BOSS/JHS Angry Driver as wide O.D. compatibility, F Pedals Damn10 Distortion, and Silver Solo for boost that mediates pickups against amp inputs like a dynamic compressor
These are some of my top favourite I will not part with. Pepers pedals, Dirty Tree. Lichtlaerm audio, Aquaria. Deadweald audio, Duality DX. Kartakou amplification, Warmer. 🤘 Highwind Amplification, Direwolf MK2. Airis effects, Savage drive V4. Boss, SD-1. Airis effects, Parallel overdrive V2 Fulltone, OCD V1.4
Idk I have a pretty clean amp with a dirty channel, sounds good with a couple tubescreamers and a compressor. HEY MASON! If my effects loop has a buffer on the send (100ohm) and it runs first into a BBE SONIC STOMP with an output of 1Kohm, what type of volume pedal should I use after the sonic stomp? I am thrown off by the different impedances of the different pedals and none of them say 100ohm or 1Kohm. Just confused…
I have a Lehle Julian little helper, its a J fett overdrive, treble booster with adjustable mids and a presence control, it has 2 impedance selector, to mimic classic treble booster or to use it as buffer 1 mega ohm, and true bypass or buffer selection. It goes fantastic with low mid dist level plexis.
This is an excellent example of balancing a punchy amp Fuch ODS II, with Kingtone Dualist and a comp for authentic E.J. lead tone: czcams.com/video/XP_8MemotU4/video.html
@marbinmusic Nah, he didn't. We have to give Trevor credit for trying alternatives. That perfect drive pedal is out there for Trevor and he's got the amp to make happy times with that pedal. Trevor: Find a local guitar shop that'll let you demo, or borrow pedals to try before you buy. Most small shops will let you leave something as collateral at first, and then over time you build trust with the owner. Sweetwater & G.C. are cool because you can return/exchange stuff. Don't be ashamed, use those return policies to get where you're going! If you spend all your time with one sound and usually one genre of music, you'll get stuck. Seasons come and go as do amps, guitars and rigs. Then one day (decades later) you're back to where things started getting good. You learn over time that everything after that first real happy time tone was spent chasing something more. There is nothing more than what you love playing through, only different. If you simply look at gear as tools for the gig, then you'll figure out real fast what works that you like. If you don't have a band or gigs, always treat gear like you do.
Honestly that’s how we all did it back in the 80’s! Being “old-school” I still prefer this approach! The difference being you either had a Ibanez TS or a Boss SD1 and that was it as far as drives went.
Me too. It gives the most organic, dynamic control over the tone and breakup. These days I’m using an MXR Wylde od to boost my amps. It’s basically an SD-1 modded for a bit more bottom and a bit more gain. Sounds brilliant!
Dude can play and the tone is killer. I love this approach. 1/2 the gain comes from the amp and 1/2 from pedals. I totally agree. I feel like this gives me the flavor of the amp with less pronounced jumps in volume and tone from the pedals. Definitely my personal preference. Gets more particular with wet FX so it's not for everyone. Good stuff 👌
As I said earlier, it’s a valid approach but not the only one. My hero is Robben Ford, and he has stepped away from his Dumble and is now favoring small to medium Fender style amps with pedals, and sounds just as great as ever.
@joe larrivee I don't think you mentioned this stuff to me. Also, I don't think this is the "only way," but it is my way currently, and apparently, the guy in the video likes it, too. Last thing, Robben is amazing. He always sounds like him, and his tone is always epic. Just goes to show how incredible it is for a musician to make their sound so recognizable that they sound like themselves regardless of the gear. Merry Christmas bro, keep rockin 🤘
I really like Dani's controlled crazy driven dirty channel as opposed to just sheer madness and particularly the high notes as they sound so musical ... Great player and a master of Vertex SS and Ultraphonix pedal use. He is of course so right about the gain balance... Very useful video.
Cool video. I have been doing this for many years (playing over an amp on the edge of breakup), and I absolutely agree, not every pedal will sound good, it is a long way of trial and error looking for the right drive/distortion pedal. Another thing I have found is that when you are playing on the edge of breakup with pedals you QUICKLY run out of HEADROOM. So, for instance, if you are using already your favorite drive for rhythm/semi-lead during a song, and then comes a big SOLO, using a clean or mid-boost pedal after your drive will do NOTHING than add more gain, and probably the solo will not shine. So, you could turn down the gain of your amp a little to compensate, but this may change your already structured tone, and on the other hand, you could put your boost pedal in the FX LOOP, there you will get more volume (and not gain) when doing solos, keeping your headroom intact, the problem is that not every boost pedal will sound good in the fx loop, so you should get a boost pedal with a very good eq section. That is just my 2 cents.
As the wannabe-guitar-tech that I am I ALWAYS encourage all the guitarists that I have worked with to use their amps in the drive channel, get the gain pot wherever they want for clean and put a dirt pedal with more volume than distortion on it to get the best results (usually we only have a one channel amp with some drive built-in so I turn it on and lower it enough to get it on the edge of breakout and use the guitar pots to get adjust a little more)
I would put my Boss Super Overdrive through the crunch setting on my original Peavey 5150 and that was some of the best tones I ever got. It had more of a "brown" tonality to it.
That was awsome I keep hearing about clean amps for pedals I like to use my pedals on and off for different feels like with breK up and even with high gain on my Fender 2x12 I've deville I know now I'm not alone thanks for the support you're awsome.
Soul Driven by a landslide! Steel string for s close second. Those two seemed to keep the balance fatness and clarity. I suspect that most times, even if you start out "clean amp platform" style, you'll drift into the on-the-edge mode after a while anyway.
