Drive Pedal Heaven

Something definitely changed the drive block on this update for the better. I always felt the drives in general were more abrupt before a dirty amp than IRL, they seem to react more now as they should. Dont know if that makes any sense
 
ok, obviously:) it’s a drastic eq/low cut etc and (for me unpleasant) compression where with the right amp block i have the freedom to shape the tone, amount of comp and dist.
This is IMO entirely dependent on the Amp and the Drive and how they are set.

I'm mostly setting up the amp model as a pedal platform.

I like the RCB to add a bit of grit to my "clean" (which is never really clean) and I use other drives like Zen Master, Timothy, etc for various flavors of solo tones.

I much prefer the tones I get with a drive into a clean-ish amp.
 
A solid state Crate?... You know, if you just invented a modeller, you could be playing any amp you want! Oh....wait....
Thanks
Pauly


As I stated before I never used pedals in all my years of playing live. I bought one drive pedal when I first got into guitar. It was a black MXR Distortion+. Hated the thing. Sounded like a can of bees. Of course I was playing it through a solid-state Crate so...

That said I've been experimenting with the drives into various cleanish amps and really digging some of them. Into a Deluxe Reverb or Twin Reverb is doing it for me.
 
I’ve never been all that much on drive pedals for their distortion stages but it’s just about always a good idea to have something on hand for general before-the-amp tone shaping.

I have a Boss GE-7 and If I’m taking an amp somewhere, that thing is coming along with it. It’s hard to beat a simple EQ pedal for shaping your guitar to drive your amp in just the right way.

Maybe I’ll start experimenting with pedals that generate their own distortion too now that they’ve been updated.
 
what is it that you guys get from a
pedal+amp drive tone that you can’t get from an amp?

I understand fuzzes or extreme/weird settings etc...but lately i feel more and more the (right) amp distortion/crunch/lead tone is almost allways better than the (over) compressed pedal tone.

Not judging, trying to understand.

Partly the age old tale of each person's personal preference. You might get the big grin from an amp block alone whereas some like to blend and mix od pedals

Me, I like both options depending on what my goals are

Thanks to the versatility of modelling we can do whatever we want
 
Vox AC30 is a great pedal platform too.
Yeah sure, that sound good too as well as some fenders.
But I say the hiwatt is unbeatable due to its headroom. It's almost impossible to make its power amp distort (unless you turn everything all the way up and feed it with a really hot signal), so you can really crank the gain/volume on the drives and it just adds a gentle compression that makes everything sound smooth and creamy.

If you do the same with most other amps you'll hit a ceiling at a certain point and everything will start to sound farty and/or muddy.

This also means the hiwatt lets you hear the true "voice" of a drive pedal while other amps mask it cuz they add their own distortion/clipping on top and tend to make every pedal sound kinda the same
 
what is it that you guys get from a
pedal+amp drive tone that you can’t get from an amp?

I understand fuzzes or extreme/weird settings etc...but lately i feel more and more the (right) amp distortion/crunch/lead tone is almost allways better than the (over) compressed pedal tone.

Not judging, trying to understand.

What makes you think a pedal is more compressed than an amp in overdrive, out of curiosity?
 
That path is not completed without the subtle touch of a Tape Drive between the AMP and the CAB. That's why we have four drive blocks
:)

Haha, yes, love the Tape. I did use it quite a lot but then replaced it with the channel strip simulation (Preamp) in the Cab block, which is similar and saves a block on the grid. Then, recently, I turned that off and realized I don’t miss it that much.
 
Only bought one drive pedal ever after I had an Ibanez UE400 for 3 years that I sold to get a Quadraverb because of the delays. It was a Chandler Tube Driver 4 knob and it blew the hell out of my Fender Rivera Champ for about 10 years. Then after the Quadraverb CPU died, I sold the Chandler after getting a Digitech 2101LE that stayed in the rack for about 10 years and hence to FAS equipment. I use Drive in 2 ways : either by playing on the input drive of the amp together with EQ and one drive pedal to limit CPU use, or two drive pedals if not too much effects in the patch. Don't forget that with the scenes you also can use X/Y switching of drive pedals for more soundvariations.
 
