Hi all,

My situation is this, i play guitar in a rock band, nothing too heavy, probably extends about as heavy as some deep purple and goes about as light as some arctic monkeys. I play a MIM strat mostly. Due to the nature of transport and gigs in general around london i rarely get to use my own amp, so have been trying to get the perfect pedal set up so i can plug into any amp thats going at the venue we play and get the sound i want. I have found the strat is the most versatile guitar for this, and my trusty boss sd1 generally gets me enough of a searing volume boost for solos, BUT im struggling to find a pedal that will give me a nice amp sounding distortion that i can use effectively as my `crunch` channel. Everything i try seems to be good for riffs, or good for solo`s (eg. big muff, tube screamer etc), but im struggling to find anything that sounds nice with chords and rhythm work, or the riffs where the whole band is playing together, rather than me jumping out in front (sonically speaking!!).

Any recommendations? Ive been considering trying the sansamp GT2.

Thought it worth posting here as there seems to be some impressive amount of tech know how going on in some of the posts, and also I have found that some pedals work with my les paul for example, but not nearly as well with the strat. So im particularly interested in a pedal that’s suitable for single coil guitars. If it was emulating a particular amp then I would probably choose something like a marshall jcm900 on the crunch channel with the gain on about ¼.

Thanks.

Olly

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`I prefer not to listen to music that I can't rip off or improve on` - Ian Dury

vox britboost.

I just played the new mxr custom badass 78 on a fender hrd with my strat last night, it was great! If I am using Marshall ( which I usually am ) I have a modded sd1 or a custom clean boost built by the same person that is to die for.

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— did that sound like something?

Just having the challenge of various set-ups renders the pedal suggestion to impossibility.
Isn't there any way that you can have your own gear..
I find just having to dial in a strange amp a big enough nightmare, let alone while the audience is listening....and...

How small or large are the venues..
An adequately sized small tube/valve amp that you can push to 90% would give you all the distortion you want, will sound natural, is controllable with just the guitar's vol./tone controls and your string attack.

I was just listening to a friend's band the other night, and again I was reminded that digital distortion just does not sound pleasant in a small club, it just has that synthetic dry sound.
Sort of like the difference in the sound of water flowing and falling over rocks versus sand flowing and falling over rocks.

I'm a purist when it comes to sound, a well balanced ( amp size to venue size ) driven tube amp matched to the player and his/her gear outperforms any peripheral noise boxes.
Please excuse if I sound a bit arrogant, but when you dial in your own sound, it develops it's own nuances which then identifies you, very much like a signature.
My suggestion is to keep the gear to an absolute minimum, there is enough static and electrical interference noise, additional cables and gadgets just multiply the problem.
Especially in your case where you are battling a new piece of equipment which is 50% of your rig... I would seriously rethink the amp/transportation variable to a controllable situation.

Good Luck..

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"C'est parti mon Kiki "

I agree with above, but just to cut to the chase, try a the Blackstar pedals.

Good luck!

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Being able to play and enjoy music is a gift that's often taken for granted.

Don't leave home without it!

thanks guys. I`ll see if i can get down to a good stompbox shop and try the ones you suggested.

magnatone, you are speaking my language! Ideally i want to end up with a small enough amp that i can lug it to all these lil gigs. At this stage in the bands journey its mostly venues ranging from 100 to 400 capacity. Ive always preferred using an amp to get my tone and only using pedals for effects, boosters and tuners, but im finding myself forced into this distortion pedal hunt just by the amount of gigs where its a) difficult to get the gear down there on public transport (when we`re not getting enough of a fee to warrant van hire) and b) seems to cause bad feeling from other bands when everyone turns up with their own gear. I must admit ifve found this frustrating as well when some pretty poor bands turn up with a whole `pink floyd live` type backline for a small club gig when their first on!

Ive started to get a bit cocky and try to convince myself i can make most amp set ups sound like me, and have enjoyed strolling up and making someone elses amp sound better than them without hardly any changes, but as you can imagine, this approach has backfired a few times!! Ive considered trying something like the epiphone valve junior amo so i can carry it to a gig on the underground, but havent taken the plunge yet!

So to conclude, you are right of course. Im severely doubting the magic pedal im searching for exists, or even could exist!

Interestingly, well, interesting for me anyway, unsure if its of interest to anyone else, but hey... My main amp is an old yamaha G100II head through a marshall 4x12 cab. I found that despite it being a battered old transister, it just had the tone i had been looking for.

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`I prefer not to listen to music that I can't rip off or improve on` - Ian Dury

Just out of curiosity, I'm reading on this thread the mention's of a 100 Wattage.. for an amp....
Really ( to me ) that is serious overkill,
Whenever I see M. Cutler and the Schemer's, Mark is playing thru a 60 Watt Deville and that in a 200 to 400 capacity club is often too loud.
I find my 40 Watt Fender B/T HRD a lot too handle and have seriously considered downsizing to the Blues Junior. I don't need that kind of power for the moment ( may in the future so I'll keep it ).

It's difficult to assess from a forum standpoint, but I would suggest looking into an amp with variable wattage, say from 15 to 60 Watts, that would optimally give you a lot of leeway in as far as venue size and the ability to raise or lower the volume while still retaining control of your sound parameters.
There are quite a few people building amps for very affordable prices. Up in this neck of the woods a friend of ours who also happens to be an electrical engineer builds his own amp's and uses them every Monday night gig as the house combo.
I think it would be less than $500.00 for him to build me an amp to my preference's, I won't say specs as I do not know enough about circuits to suggest components. I just know what I'm looking for soundwise.
Such a small amp would be easily transportable on public transit. An amp does not have to be big to be effective, Bose disproved that myth.
Since ease of transportation seems to be the critical junction, that would be an avenue worth looking into.
I'm not understanding the bad feelings from other bands if you bring your own gear. I thought that was the whole point. Perhaps reducing the number of gigs on a basis of quality would allow more freedom in the gear dept.
If you are refering to Open Mic. or Blues Jams, I have found those to be....shall we say Cacaphonous when so many are playing thru borrowed gear..