THANK YOU!!! I totally agree tube overdrive is a MUST!!! My main amps are early 70's metal panel JMP Super Leads (with a post phase inverter master lead volume control installed on all these heads) gigging with a band!!! Right now I use a DOD 250 and/or a Fulltone Full Drive 2 for extra dirt. I will get a Klon clone pedal next, as I liked the way the EHX Soulfood sounded with my amps.Those three pedals should handle nearly every dirty sound...except Eddie Van Halen (such a unique sound I would have to get a Suhr 100 watt head with the 90volt mod installed ) I have an MXR distortion plus, but sounds too muddy... so it is on the sideline. My Sovtek Big Muff sounds the best through a super clean high fidelity '65 Fender Deluxe non-reverb set to non breakup...not through my Marshall's! A Rangemaster clone (of Tony Iommi's modded one) would be nice to have. A EHX LPB-1 would be nice for Ace Frehley tone. It seemed to my ears every track your guest played sounded the same lol!!! Must be "it is in your hands" thing going on, or the same guitar he used, or the same backing track, or same eq on each pedal he used lol! Peace, respect, and love...
I'm glad you're tackling this. i struggle with this. I can't seem to use a dirty amp all of the time because i have to play at different volumes from show to show. Can't always get my amp up to 5. I end up using pedals for my slightly dirty cleans and i have gotten used to doing that always for simplicity sake. I agree that my boost/solo tones are always harsh as a result (as Marbin points out).
I think this is a valid point being made, but is being overstated. For one thing a lot of “pedal platform” amps don’t have that much headroom and can easily get to the edge of breakup and beyond. They also can be more compressed on their own as well. Using a fender twin as a pedal platform amp is impractical on so many levels that it shouldn’t have even been mentioned. For similar reasons a Marshall Plexi is not ideal for most people unless you’re Joe B or Eric Johnson and can play at or over 120 db. It’s all a question of balancing the guitar, amp and pedals to get the sound you want.
I play in a heavy post-hardcore band and I use a Tumnus as on always-on in front of a fairly dirty Mesa Tremoverb and use various ODs for gain staging.
Some clubs, you can't get the volume you want to push the amp or speakers into that nice natural break up zone. Someone will come out from behind the bar and say, "Hey! The guitar is too loud!" Or maybe one of your band mates might start moaning, or even the sound guy. You know how it is, right? So, when this happens, I use the gain stack approach. I run a couple of gain pedals on the board. Maybe a Lightspeed going into a Les Lius which is kinda nice. And, Mike Landau is the king of gain stacking.
The lowly DOD 250 is a perfect example of a pedal that generally does NOT sound good in a clean amp, but in the right already driving amp it can be magic! Muscular and firm, only giving in to some perfect compression when you really hit it....... perfect for live stage work, it cuts in the mix. Caveat is tho, I don't like the reissues, has to be an old yellow or Grey, or a modded to Grey specs reissue.
I rarely ever have my amp set totally clean, I actually get great results setting my amp gain to a light breakup but with the clipping diodes engaged and then using pedals to push it further while using my guitar volume to get my gain and feel where I need it. I’m really looking forward to trying some of the vertex pedals to explore more possibilities. One of the most useful things I’ve ever learned with gear is layering gain or saturation in multiple stages like this. Fantastic video 🤘
As a guy who's been playing guitar since 1981, it was taught to me and I learned through my own ears that playing a distortion pedal into an already broken up amp sounded best. I don't know when it was that this knowledge stopped become the basic thought of guitar players but that train of thought seems have been lost a long time ago. That said, I don't even do it anymore lol, I plug into a clean amp with a fuzz box or an overdrive myself for the last 20 years.
My problem has always been needing to play from sparkling clean to ultra heavy at various volumes throughout the night. This makes amp distortion nearly impossible. I use a volume pedal as a master volume after drives and a nearly always on light overdrive and always on ultra transparent light compression. It helps mimic an amp on edge of breakup and I can drive it more with pedals. Best of all, I can play at any volume with consistent tone. Studio playing is a different story though. If you are a solo artist you can take this approach, but if you are playing for other artists or covers the flexibility of a pedal platform is much better in my opinion.
I suppose the other way is a channel switching amp that can do quality amp gain and clean tones in one box. I really like the Rivera Stage IV (we just did a video on this a few weeks ago), and the Custom Audio Amplifiers (CAA) OD100. They also both take pedals well.
@@VertexEffectsInc I have one of those 2 channels amps in the Revv Dynamis 7-40. Great pristine clean channel and great gain. Most of the time I still prefer using pedals into the clean channel as, with the music we play, I need that pristine clean. Really is a matter of style and taste. Unlike many guitar players, an edge of breakup tone is not home for me. A great Fender-like chimey clean is and the Dynamis gives me that. That is also why I keep 3 gain pedals on my board. First is a Klon type (Wampler Tumnus Desluxe), second is the Revv G2 (crunch to mid gain to classic rock gain levels beyond crunch) then the Revv G4 for highest gain chording and most leads. Like another commentator I also play with a volume pedal after the gain (pedals or preamp as it lives in the loop just before my time based effects). I have pretty much always played with a volume pedal. This works well for me.
The steel string has incredible overtone sensitivity. That’s it. You can hear that if you solo it and maybe do a little chord /melody alternating. That’s my take on it from way back.
Man I heard so older Jeff Beck tones through out the set, maybe it's just me, like off his Guitar shop album, not complaining just first thing that popped in my head lol.
fr; he’s definitely bringing that playful inner child out onto the fretboard! I could seriously listen to him play for like…… 4 more seconds before I walk headfirst into traffic.
I can tell I'll be coming back to this one over and over! The music and playing are amazing, but there's a lot to take in here. The clarity maintained from pushing the amp, but letting pedals do the rest is just magic. I mean my own amp is on the edge - and the BD2 (Analogman modded) or the Duke of Tone (boost mode) is kind of how I get to "dirty amp". I love using the SD1w or the Soul Food to get things going (both are boosted hard, gain lowish). But I am going to try letting that amp get a bit more of gain and see how it goes! Love it!
One thing I'll never understand about gear demos is playing with backing tracks. I can't hear shit. Then when guitarists go full blown and skip playing chords. Bruh. Come on. And Mason I love your channel and gear. Im ranting mostly about our industry as a whole. Maybe some agree or disagree. Thanks for all the great content!
