# Is anybody here using an OD pedal rather than the amp's own distortion?



## Humbucker (Feb 18, 2007)

I have a few good tube amps that have a great tube-generated distortion tone but I also like to ad some delay effect once in awhile and it just isn't working out. 

The amps in question are a 1969 Fender Vibrolux 210 35W combo with tube rectifier, a 1983 Marshall JCM800 50W 2204 head and a 1970 Traynor YBA-1 50W BassMaster head which has a pair of 6CA7s, a choke coil and a bunch of minor tweaks/mods, I've also added a Ken Fisher post phase-inverter master volume control too(sounds great BTW!). These amps don't have an effects loop.

What I've found is that if I set any one of these amps fairly clean, then add a good quality overdrive pedal in the signal chain for dirt, before my delay pedal, this gets me a very natural crunchy tube-like distortion. It has to be a really good OD pedal though, I've had good success with my Fulltone OCD or my Z.Vex Box of Rock. With this set-up, I can get great overdriven crunch tones with or without delay.

I know you're going to think that I'm nuts(and maybe I am) for using an OD pedal rather then tube distortion but it seems to be a good compromise, plus when the OD pedal is switched off I'm getting a pretty decent semi-clean tone.

Do any of you people here set your amp clean and use a dirt box for grind?


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## Telemark (Feb 9, 2006)

Yup I do, I use a Tone Bone Classic for everything from light tube breakup to overthe top ( for me!) gain

I just purchased a ts9 for another kind of drive - I love the way this pedal pushes tubes.

mark


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## PaulS (Feb 27, 2006)

I set my amp for just a tiny bit of breakup, more to the clean side and run three od pedals for different textures. A ts9 for a bit more dirt, not too heavy, a diamond drive for the fatter od sound and a crunchbox for the heavy. The diamond drive has a boost built in which comes in for the extra punch. Most cases by the time you get the amp into sweet breakup it's too loud for the club. It is not uncommon to use an od to excite the tubes a bit....


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## Humbucker (Feb 18, 2007)

Yeah, like you, I basically dial in a hint of dirt from the amp and use two or three OD pedal to get different amounts or shades of distortion. I'm partial to the OCD, Box of Rock and my Maxon OD-808. So many good tones to be had here!
:rockon2:


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## violation (Aug 20, 2006)

Amps distortion + light overdrive pedal settings... max the drive and add a touch of gain, tone all the way down.


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## Tarbender (Apr 7, 2006)

Yes. But I do it for a totally different reason. I can't turn my amp up to the point of breakup because of my neighbours, so I use a Fulltone or my Goudie TS808 to push the tubes earlier without causing WW III :rockon2:


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## Guest (Aug 11, 2007)

I use a Catalinbread SCOD to bridge the gap between my ultra-clean green channel on my Koch it's lots-of-gain red channel. Nothing wrong with having a little more choice at your fingertips when you want to dial in That Sound(tm) on the fly. I also run the SCOD in front of a HBE CompRessor for a long, singing sustain ala Trey from Phish.


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## gproud (Mar 2, 2006)

I'm using a Box of Rock with my JTM-45 right now. I would normally use amp distortion, but the 45 is too loud for small clubs. I'm actually thinking about trying out the Groove Tube Substi-Tubes with it to see if I can get that great amp distortion I want. With that being said, I absolutely love the Box of Rock too. If I ever achieve amp distortion at good volume with the 45, I'll use the BOR to add a bit more. Plus the boost side of the BOR is worth keeping it for.


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## david henman (Feb 3, 2006)

Humbucker said:


> Do any of you people here set your amp clean and use a dirt box for grind?


...many players build their distorted tones on top of a good clean amp tone. i use a traynor ycv40wr (clean channel) with radial tonebone trimode and hot british pedals.


-dh


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## dolphinstreet (Sep 11, 2006)

I use OD/Distortion pedals through an amp with slight dirt set up. I find that works best for me. The Maxon SD-9 and a tube screamer clone cover my bases.


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## Robboman (Oct 14, 2006)

All the time. Amp has to be a real "tubey" saturated thick clean with some natural overdrive and slight breakup. Add a nice OD pedal and you're there.


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## Kapo_Polenton (Jun 20, 2007)

Depends on the pedal..my crunch box sounds noisy and scratchy on my NMV.. if anything I need to dial just a tad of breakup on the amp and then evoke the pedal. Still like the idea of the amp giving me all the juice though.. maybe if i ever mod my Laney AOR into a JCM800 on steroids, i'll be able to do it.


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