Booster Pedals

[andy]

After many years of being a 'straight to the amp' sort of a guy, certainly as far as drive/distortion was concerned, I've started using pedals to build my range of tones.

It all seems to be working quite nicely, and I currently have a booster (with a touch of drive) for solos, a drive, a distortion, chorus, and delay.

My only thing is that with having the boost at the start of the chain, its effect as a volume boost becomes less effective as the gain rises- as a lift for solos from clean it is chimey and bluesy with a good jump in volume. With the drive on, the boost is less though the drive fills out a bit, and with distortion the volume barely rises, but the sound thickens considerably. This is obviously a common characteristic of boosts with drives, and makes sense of the otherwise volume-inbalanced use of a booster with an amp to get two 'channels', but leaves me with a bit of an issue.

I have yet to experiment with the chain order as much as I still could, but has anyone any experience with using a single pedal to get an even volume boost across a range of drive levels? I always assumed that a volume boost in front of a pedal would result in one after it, but compression obviously comes into play with the drive sounds.

Can it be so simple as to add a clean boost after the drive pedals? And to keep things complicated, I would still like to add a little drive to solos on the (very) clean setting, but would still like to stick to just the five pedals I can power with my little pedal adaptor! A slight drive and volume boost after a rocking distortion?? I think it sounds a bit ropey, doesn't it?

Obviously, there is more experimenting I can do here, but any experience I can learn from would be a great help.

Cheers, Andy

[JohnH]

I think you have it worked out. Boost after drive, will add volume keeping the same sound. To get your bit of extra dirt on boosted clean, set your amp gain so it is just on the point of breakup on its clean channel. Then a clean signal into the booster will take it 'over the cliff', but it will not be driving the amp so hard that it cant give the extra volume as it does so. The boosted drive pedal, will also gain a bit of character from the amp in this case, but be louder.

John

[ashcatlt]

I'd be inclined to just turn the whole pedalboard around, though I usually prefer chorus before delay so the repeats are in a different portion of the sweep from the "new sound". Of course, you've heard my music...

Now, you said "add" which leads me to believe that you like the sound of the distortion pedals when they're driven a little harder. Seems like it would be tough if you have to hit 2 pedals to get to solo mode. Probably wouldn't take much to make 2 boosters into 1 pedal. You could also think about putting a booster into the guitar. I think, though, you'd ought to just get a bigger pedal board. You're going to need a wah soon anyway.

[andy]

set your amp gain so it is just on the point of breakup on its clean channel. Then a clean signal into the booster will take it 'over the cliff'

Good point JohnH, however I forgot to mention that I'm using a solid state Fender! It has a great clean sound, but overdriving it would be as tough as getting a straight answer from a politician! ;D I need to generate all the sounds within the pedals, but having thrown caution to the wind and put the boost after the drive pedals at a rehearsal this evening, a boost with a bit of drive seems to be a reasonable option actually. Its still gives a bit of drive to clean settings, and doesn't get as messy as I had remebered it could with distortion. I need to check out some of the volumes, but the test run was successful enough that I'll do the same at a gig this weekend through my own amp, and see how it goes.

Now, you said "add" which leads me to believe that you like the sound of the distortion pedals when they're driven a little harder.

Well, I did say that, but I just meant "put"! That said, having chucked the boost after the drive pedals, I now have a 'post' volume boost and may well be able to use the overdrive as a boost for the distortion in a similar way to before. I didn't have time to run through all the options in a working environment, but moving that one pedal may have killed two birds with one stone!

I think, though, you'd ought to just get a bigger pedal board. You're going to need a wah soon anyway.

My Crybaby with a decade and a half of honest wear and tear is another thread altogether!