Many of the best pedal platform amps are one channel and it would be nice to be able to toggle between that amp's luscious clean tones and it's "edge of breakup" setting. But easily switching between those mid-song isn't feasible in such one-channel amps (except to the extent a guitar volume knob does SOME of that?). So here is a question... could a volume boost pedal between the OD and the guitar input... would that get some of those "edge of breakup" amp tones, (for the OD to use)? (And then I can scale back the volume as needed via the effects loop, as needed). Is this achievable? Or is a volume boost ahead of the guitar input (after an OD pedal) NOT a good substitute for turning up the amp's volume knob? (For this goal I mentioned.)
If your amp is squeaky clean and by itself you can’t get it to edge of breakup, can you use an always on low/medium gain pedal in front of amp and together treat that as your amp on edge of breakup? Or does it not work like that?
I think running a clean amp is way better than a dirty amp if your using pedals you can only go so far with your gain so it's better to get it in increments instead of maxing out right away and not all effects sound good with lots of dirt or even just some kinds of dirt there's a million amp in a box pedals if you wanna simulate a dirty amp with pedals ran into so you don't have to have your actual amp already dirty
I totally agree. If you're playing a variety of styles and are not just focused on your solo sound, you need to have clean and low gain options. Setting the amp with enough preamp gain to be full sounding, but essentially clean until you dig in, is one of the best ways to do it. This guitarist was saying that he was unhappy with the results from a Fender Twin as a pedal platform, but they are one of the worst amps for that purpose, because by the time you are getting some breakup, they are blowing your windows out. Lower wattage amps with the balance of the preamp running warm, but with enough headroom to be heard, make for a much better platform.
Channel switching is the move - check out the Custom Audio Amps or the Rivera Stage IV - two of the best channel switching amps ever made and they take pedals great!
It would have been nice if you guys had a stopwatch to see how long the sustain would happen with each of those pedals by hitting a note and how long it would sustain compared to not having the pedal turned on. I think majority of the heart and core of these pedals is the tone stack circuits that when you buy up an overdrive pedal mostly you're just locked into that tone specs a circuit and like he said with the Scott Henderson overdrive pedal of is based on a rat but they changed the tone's stack circuit I've been as TSA designer designed the same thing on that Sonic and but the tone sack is completely different and it's mostly unusable because Scott Henderson had a modify it with maxson and you know it's more usable now but when I'm with my main point is is that the tone stack and most of the guitar pedals like ts9 so stack is different from stack k l o n tone stack compared to a maxon OD 820 tone stack compared to a noble odr One tone stack and all these tone stacks are going to get you in a whole different frequency range you're going to cut certain frequencies are going to pass certain frequencies they're going to give you a mid bump at a certain shift to the left shift to the right type of different mid bumps this whole shifting to the left shifting to the right of the spectrum is going to be a major difference in these boosters and overdrive pedals. Would be nice if some pedal designers would give you a shift for the frequencies to shift the frequencies to the left or to the right of the mid bump not many pedals have that shift control they just have the the mid-range the treble and the base at the most and that you just were pretty much locked into that to those frequencies but mainly the tone stack is going to be the main core of it as well as the gain ratios of of the of the stages and they gain ratios are different for each overdrive pedal some of them are higher gain ratios some of them were less and that's going to give you that distortion characteristic also that they let you every pedals different that has a different distortion characteristic that has that trademark sound a lot of overdrive pedals have that IC chip opamps and the IC op-amp itself will pass certain frequency and chop off certain frequencies and you could hear certain overdrive pedals have that IC chip overdrive sound and it just I typically don't like that when I see chip off app is taking over the design of the guitar pedal that's when you could tell that it's chopping off a lot of frequencies and it just has that sound of that I see chip overdrive sound and if you're not in tune with that sound you could tell when an I see chip is taking over the circuit design to me I love the the Max on OD 820 I thought that was a very good design day it died they uses I see chips off amps just like a tube screamer or a clown but it doesn't it doesn't take over the circuit like a tube screamer and a clone they it just has that very boxy I see chip off amp sound and it's just to me it's a they're just poor designs they're very poor designs and they need to be modified so the icy chip off amp is not in your face and taking over the circuit where the Max on OD 820 is just a really good design if you have a super reverb fender 10-in speakers jbls and you put a Max on OD 820 and all settings with with that pedal it's very versatile and it just hits that at those amplifiers really good
@@marbinmusic yes but read it because most overdrive pedals IC opamp chip will take over the design of the overdrive pedal cutting out certain frequencies and you can hear that Op amp overdrive boxey tone. The Maxon OD820 is the best low gain overdrive pedal plus has a very nice tone stack circuit. The Nobel ODR-1 tone stack, TS tone stack, Sonic Distortion Tone stack, KLON Tone stack, all are horrible tone stack designs because you have to find that sweet spot and the rest of the range is unusable.
Great content but I'm not giving up the Roland JC200 - the Rhodes adores it and I still want to homebuild a "suitcase" piano using that monster...to blow minds. and ears
@@marbinmusic I have a literal ton of dirty amps (including a Bugera SVT III clone that is strong but ugly af) and the only clean ones I have are unicorns and tiny things. Roland Jazz Chorus 200W head (requires stereo cabinets for full "jazz chorus" effect) Wang's 5W I think that's it...out of like 20 amps. I don't count the JC as that's more of a collector's/enthusiast's piece but I can say that the Rhodes does benefit from a bit of grit even though if you bang the keys you will get distortion. Pretty much every amp I have is a basket case except the trusty Katana Air and I don't count *sterile* amps as "clean - you can't even access all the functions from the front panel, also literally; that thing is a patch running amp core with a couple 3" drivers that's hard to kill.
in all fairness, my next amp is going to be even smaller - I hope to swap out 3-5 crappier amps for a Blug AMP1. 85% tube squish in portable package; stompable amps rule! It's full meta - like a pedal taking a pedal lol
If your amp doesn't have a loop you can run a line out and feed your wet effects and then feed another power amp or digital power amp/cab/mic sim like the Cab Zeus. I do this often with vintage amps with no loop.
