Fuzz/Distortion Pedal Volume Dips

paincake · Post by **paincake** » Wed Jun 24, 2009 10:37 pm

WHY?

WHY?

WHY?

What can I do to correct this problem? These pedals tend to sound great alone but then you're playing with your loud as shit band and hit it thinking "OH SHIT I'M GOING TO PLANET 11" and suddenly can't hear yourself. Part of it is frequency issues (low tones of fuzz) and a lot it is that they CUT VOLUME. Can I get this shit mod'd?

help.

Noirie. · Post by **Noirie.** » Wed Jun 24, 2009 10:45 pm

Just get a simple clean booster like a saltbooster, plane ticket, Fredric micro amp clone. Solved.

paincake · Post by **paincake** » Wed Jun 24, 2009 11:34 pm

and turn it on at the same time and placed after the pedal in the chain? I thought of this...

Why can't I just have the pedal "Level" go higher? Maybe the pedals I play with blow but it never seems the "Level" effect goes high enough.

BTW.. why do they make it where your "level" effect would be less than the clean tone. Who flips on pedals to be quieter? SRSLY.

Post by **Doog** » Wed Jun 24, 2009 11:37 pm

The midrange inherent with the guitar can be lost using some pedals (the Big Muff being a culprit), putting the kibosh on your mid-song fuzzfests.

I guess just try playing the fuzzy sections with the band at rehersal with your amp turned up a bit- if you're cutting through fine, it's just an output problem (a fairly easy mod) and your pedal isn't keeping up with your clean/other song. Otherwise, it's CrapFrequencyCity for that pedal and might be something harder to fix.

That's why I love RAT pedals- you'll never got lost in the mix with one o' them.

Post by **Doog** » Wed Jun 24, 2009 11:40 pm

Oh, and one other thing- if you're going from a clean tone to a fuzzy one with this problem, try lowering your pickups. It'll drop the volume on your clean tone but the pedal will remain the same, with maybe a little less gain.

People like Boss seem to think everyone is using vintage pickups, so when you pair something like a DS-1 up to a loud humbucker, it can't keep up; listen to any Nirvana live recording for proof of that.

paincake · Post by **paincake** » Wed Jun 24, 2009 11:44 pm

I find that Rats cut volume too. Is that an old Rat or new Rat or am I crazy? Or are your describing more ability to tweek tone to find where you cut through?

The pickup idea is really interesting....

Post by **Doog** » Thu Jun 25, 2009 12:08 am

Got mine new in like... 2001 or something? It's loud enough with singlecoils definately, although I don't use humbuckers anymore. What setup are you using normally when you have the probz?

Sloan · Post by **Sloan** » Thu Jun 25, 2009 2:44 am

[youtube][/youtube]

I completely hooked my overdrive straight into the poweramp one time and it was so loud i thought my shit that i just shit was gonna shit itself.

paincake · Post by **paincake** » Thu Jun 25, 2009 9:00 am

I used a big muff and have tried a few otehrs but.. I didn't spend much time on it because .. well.. the band was all playing. I'll tweek on eq/tone knobs and report back.