Effects through a SS vs. effects through a tube amp

[saucygitaristak2]

I'm a performing guitarist on a tight budget and I need to get more versatility through my pedal board. I was thinking that rather than dealing with maintenance-heavy tube amps, I would like to try to dumb down my rig a little bit to a solid state head with a nice clean channel and spring reverb and get my distortion from a pedal, like an OCD or Fulldrive...

BUT...

I have heard people saying that distortion pedals sound way better through tube amps. Considering the clean channel is even richer on my old Fender solid state than it was on my old Rect-o-verb, I don't quite see how that can be 100% true. If you run distortion pedals through an effects loop, have any of you guys had experiences where pedals just didn't cut it through a solid state amp? I feel like people saying that the OCD sounds much better through a tube clean channel is due to a sort of snootiness towards anything solid state from traditionalists, but maybe there is some merit to it.

 

[b0nkersx]

I'm a performing guitarist on a tight budget and I need to get more versatility through my pedal board. I was thinking that rather than dealing with maintenance-heavy tube amps, I would like to try to dumb down my rig a little bit to a solid state head with a nice clean channel and spring reverb and get my distortion from a pedal, like an OCD or Fulldrive...

BUT...

I have heard people saying that distortion pedals sound way better through tube amps. Considering the clean channel is even richer on my old Fender solid state than it was on my old Rect-o-verb, I don't quite see how that can be 100% true. If you run distortion pedals through an effects loop, have any of you guys had experiences where pedals just didn't cut it through a solid state amp? I feel like people saying that the OCD sounds much better through a tube clean channel is due to a sort of snootiness towards anything solid state from traditionalists, but maybe there is some merit to it.

It really depends on what you're looking for, IMO. Tube amp clean channels add their own color to dirt pedals. If you played them through a super clean solid state amplifier, you would mostly be hearing the pedal instead of the amplifier. As far as an OCD or Fulldrive, many people tend to use them as boosts rather than standalone dirt, which will only work nicely on tube amps, but the OCD should be good to go as a standalone, from what I've heard. In any case, it's not like there aren't millions of dirt pedals to find what works nicely for you. You could even try using some tube-based pedals (Blackstar, Radial, Damage Control) for your drive sounds, and still reap the pristine quality of a good solid state's clean.

I wrote this post with a Roland Jazz Chorus in mind as the solid state amp. They're great sounding clean amplifiers with a nice sounding reverb + chorus (plus you can pick them up used easily). Also, I don't think it would matter if you ran the dirt boxes in front or in the loop, especially if you're playing with a flat EQ setting on the amplifier. I'd probably still run the dirt in front and adjust the amp EQ to taste, and put most other things in the loop.

 

[Chris McKinley]

saucygitaristak2,

The Fulltone OCD and Fulldrive are not distortion pedals. They are overdrives. Overdrives are designed to push the preamp section of a tube amp into further levels of saturation and gain. Distortion pedals are designed to be the sole source of distortion in the rig, regardless of what they are played through.

A good distortion pedal through either a solid state or tube amp's clean channel can sound perfectly acceptable if you know how to tweak it. Especially for the guitarist on a budget. Solid state or tube has less to do with it than the difference between an overdrive and a distortion.