ALL i ever hear on CZcams is "edge of breakup" . Nobody I see on CZcams is talking "clean pedal platform". Literally every forum I peruse is overwhelmingly talking about "edge of breakup". The idea that this technique is rarely used or talked about is flat out wrong.
I think people talk about edge of break-up tones, yes, but most pedal demos are done with clean amp and most pedal users are using clean amps with pedals to get their OD tones. The pedals that most folks love are to make clean amps more palatable so they sound on the edge. But what if your amp is already on the edge, what then? What pedals work?
The fender twin is a different beast..and clean amp is a pandora's box there is more than one type of clean..old days i had an old traynor had a master..little bite and the od-1 would sing and scream...the Fender deluxe has a flavour that works well (my choice)..very versatile..the roland 120 with the chorus is a different clean..the clean channel in the peavey ultra again a different beast..i would like to see a bypass on the pre gain on an amp..i clear (I try to smooth treble bass how many eq can you have do you need..lol..anyway these options can work but..loses versatilty
I agree there are a variety of clean amps and sounds out there, however there is a category of amps that's emerged in the last 10 years with the popularity of pedals called "Clean Amp Pedal Platform." This genre of amp has had some vintage style circuits that have been assimilated into it, and there are also newer players in the amp game that have designed amps just for the use with pedals as a somewhat "neutral" amp to stack pedals with for gain. The baseline for many of these amps is the high headroom Fender circuits, e.g. Twin Reverb. The point of the video, however, is to shed some light on pedals and a framework for pedals if you don't fit the mold of the clean amp pedal platform user. This is how most pedals are demoed on CZcams as it's the biggest "catch all" for potential applications in the real world.
@@VertexEffectsInc Awesome..i agree ..and must be said ..keep on keepin on..what you are doing is vital to the progression of music..i have learned alot from Mason and consider Mason in the highest regard.. I have the ultra phonix mach II and it has become a staple of my sound..and yes there is alot of great gear out there we are blessed for sure..because of what i play i needed versatility from dire straights to metallica and all points in between..the pedals give me that opportunity..with a deluxe a guitar and three pedal boards i could be set-up and tore down in less than 5 minutes..playin the bar scene in western canada one would understand this necessity ..again thanks so much for everything happy hunakah merry christmas happy new year happy winter solstice...all the best.
@@VertexEffectsInc The genesis of the pedal platform movement started at least 25 years ago in real world conditions when most “regular” gigging musicians couldn’t bring their 100 watt Marshall’s or Fender’s to a gig without being thrown out or told to turn down. That’s when smaller combos like Princetons, Deluxes and Vibroluxes were rediscovered. You could turn them up in most places, get a great overdriven tone with or without pedals, and not break your back lugging them up or down a flight of stairs. Of course it took years for the industry to finally get on the bandwagon, and it is still mainly reissues of older models or boutique amp builders that cater most to the concept.
What are the best overdrive, distortion, and boost pedals with a dirty amp?
BOSS/JHS Angry Driver as wide O.D. compatibility, F Pedals Damn10 Distortion, and Silver Solo for boost that mediates pickups against amp inputs like a dynamic compressor
These are some of my top favourite I will not part with.
Pepers pedals, Dirty Tree.
Lichtlaerm audio, Aquaria.
Deadweald audio, Duality DX.
Kartakou amplification, Warmer. 🤘
Highwind Amplification, Direwolf MK2.
Airis effects, Savage drive V4.
Boss, SD-1.
Airis effects, Parallel overdrive V2
Fulltone, OCD V1.4
Idk I have a pretty clean amp with a dirty channel, sounds good with a couple tubescreamers and a compressor. HEY MASON! If my effects loop has a buffer on the send (100ohm) and it runs first into a BBE SONIC STOMP with an output of 1Kohm, what type of volume pedal should I use after the sonic stomp? I am thrown off by the different impedances of the different pedals and none of them say 100ohm or 1Kohm. Just confused…
Really like my JHS Morning glory v4 for just that extra little sizzle.also just got the JHS OC 71 Germanium Boost so I gotta try that out too.
I have a Lehle Julian little helper, its a J fett overdrive, treble booster with adjustable mids and a presence control, it has 2 impedance selector, to mimic classic treble booster or to use it as buffer 1 mega ohm, and true bypass or buffer selection. It goes fantastic with low mid dist level plexis.
as someone who just got a new pedal platform amp for christmas, this should help instant buyers remorse to set in nicely.
Both have their merits, just most folks don't talk so much about pedals into an amp on the edge of break up or high gain amps.
This is an excellent example of balancing a punchy amp Fuch ODS II, with Kingtone Dualist and a comp for authentic E.J. lead tone:
czcams.com/video/XP_8MemotU4/video.html
You messed up bro
What amp did you get?
@marbinmusic Nah, he didn't. We have to give Trevor credit for trying alternatives. That perfect drive pedal is out there for Trevor and he's got the amp to make happy times with that pedal.
Trevor: Find a local guitar shop that'll let you demo, or borrow pedals to try before you buy. Most small shops will let you leave something as collateral at first, and then over time you build trust with the owner. Sweetwater & G.C. are cool because you can return/exchange stuff. Don't be ashamed, use those return policies to get where you're going!
If you spend all your time with one sound and usually one genre of music, you'll get stuck. Seasons come and go as do amps, guitars and rigs. Then one day (decades later) you're back to where things started getting good. You learn over time that everything after that first real happy time tone was spent chasing something more. There is nothing more than what you love playing through, only different.
If you simply look at gear as tools for the gig, then you'll figure out real fast what works that you like. If you don't have a band or gigs, always treat gear like you do.
Super nice affordable dirty amp - Marshall DSL (any of them!).
It is so simple and effective, but an AC30 top boost or Plexi style amp with a rangemaster. Great effect to send it way into the stratosphere.
Well said!
Honestly that’s how we all did it back in the 80’s! Being “old-school” I still prefer this approach! The difference being you either had a Ibanez TS or a Boss SD1 and that was it as far as drives went.
