David, the two elements (preamp/pedal) are not easily divisible. The pedals not only provide amplitude; they provide input signal _character_, and that's what the amp works with.


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## washburned (Oct 13, 2006)

Need a choice for PT distortion, with or without pedals.


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## Petey D (Sep 8, 2011)

It depends on the Amp for me. Marshall, Mesa, Traynor I like the pre-amp dist/od. Fender, Vox, Orange and pretty much everything else I've played with I like OD pedals. With solid states I don't find it makes much difference.


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## david henman (Feb 3, 2006)

washburned said:


> Need a choice for PT distortion, with or without pedals.


...yeah, i thought about that. i probably should have included it, because it is an option.

but the decision i'm facing doesn't encompass that option.


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## david henman (Feb 3, 2006)

Morkolo said:


> I used preamp distortion for a while but could never get it the way I liked it. This past year I started using pedals again and I'm finally getting the sound I like.


...curious to know which pedals you are using.


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## Morkolo (Dec 9, 2010)

david henman said:


> ...curious to know which pedals you are using.


Right now a Boss GT10 is doing the trick for me, I was using the preamp overdrive in my Valve King and could never get the sound I liked. No matter what way I adjusted the eq settings it always had that scooped metal tone which is ok for a bit but wasn't the tone I was looking for. But with the GT10 running through the clean channel it breaks up just the way I like it, very similar to a Fender Hotrod Deville's overdrive.


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## mhammer (Nov 30, 2007)

Sometimes pedals just can't do it, because NO pedal can do it with that amp.

About 2 years ago, now, I loaned forum member bagpipe a box of boosters, overdrives and distortion of different kinds because he was having a hard time getting pleasing breakup from his (then) recently-purchased amp. As I recall, only one of them even came remotely close to making him happy (I was pleased to learn it was one I designed, rather than one I cloned). He ended up selling the amp.


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## keto (May 23, 2006)

A mix. Power amp dist isn't often an option, as you reference. Depends GREATLY on which amp - some have very pleasant preamp distortions, some not so much. Some of the good ones sound fantabulous with pedals (say, my Hiwatt), and pedals make some of the doggy ones better/usable/even good (I don't keep the 'doggy' amps, so I don't have a reference off the top of my head).


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## Slidewinder (Apr 7, 2006)

It's a really hard question to answer because it's not a black/white kind of choice. As was already said, certain amps prefer certain pedals, also depending on whether you're using humbuckers or single coils, and how much volume you're going for. 
In a home or small studio situation a pedal might be best, while onstage, even at smaller clubs, you can push most amps into tube saturation with some help from a pedal to take it over the top or give your guitar a different kind of tone.
I think you have to start with an amp that gives you a great clean sound, whether you think of clean as marshall type clean or fender clean. Once you've got that base to start with then you have a good reference point, and anything you add will only add or subtract from the sound but you'll hear it almost right away at any volume. From there I think choosing a pedal becomes a much easier option.


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## Mooh (Mar 7, 2007)

Cool poll idea.

As much as possible I use tube amp distortion (Traynor YCV50blue with Eminence Reignmaker speaker, or YCV20 with Eminence Red Fang speaker). The reasons aren't so much technical as a feel and tone thing for me. Words don't really describe what I hear but if organic, complex, smooth, meaty, or responsive mean anything to you then that's what I hear and feel. Almost always that works for me for my own private playing or with the little old cover band though sometimes I'll use some pedal distortion for on-the-fly tonal choices into either the clean or distortion channels. For that it depends on what I have on my board but it could be Boss, Seymour Duncan (Lava Box), Marshall Guv'nor...more and more the Guv'nor is my choice. The signal may be boosted with a Marshall Edward The Compressor and/or an MXR Boost/Line Driver before it gets to the distortion. All that aside, I sometimes plug straight into the amp and go.

Peace, Mooh.


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## keefsdad (Feb 7, 2006)

For most of my life I was an amp distortion guy who disdained distortion/overdrive pedals. I have had a Hot Rod Deluxe since they came out and used to use the amp overdrive. In the last couple of years, I have been using a Cool Cat transperent overdrive (left on pretty much all the time at a low drive setting) and a Digitech DF-7 into the clean channel. I may have been affected by all the people that hate the HRDLX overdrive, I even did a CD with it and nobody said anything bad about the tone.


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## Clean Channel (Apr 18, 2011)

Since you asked for preference, I said pre-amp plus pedal, which really is my preference (pushing it with other drives and fuzzes, or a boost).

But truth is that I often plays using straight pedals into clean amp, and I'm completely happy that way as well.


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## prodigal_son (Apr 23, 2009)

Preamp and pedal combined. I mainly use a pedal for rhythm stuff and combined for leads. It totally depends on the amp too. My amp is a wimp for onboard drive.


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## Budda (May 29, 2007)

I use my TS7 to boost my amps about.. 40%-50% of the time. The amp sounds more open and has more clarity with the pedal off, even though I have the drive set fairly low. I haven't voted yet.


