Booster Pedals

[pusher]

Does anyone use a booster pedal in front of the their 5:50? Is it something that you would use to hit the tubes a little harder, and get a little more saturation?

I've been reading about the Ethos pedal and D'style amps, and was wondering if this was a way to get the clean channel to sound a little warmer, or fatter, with some of that nice saturated bloom.

Any thoughts?

pusher

 

[Newysurfer]

Does anyone use a booster pedal in front of the their 5:50? Is it something that you would use to hit the tubes a little harder, and get a little more saturation?

I've been reading about the Ethos pedal and D'style amps, and was wondering if this was a way to get the clean channel to sound a little warmer, or fatter, with some of that nice saturated bloom.

Any thoughts?

pusher

I've tried many booster pedals over the years.
Not sure what you mean by "a little warmer & nice bloom" but..............
The best imo are tubescreamer pedals and THE best one for boosting I've tried is the Analogman mod'ed Maxon OD-9. Great on any voice settings of the 5:50.
Will blast your burn channel into the Stratosphere
Yhe Fulltone Fulldrive 11 is also an excellent booster.
These will add gain.
If you want clean boost then I suggest the MXR EQ pedal - 6 band or 10 band are both great

 

[Krek13]

one word - TUBESCREAMER :!:

 

[pusher]

Pardon my ignorance here. . .

So you wouldn't use a boost pedal for clean sounds? Like if you just wanted it to break up a little bit?

OK, I confess; the other night I was listening to clips of a couple Dumble amps the Ethos pedal and started tweaking my tone to get as close as I could with my 5:50. One discussion I had with someone said that I needed to saturate the tubes more on input to get closer to that sound. They suggested a boost pedal The Ethos seems to do it without tubes, though.

Has anyone else tried this? I have my blues channel set more on the clean side, but breaking up a bit. There's a tiny hint of what I'm after, but I was hoping to get a little closer.

The quest for tone never fades. I tried my newly tweaked tones at our gig last night. I think it worked well, but I had to dial the muddiness back a little after the first couple of songs.

pusher

 

[jpotts05]

If your looking for a sparkly clean boost with no compression, I would suggest the Xotic RC Booster.

 

[Don]

Clean boost pedals make old, inefficient amps like my tweed Deluxe Clone and Vibrolux Reverb more dirty. The same pedals, at the same setting, made my Express much louder without getting much dirtier. They made the amp sound bigger and fatter in the effects loop.

 

[David Garner]

one word - TUBESCREAMER :!:

I just bought a 5:50 -- should be here next week. I have a question -- I currently run a Fulldrive II into a Deluxe Reverb. Would a Tubescreamer (I have a Maxon OD9) work better than the FDII for this particular amp? I'm a bit worried about the mid hump going into an amp that's already mid-heavy. The FDII has the same issue, but I can set it to the flat mids setting or comp cut, the latter being the one that makes the most sense to me now, not yet having heard it through the amp. I'm curious what kind of sound you get from the TS pushing, say, channel 1 in crunch mode. I'm probably going to be one of those guys who uses crunch for dirt and blues for clean for the most part.

Thanks in advance.

 

[Krek13]

one word - TUBESCREAMER :!:

I just bought a 5:50 -- should be here next week. I have a question -- I currently run a Fulldrive II into a Deluxe Reverb. Would a Tubescreamer (I have a Maxon OD9) work better than the FDII for this particular amp? I'm a bit worried about the mid hump going into an amp that's already mid-heavy. The FDII has the same issue, but I can set it to the flat mids setting or comp cut, the latter being the one that makes the most sense to me now, not yet having heard it through the amp. I'm curious what kind of sound you get from the TS pushing, say, channel 1 in crunch mode. I'm probably going to be one of those guys who uses crunch for dirt and blues for clean for the most part.

Thanks in advance.

I'm pretty sure the maxon would do a much better job on mesa express...I don't really know about deluxe reverb cos I didn't play that amp much, but try it out, it might work good also...you can set the fulldrive as a gain boost and maxon as a volume boost (gain 0, volume maxed out) an use them simultaneously...tweak a little

 

[David Garner]

I'm pretty sure the maxon would do a much better job on mesa express...I don't really know about deluxe reverb cos I didn't play that amp much, but try it out, it might work good also...you can set the fulldrive as a gain boost and maxon as a volume boost (gain 0, volume maxed out) an use them simultaneously...tweak a little

Thanks -- I have room on the board for both of them, so I may just throw the Maxon on and do a "both/and."