It’s the way to do it!!!
Me too. It gives the most organic, dynamic control over the tone and breakup. These days I’m using an MXR Wylde od to boost my amps. It’s basically an SD-1 modded for a bit more bottom and a bit more gain. Sounds brilliant!
All God intended Bill!
Dude can play and the tone is killer. I love this approach. 1/2 the gain comes from the amp and 1/2 from pedals. I totally agree. I feel like this gives me the flavor of the amp with less pronounced jumps in volume and tone from the pedals. Definitely my personal preference. Gets more particular with wet FX so it's not for everyone. Good stuff 👌
Check out Marbin
Dani Rocks!
As I said earlier, it’s a valid approach but not the only one. My hero is Robben Ford, and he has stepped away from his Dumble and is now favoring small to medium Fender style amps with pedals, and sounds just as great as ever.
@joe larrivee I don't think you mentioned this stuff to me. Also, I don't think this is the "only way," but it is my way currently, and apparently, the guy in the video likes it, too. Last thing, Robben is amazing. He always sounds like him, and his tone is always epic. Just goes to show how incredible it is for a musician to make their sound so recognizable that they sound like themselves regardless of the gear. Merry Christmas bro, keep rockin 🤘
@@josephestes7076 Absolutely agree with you, gear is important, but it’s what you do with it that matters! Happy Holidays and keep on playing!
I really like Dani's controlled crazy driven dirty channel as opposed to just sheer madness and particularly the high notes as they sound so musical ... Great player and a master of Vertex SS and Ultraphonix pedal use. He is of course so right about the gain balance... Very useful video.
Thanks so much for watching! Hope we earned your sub!
That Macon sounded great. I used to use almost all distortion from the amp with a boost from a boss SD1. ♥️🤘♥️
Cool video. I have been doing this for many years (playing over an amp on the edge of breakup), and I absolutely agree, not every pedal will sound good, it is a long way of trial and error looking for the right drive/distortion pedal. Another thing I have found is that when you are playing on the edge of breakup with pedals you QUICKLY run out of HEADROOM. So, for instance, if you are using already your favorite drive for rhythm/semi-lead during a song, and then comes a big SOLO, using a clean or mid-boost pedal after your drive will do NOTHING than add more gain, and probably the solo will not shine. So, you could turn down the gain of your amp a little to compensate, but this may change your already structured tone, and on the other hand, you could put your boost pedal in the FX LOOP, there you will get more volume (and not gain) when doing solos, keeping your headroom intact, the problem is that not every boost pedal will sound good in the fx loop, so you should get a boost pedal with a very good eq section. That is just my 2 cents.
As the wannabe-guitar-tech that I am I ALWAYS encourage all the guitarists that I have worked with to use their amps in the drive channel, get the gain pot wherever they want for clean and put a dirt pedal with more volume than distortion on it to get the best results
(usually we only have a one channel amp with some drive built-in so I turn it on and lower it enough to get it on the edge of breakout and use the guitar pots to get adjust a little more)
Gotta get those channel switching amps dog
Channel switching all day!
Exactly! Totally unorthodox, but my pedal platform is the newer 20w JCM 800 in the low sensitivity channel. Such a great setup for what I want!
Marbin is awesome!
What the crap I freaking love this dudes playing!
I would put my Boss Super Overdrive through the crunch setting on my original Peavey 5150 and that was some of the best tones I ever got. It had more of a "brown" tonality to it.
That was awsome I keep hearing about clean amps for pedals I like to use my pedals on and off for different feels like with breK up and even with high gain on my Fender 2x12 I've deville I know now I'm not alone thanks for the support you're awsome.
Fantastic video, a topic thar needed to be covered. I would love to see a similar video on an amp in the tweed territory
Yes! That would be great!
Soul Driven by a landslide! Steel string for s close second. Those two seemed to keep the balance fatness and clarity. I suspect that most times, even if you start out "clean amp platform" style, you'll drift into the on-the-edge mode after a while anyway.
I’m honestly having thoughts about bringing it back after doing this vid
Both great!
Love the demos. Backing track is funkay. Solos perfecto.
Whoa who is this cat!? Those are some tasty riffs!
It is I!!!
Dr. Dani Rabin!
THANK YOU!!! I totally agree tube overdrive is a MUST!!! My main amps are early 70's metal panel JMP Super Leads (with a post phase inverter master lead volume control installed on all these heads) gigging with a band!!! Right now I use a DOD 250 and/or a Fulltone Full Drive 2 for extra dirt. I will get a Klon clone pedal next, as I liked the way the EHX Soulfood sounded with my amps.Those three pedals should handle nearly every dirty sound...except Eddie Van Halen (such a unique sound I would have to get a Suhr 100 watt head with the 90volt mod installed ) I have an MXR distortion plus, but sounds too muddy... so it is on the sideline. My Sovtek Big Muff sounds the best through a super clean high fidelity '65 Fender Deluxe non-reverb set to non breakup...not through my Marshall's! A Rangemaster clone (of Tony Iommi's modded one) would be nice to have. A EHX LPB-1 would be nice for Ace Frehley tone. It seemed to my ears every track your guest played sounded the same lol!!! Must be "it is in your hands" thing going on, or the same guitar he used, or the same backing track, or same eq on each pedal he used lol! Peace, respect, and love...
Amazing playing. Really awesome to listen to.
Thank you! We have a butt load of albums out
Check out Dani's music!
I'm glad you're tackling this. i struggle with this. I can't seem to use a dirty amp all of the time because i have to play at different volumes from show to show. Can't always get my amp up to 5. I end up using pedals for my slightly dirty cleans and i have gotten used to doing that always for simplicity sake. I agree that my boost/solo tones are always harsh as a result (as Marbin points out).
You got to get a channel switching amp. Then you could have a sparkling clean and a slightly overdriven on one side and then a dirty lead on the other
Channel switching! Check out the Custom Audio Amps OD100 or the Rivera Stage IV. Two of the best!
