Favorite Drive Blocks

ksmithdc

ksmithdc

Inspired
All,


What's your favorite drive blocks? For me, I like the ones which are the most transparent and serve to goose the input of the amp for some smoother singing overdrive. So for me, the ones I tend to utilize the most are:

1. Zen Drive
2. TS 808
3. BB Preamp (although that one is kind of dark)





Doc
 
I was going through my patches to figure out what I use, but then I realized I use about 5 of them with different amps.

I figured it easiest if I list what for each of my amps I'm using.

JTM 45 - Zen to kick edge of breakup cleans into rawk. Blues od for neck leads.
BE - Zen for 'more'
Roamer - Eternal Love with lots of drive for lead tone. Blues od to make neck humbuckers sound stratty or more woody.
Buttery - Blues OD, again mostly for neck although with this amp the bridge will give you some cut that would make Albert Collins proud.
Deluxe Tweed - Full OD at 6 drive 7 level. Great lead tone!
1987 treble - Full OD, 2.5 drive, 7.5 level. A little front end slam for the extra sustain and gain.
Brit super - See above
Nitrous - This amp does not need any gain from pedals at all. I actually use a compressor for some solos with it for the extra sustain.
Energyball - BB Pre at 2 drive, 7 level. Takes amp in to superoversaturated gain mode. Awesome when you want your guitar and amp to fight back.

That's the bulk of my presets and drive choices.
 
I love the Hard Fuzz. It is very picky about amps but with the right amp it is all I have ever wanted in a drive pedal.

With the Buttery amp set clean, the Hard Fuzz is fat, raw and just sings. Sounds great wound back for more of a crunch and even better dialled up with the drive about half way for huge chords and, fat singing notes. It also sounds great with the CAE amp. The trick with this drive pedal is to have the voulme past 2 o'clock

Other drives I love are the newer ones, the FAS LED and the 4 knob Tube Drive as well as the 808 Mod and the Eternity.

Would LOVE to have the Crowther Hot Cake as an option.
 
I'm sure this has been asked before.. But I wish Cliff would put the Fulltone OCD into the axe. Or if its there, I have overlooked and missed it. Its really the only thing not in the axe that I miss from my old rig. Hands down my favorite overdrive of all time. I miss having it bad enough that I almost want to buy another OCD to put in front of the axe.

However, I have been toying around with the drive blocks in the axe and am pleased with them. Just miss the flavor of the OCD.. that is all.

Edit: I wonder if I sent Cliff and OCD, would he model it in the next fw? :mrgreen
 
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I'm not crazy about any of them and I was never a fan of the tube screamer. The drive block and the comp block are not very useful to me. I have real pedals up front. I use a very early Boss DS-1, Boss Blues Driver, and an OCD. For comp pedals I like the Wampler EGO or my older Kelley.
 
ChrisMetal86 said:
I'm sure this has been asked before.. But I wish Cliff would put the Fulltone OCD into the axe. Or if its there, I have overlooked and missed it. Its really the only thing not in the axe that I miss from my old rig. Hands down my favorite overdrive of all time. I miss having it bad enough that I almost want to buy another OCD to put in front of the axe.

However, I have been toying around with the drive blocks in the axe and am pleased with them. Just miss the flavor of the OCD.. that is all.

Edit: I wonder if I sent Cliff and OCD, would he model it in the next fw? :mrgreen
Click to expand...

I believe the Full OD is the modeled Fulltone OCD.
 
The fullod is definitely the fulldrive (which is essentially a tube screamer clone) and not the OCD


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk
 
Hellbat said:
Buttery - Blues OD, again mostly for neck although with this amp the bridge will give you some cut that would make Albert Collins proud.
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I'd like to hear this. I have never succeeded in getting a usable sound from it. It invariably sounds like the guitar was recorded in an old tin can.
 
mogvinda said:
I'd like to hear this. I have never succeeded in getting a usable sound from it. It invariably sounds like the guitar was recorded in an old tin can.
Click to expand...

The BluesBreaker that the Blues OD is based on is a really bright pedal. I've got a buddy with a JHS Morning Glory, which is based on the BluesBreaker as well, and the Axe Blues OD is really close to it. I find I always have to turn the tone way down (think < 1.5), but if I'm looking to add a little snap and grit to a warm or darker sounding amp, it works really well. I like the AC-30 non TB a lot with the Blues OD. As with most gear, the pedal isn't for any combination of guitar, amp and speaker- I'd never add one to a bright Fender. You'd kill someone! Just like the real world. But in the right application, it's a cool pedal.
 
FET drive and TS808 drives... the FET is nice and neutral with the ability to adjust high and low cut to make slight eq changes as needed while pushing any amp model. The TS808 is just a classic drive sound that I've used for years with Strats/teles..

Would love to see more models of specific pedals added, but I tend to just work with the amp models to get there for the most part.
 
When I first got my AxeFx2 (back in June 2011), I was all into the high gain amps. Then I read a post where somebody had brought up the idea of using a half distorted amp along with a boost block to dial in a lead tone. I had one of those "duh" <facepalm> moments. I'd been doing that with real amps & pedals forever. Never dawned upon me to do the same thing in the virtual world of the AxeFx.

And as many people have brought up, it all depends on which amp you use - which determines which drive block works the best. You kind of have to experiment and pair the two together.

That being said, I do prefer more transparent boost/overdrive pedals. I'd prefer something that doesn't color the tone, it just pushes it into a smooth, liquidy lead tone and allows for more effortless lead playing.

My problem is I have "tonal ADD". So one day I'm into the Robben Ford Dumble ODS-100 sound. And then the next week I'm digging on a Steve Lukather sound. And then the week after that, I'm into 70's era Van Halen tones.

I just thank God I have an AxeFx which will allow me to indulge in this ADD problem of mine. :)
 
I find the BB too dark as well. I usually gravitate towards the Fet boost & Zen Drive because they are more transparent. Haven't had much success with the axe using the RCB and ACB drives, despite enjoying their real counterparts. Still a work in progress figuring out how to use drive pedals in a smart way with the axe!
 
Adman103 said:
The BluesBreaker that the Blues OD is based on is a really bright pedal. I've got a buddy with a JHS Morning Glory, which is based on the BluesBreaker as well, and the Axe Blues OD is really close to it. I find I always have to turn the tone way down (think < 1.5), but if I'm looking to add a little snap and grit to a warm or darker sounding amp, it works really well. I like the AC-30 non TB a lot with the Blues OD. As with most gear, the pedal isn't for any combination of guitar, amp and speaker- I'd never add one to a bright Fender. You'd kill someone! Just like the real world. But in the right application, it's a cool pedal.
Click to expand...

Great tip. Yet another way to brighten/thin up a sound when needed.
 
The FET Drive for a nice clean boost, the Zen Drive if I need a little more grit. Saw a suggestion a while back (Simeon?) that really works well: find the mid frequency of the amp you're using, change the drive pedal's mid freq. to match it & boost it by about 4db. Great for solos!
 
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