For you heavy gain amp users, Please help me understand this...

[Songman]

I have owned several nice amps in the past but most of them excelled in clean department and got my crunch thru pedals.

Having said, I see many Mesa, Soldano, Marshall, etc etc high gain amp lovers on this forum and never understood why that route...

I mean why not just get an amp that does great cleans and use the pedal for all your crunch???

I'm sure there are really good reasons for this and perhaps can better understand if I have every played one of those.

So why?

 

[Wizard of Ozz]

It doesn't sound the same. Not even close.

 

[stephen sawall]

Because ..... if you ask me pedals sound like crap compared to tubes and the dynamic's.

I do use pedals and like the sounds .... but they are not even close to all tube in my ears.

It is only a matter of taste.

 

[Flameout12]

You can't get the same sound and dymanics thru pedals. I have amps with clean channels and pedals...every now and then I play around with them together. It's just not the same...especially if you've been playing tube amps for a long time.

 

[Hendog]

It doesn't sound the same. Not even close.

Bingo

 

[suhrbrutal]

I use Tube distortion, Distortion pedals, and overdrive pedals. They each have their place. Pedals by themselves cannot get the brutality needed for metal.

 

[Mcclassic]

Pedals can be good but no comparison...

 

[uberpict]

Dynamics, harmonics and low end grunt; pedals always seem lacking these three things but the right cranked amp (pre and power amp) just has all three in spades. I'm not a big fan of pre-amp only overdrive, to me it just sounds better when the whole amp is pushed over or almost over the edge. It's really not about the tone (sound, actually) itself but the feel and control over the sound.

 

[GT100]

Dynamics, harmonics and low end grunt; pedals always seem lacking these three things but the right cranked amp (pre and power amp) just has all three in spades. I'm not a big fan of pre-amp only overdrive, to me it just sounds better when the whole amp is pushed over or almost over the edge. It's really not about the tone (sound, actually) itself but the feel and control over the sound.

This guy has the best answer.
Pedals seem to notch out the low-end.
They compress even more than tubes under high distortion -some like this but I don't.
The tone of tubes is better to my ears.

Also just cause an amp sounds great clean doesn't mean that if you add some distortion it's still going to sound great -considering distortion adds harmonics (highs). Really you need more mids for higher gain sounds to balance out the sound. That's why gain channels of amps don't sound great when dialed clean...

 

[onadlos]

The sound from an SLO is unlike anything I've heard from any amp. Even the GTO pedal through another Soldano cannot get you there; close, but no cigar. They do what they are designed to do. And they do it well!

 

[markw1980]

I have never met a pedal that could get me close to my sound if used through a clean amp. I don't use crap-loads of gain, but the touch, tone, and feel is just different when you are playing through a cranked tube amp.

 

[chunkomatic]

LOL! great troll!

 

[re-animator]

hey clean amp users.... why not play high gain amps and turn the gain down?

 

[tennisplayer]

Because pedals are fake. A little metal box for $39.95 full of transistors trying to sound like a cranked tube amp.

 

[James BCM]

Plug and play is what it is all about.

Pedals just get in the way of pure tone. Any amp worth its salt should stand by itself without any outside help. If you can't set a 12 o'clock eq, work the guitar volume like you want, and get great tones, clean or dirty, then I'll pass on that amp.

For me the greatest in your face guitar tones would be Paul Kossof of "Free" with his 59' LP and vintage Marshalls, or good ole Jimi playing his Strat through hi Marshall stack. No pedals, no techs, no switchers, just guitar, cable, amp. Doesn't get any better than that.

LB
BCM

 

[tennisplayer]

Plug and play is what it is all about.

Pedals just get in the way of pure tone. Any amp worth its salt should stand by itself without any outside help. If you can't set a 12 o'clock eq, work the guitar volume like you want, and get great tones, clean or dirty, then I'll pass on that amp.

For me the greatest in your face guitar tones would be Paul Kossof of "Free" with his 59' LP and vintage Marshalls, or good ole Jimi playing his Strat through hi Marshall stack. No pedals, no techs, no switchers, just guitar, cable, amp. Doesn't get any better than that.

LB
BCM

This!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[dughaze]

To make the opposite point I never understood the "great cleans" thing. Well, I understand it but I don't want it. I start with whether the crunch is good on an amp and the clean part of the amp is as important as if the amp has tolex or not. Almost all of them do and it's good enough. If it doesn't it's probably a hardwood Mesa and kills everything in it's path and I'm good there too.

 

[re-animator]

i never quite understood the concept of "good" cleans coming from an amp. the only real variables coming from the amp are the EQ and compression. so much more of the perceived clean sound comes from the speakers and cab.

 

[natemeanie]

Well... You could buy a really nice Honda Civic and spend thousands of dollars adding turbochargers, new exhaust, and a racing chip.... Or just buy a sports car.

 

[telelion]

i never quite understood the concept of "good" cleans coming from an amp. the only real variables coming from the amp are the EQ and compression. so much more of the perceived clean sound comes from the speakers and cab.

Maybe I misunderstand your angle but I disagree in the sense that if you want BF clean for instance nothing is going to give you that except an amp of that variety and that is the amp doing the tone. That is what good clean is in so many players minds and indespensible to them. Not rolled back gain amps for sure. However I am not in the camp that says an amp(channel switcher) can't do both but the good channel switcher gain will beat out the pedal.

I agree that the best in show of each flavor of gain will (with no doubt some exception based on application) always be better with an amp IMO. Problem is, to state the obvious, is that for those who need a one amp setup and need a large variety of tones at their disposal, pedals though a compromise, come to the rescue.