If the high headroom amp is too harsh, a compressor with a good blend knob may do wonders and tame that harsh attack
It‘s a step in the right direction but there is nothing like a big dirty amp
Compressors won't produce the same thing as power amp compression or even preamp distortion for that matter.
I think this is a valid point being made, but is being overstated. For one thing a lot of “pedal platform” amps don’t have that much headroom and can easily get to the edge of breakup and beyond. They also can be more compressed on their own as well. Using a fender twin as a pedal platform amp is impractical on so many levels that it shouldn’t have even been mentioned. For similar reasons a Marshall Plexi is not ideal for most people unless you’re Joe B or Eric Johnson and can play at or over 120 db. It’s all a question of balancing the guitar, amp and pedals to get the sound you want.
I play in a heavy post-hardcore band and I use a Tumnus as on always-on in front of a fairly dirty Mesa Tremoverb and use various ODs for gain staging.
Some clubs, you can't get the volume you want to push the amp or speakers into that nice natural break up zone. Someone will come out from behind the bar and say, "Hey! The guitar is too loud!" Or maybe one of your band mates might start moaning, or even the sound guy. You know how it is, right? So, when this happens, I use the gain stack approach. I run a couple of gain pedals on the board. Maybe a Lightspeed going into a Les Lius which is kinda nice. And, Mike Landau is the king of gain stacking.
Steve Lukather also do this; dirty amp with pedals to give him more gain for leads and roll off the volume for cleaner sounds.
Exactly the info we need. Thanks a lot for the information Mason 🤘
The lowly DOD 250 is a perfect example of a pedal that generally does NOT sound good in a clean amp, but in the right already driving amp it can be magic! Muscular and firm, only giving in to some perfect compression when you really hit it....... perfect for live stage work, it cuts in the mix. Caveat is tho, I don't like the reissues, has to be an old yellow or Grey, or a modded to Grey specs reissue.
I rarely ever have my amp set totally clean, I actually get great results setting my amp gain to a light breakup but with the clipping diodes engaged and then using pedals to push it further while using my guitar volume to get my gain and feel where I need it. I’m really looking forward to trying some of the vertex pedals to explore more possibilities. One of the most useful things I’ve ever learned with gear is layering gain or saturation in multiple stages like this. Fantastic video 🤘
Thanks bro! Did my best
Thanks for watching!
As a guy who's been playing guitar since 1981, it was taught to me and I learned through my own ears that playing a distortion pedal into an already broken up amp sounded best. I don't know when it was that this knowledge stopped become the basic thought of guitar players but that train of thought seems have been lost a long time ago. That said, I don't even do it anymore lol, I plug into a clean amp with a fuzz box or an overdrive myself for the last 20 years.
My problem has always been needing to play from sparkling clean to ultra heavy at various volumes throughout the night. This makes amp distortion nearly impossible. I use a volume pedal as a master volume after drives and a nearly always on light overdrive and always on ultra transparent light compression. It helps mimic an amp on edge of breakup and I can drive it more with pedals. Best of all, I can play at any volume with consistent tone. Studio playing is a different story though.
If you are a solo artist you can take this approach, but if you are playing for other artists or covers the flexibility of a pedal platform is much better in my opinion.
I suppose the other way is a channel switching amp that can do quality amp gain and clean tones in one box. I really like the Rivera Stage IV (we just did a video on this a few weeks ago), and the Custom Audio Amplifiers (CAA) OD100. They also both take pedals well.
This exactly
That was always my problem and is exactly why the OD 100 is the best channel switching amp of all time
@@marbinmusic OD100 is the best 100W channel switcher of all time, agreed!
@@VertexEffectsInc I have one of those 2 channels amps in the Revv Dynamis 7-40. Great pristine clean channel and great gain. Most of the time I still prefer using pedals into the clean channel as, with the music we play, I need that pristine clean. Really is a matter of style and taste. Unlike many guitar players, an edge of breakup tone is not home for me. A great Fender-like chimey clean is and the Dynamis gives me that. That is also why I keep 3 gain pedals on my board. First is a Klon type (Wampler Tumnus Desluxe), second is the Revv G2 (crunch to mid gain to classic rock gain levels beyond crunch) then the Revv G4 for highest gain chording and most leads.
Like another commentator I also play with a volume pedal after the gain (pedals or preamp as it lives in the loop just before my time based effects). I have pretty much always played with a volume pedal.
This works well for me.
The steel string has incredible overtone sensitivity.
That’s it.
You can hear that if you solo it and maybe do a little chord /melody alternating.
That’s my take on it from way back.
Yay Marbin!
hi bro
Yes!
I do not remember hearing of Danny before, killer playing!!
Check out Marbin! We have a boat load of albums!
Dani's the best!
@@marbinmusic Awesome stuff!! Thanks for pointing the way to the awesomeness!!
Rory Strat? Oh yeah!!!
Nope just a beat up Suhr
Suhr!
Great content 👍
Thanks dog
Thanks for the visit
Man I heard so older Jeff Beck tones through out the set, maybe it's just me, like off his Guitar shop album, not complaining just first thing that popped in my head lol.
Jeff Beck is a huge idol!
Jeff Beck is great!
Man, that guy is a hell of a player. I love his use of the vibrato bar.
Check out Marbin! You will NOT be disappointed
I shake that shit
Dani's great!
fr; he’s definitely bringing that playful inner child out onto the fretboard! I could seriously listen to him play for like……
4 more seconds before I walk headfirst into traffic.
m@n Dani Rabin is a freakin beaaaaast 🏅
I can tell I'll be coming back to this one over and over! The music and playing are amazing, but there's a lot to take in here. The clarity maintained from pushing the amp, but letting pedals do the rest is just magic. I mean my own amp is on the edge - and the BD2 (Analogman modded) or the Duke of Tone (boost mode) is kind of how I get to "dirty amp". I love using the SD1w or the Soul Food to get things going (both are boosted hard, gain lowish). But I am going to try letting that amp get a bit more of gain and see how it goes! Love it!