We do roots rock, so I doubt I'll ever need a gain boost, but it can't hurt to have the option, I don't suppose. I'll probably try both of them straight into the amp first to see if I have a preference between the two.

 

[Newysurfer]

one word - TUBESCREAMER :!:

I just bought a 5:50 -- should be here next week. I have a question -- I currently run a Fulldrive II into a Deluxe Reverb. Would a Tubescreamer (I have a Maxon OD9) work better than the FDII for this particular amp? I'm a bit worried about the mid hump going into an amp that's already mid-heavy. The FDII has the same issue, but I can set it to the flat mids setting or comp cut, the latter being the one that makes the most sense to me now, not yet having heard it through the amp. I'm curious what kind of sound you get from the TS pushing, say, channel 1 in crunch mode. I'm probably going to be one of those guys who uses crunch for dirt and blues for clean for the most part.

Thanks in advance.

I've got both an FD11 and an analogman mod'ed Maxon OD-9.
I find them both excellent into the 5:50 - just like every good pedal I run into this amp.
It's extremely pedal friendly with everything I find and you can easily EQ out any mid or bass humps.
I prefer the OD-9 myself as a classic tubescreamer & booster but the FD11 is more versatile.
The 5:50 will cover many of the FD11 tones better so the Maxon is on my No1 board

 

[David Garner]

one word - TUBESCREAMER :!:

I just bought a 5:50 -- should be here next week. I have a question -- I currently run a Fulldrive II into a Deluxe Reverb. Would a Tubescreamer (I have a Maxon OD9) work better than the FDII for this particular amp? I'm a bit worried about the mid hump going into an amp that's already mid-heavy. The FDII has the same issue, but I can set it to the flat mids setting or comp cut, the latter being the one that makes the most sense to me now, not yet having heard it through the amp. I'm curious what kind of sound you get from the TS pushing, say, channel 1 in crunch mode. I'm probably going to be one of those guys who uses crunch for dirt and blues for clean for the most part.

Thanks in advance.

I've got both an FD11 and an analogman mod'ed Maxon OD-9.
I find them both excellent into the 5:50 - just like every good pedal I run into this amp.
It's extremely pedal friendly with everything I find and you can easily EQ out any mid or bass humps.
I prefer the OD-9 myself as a classic tubescreamer & booster but the FD11 is more versatile.
The 5:50 will cover many of the FD11 tones better so the Maxon is on my No1 board

I just re-did my board to include the OD9 (FDII came off). I also re-configured it to put the delays in the effects loop. Thanks for the suggestions. If this works out, I'll probably sell the FDII.

 

[David Garner]

Got the amp today. OD9 is pretty awesome for a solo boost. I don't need any more gain than the amp provides, so I don't need dirt, just a boost for solos. OD9 with the tone rolled down to 10:00 sounds about as good as I could expect. I think it's a keeper.

 

[Newysurfer]

Got the amp today. OD9 is pretty awesome for a solo boost. I don't need any more gain than the amp provides, so I don't need dirt, just a boost for solos. OD9 with the tone rolled down to 10:00 sounds about as good as I could expect. I think it's a keeper.

yeah I also keep the gain low and crank the volume on the OD-9 and it blasts the 5:50's crunch or burn channels into the stratosphere :mrgreen:
Simply the best booster I've ever heard and it does SRV tubescreamer tones just as great

 

[Wolfboy1]

I've tried a lot of dirt pedals through my amp and without doubt the tubescreamer variety sound the best to me. Currently using a 30th anniversary edition and love it. The Hardwire CM-2 worked very well too.

 

[David Garner]

Update -- I tried all my dirt in front of the amp. OD9 is by far the best boost.

The amp has enough gain on tap for well more than my needs, so I really only need a boost. Of all my pedals, the OD9 fills that role better than any other. So much so that I put my FD2 up for sale on The Gear Page (I'll end up selling others, but the OD9 and my TS808 reissue are my main and backup boosts, respectively).

 

[Krek13]

Update -- I tried all my dirt in front of the amp. OD9 is by far the best boost.

