What I have learned about gain pedals

Pine Apple Slim

Pine Apple Slim

Armchair Expert
For the last 15 yrs or so getting back into electric guitar, and my amps being mostly high headroom Fender types, and when playing at home without ear splitting vol, getting the perfect amount and character of dirt for a given situation has been my biggest obsession. Ive collected more pedals than I can count at this point but I think Ive finally learned what works for me and what doesn't.
Basically I can go 3 different ways/setups depending on the guitar/pickups and the kind of music Im playing.

1. For most things I play, blues, R&B, Americana, country/country rock, with humbuckers or single coils, I only need two gain pedals. A mostly always on low gain OD or boost into a mid gain OD with some headroom and some vol & gain increase when you boost into it. That gives me basically all I need. Clean to slightly dirty based on pick attack, an OD with an eq curve I like, and a lead boost and a bit more gain with both on. Ive been thru more pedals than I can count from cheap Moskys and Joyos to Boutique stuff like the Protein, and all in between.
Bottom line-Nothing really beats my bog standard ODR-1 reissue as my main OD, and right now Im loving my new Boss Waza booster. 2nd place goes to an OD-3. more gain and grit but still very similar to the Nobels in its eq. The Boss Waza Booster kinda splits the diff between a low gain OD and a cleaner boost, very versatile.

2. Classic Rock w humbuckers. Anything from Grateful Dead/Garcia tones to AC/DC to Tom Petty, I really only need one pedal, and thats my DOD Preamp 250.
A Rat will do, but the 250 is so responsive to pick attack it can go from almost clean to all the dirt I need just by how hard I pick. Totally different character of gain though from option #1. None of that smooth compression, more aggressive, so it dosnt really work for me for everything.

3. 2nd Classic Rock option-with low output single coils, esp Strats. 2 pedals. An OD and a Fuzz Face. A FF with the guitar vol knob gives me a good "clean" tone with some more hair when you need it. Hit an OD with the FF to tame some of the "wooly" and there you go, very nice higher gain tone. Im still going with the Nobels here, but an OD-3 will do, or the Karma Mostortion with its 3 band eq is really nice. Ive tried several FF based pedals but for me nothing really beats the Dunlop minis. The black knob red and the Joe B germaniums are both really good, but for some reason my Tele prefers the aqua Hendrix silicone one.

Final thoughts-Not really a fan of most "boutique" brand pedals Ive tried. The exception maybe being the Karma Mostortion but only because they dont make the original any more. I find most mods to trad circuits dont really improve anything and theres nothing much new under the sun. The Protein is very good but Im not really a fan of the blue side BB thing. The green side has more range than the Nobels but IDK, its kinda too tame and hi-fi for my tastes. My Karma Mostortion clone is really nice for some things but its not really worth the extra board space most of the time. I have a Plumes and an SD1 for the Screamer thing and not really a fan of either, but I actually like the Boss better. I had a Tumnus for a while, ok as a boost but was never really a fan of its higher gain settings. The cheap stuff, Joyo, Mosky etc can either be really good or crap so you go thru a bunch of em to find one that worth time and trouble. Plus I kinda hate the tiny mini pedal format other than the Dunlop FFs. They really dont save you that much board space, they tend to tilt over when you stomp on em, and if theres more than one or two knobs they are too tiny to adjust on the fly unless I get out a flashlight.
BTW, same goes for most other effects as well. Fancy delays, reverbs, and modulations. For me nothing really beats the spring tank in the Carr. I like phaser best and dont really care for chorus or flange. I have a Walrus Lillian but I actually like my plain old MXR block letter more. Its soupy, juicy, and versatile even with just one knob, in front of drive or after. Ive experimented with fancy ambient delays and reverbs but its just not my thing. I dont really do much tap tempo rhythm thIngs so I find myself reverting to a good analog delay like my DM2w or old Dan Echo. If I want to get more complex, or have a short and long delay available, I just add on the trusty old DD3.
So after all the time and expense, even tho it was a fun and interesting journey, what would I advise a new player building their 1st pedalboard?
Avoid the really cheap stuff and dont go chasing "boutique" tone. Stick with the tried and true. Boss, Ibanez, DOD, MXR, EHX, all the stuff thats been around forever for good reason. Reasonably priced, dependable and durable, and as good or better as anything else.
 
I've learned that I can get something useful out of almost any OD pedal. Give me any two dirt pedals and I can, almost always, stack them to create something good, even great. The dirty stomps I like the least, typically, have too much compression, yet I can usually back down the gain and use them as a boost.
 
I always have my Nobles OD-1 on just for a small clean bump. I use the Tumnus that I bought from @Pine Apple Slim for my OD tones. If I need to go over the top or just that power rock sound, I use a Danelectro Roebeck (clone of Ibanez Mostortion).
 
