Amp overdrive or Pedal Overdrive?

[FF71]

Do you prefer getting your overdrive or distortion from the amp? Or do you prefer getting overdrive off a guitar pedal? For everyone who uses an overdrive pedal with your favourite amps. What overdrive pedal do you use and why?

Please specify which overdrive/dirt pedal and what amp.

 

[TeletoneH137]

Used to be pedals all day long. Now I prefer simplicity (pedals distract me while performing I found) and drive from the amp. Use my guitar volume for all shades of gain.

 

[Figaro]

I prefer having a combination of amp and pedal overdrives available.

 

[HoboMan]

I prefer having a combination of amp and pedal overdrives available.

Same here.
I like to have my amps (Budda Superdrives & Splawn Supersport) gain set to medium for a good classic rock crunch (AC/DC) and hit my Ibanez TS10 for more gain.

 

[nolenuttt]

Depends-Playing at home, loves 'dem pedals-Gigging, amp distortion and the guitar's volume knob is the best...

 

[SteveO]

Yes

 

[Guinness Lad]

When I use the right amp pedals are pointless.

 

[sleewell]

Tried many combinations. Best so far:

Fuchs viper + keeley ts9dx


Amp set to crunchy. Boost as needed, no gain and volume maxed. Volume knob on guitar for cleans.

 

[67super]

I prefer having a combination of amp and pedal overdrives available.

Ditto

I have an OCD, tubescreamer and P3 David Barber. I primary use a 1968 DR and a 68 Custom Deluxe.

 

[Figaro]

It also depends on how versatile you like or need your overdrive to be.

 

[Rumble5]

Amp only. I don't buy vintage tube amps only to put a box with diodes in front of them.

 

[Dave_C]

Do you prefer getting your overdrive or distortion from the amp? Or do you prefer getting overdrive off a guitar pedal? For everyone who uses an overdrive pedal with your favourite amps. What overdrive pedal do you use and why?

Please specify which overdrive/dirt pedal and what amp.

BOTH, just like Jimi, Stevie, EJ and countless others whose tones we all idolize. You don't have a category for that very popular approach. I use a Jetter GSR with my bridge HB and BB Preamps with my SCs for various degrees of OD and level boost. Crank a Germino Monterey or Dr. Z M12 or Maz 18 Jr NR or Allen Accomplice to max clean volume through a Power Station and overdrive the amp to blend pedal and amp distortion.

 

[Dave_C]

Amp only. I don't buy vintage tube amps only to put a box with diodes in front of them.

I guess guys like Jimi Hendrix, Stevie Ray Vaughn and Eric Johnson (to name but a few of hundreds) didn't get your memo!

 

[bloomz]

Do you see many pro players without a pedal board?

If they're plugged straight into the amp my guess is there's backline PA processing going on.

 

[Echoplexi]

If I have to choose one I'd say amp but there are a ton of killer pedals around now so you could easily get by with those.

Can we have a side topic of which amps are favorites for overdrive without the need for a pedal to get where you need? My vote slo 100

 

[cyrja]

Great question. I've been bothered by this lately. I run a Zendrive into a RedPlate BV88 (D-style amp). Many times the pedal sounds better than the amp's OD, especially at lower volume.

The ZD is heavier in the mids than the amp. The amp is clearer and has a more broad frequency range. Both are great and useable for different tunes.

Running the Zendrive > Klone > T1M Volume allows for saturated tones at reasonable volume or high volume. The amp excels at note definition at higher volume on the OD side. YMMV, but the flexibility of getting a good OD sound at any volume is an awesome tool. Both have their place

 

[michael patrick]

Both.

 

[Rumble5]

I guess guys like Jimi Hendrix, Stevie Ray Vaughn and Eric Johnson (to name but a few of hundreds) didn't get your memo!

Not a fan at all of two of those three so I wouldn't look to them for guidance on tone or technique. But did you see somewhere where I said anything about how other people should set up their rigs?

 

[8len8]

Really old debate.

I prefer a slightly distorted amp with a clean boost to push it over the edge.

 

[broken_sound]

If I had to choose one over the other, I've always preferred amp drive over pedals because the clipping that pedals give is slightly too smooth for my taste. That being said I have a D*A*M Sonic Titan on it's way and I'm interested to see how that drive stacks up against my OR50.

But TBH who doesn't love the sound of a broken up amp being driven by some dirt?