Question for SIB fatdrive users

[J.Wolf]

I'm having a hard time getting much drive out of mine. Plenty of warmth and bottom, but no matter how much I crank the drive knob, it never breaks up at all, stays clean.

Its a great pedal and I use it alot to warm up my Lakland DJ, but I would like to be able to get a bit of grit out of it.

I'm wondering if swapping the tube would help? Anyone have any advice for me, (besides "get another pedal")?

 

[grovest]

That looks like a cool pedal, thanks for bringing it up. Swapping tubes could make a difference.

You write, "but no matter how much I crank the drive knob, it never breaks up at all, stays clean." But when I read about your pedal at [Invalid or Expired Link Removed], it specifically says, "The FATDRIVE is a clean tube preamp which can serve to bulldoze or overload the input of any amp or desk." In other words, I don't think this can do what you want.

The original intent in the tube-amp / guitar world of an overdrive was just to add enough gain to distort the amp. It wasn't actually meant for the pedal itself to breakup the signal.

Maybe this is useful information.... (?)

 

[J.Wolf]

Thanks for the reply grovest. I have tried a couple different tubes, but never really achieved what I was after.

I did a little searching and found this thread in which folks seem to have no problem getting "drive" from their fatdrive (as opposed to a bunch of gain to get drive from an overloaded amp/desk input).

Not sure why I'm not getting any grit out of mine, I tried a 12AX7LPS, a JJ, and a 12AX7EH, all with similar results.