Help me complete my rig!

[judsonabts]

I'm trying to get a heavier overdrive sound from from my rig—I tend to really like recordings of Matchless amplifiers.

My current setup gets incredible cleans, and slight overdrive, but has bad heavier overdriven tones. Maybe its my settings or pedal order? Maybe its replacing a pedal

In general I play fairly clean, U2/Coldplay/Radiohead kind of sounds.

I play a Gibson 335, Tele or Strat

Digitech Whammy (original modded for true bypass) -> Turbo Tuner -> analogman mini bi-comp (I always leave on)-> Turbo Rat -> Timmy -> Hilton Volume Pedal -> Z Vex Super Duper 2 in 1 (boost that I almost always leave on) -> Blackstone Effectors Whetstone Phaser -> Ibanez AD80 Analog Delay -> Empress Super Delay

into a Tone King Meteor II 2x12 (think blackface fender sound)

Any ideas on where I am going wrong with this rig? Pedal order? Replacing the Rat with something boutiquey to match the rest of it?

[Tube Guy]

I'm not familiar with the TK but the key to getting great OD tones with a blackface amp is all about getting the right complementary mids.

So, for example, I find a Menatone Dirty Blonde or a Keeler Pull better than a Tim even though they're doing the same kind of dirty-rhythm thing (the Tim has higher mids).

Similarly I prefer a Hoochie Mama to a KOTV4, and a Smoky Signal 34 to a Smoky Signal 84.

Best of all, a Kingsley Jester will get you all these tones up to a medium OD level because you can dial in the perfect amount of mids by running the mid-boosted boost section in conjunction with the OD.

[theGhost]

Although you could probably use a better pedal specifically designed for a really heavy tone, I would imagine that a large part of your problem would be your guitar/pickups.

those guitars, especially when they don't have pickups intended for heavier use, typically sounds pretty farty/mushy/undefined when trying to play something very heavy. You could look into that...

[judsonabts]

Originally Posted by theGhost

Although you could probably use a better pedal specifically designed for a really heavy tone, I would imagine that a large part of your problem would be your guitar/pickups.

those guitars, especially when they don't have pickups intended for heavier use, typically sounds pretty farty/mushy/undefined when trying to play something very heavy. You could look into that...

i never thought about that

i always thought humbuckers were better for chords and heavier stuff

i'm going to see how my strat or tele compares for heavier songs

i also have some les paul from 70s that seems heavily modded for heavier playing

[judsonabts]

Originally Posted by Tube Guy

I'm not familiar with the TK but the key to getting great OD tones with a blackface amp is all about getting the right complementary mids.

So, for example, I find a Menatone Dirty Blonde or a Keeler Pull better than a Tim even though they're doing the same kind of dirty-rhythm thing (the Tim has higher mids).

Similarly I prefer a Hoochie Mama to a KOTV4, and a Smoky Signal 34 to a Smoky Signal 84.

Best of all, a Kingsley Jester will get you all these tones up to a medium OD level because you can dial in the perfect amount of mids by running the mid-boosted boost section in conjunction with the OD.

hmmm i spent all that money on that damn timmy!

ok, so i'm going to work with my distortions a bit... frustrating—buying all this top end stuff and not really knowing how to use it

[theanalogdream]

Try the analogman King of Tone V4 with a high gain mod! I use a clean amp and play similar music, and find that with one or both channels on it just roars! I use a timmy and Klon as well on the board

[judsonabts]

Originally Posted by theanalogdream

Try the analogman King of Tone V4 with a high gain mod! I use a clean amp and play similar music, and find that with one or both channels on it just roars! I use a timmy and Klon as well on the board

always been happy with analogman stuff

may give that shot..may have to sell super duper 2 in 1 to afford