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Hey guys...just the other day I got my daily newsletter from gibson.com. These newsletters are a little different than most, in that I actually enjoy a lot of them. This one in particular (and maybe some of you have seen it) talks about distortion.
This is something I've been fighting with...or fighting for...for many years. I don't think I've ever had the perfect sound...at least for my tastes. In the early days of my playing, I plugged right into a solid state Fender amp...turned the gain and volume up to 11 and rocked out. In those days, I didn't even know what delay was (reverb was enough for me).
A few years later, a friend, desperate for money, sold me an Ibanez pedal board....a PUE5 Tube...which was really cool...it sounded great at the time..way better than the solid state model, which was pretty much the same without the tube (obviously). Over the years, this thing kinda lost its sound. I replaced the tube, but it never got any better..I don't know why...I didn't realize these things could sort of "degrade"...but it did.
These days, I tend to like the Line6 stuff...the modeling. It tends to be the easiest for me to get at least close to the sound that I want. I have a pocket pod, which I've been able to tweak to give me exactly what I've been searching for for years...the perfect tone. It's my holy grail of tone...problem is, plugging those little pocket pods into an amp just doesn't seem to work...not sure why...but the sound is just much different when going through an amp as opposed to headphones. Call me crazy.
So I'm hoping I can get a little insight here. I ended up purchasing the Line 6 Mark IV Bogner amp. It sounds pretty good by itself...I found that if I throw an EQ in the mix..along with my old faithful boss compressor/sustainer, and, of course, a noise gate, I get pretty close to the sound I'm looking for. I thought about the full size Line 6 Pod...but why bother when I've got an amp that's supposed to do the same thing. So now to my question....I'd like to know what you guys do. Do you run distortion and overdrive pedals...do you go straight through the amp...or a combination. And what do you set your levels/gain settings to. The reason I brought up the Ibanez thing is for two reasons. One...I loved that old Ibanez pedal board that I used to use. The other reason is that so many players include the Ibanez tube screamer in their setups. By the way...stupid question...but what is the difference between an overdrive and a tube screamer...I know the difference between a distortion pedal and an overdrive....but how does tube screamer come into the mix?
I appreciate your comments. Thanks.
This is something I've been fighting with...or fighting for...for many years. I don't think I've ever had the perfect sound...at least for my tastes. In the early days of my playing, I plugged right into a solid state Fender amp...turned the gain and volume up to 11 and rocked out. In those days, I didn't even know what delay was (reverb was enough for me).
A few years later, a friend, desperate for money, sold me an Ibanez pedal board....a PUE5 Tube...which was really cool...it sounded great at the time..way better than the solid state model, which was pretty much the same without the tube (obviously). Over the years, this thing kinda lost its sound. I replaced the tube, but it never got any better..I don't know why...I didn't realize these things could sort of "degrade"...but it did.
These days, I tend to like the Line6 stuff...the modeling. It tends to be the easiest for me to get at least close to the sound that I want. I have a pocket pod, which I've been able to tweak to give me exactly what I've been searching for for years...the perfect tone. It's my holy grail of tone...problem is, plugging those little pocket pods into an amp just doesn't seem to work...not sure why...but the sound is just much different when going through an amp as opposed to headphones. Call me crazy.
So I'm hoping I can get a little insight here. I ended up purchasing the Line 6 Mark IV Bogner amp. It sounds pretty good by itself...I found that if I throw an EQ in the mix..along with my old faithful boss compressor/sustainer, and, of course, a noise gate, I get pretty close to the sound I'm looking for. I thought about the full size Line 6 Pod...but why bother when I've got an amp that's supposed to do the same thing. So now to my question....I'd like to know what you guys do. Do you run distortion and overdrive pedals...do you go straight through the amp...or a combination. And what do you set your levels/gain settings to. The reason I brought up the Ibanez thing is for two reasons. One...I loved that old Ibanez pedal board that I used to use. The other reason is that so many players include the Ibanez tube screamer in their setups. By the way...stupid question...but what is the difference between an overdrive and a tube screamer...I know the difference between a distortion pedal and an overdrive....but how does tube screamer come into the mix?
I appreciate your comments. Thanks.
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