Tried something different with my rig tonight

[EastCoastRocker]

I normally run my Coyote cranked (or with a bit of power dampening if need be.)

Between that setting and ridding the guitar volume/tone/pickups I get a pretty versatile pallet to choose from. I'll switch between low sensitivity and high sensitivity inputs if I want more variety. I almost never use anything in from of the amp. If I want hi gain I'll use another amp.

I will at times set the amp to the edge of breakup (instead of balls to the walls), and I'll add a gentle boost to get some extra edge. I'll ride the guitar controls, and I'll only kick in the pedal as needed.

So tonight, I had the Coyote gained up high using the high sensitivity input with a Les Paul. But this time I put my OCD v1 in front of it, and I set the OCD to about twice my normal boost, and I also dialed in a decent amount of drive. I kept the pedal in LP mode.

Hot Dang!
Not only did I have so much gain on tap that my Bluedog was begging for mercy,
But it stayed articulate and cleaned up so well with the guitar controls that I still can't believe it!

I left the pedal engaged at all times. I went from Metallica to GNR to classic rock to so clean when I dialed the guitar back and picked gently that I started playing "Peggy Sue". I actually was laughing out loud at that point!

I jammed for over an hour and I was in tweaker's heaven riding those guitar controls with the pedal always engaged. I was just mesmerized by the range of tones and gain that I had.

I know that Jimmy Hendrix and Robin Trower both did that with pedals.
(Jimmy had a fuzz face, Robin uses a custom voiced OCD)

I never felt the urge to try that with my rig until tonight.
Boy was that a treat!

Does anyone else drive the amp hard,leave a boost/distortion/OD always engaged and ride that rig for all it's worth?
If not, try it and let me know what you think. I'm glad I did.

 

[effectsman]

I do that with my Crunchbox into my Mojave Plexi45. Using the volume knob on the guitar can get all sorts of shades between clean and scream.

Much as people go on about preamp gain sounding less desirable than power amp gain, there is something magic sounding about the right pedal slamming the preamp of a well designed lowish gain amp circuit.

 

[Gemini2]

I use an attenuator to get my loud Scorpion up half way volume wise. Then I slam the front end with a clean boost (boost n buff) pedal. I actually like this set up better vs pushing the amp to 8-10 with the attenuator alone. My other OD pedals have been taking a rest.

Don't get me wrong, it's a blast to crank the Scorpion. Problem is the one trick pony syndrome dosen't work for what I do.

 

[EastCoastRocker]

I do that with my Crunchbox into my Mojave Plexi45. Using the volume knob on the guitar can get all sorts of shades between clean and scream.

Much as people go on about preamp gain sounding less desirable than power amp gain, there is something magic sounding about the right pedal slamming the preamp of a well designed lowish gain amp circuit.

Amen to that brother!

And it seems like a small change.Instead of setting the amp to the edge of breakup and turning on the pedal as needed for boost, I drove the amp into tube distortion AND I used the pedal to drive the crap out of it.

You'd think that it would be noisey and unstable like that but it was like a turbo charged race car.
Over the top gain when I wanted it and behaving when I throttled it back.

So yet another trick for my "one trick pony"....
I always said that those mojave's took pedals well but that was insane.

 

[EastCoastRocker]

I use an attenuator to get my loud Scorpion up half way volume wise. Then I slam the front end with a clean boost (boost n buff) pedal. I actually like this set up better vs pushing the amp to 8-10 with the attenuator alone. My other OD pedals have been taking a rest.

Don't get me wrong, it's a blast to crank the Scorpion. Problem is the one trick pony syndrome dosen't work for what I do.

That's the way that I generally run my sidewinder, but no attenuator other than maybe a bit of power dampening. I set the amp to the edge of distortion on the low sensitivity input, clean to grind with the guitar volume. The Hi sensitivity input is much the same, just a more aggressive tone with more gain on tap.

It's a common setup with many players on this forum that own old school style amps.
Just kick in the boost as needed to get that extra "push over the cliff".
This time I just flat out drove off the cliff and found out that I could fly!

Since you guys are Mojave guys, one of the settings that helped make this setup
Usable was to use the mid cut switch. It really kept the articulation in tact.

And yes, I could run the amp with the mid boost in, but I already had so much gain and aggression dialed in
that it was just overkill. And at that point when pushed to the max the Weber started to get unstable.

