SVT-CL Friendly pedals

[Laurent]

Before some of you put down some incendiary posts asking me to do a search, let me say that I have done that and that I did not find a good, recent, single source on this topic.

I recently started using an Ampeg SVT-CL and to my surprise the amp is not as easy to pair with pedals as I had assumed. Most SS amps are pretty tricky to pair nicely and my previous Traynor YBA200-2 liked anything I would put in front of it.

With the SVT-CL it seems that the differences are greater.
The amp seems to respond well to brighter pedals. That being said I am using a P bass with flats and Ampeg 210 VR cabs.

What pedals are you using in Front of an SVT-CL and sound great? First hand experience please, generic advice does not really help.

Here is what I have tested and sounded great:
- Creation Audio Holy Fire
- Homebrew Hematoma
- Hoa Rust Ride
- Fuzzrocious Grey Stache
- EH Germanium OD

These pedals sounded OK:
- Stomp Under Foot Bass Overdrive
- Fuzzrocious Dark Driving
- T-Rex Bass Juice
- Barber Linden
- SUF Civil War

These pedals did not seem to pair particularly well:
- OLC Fliptop
- Wren and Cuff Tall Font Russian
- Fulltone Bass Drive

Thanks
I

[waleross]

I do not use that many pedals with my CL. I play through a VT Bass and a Big Muff.

[jmattbassplaya]

IME, pedals are more sensitive to the strings you're using than your head or cab.

I've used about every kind of pedal you can think of with my SVT, and all of them have worked fine with it.

[CliffD]

You're using a p bass with flats, an ampeg tube head and a vintage-like cab and you're telling us that brighter pedals sound best through this rig?...

Whoa...

[RickenBoogie]

The amp could care less what pedals you put into it. But if you don't know how to set the pedals up, and watch all the various gain stages, ANY amp will cry foul if fed too hot a signal.

[rratajski]

I had to totally change my pedal settings moving from ss to tube. P bass + rat derivatives into a tube amp, well any amp, is amazing. Same with an OCD derivative.

[HometownLetdown]

Dont put the Fulltone Bassdrive to rest yet, I have an SVT CL and it works great with the bassdrive, just got to mess with the settings a bit

[rratajski]

Also, to make the DD work with a tube amp, one must re-eq the DD and the amp to make a big tonal/eq difference. It can push a tube amp, but you have to totally redo everything.

[Laurent]

Originally Posted by rratajski

Also, to make the DD work with a tube amp, one must re-eq the DD and the amp to make a big tonal/eq difference. It can push a tube amp, but you have to totally redo everything.

I have, and it does work OK; I'm just not getting as good of a tone than in front of other amps. Nothing against the beautiful pedal, it's just that some pedals work better than other with different amps. Why would the Hematoma work better than the Fulldrive in front of an SVT, when in front of most amp these two pedals pretty much sound the same and perform the same!

Rat is on my list to try.

[Laurent]

Originally Posted by RickenBoogie

The amp could care less what pedals you put into it. But if you don't know how to set the pedals up, and watch all the various gain stages, ANY amp will cry foul if fed too hot a signal.

I know all this. This is not my first rodeo.

[Laurent]

Originally Posted by jmattbassplaya

IME, pedals are more sensitive to the strings you're using than your head or cab.

I've used about every kind of pedal you can think of with my SVT, and all of them have worked fine with it.

Very good point. Thanks.