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Post subject: Pedals for Greta
Posted: Wed Dec 19, 2012 9:57 am
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Hi.

I've just moved from a Mustang 1 to a Greta, mainly because I live in an apartment with paper thin walls so can't make much noise but wanted a tube amp.

I need to know if pedals will make any difference with such a low powered amp/small speaker combination. I mainly play an American Tele but also my new Gretsch G5420T.

I've been looking at OCD type pedals but obviously the Greta breaks up pretty quickly anyway so I could use some advice from other owners as to whether or not it's worth getting any kind of pedal at all.

Thanks!


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Post subject: Re: Pedals for Greta
Posted: Wed Dec 19, 2012 11:38 am
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Your amp is designed to break up early and pedals will make that breakup happen earlier. You will get somewhat later breakup if you drive an external speaker, but that will also make it louder.

Your Mustang 1 sounds like it was a better choice given your apartment situation since you could use headphones. Tube amps are great, but if you're having volume problems with a 2 watt Greta... it won't get better with pedals. Instead, you'll get this "punished" tube sound that feels like your amp is dying. Great for some genres, not for most.

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Post subject: Re: Pedals for Greta
Posted: Wed Dec 19, 2012 12:50 pm
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Thanks.

The Greta volume is not a problem, it's not too loud and doesn't produce as much bass as the Mustang. The idea of using pedals was just to try and get some more varied tones.


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Post subject: Re: Pedals for Greta
Posted: Wed Dec 19, 2012 1:37 pm
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Got it.

With only 2 watts, the Greta doesn't have a lot (any) headroom, so it will be incredibly sensitive to any distrortion/overdrive/boost pedals in front of it.

Given how small the Greta is, best way to evaluate would be to bring it with you to a music store and try a few.

I have multiple overdrive pedals, but they don't all sound good on the same amps. My Keeley-modded TS9 is great on my Princeton Reverb, but sounds horrible on a Showman. Really a case of what's right for the amp.

FYI if you have an extension cab, that's what the Greta excells at - played it at NAMM through a 1x12 closed cab and it sounds great! good excuse to get one from Avantone or others on ebay...

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Our band: http://www.facebook.com/thetoysband


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Post subject: Re: Pedals for Greta
Posted: Wed Dec 19, 2012 2:00 pm
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My favorite pedal with my Greta so far is the Digitech Bad Monkey. It's funny because the Bad Monkey has been sitting in a drawer for over a year due to my love of the Fender SuperChamp X2 and a Fulltone OCD overdrive.

I like the match of the Bad Monkey and the greta because the greta can have a pretty harsh sounding overdrive with bridge humbuckers and with some Single Coils too. The Bad Monkey while giving you a boost has a smooth treble sound to it and gives your Single coils some fatness. It also smooths out the harshness of a bridge humbucker while still allowing you to get same good gain on your mids.

The beauty of the bad monkey is that you can find used ones for next to nothing on craigslist and at music stores. Mine was given to me by a guy who paid $15 for it.

I read a little blurb from a guy who loves using a Fulltone Plimsoul with his greta. I think he said that there is some sort of sustain control on the plimsoul that gives it a warm overdriven tone that he liked.

Hope that helps.


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Post subject: Re: Pedals for Greta
Posted: Wed Dec 19, 2012 4:26 pm
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If you like the sound of the greta through a cab and would like to give it that extra "push", the Paul C Tim has been a popular transparent OD for a while now. I don't see the point in using pedals through that small of an amp with a 4" speaker, but to each his own.


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Post subject: Re: Pedals for Greta
Posted: Thu Dec 20, 2012 8:09 pm
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Greta works very well with pedals. at least thats been my experience. here is recording i mmade using greta with the stock speaker and some pedals. it was all recorded on my iphone. there is a guitar solo in the middle that uses wah fuzz distortion and delay. i think it works jest fine.
https://soundcloud.com/andrew-robertson ... ing-hearts
does sound way good with a cab but dont rule out the little guy!
cheers


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Post subject: Re: Pedals for Greta
Posted: Fri Dec 21, 2012 12:31 am
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Thanks, that sounds really good. I'm impressed with both the sound of the Greta and the actual song,

00:30-00:50 reminds me of this http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ejQ7KxUeItY, in a good way, been driving me mad trying to think of the song!


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Post subject: Re: Pedals for Greta
Posted: Fri Dec 21, 2012 9:33 am
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Hey thanks man! I love me some DM so I'm not suprised if I accidently borrow from them sometimes! I've started using the Greta's little speaker for recording cuz right now the only multitracker I have is on my iPhone and its really easy to overload the mic. But you can turn greta ip to 10 and still grab a clean recording without clipping. Ialso have a superchamp x2 but Greta is so fun I usem about 50/50. It's the same thing everyone says pretty much. You can get more tones out of different amps like blackstar and vht and stuff but for my personal preference I love the two knobs only. Volume controls distortion level and tone does its thing. Plug that thing into a 112 and whoah! I also like the fact that it has a preamp out. I have a tech 21 power engine 60 that when I combine the two I have greta at 60 watts. Loud enough for gigs and practice. Most amps nowadays have cabinet emulation on their lines out which In my opinion always sound like poo. Most good computer recording systems offer virtual amping with all the speaker cab options you can shake your cat at. So getting a pure signal from the preamp is fantastic. Only 2 tubes to worry about. My only complaint is the lack of a handle. I know the astetics might have suffered but come on its like holding a football. I'm waiting for fender to make a carry case for it( or more realistically I'm keeping my eyes open at thrift shops) anyways I was born rambling man....


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Post subject: Re: Pedals for Greta
Posted: Fri Dec 21, 2012 11:55 am
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You've just given me an idea talking about recording on your iPhone. I've just been playing with Garageband on my Macbook and outputting it to the instrument input on the Greta. If you turn off the amp model and noise gate then it sounds pretty good, at least to my ears.

Good to be able to mention DM on a guitar forum 8). Last time I saw them live, Martin Gore used at least 8 different guitars and he's the reason I recently bought my first Gretsch.


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Post subject: Re: Pedals for Greta
Posted: Fri Dec 21, 2012 1:10 pm
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TOTALLY! I've only seenem once but they killed. Especially with a live drummer. He had this silver sparkle gretsch that was one of the coolest looking guitars I've ever seen.


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