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## neldom (Apr 29, 2009)

I have to say preamp. I've been through some great pedals that I loved with different amps, but the best sound I've had is my guitar straight into my peavey classic 30. 
However those same pedals don't sound great into either channel of the thirty...


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## david henman (Feb 3, 2006)

...just to be clear, are you talking about preamp, or power tube, distortion?



Mooh said:


> Cool poll idea.
> 
> As much as possible I use tube amp distortion (Traynor YCV50blue with Eminence Reignmaker speaker, or YCV20 with Eminence Red Fang speaker). The reasons aren't so much technical as a feel and tone thing for me. Words don't really describe what I hear but if organic, complex, smooth, meaty, or responsive mean anything to you then that's what I hear and feel. Almost always that works for me for my own private playing or with the little old cover band though sometimes I'll use some pedal distortion for on-the-fly tonal choices into either the clean or distortion channels. For that it depends on what I have on my board but it could be Boss, Seymour Duncan (Lava Box), Marshall Guv'nor...more and more the Guv'nor is my choice. The signal may be boosted with a Marshall Edward The Compressor and/or an MXR Boost/Line Driver before it gets to the distortion. All that aside, I sometimes plug straight into the amp and go.
> 
> Peace, Mooh.


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## david henman (Feb 3, 2006)

Slidewinder said:


> It's a really hard question to answer because it's not a black/white kind of choice. As was already said, certain amps prefer certain pedals, also depending on whether you're using humbuckers or single coils, and how much volume you're going for.
> In a home or small studio situation a pedal might be best, while onstage, even at smaller clubs, you can push most amps into tube saturation with some help from a pedal to take it over the top or give your guitar a different kind of tone.
> I think you have to start with an amp that gives you a great clean sound, whether you think of clean as marshall type clean or fender clean. Once you've got that base to start with then you have a good reference point, and anything you add will only add or subtract from the sound but you'll hear it almost right away at any volume. From there I think choosing a pedal becomes a much easier option.


...that has been, and still is, the route i have taken.

i just have a sense that if i find the right amp, preamp distortion will prove to be a more satisfying alternative to pedal distortion.

because, no matter how good the pedal, it seems that, ultimately, it still sounds like...a pedal.

my friend rick gunn, who always has astounding tone, seems to stick with amps that have two cascading gain knobs.

he'll give it a little extra "push" with a boss blues driver.


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## CocoTone (Jan 22, 2006)

I find, that the more gain on the pedal, the more it sounds like"a pedal", if you get my drift. Mild gain, with a fairly pushed amp, sounds way better. I guess that goes for distortion pedals as well, such as fuzz. My London sounds great on a hot amp, but not so much when the volume cannot be pushed.

CT.


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## RobQ (May 29, 2008)

Both. Sometimes together, sometimes separate.

I have a Bogner Shiva as my main gigging rig which has just sublime preamp distortion and the most organic master volume of any amp I have ever owned or played. It's an 85w amp, but really does sound gorgeous a bedroom levels and everything in between.

But sometimes I need more grit for certain tunes, or a different distortion character than the smooth fatness of the amp's gain. So I use overdrive pedals as well.

Lately I've been using a line6 m9 for all my effects, because it is portable and very versatile, and I am really digging it's ability to accommodate two expression pedals.

I have heard people get just incredibly gorgeous sounds out of overdrive pedals into clean amps. There are people out there who say you can't get as good a tone that way. In my experience that is pure BS.


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## Swervin55 (Oct 30, 2009)

Slidewinder said:


> It's a really hard question to answer because it's not a black/white kind of choice. As was already said, certain amps prefer certain pedals, also depending on whether you're using humbuckers or single coils, and how much volume you're going for.
> In a home or small studio situation a pedal might be best, while onstage, even at smaller clubs, you can push most amps into tube saturation with some help from a pedal to take it over the top or give your guitar a different kind of tone.
> I think you have to start with an amp that gives you a great clean sound, whether you think of clean as marshall type clean or fender clean. Once you've got that base to start with then you have a good reference point, and anything you add will only add or subtract from the sound but you'll hear it almost right away at any volume. From there I think choosing a pedal becomes a much easier option.


^this for me also. Of all the amps I own, I only have one left with two channels and that's a Prosonic but I seldom if ever use the amp. It's heavy and loud.


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## Mooh (Mar 7, 2007)

david henman said:


> ...just to be clear, are you talking about preamp, or power tube, distortion?


Sorry, can't believe I missed this question. Preamp.

I've been experimenting with speakers again so I may return to a combination of pedals and amp more regularly.

Peace, Mooh.


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## Jim DaddyO (Mar 20, 2009)

When I had it, the classic 30, with a hint of the gain turned up, and hit it with the ts9 set with lowish gain but high level......mmmmmmmm.


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## Merlin (Feb 23, 2009)

Pedal, as I only run SS amps totally clean.

I will, however, stack O/D units to get the character of distortion I want.


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