That is the way to do it. Get you amp to where you can start a solo and get your pedal to where you can finish one
@@marbinmusic I ❤ how u put that. Perfect!
Well said Perilous!
Jeez. How could you stomach sitting thru all of his takes until he got a perfect one?? Lol. Obviously kidding. He is so creative and clean.
I actually played each note once and let Mason edit it all together. He's legit AF.
@@marbinmusic oh comping. Lol
Yes, I "Mutt Lange'd" Dani's guitar.
@@VertexEffectsInc I call shenanigans. Lol
One thing I'll never understand about gear demos is playing with backing tracks. I can't hear shit. Then when guitarists go full blown and skip playing chords. Bruh. Come on. And Mason I love your channel and gear. Im ranting mostly about our industry as a whole. Maybe some agree or disagree. Thanks for all the great content!
Chords are for nerds
Many of the best pedal platform amps are one channel and it would be nice to be able to toggle between that amp's luscious clean tones and it's "edge of breakup" setting. But easily switching between those mid-song isn't feasible in such one-channel amps (except to the extent a guitar volume knob does SOME of that?). So here is a question... could a volume boost pedal between the OD and the guitar input... would that get some of those "edge of breakup" amp tones, (for the OD to use)? (And then I can scale back the volume as needed via the effects loop, as needed). Is this achievable? Or is a volume boost ahead of the guitar input (after an OD pedal) NOT a good substitute for turning up the amp's volume knob? (For this goal I mentioned.)
Thanks Mason & Dani!! Excellent video!! Oh, WHAT is that backing track?? :-)
I think that's a track off of a Marbin song. Maybe Dani can chime in to tell us which one.
It’s Midnight squirrel from the album Dirty Horse
If your amp is squeaky clean and by itself you can’t get it to edge of breakup, can you use an always on low/medium gain pedal in front of amp and together treat that as your amp on edge of breakup? Or does it not work like that?
"Keep your amp gain at 11 oclock" Troy Van Leeuwen
Solid advice!!
As God intended!
Yeah, but what would Clapton use Dani?
I think running a clean amp is way better than a dirty amp if your using pedals you can only go so far with your gain so it's better to get it in increments instead of maxing out right away and not all effects sound good with lots of dirt or even just some kinds of dirt there's a million amp in a box pedals if you wanna simulate a dirty amp with pedals ran into so you don't have to have your actual amp already dirty
I totally agree. If you're playing a variety of styles and are not just focused on your solo sound, you need to have clean and low gain options. Setting the amp with enough preamp gain to be full sounding, but essentially clean until you dig in, is one of the best ways to do it. This guitarist was saying that he was unhappy with the results from a Fender Twin as a pedal platform, but they are one of the worst amps for that purpose, because by the time you are getting some breakup, they are blowing your windows out. Lower wattage amps with the balance of the preamp running warm, but with enough headroom to be heard, make for a much better platform.
That’s why you need a channel switching amp. You can have it all
Channel switching is the move - check out the Custom Audio Amps or the Rivera Stage IV - two of the best channel switching amps ever made and they take pedals great!
It would have been nice if you guys had a stopwatch to see how long the sustain would happen with each of those pedals by hitting a note and how long it would sustain compared to not having the pedal turned on. I think majority of the heart and core of these pedals is the tone stack circuits that when you buy up an overdrive pedal mostly you're just locked into that tone specs a circuit and like he said with the Scott Henderson overdrive pedal of is based on a rat but they changed the tone's stack circuit I've been as TSA designer designed the same thing on that Sonic and but the tone sack is completely different and it's mostly unusable because Scott Henderson had a modify it with maxson and you know it's more usable now but when I'm with my main point is is that the tone stack and most of the guitar pedals like ts9 so stack is different from stack k l o n tone stack compared to a maxon OD 820 tone stack compared to a noble odr One tone stack and all these tone stacks are going to get you in a whole different frequency range you're going to cut certain frequencies are going to pass certain frequencies they're going to give you a mid bump at a certain shift to the left shift to the right type of different mid bumps this whole shifting to the left shifting to the right of the spectrum is going to be a major difference in these boosters and overdrive pedals. Would be nice if some pedal designers would give you a shift for the frequencies to shift the frequencies to the left or to the right of the mid bump not many pedals have that shift control they just have the the mid-range the treble and the base at the most and that you just were pretty much locked into that to those frequencies but mainly the tone stack is going to be the main core of it as well as the gain ratios of of the of the stages and they gain ratios are different for each overdrive pedal some of them are higher gain ratios some of them were less and that's going to give you that distortion characteristic also that they let you every pedals different that has a different distortion characteristic that has that trademark sound a lot of overdrive pedals have that IC chip opamps and the IC op-amp itself will pass certain frequency and chop off certain frequencies and you could hear certain overdrive pedals have that IC chip overdrive sound and it just I typically don't like that when I see chip off app is taking over the design of the guitar pedal that's when you could tell that it's chopping off a lot of frequencies and it just has that sound of that I see chip overdrive sound and if you're not in tune with that sound you could tell when an I see chip is taking over the circuit design to me I love the the Max on OD 820 I thought that was a very good design day it died they uses I see chips off amps just like a tube screamer or a clown but it doesn't it doesn't take over the circuit like a tube screamer and a clone they it just has that very boxy I see chip off amp sound and it's just to me it's a they're just poor designs they're very poor designs and they need to be modified so the icy chip off amp is not in your face and taking over the circuit where the Max on OD 820 is just a really good design if you have a super reverb fender 10-in speakers jbls and you put a Max on OD 820 and all settings with with that pedal it's very versatile and it just hits that at those amplifiers really good
Dude, those are some loooooong sentences
@@marbinmusic yes but read it because most overdrive pedals IC opamp chip will take over the design of the overdrive pedal cutting out certain frequencies and you can hear that Op amp overdrive boxey tone. The Maxon OD820 is the best low gain overdrive pedal plus has a very nice tone stack circuit. The Nobel ODR-1 tone stack, TS tone stack, Sonic Distortion Tone stack, KLON Tone stack, all are horrible tone stack designs because you have to find that sweet spot and the rest of the range is unusable.
