Who plays with a dirty amp?

[Haze]

Its been my experience that overdrive and fuzz pedals sound their best when working together with a slightly overdriven amplifier. How many people actually keep their amp in a slight breakup when they play and what results do you get with your drive pedals?

Having a silverface bassman I get a double edged sword: brilliant overdrive and loves pedals but it has to be fairly loud [too loud fr daytime apartment life even]
I've picked up a Vox Pathfinder and modded it a bit but its drive sound doesn't work swimmingly with pedals like the bassman because it over loads the jfets and gets a bit harsh.

Who is using what pedals with what overdriven amps and to what effect?

[paul_]

Yes, I have no bananas clean sound.

My defacto sound is a jumpered Marshall Super on the verge of breakup, being fed by a booster on the receiving end of an abrasive bridge pickup ('62 AV Tele, Burstbucker V, P-90, Super Distortion). I clean up by rolling off volume/tone though it's not unworkably dirty in the first place. I do sometimes create xtra-clean sondz for recordings though, depends on the guitar part. I use my Vibro Champ XD or 50-watt JCM 900 4500 for sparkley, verby sounds.

So into the slightly dirty head I'll run my booster, a RAT Deucetone (2 channels of RAT) and some Dano/Behringer fuzzes. The RATs are really helped by that Marshall saturation, it makes it less farty sounding and a bit more "natural" (i.e. like the Marshall is cranked more than it is). Of course if you overdo the base dirt, the pedal is going to sound whack. It's a fine balance using the right amount of amp dirt with a pedal on top.

Sometimes just playing in my room I'll run my Marshall really low (therefore mostly clean) and just use my RAT Deucetone for different od/distortion sounds.

[robrtnickerson]

I have a Fender Blues DeVille 2x12, which is a fairly dirty amp. It's 60 watts and supposedly modeled after old tweed Bassman amps and the like. I play it as loud (ie:dirty) as the situation (ie: stupid sound guy) permits. Generally having the volume on 3 is about all I can get away with, this gives the amp a nice, gritty tone. I've always had a heavy fuzz pedal in there somewhere. For a long time it was a NYC Big Muff, but I got tired of breaking them so I got a Dwarfcraft Shiva and a Devi Ever Torn's Peaker. Guitar wise I play an Epiphone Wildkat, which is a semi-hollow body with dog ear p90s and also a solid body Dearmond Jet Star that I put some GFS hb sized p90s in. I have had issues with having the amp cranked too much which has the effect of lessening the impact of the fuzz. Though it doesn't sound bad by any means, it just isn't as much of a dynamic shift to go from "loud overdriven guitar" to "loud overdriven guitar with a touch of fuzz". The flip side to that is not having enough volume or gain and just sounding like a pansy. There is definitely an art to getting it just right. Rooms vary so widely and fuzz pedals just seem to be a little more...persnickety than other pedals.

[SGJarrod]

This is what my amp always looks like besides the Vol...... Obviously the TT is my clean channel...

Its rev'ed up to a nice very warm break-up... I can roll the vol on the guitar down for complete clean

Big Muff...... Sounds so fat and thick.... It does not have that anemic slightly tinny high end cuz the amps fullness..way more natural

OCD..... with the amp OD'ed a bit, it sounds more like more of my amp instead of a pedal..still have all the great response and clean up, granted with it on ur not gonna get clean-clean

Fuzz Face..... Can go from thin and buzzy to thick and raw... depends on the pedal settings, still retain superb clean up and clarity.... with the amp OD'ed a bit when u really roll down on the vol to like 3 u do not get that harshness...... sounds more natural

to me it just seems that when ur getting some grit from ur amp it retains more of your amps characteristics when driven with a pedal and definitely fuller, but I have never found a setting with any pedal that makes me happy with out volume..... way above apt levels... and tap dancing on to loud for my basement in my house

as said above its a balancing act of amp gain and pedal gain...there will be an obvious sweet spot....

EDIT: the reason my tone knobs are cranked so high is I usually play 7-15w modes in my basement and when running only 2 tubes the DT is much more compressed, needs alittle brightening up

[Freddy V-C]

I use a Tiny Terror, usually with Tone at 1 o' clock and Gain at 11 o' clock. So yeah, it's breaking up. I always think a 100% clean sound is too sterile, and my dirt pedals all sound better this way.

