Dirty Rhythms

lorez · Post by **lorez** » Sun May 08, 2011 6:37 pm

I was wondering what most SS folks would use for getting dirt on their Rhythm/Chord work?

Do you use different pedals for your leads and rhythm or do you stack pedals to get your lead sounds?

Do you play them with an amp that is clean or just breaking up?

Also, do you have a preference for different pedals if you are using single coils or humbucklers?

George · Post by **George** » Sun May 08, 2011 6:51 pm

My gain things go

Dano French Toast -> Blackstone -> CC Drive

I use the Blackstone for rhythm and chord work. The CC Drive can handle a bit of both but stacked they sound great for lead. Stacking with the French Toast is great for melty fuzz wigouts.

cobascis · Post by **cobascis** » Sun May 08, 2011 6:55 pm

ECT for rhythm and Lead at this point. no money for an OD, but it works, besides I mainly play clean rhythm

Ankhanu · Post by **Ankhanu** » Sun May 08, 2011 6:57 pm

I tend to play clean, but I do enjoy a little dirt. I also don't really do much in the way of lead work, but I do a little.

I prefer single coils and I don't have a lot of gear. My amp is a 1972 Twin Reverb... so almost no grit comes from the amp itself (though I get a little with the Vibrato channel volume around 6-7 with my Tele, closer to 8-9 with my Jag, 5-6 with hot humbuckers), but it almost seems like it wants to break up, but isn't quite ready to commit to it

For overdrive I only have a Marshall Jackhammer (which I almost never use with guitar) and a Fulltone Distortion Pro (DP-1). I tend to set the DP-1 with the gain at about the 8-9 o'clock position, volume to output taste, and the tone shaping set to maintain high end sparkle (ie. high up, mids center to up), with a loose saturation (pretty much all the way down) and the frequency somewhere south of center.
To switch between rhythm and lead sounds, I tend to rely on pickup selection.

I have a feeling that a good clean boost pedal might push the Twin into some decent break up... but I haven't had one to really test it.

I use dirt and lead/rhythm differences more with bass. I use both the Jackhammer and DP-1 on the bass, individually and stacked. They have fairly different characters, so it depends on the song as to which I'd use for my main drive tone... but in the cases where I'm using a rhythm drive and a lead drive, I tend to use the DP-1 for rhythm, then stack the Jackhammer in front of the DP-1 for leads. It's super thick and gnarly... I love it. I rely more on pedals for differentiating lead and rhythm on bass, rather than pickup selection, like with guitar.
My bass amp is solid state, so, it's clean and all clean

All drive is from pedals. That's going to change once I get some drivers in my bass cab and chan use my tube/SS hybrid amp... in which case, I'll largely have some tube breakup normally, and push it further with pedals.

benecol · Post by **benecol** » Sun May 08, 2011 6:59 pm

My favourite pedals for more chord-based stuff are:

- Rangemaster.
- Ampeg Scrambler with the octave dialled right down.
- Harmonic Perkolator (can't stress enough how good t eh Perk is, especially the Utility Perk).

Gabriel · Post by **Gabriel** » Sun May 08, 2011 7:04 pm

I tend to use the middle selection of both humbuckers for normal playing, using a coil tap for funkier stuff. Neck pickup only for Jazz. Normal channel on Vox for clean, top boost for chordal work and low gain lead lines. Fuzz on clean for some lead work, fuzz on top boost for really over the top distortion/feedback. I use a morley power wah alot after my Fredric fx unpleasent companion to get a cool filtered sound, very like the sound Frusciante has on this:

[youtube][/youtube]

Progrockabuse · Post by **Progrockabuse** » Sun May 08, 2011 7:26 pm

Depends on if I'm gigging or at home.

At home i set my guitar volume to about 7-8 and set amp for a nice dirty rythym sound, then crank my guitar volume up full for lead. When I'm gigging, i'll set my amp for a nice dirty rythym sound and stick my OCD on for lead sounds. It'll give me a gain and volume boost. I'd do the same with my mxr boost too:

Haze · Post by **Haze** » Sun May 08, 2011 8:31 pm

Bassman set for a deep overdrive, tele both pickups, a compresser to soften things up, turdscreamer for rhythm and bridge pickup for leads.
Digging the amp. Really want an ac30 so I can set my bassman clean and a freakin dirt 30

Fran · Post by **Fran** » Sun May 08, 2011 9:42 pm

Depends on the chords/style/guitar.
If i am using full chords (with a 3rd etc) then i tame things down to a hot overdrive, perhaps the TS7. It gets messy otherwise, but players like J Mascis pull the Fuzz/Distortion thing off because he swears by single coils. For that kind of thing i use the Swamp Fuzz or Fuzz Face.
With Power chords (root and 5th) i go from the TS7 to the Fulltone DP to all the 'Metal' settings on the Line 6, thats with a humbucker guitar.

I dont play much lead outside my home, but when i do i usually combine a Big Muff and TS.

johnnyseven · Post by **johnnyseven** » Mon May 09, 2011 10:01 am

I use a mid gain OD/Dist pedal for chord or rhythm work. Currently a Monte Allums modded Rat but previously, as i'm sure alot of SS'ers are aware, a whole host of different pedals. However with the recent addition of an EQD Hoof I can see that this will share some of these duties where I want some a bit more fuzzy sounding.

For noisier or louder parts of songs (normally choruses) I would use a higher gain OD/Dist or a fuzz, currently a Coopersonic Valveslapper (for loud heavier bits) and a Boss Hyper Fuzz (for noisier bits). Lead-wise I try and avoid solos but they are present in some older songs that my band play, I normally use one of the higher gain pedals and use my SHO clone (made by Haze) for a bit more loudness and drive.

I'm playing my Bassman with it on about 3.5 on the volume, so pretty clean. I find all the above pedals work just as well with my humbuckered and regular pickup Jazzmasters.

lorez · Post by **lorez** » Mon May 09, 2011 12:33 pm

Thanks for the answers folks, I was just curious to see if more used pedals or amps for this. I'm using a combo of drive channel (verge of break up) on the amp with TB & TS9 for different textures at the moment, but with the saltbooster to wake it up a notch when necessary. This is with the single coils of the Tele & JM. Types of sounds I'm trying to achieve are similar to Dinosaur Jr/Teenage Fanclub/SUB POP. I'm not thinking there is anything wrong with what I'm hearing at the moment but was curious as to what others were doing.

Thom · Post by **Thom** » Mon May 09, 2011 1:30 pm

Depends on the amp I am using. If my Rockerverb then definitely amp dirt - would be a fool not to. But if the Bassman then use the DLS for light crunch and FN5 for heavier with a SHO into them for solos.

Fran · Post by **Fran** » Mon May 09, 2011 2:16 pm

When i had the Sound City and the Marshall JCM Combos i usually used the Amp gain section, especially with humbuckers. With single coils i found things too thin though and the Big Muff was always around to boost the low end.

I only use pedals now because the Laney Head has no gain section.

Post by **Mike** » Mon May 09, 2011 2:24 pm

If I'm playing a gig or loud practise with the band then I use my Marshall 6100 Crunch channel; it's the benchmark I use for all my overdrive sounds.

Otherwise I use a DLS or OCD on one of my Dual Drive pedals.