Now to try that with sidewinder...

 

[Gemini2]

Since you guys are Mojave guys, one of the settings that helped make this setup
Usable was to use the mid cut switch. It really kept the articulation in tact.

And yes, I could run the amp with the mid boost in, but I already had so much gain and aggression dialed in
that it was just overkill. And at that point when pushed to the max the Weber started to get unstable.

Now to try that with sidewinder...

My Scorpion doesn't have the mid boost feature like some others I've read about. Funny thing is I have to get the low-mid knob up pretty high to make the amp come alive. Here are my settings into the low input:

Bass 7
Low Mid 8
High Mid 9
Treble 5
Bass Vol 2
Treble Vol 5

I noticed the magic is in the middle and presence knob. Have to watch the treble knob though.

 

[Silent Sound]

I have a TS9 as my "always on" pedal. I've got it in a pedal loop and I will occasionally switch the loop over to my Big Muff (for heavy stuff), but 90% of the time, I'm just going through the TS9. I've got a bunch of different amps that I'll run it into, and they sound different and react a bit differently, but I play them all the same way. I like to have the TS9 set up as a EQ booster with little or no drive, EQ set to taste, and the volume cranked to max.

Unlike you, however, I don't mess with my guitars volume or tone controls. Hell, I'll only touch the pickup selector in between songs. I prefer to control the volume and tone of my amps using picking techniques. The results are pretty similar, but I spent a lot of time with an acoustic when I was first learning, so that's become my preferred style. Want mild OD? Dig in hard! Want clean tones? Strum soft. Want a dark rhythm tone? Strum near the neck with the pick at a slight angle. Want a searing lead tone? Strum near the bridge with the pick held flat. I've also gotten really good at switching back an forth between fingers and pick mid song.

 

[EastCoastRocker]

I have a TS9 as my "always on" pedal. I've got it in a pedal loop and I will occasionally switch the loop over to my Big Muff (for heavy stuff), but 90% of the time, I'm just going through the TS9. I've got a bunch of different amps that I'll run it into, and they sound different and react a bit differently, but I play them all the same way. I like to have the TS9 set up as a EQ booster with little or no drive, EQ set to taste, and the volume cranked to max.

Unlike you, however, I don't mess with my guitars volume or tone controls. Hell, I'll only touch the pickup selector in between songs. I prefer to control the volume and tone of my amps using picking techniques. The results are pretty similar, but I spent a lot of time with an acoustic when I was first learning, so that's become my preferred style. Want mild OD? Dig in hard! Want clean tones? Strum soft. Want a dark rhythm tone? Strum near the neck with the pick at a slight angle. Want a searing lead tone? Strum near the bridge with the pick held flat. I've also gotten really good at switching back an forth between fingers and pick mid song.

Very cool to heart that!

I get a similar result with pick attack, but maybe not quite as controlled and to the extent as you do. But that's how I got that "Peggy Sue" clean thing happening. A lot of it was touch dynamics.

In the old days, My pick attack was hard, very hard, and REALLY hard.
I've since started to add in medium, light, and soft.

I still need to work on very soft and _really_ soft. But I get so much tonal variation by rolling knobs and switching pickups that I don't think that I'll ever abandon it. For me, it's way to much fun.

I didn't know that the TS9 could clean up so well. I knew that the OCD v1 would clean up to some extent,
I just never knew that I could push it to such extremes like I did last night.

I used to use a boss OD, a Boss super distortion, and a TS back in the day.
I don't have the TS anymore. I'll have to see what the boss pedals can do.

Cheers,
ECR

 

[willie k]

The OCD does clean up nicely with the guitar volume control. Better than most, IMO. Now, just switch to '50s wiring and go from dirt to clean by rolling the volume control from 10 to 8.

 

[EastCoastRocker]

The OCD does clean up nicely with the guitar volume control. Better than most, IMO. Now, just switch to '50s wiring and go from dirt to clean by rolling the volume control from 10 to 8.

My Les Paul's are all 50's wiring

I always liked that OCD but it really impressed me the other night.
I mean I had the amp running damn near flat out, AND had boost and drive engaged. And the amp responded sooo well to it. I swear it seemed to like the abuse. I sure liked abusing it!