[Mike]

Fuzzes sounding better into Overdriven amps? That's a new one on me.

I was under the impression many people use them into crystal clean sounds. I guess it depends on the type of fuzz.

[George]

My dirt channel has the ability of getting to a much lower volume than my clean so at home it's a hair dirty. Loud is beautiful crystal clean.

[Progrockabuse]

this is the global settings i've been using recently. the reverse of sgjarrod, i use my fat channel as my clean, works better with my tele. i get a nice round clean sound that breaks up as i change pickups/play harder. boosting this with a clean boost gets me a nice broken up sound, good for cleaner solos. using drive pedals with the dirt channel, just make it sing. though i've found some fuzzes and distortions don't like the amp being dirty, makes for a muddy low end kinda sound.

[benecol]

I guess it depends on the type of fuzz.

Generally, most fuzzes sound better into a clean amp except fuzz faces, which prefer something a little dirtier.

[Haze]

Fuzzes sounding better into Overdriven amps? That's a new one on me.

I was under the impression many people use them into crystal clean sounds. I guess it depends on the type of fuzz.

Its been my experience...?

albeit I use an Eau Claire Thunder as my main fuzz, not exactly typical

[Thom]

I was playing around with my Internet last night (bear in mind this is into my Orange which absolutely hates dirt pedals) and into the clean channel it sounded fucking dreadful, fizzy, waspy box of shite...however, into the dirty channel on the verge of breakup it sounded GLORIOUS! Unbelievable difference.
Really need to stick it through the Bassman and see how that holds up.

But generally I try to have a clean amp and then dirt into that, or for multi-channel amps, definitely a dedicated clean channel and usually use the amp dirt rather than pedals.

[Mike]

Fuzzes sounding better into Overdriven amps? That's a new one on me.

I was under the impression many people use them into crystal clean sounds. I guess it depends on the type of fuzz.

Its been my experience...?

albeit I use an Eau Claire Thunder as my main fuzz, not exactly typical

That's a Big Muff derivative, more a Distortion than a Fuzz.

[Haze]

I'll be dammed, something informative and contributing!

Generally, most fuzzes sound better into a clean amp except fuzz faces, which prefer something a little dirtier.

Can't help but think of Hendrix playing into a cranked Marshall

[Mike]

I'll be dammed, something informative and contributing!

Eh? Are you suggesting that normally I'm neither?

[cobascis]

I was playing around with my Internet last night (bear in mind this is into my Orange which absolutely hates dirt pedals) and into the clean channel it sounded fucking dreadful, fizzy, waspy box of shite...however, into the dirty channel on the verge of breakup it sounded GLORIOUS! Unbelievable difference.
Really need to stick it through the Bassman and see how that holds up.

But generally I try to have a clean amp and then dirt into that, or for multi-channel amps, definitely a dedicated clean channel and usually use the amp dirt rather than pedals.

Do let me know about how it interacts with a Bassman, looking at getting one.

[Haze]

I'll be dammed, something informative and contributing!

Eh? Are you suggesting that normally I'm neither?

Not as a whole, you're a godsend of information to this place. I just know that you've had some great amps in the past and a plethora or dirt pedals and was looking for some insight.

[Mike]

Oh fair enough, the original question.

As far as my experience, I'm afraid I've always wanted my clean sound to be absolutely spanky and clean for a bunch of songs in the set so if I've used pedals it's been with that as a basis. I don't have much experience of playing into slightly dirty amp channels as if I'm using my amp for dirt (as I do most of the time on the Crunch channel of my 6100) I have it set pretty crunchy.

[cobascis]

I just turn the Bassman up as loud as I need for the situation and slam pedals into it. I guess I don't really focus on tone as much at such a volume. But it sounds good to me

[SGJarrod]

Fuzzes sounding better into Overdriven amps? That's a new one on me.

I was under the impression many people use them into crystal clean sounds. I guess it depends on the type of fuzz.

I have never found a fuzz that i liked thru a completely clean amp..... when I ran my Classic 30 clean I would hit it with the DLS and then hit the DLS with the Fuzz

Fuzz>>>DLS>>>>C30

just sounds less transistory that way...aka more "natural"

[hotrodperlmutter]

i have been under the impression (and it seems wikipedia is too) that the big muff is a fuzz.