Before I got my Aracom PRX150-Pro, to get grind, I used a variety of overdrive pedals. But now that I have a great attenuator that allows me to get my amps in their sweet spots without stepping all over my band, I’ve been making lots of use of clean boost – namely, the Creation Audio Labs Mk.4.23 – to push my amp into overdrive, plus get a bit of a volume boost. I use overdrive pedals far less now, but I do use them when I want a different color to my overdrive tone. But I’m curious – especially after seeing Peter Frampton’s small board – what people prefer. So here’s a poll…
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Guitar Gear 
Let me tell you what I do. I mostly play hard rock (as you may tell). I have a Kramer Baretta, a Peavey Nano Valve class A all tube 5W amp and a BOSS DS-1 (and a CH-1 but that’s irrelevant for now). I just love the natural sound of this little amp, I used to play it full blast although the neighbors didn’t fancy it as much as I did (I live in a flat). So I went for a distortion pedal since I needed gain. I bought a DS-1 since it is one default rock/metal sound it generates but it let me down after the very first notes because it was too harsh, too pedal sounding. I needed more transparency which I could have achieved by running the pedal on top of the dirty sound but that would have resulted in insane volume which I wanted to avoid. I read in an early EVH interview how he created his sound by using the Variac to lower the voltage blahblahblah to use POWER amp distortion. That was very interesting to me and I thought I could simulate something similar with the help of the DS-1. I always had the Distortion knob all the way up for gain so I started dialing down the Level and the Tone knobs to achieve a smoother sound. So much that I ended up at zero level. I got a compressed, distorted smooth sound at LOW level. Then I could dial up the volume on the amp to use the thing as the “power amp” section. As volume increased, it started to get the sort of overtones and attack I fell in love with when I bought the amp. Awesome sound to my ears, great for rhythms and leads as well. If I wanted a really great lead tone, I would turn the DS-1 OFF and get the natural distortion of the amp only.
That is exactly the opposite how people use distorion/overdrive and of course boost pedals. I think it’s worth a shot to try out for yourself.
That’s pretty much what I do with Overdrive pedals. My master volume is almost always all the way up, so as much current gets to my power tubes as possible. Then I turn up my pre-amp volume to the point where it’s just breaking up. I use a boost and/or overdrive to push the input gain to overload the front-end, which in turn pushes the power tubes into distortion. The combination is a thing of beauty. 🙂
I get the boost thing, I have two clean boosts set up in my tube head which really step it up when needed. I have a modifed Carvin V3 which I just love. I have been trying all sorts of different tube combinations in it just having fun as I learned to do my own bias trim adjustments. I just went from the fat bottle Tung Sol EL34Bs to 5881s as I like a more vibrant clean tone (the amp is made to use either) and I have tried JAN Phillips 5751s in my preamps as well. I have an additional clean boost wired in using the parallel loop which is a great trick on this amp. (Just patch the loop 2 send/return and raise or lower the loop level for boost or antenuator effect). I found you can use it as an internal antenuator to hold the vol down if you want to crank the channels. Does a sweet boost on 10, w the front panel boost (both foot switchable and recall) you get 3 channels w 3 gain modes and 2 EQ ranges, std loop, plus 2 clean boosts on this head, bloody amazing.
I am also a pedal junky and I just got the new VOX IS Ice 9 OD and what can I say this puppy pushed my OCD off the board and please anyone, hold this box in your right hand and any TS green crapper in your left, “hear that sustain”? This is the drive of drives and optioned for any type of OD push. I hesitate raving about the VOX Satriani pedals too much as I do not want the price going way up, do yourself a fav, get the ICE 9 and thank me later, for $130, are you kidding me? You can get a cool dark push with it as well as any gain level with the coolest artifacts in the gain structure. Joe rules!!
Yeah, those VOX Satch pedals are VERY nice. I have the Big Bad Wah and the Time Machine. The BBW supplanted my Original Cry Baby on my board and is a permanent fixture. I have a love/hate relationship with the Time Machine. But that goes for just about any digital delay.