My pre-Fractal rig (long ago sold) was a large pedal board with a gig rig G2 switching system.

All the drives came from the board (Klon KTR, KoT, Wampler Pinnacle and a Hook Royale in the last incarnation), this sounded great - at home I plugged into a Carr amp, when I played out I plugged straight into whatever was there - since the amp was just making it louder.

Honestly it sounded amazing, and plugged into a Marshall stack set really loud but basically clean (ok a bit of compression but not much more than that) - you'd never know it wasn't all amp.

In the Fractal I use the amp model for main tone but love boosting with drive pedals.

My point being, good quality pedals, nice power supply and signal path - into an amp, that's a great sound and you'd never know it wasn't all amp.

It's not better or worse it's just different, and often not that much!
 
I was never a "pedal platform" guy and only used drives like the SD-1 as a boost for a little more gain into an already crunchy amp. Having all the worlds best drives as well as a selection of Fenders, Hiwatts and Vox style amps in the III makes me appreciate the dark art of stacking drives a little more though.

Anyway, back to play the USA Lead model with nothing in front of it :p
 
Anyone else loving this update as much as I am? I've always been a "pedal platform" player.

The way I use drive blocks is to run two of them in series. One low gain, one low/med gain. Use both for "more". Try it!
Oh man, I am LOVING it. I'm using the Citrus A30 Clean with the Box O Crunch and can use my guitar volume only to go from a little grit to rippin awesomeness. And then, turning off the drive I get a very nice clean amp!

Edit: Just added a sound byte of a very basic preset with the Citrus A30 and the Box O Crunch drive. First part is with the drive off, and then just using my volume control on my guitar. Loud it sounds amazing! (to me) :) Well except for the spdif pops and cracks... grr

 
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I bought one drive pedal when I first got into guitar. It was a black MXR Distortion+.

My very first pedal was also an MXR Distortion+ (mustard version). I paid $20 for it at my neighbor's garage sale in probably 1980. The only way I liked it was to run it into my amp (also a Crate... CR112!!) set to overdrive. That drive-on-drive thing was so weird and inspiring. I'd play thick power chord rhythms along with my Double Platinum LP. I was hooked, though in retrospect I cannot imagine what it sounded like in terms of tone!!!

To this day, one thing I listen for in a sim is the sound of the drive as my fingers squeak on the wound strings the first thing I noticed about this update was the dynamic liveliness of the sounds. They just sound and feel better "all over".

Only thing that sucks right now is that since the storm last week, our power has gone off and on dozens of times, so I am really reluctant to leave any gear powered on. I actually have my Axe-Fx on a UPS.

PS:
Tempting... just to see what it sounds like!

https://reverb.com/item/34653739-mx...9.xZOOalNALd4mlRanzaNPbysz1jRoy_EFQ9EKFZsetvE

https://reverb.com/item/34976809-cr...9.QyBndiZlW4Wf9467ddaNLwo5oHJvs2pKrG5Ow2XzZlo
 
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If you want to try using a Marshall amp as a pedal platform amp, try lowering the treble around 0 on the amp. Works wonders. Some Marshall amp and cab combinations just have way too much treble on the tap for clean sounds unless you’re using the amp to provide the drive and just boost it with a boost pedal. Just had to suggest one of my artists to do this with his JCM800 and 4x10 1965 w/ G10-L35’s and he’s been sounding glorious ever since.
 
My name is Sean and I am a former dirt pedal junkie. It took me years to learn that I almost always dial in different pedals the same way so I finally paired down to about 3-4 in the collection for various pedalboards.

Dug this up from 2012... heh that was fun.
 
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