Off Topic Overdrive Distortion Lead Tones

[brownpants69]

Here's a totally (slightly) off topic question for you!

Since playing balls (fnar fnar) I have ended up on a very tedious and time consuming tone quest. I'm looking at only one more guitar gear purchase for the next few months due to the fact that I got my ASS last week and I'm officially poor.

So here's the deal- I now have 3 very nice music man guitars and I enoy playing them all equally as much (Luke- with passive pickups- shock horror!), ASS MM90 and Silo Special.

My amp is a Marshall JVM 50 watt combo. I've really gone off the overdrive channel for anything other than chunky metal riffage (it's a very fizzy preamp)- so most of my sounds are from a Barber LTD and direct drive pedals into the clean channel- which is very nice, fat and grin inducing.

Only thing is I struggle to get saturated, fat, squashy lead tones- i can get loads of nice crunchy and breaking up tones no probs. So I'm after an addition to my pedal board to give Lukather/80's stunt guitar solo sounds.

I trust a lot of peoples opinions on this forum relating to tone- thats why I'm asking this here!

PS- Pics of the new ASS to follow soon

 

[robelinda2]

Fulldrive OCD, Box of Rock, Wampler Cranked AC, Lovepedal Provalve, i guess there's heaps really.

 

[Axilla]

Check out the T-REX "MØLLER" (overdrive with add. boost). "Drives" me crazy !
http://www.t-rex-engineering.com/Default.aspx?ID=2&ProductID=PROD35&VariantID=

...if you have the dough or the possibility to try out first - check out the T-REX "Spin Doctor" OD / Preamp. WHOOOAAAAH !
http://www.t-rex-engineering.com/Default.aspx?ID=2&ProductID=PROD113&VariantID=

 

[brownpants69]

Spin Doctor seems a bit pricy- but very cool none the less!

Anyone tried the Tonebone pedals? I've tried some valve pedals in the past- I have/do own/owned the Seymour Duncan Twin Tube and a Vox cooltron, but was left unimpressed ultimately.

Thanks for the info so far.

 

[robelinda2]

I wasnt impressed with the Twin Tube either. The Tonebone stuff is good, doesnt Luke use one of them?

 

[brownpants69]

Yeah- supposedly. They look like a good piece of kit. I like the idea of the switches to tailor the EQ to your amp- very important for high gain sounds in my opinion. I think that's the problem with relying on pedals for high gain sounds- there often isn't a lot of tweakability.

I think thats where the twin tube is lacking.

Is it about time Ernie Ball ventured into well designed overdrive pedals?!

 

[Axilla]

Even higher gain ?!
Maybe have a look at T-Rex's "Bloody Mary".

Ultimate tweakabilty there - just too much for my taste... I'm more of an OD guy.

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EGh-D-AOJwA&feature=channel_page]YouTube - T-Rex Bloody Mary Distortion Pedal[/ame]

 

[paulstew64]

Check out the Tonebone range. Lukather does use them and certainly endorses them.

I currently use the Classic and it's great, plenty of tone here to sink your teeth into. There's also the British overdrive tone (can't think of it's name). The Trimode is basically 2 Classics together so you have 2 channels to set up (tone heaven) or the Plexitube (currently used by Darryl Sterner - Genesis, Phil Collins guitarist) which is a 2 channel British.

Happy testing

Paul
Radiance red Luke
Next purchase tobacco burst Luke BFR

 

[robelinda2]

Ah yes if its good enough for Mr Stuermer, its good enough for me! Love his work, tasteful classy player.

 

[guertzi]

+1 for the Plexitube

I'm a big fan of Lucious and the Plexitube definitely gets you in that area tonewise.

I had one and it was totally amazing to hear so many good tones out of that little box.
Well worth the price, no doubt about it!

 

[Axilla]

Luke's latest acquisition in the OD corner however should be the "Spin Doctor"...
He's in the ads everywhere here with his T-Rex endorsement.

 

[whitestrat]

Has anyone here checked out the new Digitech Hardwire Valve Distortion?

It's awesome... from crunch to mind numbing saturated fat distortions...

 

[mikeller]

I really like the MI Audio stuff. I use a Blues Pro for medium distortions and the Cruchbox for the high gain stuff.

 

[Jonny Dubai]

Just a question....... Are you using enough master volume?? Its just the Marshalls sound "bigger" with less pre-amp gain and more power amp push. Try a hot plate too. It may help. If not the new digitech hardwire pedals are great.

Cheers,

J

 

[GHWelles]

If that amp does not have diode clipping on the front end, and maybe even if it does, different tubes can make a huge difference in the quality of the tone. NOS tubes can be really good.

 

[GHWelles]

Even higher gain ?!
Maybe have a look at T-Rex's "Bloody Mary".

Ultimate tweakabilty there - just too much for my taste... I'm more of an OD guy.

YouTube - T-Rex Bloody Mary Distortion Pedal

I'm sorry, that transistor clipping sound is just awful.

I don't know if they make it anymore, but the tubeworks realtube II is great.

 

[brownpants69]

Wow! Lots of replies

Because of the fizzyness of the preamp I have resorted to using the clean channel (The green mode- which is supposed to be quite vintage JTM sort of teritory) with my Barber pedals.

I'm really getting out of using lots of preamp gain. I think my main problem is that for years I used digital modelling (POD, flextone, Yamaha DG amps etc etc). If you want compression or more sturation you just mess about with the preamp and thats it.

Maybe it's time to consider a smaller amp? I think now I've just got bored of the preamp gain and lack of balls on this amp.

I'm going to try and check out the radial stuff I think. If I can get some good c**k rock/ hair metal/ 80s sounds I'll be happy. For the low gain stuff my barber pedals are awsome.

Thanks for the ideas- will give me some gear to look at and damage my wallet a bit more.

 

[guertzi]

I'm going to try and check out the radial stuff I think. If I can get some good c**k rock/ hair metal/ 80s sounds I'll be happy.

The Hot British or Plexitube will definitely do the trick.

 

[brownpants69]

Hi guys

Been away for a couple of days and couldn't/didn't want to go near a computer. Thanks for all the input. I'm going to see how I get on with the Tonebone stuff- but I'm not going to be buying one for a couple of months as I just treated myself to a new ASS MM90 and a new MINI cuz my old car was knackered.

Incidently- even though I've now got a small car, it will happily accomodate a MusicMan case width ways. Made for each other! It does mean I'm chopping up my credit card and counting my loose change jar though

 

[Tim O'Sullivan]

Have you tried using a small amount of gain on the drive channel with one of your pedals? I do this on my Line 6 and it works like a treat!