Personally, I dislike walking into a Jam or Open mic and having to walk/run right back out because the sound is just awful...Or the band is inaudible..But...

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"C'est parti mon Kiki "

Olly... THIS



3 channels of exactly what you want in a pedal. Better sounds than anything I've heard. Hotrox has em in stock.
http://www.hotroxuk.com/carl-martin-plexitone-11590-0.html

Guitar to input, output to effects return. No need for anything else. Certainly don't sully the sound by putting it into the front end of a amp.

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No no and no

If this is even half as good as the other Carl Martin gizmos, than I would
agree. He brings some great quality units to market.

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Being able to play and enjoy music is a gift that's often taken for granted.

Don't leave home without it!

Mike as you know, I'm a complete cheapskate when it comes to effects. I won't pay out for em. I know what they cost to make (thereabouts) and it galls me to pay mucho spondoolicks for something that costs £30 to make. The most expensive pedal I used was my wah. Non of the others cost me more than £30.
However once I tried that Plexitone, I had to have one. What I really like about it is the punchy bass end. It tracks really well, even at high gain it's super defined.

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No no and no

I hear ya Nik and if this is any indication, it's a screamer :

http://youtu.be/Sw9Z_RgQoXc

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Being able to play and enjoy music is a gift that's often taken for granted.

Don't leave home without it!

Olly-

I don't know if you're anywhere near a Guitar Center, but the MXR M-66 Classic Overdrive is killer...plus, there's an easy modification that you can find online that makes it have two personalities.

Stock setting sounds like an MXR GT-OD, the second setting sounds like an MXR Zakk Wylde overdrive (I'm not necessarily a fan of Mr. Wylde, but I like this setting quite a bit).

I recommend you check this pedal out--plus, it's only $40.

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Good Vibes To Y'all!



Screamin' Armadillos
Texas Roadhouse Music
Guitar/Slide Guitar/Harp/Vocals

Yeah thats pretty accurate. Though unity volume is at about 10 o'clock. I wish he'd show off the tone control a bit. Mine has never been above 12 o'clock. The bass sound of the thing is huge, and as I said before it never mushes up. Not even with the tone on minimum and high gain on full.
I use my crunch channel with a lot less gain than that. It really does a great redhouse/can you see me sound. No distortion, just that soul searing attack.
Turn the drive up on the crunch channel and it's Sabbath/Purple sound. The crunch channels drive on minimum is a clean boost. So you can set it as a clean boost at one level to overdrive your amp, then kick the 20db boost on for more or less boost.

If I had a quibble (and this is very minor given the 20db boost option) its that the high gain doesnt have it's own volume. It doesn't boost volume for solos when compared to the crunch channel. So if you want a more driven lead sound you have to hit two buttons. The select and boost buttons.

So hard done by eh?

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No no and no

53

Nah mate he's in the UK. We have it loud round here. I used to gig two JCM800 100watters. One covering bass sounds the other covering treble sound. Before then when speaker cabs were supplied it was a POD into a 160 watt stereo power amp running stereo.

I mean, come on. Whats the point in 100watt amps existing unless you're going to use a few of em at the same time?

Sorry mate theres something about that concussive thump to the chest cavity when you hit a chord that you won't find anywhere else other than a stack (or two )


I hasten to add that these days I find my 18watter too loud. So took my class5 to rehearsal yesterday. My sound is clean 90% of the time. It handled it fine, we don't rehearse quietly either. Own premises, new drummer etc.

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No no and no

Hi ollyclam: frankly, the PlexiTone pedal Nick suggests will meet your requirements as perfectly as can be, if you really can't take your own amp with you.

But I just wanted to echo this thought as well:

(At the risk of boring those who've heard it before) I use a Blackstar HT-Dual pedal to give my practice rig the Marshally flavour of my grown-up amp. Clean-to-crunch-to-medium drive is my range of sounds and it appears that's what you are after too. The HT-Dual pedal has two foot switches: one side can be set to anything between clean boost and good ol' '70s crunchy drive: the other side picks up where that leaves off and does drive to distortion sounds for your lead requirements.

People argue about the value of valves/tubes in pedals, but for what it's worth it has an ECC83/12AX7 valve in there which perhaps helps give the thing some of the feel of a valve amp even if you are forced to pipe it through a solid state one. That's the theory, anyhow.

If the HT-Dual has an advantage over the Carl Martin it is that you can set up the gain and level of each channel separately, which you might feel gives you the opportunity to have largely dialed in your sound before you even arrive at the venue, leaving just some tweaking to be done with the unfamiliar rig you will be plugging into. The ISF knob may help you adapt to the variety of amps you have to play through too.

At the least, well worth a try out, I'd have thought.

I notice that stockists in London include Ivor Mairants and Rock Stop in the centre of town, and also Wembley Guitar Centre if you're up that way. Or I had mine from Charlie Chandler's Guitar Experience way out west (long way from where I live). The prices on these particular pedals seem absolutely fixed no matter where you buy them, so no need to waste time shopping around if you decide to plump for one.

(Haha: beginning to sound like sales patter, isn't it? I am in no way affiliated... etc, etc. )

Good luck - C

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