What drive pedal do you prefer in front of a Marshall in the Axe FXIII?

trancegodz

Fractal Fanatic
Marshalls have been used by most of the legends of rock. Jimi Hendrix, Jeff Beck, Eric Clapton in the Bluesbreakers and Cream, Led Zeppelin, Richie Blackmore, Eric Johnson, Steve Vai, Joe Satriani, and many others too numerous to mention.

Most guitarists using old Marshalls used some sort of pedal in front of them. Eric Clapton used a Dallas Rangemaster in front of his Marshall to get his famous Bluesbreaker sound with John Mayall. Jimi Hendrix used a fuzz Face. Jeff Beck used a tone bender, Eric Johnson uses a tube driver, or tube screamer, or fuzz face. Joe Satriani used a Boss DS-1. Steve Vai used a Boss OD-1 or DS-1.

I’ve used Marshall’s myself for over 50 years. Playing a Les Paul or Stratocaster, originally I used an LPB1 power booster, later I used a Dallas Rangemaster, then a Vox tone bender, a fuzz face, a tube screamer, a tube driver, eq pedal, etc.

The point is that all of these guitarists hit the front end of their non Master volume Marshalls with some kind of pedal to help them get the sound they got.

The Marshalls in the Axe FXIII sound very good if you know how to use them, and dial them in right.

With the input trim and input gain controls in the Axe FXIII there is more than enough gain available. There are also many eq possibilities.

What do you guys use (if anything) to drive the front end of a Marshall in the Axe FXIII? (What guitar and pickups are you using?)

What are your favorite cabs to use with Marshalls in the Axe FXIII?
 
Horizon Precision Drive

Tape Distortion

MCMLXXXI Drive

Grinder, FAS CC Boost (inside the amp block's preamp section)

My favorite is definitely the CC Boost. It lifts the "correct" frequencies and allows you to push that front end good.

Would love to warm up to the three Timmy pedals, but I just can't get along with them...
 
I really dig the "Neutral" PAB in the amp as a boost more than a pedal before, but thats just me.
I will often just use the "neutral" input boost, and / or increase the input trim to 1.5 or higher with a Stratocaster..

I will sometimes add a filter block before the amp set at 1, 2 or 3db.
 
I use one of these in front of a Marshall usually:
Esoteric AC Boost
FET Boost
T808
Tube Drive 4 knob
BB Pre
 
TS808 with Les Paul or any other humbucker style guitars
Super OD with strats
Shimmer Drive for leads, just amazing
Muff (w/ ~70%mix) for fuzz awesomeness
Neutral boost with +5dB if you need just a tad more drive
 
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SDD Preamp with drive set to 1.5. I do this with pretty much every preset.
Micro Boost
Super OD
FET Preamp
TS808 and other TS types.
FAS boost is great leads, Larry Mitchell turned me on to that for Marshalls.
 
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