@@waynegram8907 read this and it did the trick :) i'll check it out
You're the BEST Wayne!
Regards, Mason, is there a way to remove treble from the dynamic?
it's too bright
Jesus H Christ! The man can play.
Thank you
The best!
Great content but I'm not giving up the Roland JC200 - the Rhodes adores it and I still want to homebuild a "suitcase" piano using that monster...to blow minds. and ears
Give it up!
@@marbinmusic I have a literal ton of dirty amps (including a Bugera SVT III clone that is strong but ugly af) and the only clean ones I have are unicorns and tiny things.
Roland Jazz Chorus 200W head (requires stereo cabinets for full "jazz chorus" effect)
Wang's 5W
I think that's it...out of like 20 amps. I don't count the JC as that's more of a collector's/enthusiast's piece but I can say that the Rhodes does benefit from a bit of grit even though if you bang the keys you will get distortion. Pretty much every amp I have is a basket case except the trusty Katana Air and I don't count *sterile* amps as "clean - you can't even access all the functions from the front panel, also literally; that thing is a patch running amp core with a couple 3" drivers that's hard to kill.
in all fairness, my next amp is going to be even smaller - I hope to swap out 3-5 crappier amps for a Blug AMP1. 85% tube squish in portable package; stompable amps rule! It's full meta - like a pedal taking a pedal lol
Wow!
Wher songbird chorus?
What do you mean?
Still on the back burner!
If you've never run a reverb 100% wet into a cranked Tweed Deluxe, can you really say you've lived?
Guy can play.
Yes, indeed!
Me with my JCM 800 combo
"Dirty amps." 🤩
"Effects loop." 😒
You gotta have one
If your amp doesn't have a loop you can run a line out and feed your wet effects and then feed another power amp or digital power amp/cab/mic sim like the Cab Zeus. I do this often with vintage amps with no loop.
@@VertexEffectsInc ooo I'll have to look into this.
How can we incorporate a capo with a dirty amp? 🤔
Great question
Clip it to your power tubes!
The Suhr badger and a strat…!!!!
Not my go to amp but wanted to make the sample more affordable and less discontinued
@@1983carpinice username
@@dannymarkovitchslor626 jesus
Yes!
I never understood the super clean amp thing. Bring on the filth! 🤘😄
Damn straight
Dimension c vs ce2w
Honestly, I prefer the DC-2W
@@VertexEffectsInc why? What stands out for you over the ce 2w
Just plug the guitar straight into the amp, crank it up and use the knobs on the guitar!!! Whats with all these pedals?
Imagine actively clicking on a video regarding pedal usage to complain about the use of pedals. 🙄
Hahahahaha! Robert :)
Gear dorks!
ALL i ever hear on CZcams is "edge of breakup" . Nobody I see on CZcams is talking "clean pedal platform".
Literally every forum I peruse is overwhelmingly talking about "edge of breakup". The idea that this technique is rarely used or talked about is flat out wrong.
I edge all the time.
I think people talk about edge of break-up tones, yes, but most pedal demos are done with clean amp and most pedal users are using clean amps with pedals to get their OD tones. The pedals that most folks love are to make clean amps more palatable so they sound on the edge. But what if your amp is already on the edge, what then? What pedals work?
Y'all remember the Vertex ripoff wah pedal? Pepperidge Farm remembers
Ironic that cry babies are the only ones that still care about to the wah story
@@marbinmusic 🤣🤣🤣 keep s*ckin' that scammers d1ck 🤡👞👞
@@bobbyblair6862 eloquently put. Just so you know, Masons input tip is true bypass , buffered and soldered so when I plug it in, there zero loss.
The fender twin is a different beast..and clean amp is a pandora's box there is more than one type of clean..old days i had an old traynor had a master..little bite and the od-1 would sing and scream...the Fender deluxe has a flavour that works well (my choice)..very versatile..the roland 120 with the chorus is a different clean..the clean channel in the peavey ultra again a different beast..i would like to see a bypass on the pre gain on an amp..i clear (I try to smooth treble bass how many eq can you have do you need..lol..anyway these options can work but..loses versatilty
I agree there are a variety of clean amps and sounds out there, however there is a category of amps that's emerged in the last 10 years with the popularity of pedals called "Clean Amp Pedal Platform." This genre of amp has had some vintage style circuits that have been assimilated into it, and there are also newer players in the amp game that have designed amps just for the use with pedals as a somewhat "neutral" amp to stack pedals with for gain. The baseline for many of these amps is the high headroom Fender circuits, e.g. Twin Reverb. The point of the video, however, is to shed some light on pedals and a framework for pedals if you don't fit the mold of the clean amp pedal platform user. This is how most pedals are demoed on CZcams as it's the biggest "catch all" for potential applications in the real world.
@@VertexEffectsInc Awesome..i agree ..and must be said ..keep on keepin on..what you are doing is vital to the progression of music..i have learned alot from Mason and consider Mason in the highest regard.. I have the ultra phonix mach II and it has become a staple of my sound..and yes there is alot of great gear out there we are blessed for sure..because of what i play i needed versatility from dire straights to metallica and all points in between..the pedals give me that opportunity..with a deluxe a guitar and three pedal boards i could be set-up and tore down in less than 5 minutes..playin the bar scene in western canada one would understand this necessity ..again thanks so much for everything happy hunakah merry christmas happy new year happy winter solstice...all the best.
@@VertexEffectsInc The genesis of the pedal platform movement started at least 25 years ago in real world conditions when most “regular” gigging musicians couldn’t bring their 100 watt Marshall’s or Fender’s to a gig without being thrown out or told to turn down. That’s when smaller combos like Princetons, Deluxes and Vibroluxes were rediscovered. You could turn them up in most places, get a great overdriven tone with or without pedals, and not break your back lugging them up or down a flight of stairs. Of course it took years for the industry to finally get on the bandwagon, and it is still mainly reissues of older models or boutique amp builders that cater most to the concept.