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Love your amp(s) overdriven tone?

Peter - Oregon

Peter - Oregon

Nov 21, 2021
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#1
I know there are a lot of threads on here about overdrive and distortion pedals. I am curious regarding people that are happy with the overdrive they get from their amp(s). Do you have a favorite pedal that gives you just a bit extra, and the tone that's yours, or do you love the amps tone just the way it is?
 
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#2
I love my tube amp’s completely maxed out distortion sound, but that will either fry speakers or burn out tubes. Fortunately it can be gotten 98% of the way there with a ZVex Mastotron into almost any clean amp or direct into a DAW. There are probably other pedals that’ll do it, but I got lucky with that little blue one. It’s not “my” tone, just one of a bunch that I like a lot.
 
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#3
I prefer my hybrid and my tube amps clean or "at the edge of breakup" + a distortion pedal when I need it, rather that the dirt of my amps alone or the pedal in a lass D amp. I find that the distortion of my amps too messy, it lacks definition. But a hybrid or a tube amp after the distortion pedal make it "shine" better than the pedal into a class D amp. I guess you can sum it up by saying I'm using my hybrid and tube amps as clean platforms.

Reading Talkbass I fantasized about the distortion of power tubes. But even if my tube amp is only 50W, I can't push that loud, I would become death. It's probably because today's modern cab are "too" efficient. I should now look for a very unefficient cab to be able to push my tube amp into power stage distortion without cracking the walls, LOL.
 
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#4
gtirard said:
I prefer my hybrid and my tube amps clean or "at the edge of breakup" + a distortion pedal when I need it, rather that the dirt of my amps alone or the pedal in a lass D amp. I find that the distortion of my amps too messy, it lacks definition. But a hybrid or a tube amp after the distortion pedal make it "shine" better than the pedal into a class D amp. I guess you can sum it up by saying I'm using my hybrid and tube amps as clean platforms.

Reading Talkbass I fantasized about the distortion of power tubes. But even if my tube amp is only 50W, I can't push that loud, I would become death. It's probably because today's modern cab are "too" efficient. I should now look for a very unefficient cab to be able to push my tube amp into power stage distortion without cracking the walls, LOL.
Click to expand...
Which tube amp do you have?
 
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#5
I have an Ampeg PF-50T (which breaks up nicely) and a Mesa D-350. I own a bass deluxe Big Muff, and a Ratt pedal. I admittedly have not read the threads that must be out there. I am looking for more of an overdrive, I guess, that would add a mellower grind, that is good for bass. I had a Timmy pedal that I liked during the short period I played guitar. My son really liked that pedal, so I gave it to him.

If you happen to have any ideas about a relatively inexpensive pedal you think would be nice using those two amps, I would love to hear it. Thanks!
 
#6
I’ve never really used distortion fx for bass, except for a period of time where I used a full range mod rangemaster pedal for grit/eq.

I play a very high output passive g&L bass through amps that will drive if I play hard and stay clean if I play lighter. I have really liked the drive/dirt of my GK 400rb, SVT-CL and last in line, my current vintage V4-B.

This probably works for me because I like a tight low end and clarity elsewhere in the freq range.
 
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#7
I am not very experienced, as is probably obvious. Regarding the PF-50T, I don't know if you are a lot better off using a pedal rather than pushing the tubes on an everyday basis? I would guess that shortens the life of the tubes significantly? Maybe you play with the gain at 50%, and let the pedal do the rest of the work?
 
#11
@Peter - Oregon you’ll likely do well to get a Boss LS-2 or any other blend pedal so you can clean-blend any dirt/drive/grit pedal and preserve your low end & attack.

Fishman’s AFX Pocket Blender looks like a viable alternative but doesn’t get written about here much… it might be not so good?
 
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#12
Since I am basically emulating Traynor 50/120B sound with my overdrive and use the same settings in rare occasions where I play the actual Traynor heads, the answer is yes.
It's not the same with other amps, for instance most Ampeg heads/pre's really do not fit my playing style (a lot of chords etc) and to me it sounds like it's falling apart, very unclear and mushy.


So the short answer is if the amp is a Hiwatt, Orange, Traynor etc I will crank the gain knob and will probably like it (depends on the model), but for some other amp styles I probably won't like what they do and will use either their clean sound or plug my preamp into their FX loop return input.
 
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#14
Peter - Oregon said:
I remember a post about you getting that. Is it everything you hoped?
Click to expand...
I only have it for a few weeks, and only giged it once, but for the moment it exceeds my expectations (although I dreamed about it for 3 years before jumping in, so my expectations were high). I may write a review one day, but I still have a lot to explore, because this tiny beast is very versatile and flexible. Also I'm still in my honeymoon period, I prefer to wait until I have more perspective. All I can say right now is that it's tiny and lightweight (4.2 kg!), it sounds great, and it's much louder than I thought it would be - I thought I would only use it at home and bar gigs, and when I tried in front of a 100+ audience I only needed to set the gain at 10 o'clock and the master at 9.

My biggest surprise was the "heft" and "slam". I thought you needed the big and heavy transformers to get that, but it really slams in spite of its size and weight. Heavy sound without the kilos.
 
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#16
Peter - Oregon said:
I know there are a lot of threads on here about overdrive and distortion pedals. I am curious regarding people that are happy with the overdrive they get from their amp(s). Do you have a favorite pedal that gives you just a bit extra, and the tone that's yours, or do you love the amps tone just the way it is?
Click to expand...
I have a pair of Darkglass heads with onboard distortion: they sound great clean or dirty.

I also own a pair of Reiner heads that have all-tube preamps. They sound great clean, and also with the preamp tubes overdriven. But for rock I use distortion pedals in front, for extra grind.

My favorite amp was a 70s SVT because of how it sounded when the power tubes began to clip, but I didn't often get to play it that loud. With solid state tube emulation I can get that Just Right overdrive/distortion level at any volume.
 
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#17
Peter - Oregon said:
I have an Ampeg PF-50T (which breaks up nicely) and a Mesa D-350. I own a bass deluxe Big Muff, and a Ratt pedal. I admittedly have not read the threads that must be out there. I am looking for more of an overdrive, I guess, that would add a mellower grind, that is good for bass. I had a Timmy pedal that I liked during the short period I played guitar. My son really liked that pedal, so I gave it to him.

If you happen to have any ideas about a relatively inexpensive pedal you think would be nice using those two amps, I would love to hear it. Thanks!
Click to expand...
You might consider one of these.


Although I’m not a big pedal person and pretty much rely on the amp’s gain structure (SVT, Mesa Carbine, Mesa TT 800) for drive. I occasionally use an EH Big Muff Pi for specific tones.
 
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#19
I started wanting a bit of tube dirt, so I aquired the YYZ pedal. It was nice till I got the all tube VHT. It has the gain control my Ampeg v4b didn't. This made all the difference in adding grit/grind/distortion.

The VHT has a clipper circuit, so it's capable of a very distorted sound.
Wanting control of that was a design choice I made on the amp I designed.

My current prototype build is a hybrid of the VHT preamp topology and 700W ICEpower module. With preamp enhancements, it has even more control of grit shaping.
 
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