The amp has enough gain on tap for well more than my needs, so I really only need a boost. Of all my pedals, the OD9 fills that role better than any other. So much so that I put my FD2 up for sale on The Gear Page (I'll end up selling others, but the OD9 and my TS808 reissue are my main and backup boosts, respectively).

told ya :mrgreen: :mrgreen:
tubescreamers rule :!:

 

[Newysurfer]

Update -- I tried all my dirt in front of the amp. OD9 is by far the best boost.

The amp has enough gain on tap for well more than my needs, so I really only need a boost. Of all my pedals, the OD9 fills that role better than any other. So much so that I put my FD2 up for sale on The Gear Page (I'll end up selling others, but the OD9 and my TS808 reissue are my main and backup boosts, respectively).

ah David - 2 great minds think alike huh.
I did exactly the same thing as you and came to the same conclusion - Maxon OD9 rules :mrgreen:

 

[David Garner]

Hey folks, I now have 2 overdrives on my board for solo boost -- the OD9 and an old, version 1 Timmy.

The Timmy is incredibly good on the blues channel. Incredibly good. Makes the OD9 sound weak, thin and sad, which is amazing because the OD9 smoked some really good dirt pedals when I tried them all out. The OD9 sounds way better on the clean channel, but the Timmy is perfect for the dirt channel. Kind of the best of both worlds.

If you haven't already, give the Timmy a whirl.

 

[Newysurfer]

Hey folks, I now have 2 overdrives on my board for solo boost -- the OD9 and an old, version 1 Timmy.

The Timmy is incredibly good on the blues channel. Incredibly good. Makes the OD9 sound weak, thin and sad, which is amazing because the OD9 smoked some really good dirt pedals when I tried them all out. The OD9 sounds way better on the clean channel, but the Timmy is perfect for the dirt channel. Kind of the best of both worlds.

If you haven't already, give the Timmy a whirl.

I've heard lots about the Timmy but have never seen one in Australia
I'm really going for the classic SRV tubescreamer tones though so that's why the OD-9 (Analogman mod'ed version) is my pick so far.
The 5:50 doesn't really do classic SRV tones & the only reason I have a few pedals is to deliver tones the Mesa won't do
Is the Timmy a classic SRV type tubescreamer or different ???

 

[David Garner]

Hey folks, I now have 2 overdrives on my board for solo boost -- the OD9 and an old, version 1 Timmy.

The Timmy is incredibly good on the blues channel. Incredibly good. Makes the OD9 sound weak, thin and sad, which is amazing because the OD9 smoked some really good dirt pedals when I tried them all out. The OD9 sounds way better on the clean channel, but the Timmy is perfect for the dirt channel. Kind of the best of both worlds.

If you haven't already, give the Timmy a whirl.

I've heard lots about the Timmy but have never seen one in Australia
I'm really going for the classic SRV tubescreamer tones though so that's why the OD-9 (Analogman mod'ed version) is my pick so far.
The 5:50 doesn't really do classic SRV tones & the only reason I have a few pedals is to deliver tones the Mesa won't do

Yeah, the Mesa on clean with an OD9 with the volume all the way up and the gain all the way down is a thing of beauty. It's a great boost for channel 2 as well (I use mine on blues with the gain almost all the way up), but the Timmy is just way better to my ears. It may be the honeymoon period though.

Is the Timmy a classic SRV type tubescreamer or different ???

No, it's WAY more transparent. You can dial in a lot more bass, and it's more versatile too. The only real similarity is it is symmetrical clipping on the factory settings, but I actually have mine set to asymmetrical because it sounds so good. The Timmy in this setting is closer to an OCD than a TS, but in the factory setting, it's kind of its own animal. Very transparent, doesn't color the tone a lot if you EQ it right, etc. I have mine set more like a treble boost since I'm only using it for solos, but you could easily set it up for a boost that would fatten the tone up as if the amp had a few more notches on the dial. I might try that on the dirt channel and set it to unity gain and see how the OD9 stacks with it.

I think the TS is great with Fender-ish amps (blackface variety), and the Timmy is great for more mid-heavy amps like Marshalls, Voxes and, at least in the higher gain settings, Mesas. With a 5:50 where you get those huge Fenderish cleans and the nice middy crunch in the same amp, having both is the best of both worlds.