Modern Saint said:
I always have my Nobles OD-1 on just for a small clean bump. I use the Tumnus that I bought from @Pine Apple Slim for my OD tones. If I need to go over the top or just that power rock sound, I use a Danelectro Roebeck (clone of Ibanez Mostortion).
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I could live with that. Except Id swap the uses of the Nobels and the Tumnus.
The Roebuck would work great for that purpose if its similar to my Karma clone.
 
I think it's interesting that it seems like if you come up with Vox or Fender as your "base" tone, one tends to favor the distortion that comes from the pedal (as Fender dirt circuits kinda suck)...

... but if the baseline in your head is a Marshall (or Soldano, Mesa, etc) where there are more tubes in the circuit which are capable of cascading, generating gain and compression, then quite often you only rely on the tube screamer or boost to add some tightness, high end, or something to just push it over the edge.

I think the reason I've grown fond of the Tumnus is that (depending on the settings) it's a pedal that can fill in on either style of preamp and amp. :baimun:
 
baimun said:
I think it's interesting that it seems like if you come up with Vox or Fender as your "base" tone, one tends to favor the distortion that comes from the pedal (as Fender dirt circuits kinda suck)...

... but if the baseline in your head is a Marshall (or Soldano, Mesa, etc) where there are more tubes in the circuit which are capable of cascading, generating gain and compression, then quite often you only rely on the tube screamer or boost to add some tightness, high end, or something to just push it over the edge.

I think the reason I've grown fond of the Tumnus is that (depending on the settings) it's a pedal that can fill in on either style of preamp and amp. :baimun:
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I think you are onto something. I got a Marshall DSL20 head and 2x12 a year or so ago just because Id never played a Marshall and wanted to see what its all about. It does a thing. For a lot of rock music its kinda the thing. But Its really not my thing. I dont care for the high gain channel, I miss a real spring reverb, and for me Fender cleans are just better most of the time. About the only gain pedal the Marshall needs is a boost and Im pretty much done unless I want a fuzz.
But for "clean" Brit tones I honestly prefer my old Crate VC, the little Orange Micro heads, or the Crush 35rt. The bigger 2x12 cab is about the only thing it really brings to the table.
My little old Crate VC 2110r combo kinda accomplishes the same thing, a single ch class A el84 thing that breaks up when you stare at it hard, lol. Kinda Marshally but w/ a looser bottom end, kinda Voxy, and kinda almost Champ-like at times, depending on how you set it or what pickups you are pushing it with. Its only draw back is its small box and single 10".
For that smooth "Dumbly?", Soldano?, Mesa?, kind of sustaining compressed tone so prevalent in a lot of 80s rock and jazz fusion, my old Peavey Artist set clean and wide open combined with the right OD pedal seems to do that very well. Its a cool sound but again, not really something I go for most of the time.
 
Pine Apple Slim said:
I think you are onto something. I got a Marshall DSL20 head and 2x12 a year or so ago just because Id never played a Marshall and wanted to see what its all about. It does a thing. For a lot of rock music its kinda the thing. But Its really not my thing. I dont care for the high gain channel, I miss a real spring reverb, and for me Fender cleans are just better most of the time. About the only gain pedal the Marshall needs is a boost and Im pretty much done unless I want a fuzz.
But for "clean" Brit tones I honestly prefer my old Crate VC, the little Orange Micro heads, or the Crush 35rt. The bigger 2x12 cab is about the only thing it really brings to the table.
My little old Crate VC 2110r combo kinda accomplishes the same thing, a single ch class A el84 thing that breaks up when you stare at it hard, lol. Kinda Marshally but w/ a looser bottom end, kinda Voxy, and kinda almost Champ-like at times, depending on how you set it or what pickups you are pushing it with. Its only draw back is its small box and single 10".
For that smooth "Dumbly?", Soldano?, Mesa?, kind of sustaining compressed tone so prevalent in a lot of 80s rock and jazz fusion, my old Peavey Artist set clean and wide open combined with the right OD pedal seems to do that very well. Its a cool sound but again, not really something I go for most of the time.
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Still love the clean of my Crate V16.
 
Bob411 said:
Still love the clean of my Crate V16.
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The USA Crate VCs are terribly underrated IMO. Mine is still the amp I grab when I dont wanna shelp a bunch stuff, like to a blues jam or some other informal situation where Im gonna be playing generic simple parts and want a quick set up and break down. Amp in one hand guitar/gig bag/clip on tuner/cord in the other, done. No pedals and extra cables, one AC outlet.
If mine was a bigger box with more speaker area and a full sized reverb tank Id prob still be using it as my main amp.
 
What I've learned is there's too many crayons in the box to limit yourself to rules or specific brands.
Personally, I dont really go after the super cheap knockoff stuff because I don't really want to support that with my greenbacks. I don't have any problem with folks making a different choice.
 
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