Overdrive pedal with mesa

[kidprint]

Just wondering if anyone else has tried this. I'm getting so sick of the stupid delay when switching from clean to dirty on my mesa single rec head that I considering forgetting the clean channel alltogether and using a BOSS SD-1 Super Overdrive pedal on the dirty channel instead. What I've been doing is setting the dirty channel to 'Vintage' and then putting the gain at about 10 o clock for a gritty dirt sound and then kicking in the SD-1 for leads and choruses etc.
Anyone else do this? Sounds really good but I fell a bit guilty as I'm not strictly using the full distortion power of the amp - I just can't use the channel switching as the delay makes it impossible to dynamically switch during songs.

 

[Flashpoint]

I run a Boss SD-1 in front of the red channel on my Trident from time to time. I get great thrash metal tones with it.

 

[Sling Blade]

In my opion, its what ever makes you giggle. The Clean tone of the Mesa are so great its bound to make your pedal sound great too. I have a Boss metal zone and I have no plans of shelving it soon. When I need or want a change of gain I will put that baby right out front.

 

[Mercury25]

Hey kidprint,

I use a Keeley Modded Boss SD-1 and even a Fulltone OCD at times to push channel 3 & 4 more--seems to tighten eveything up.

 

[Russ]

There is nothing wrong with using an overdrive. Some amps take them better than others. Some amps are difficult to get decent tone out of with them because of the design of the amp. As stated there are those that use overdrive with a Rec. Do not feel guily for using anything if it gets you where you want to be. Tone is individual. I remember some guys using multiple distortion and overdrives back in the day. Actually I used to seriously color my sound via rack effects. I got tired of them and moved on. Was it wrong? No. Did it ever hurt anything? No. It was just me on my quest for the tone I was looking for. I say have at it.

 

[kidprint]

yeah I've pretty much decided to go with this method. It sounds better to my ears and the change from pedal on to pedal off is so much more natural than the channel switching on the amp. Plus, I normally can't take my head to practice as i don't drive but using the overdrive pedal means I can pretty much use any amp, provided it has a good dirty sound.
Cheers guys!

 

[Schmoog]

the SD1 is a killer pedal. I wish it was true bypass. I used to have an ampeg gemini 1 that I would drive to just on the edge of breakup, and let that be my clean, then hit the SD1 for my overdrive tone. as long as you've got a tube amp, and you set the SD1 output to at least a little above unity, it will be very warm and tubey sounding

 

[pjrake]

killswitch engage and unearth both use TS9 in front of their amps. killswitch uses triple rectifiers.

the guy from incubus uses marshalls and his tech runs a bad monkey in front also.

i'm thinking of getting a TS9 and putting it in front of my dual rectifier, maybe as a clean boost.

i have a POD xt at home (for practice) and the setup is basically the same as in the studio, with the expection of a tubescreamer. the only reason i didn't get a TS9 yet is cause i don't want to have an extra "foot step" when switching from dirty to clean. i'm looking at getting somethign like the GCX or the axess loop router.

 

[Humbility]

I bought a TS9DX turbo. I run it out front of my dual rec. channel gains at basically 10-11 o'clock. run the DX out front....on the + setting or second setting....with the drive at about 8 o'clock.


I won't go back. It shapes my main dirt channel.

Try it.

Hum

 

[pjrake]

well, i got the TS9 over the weekend and tried it! it sounds awesome, and i only use it as a clean boost.

there's a slightly higher feedback when the the volume is up and i'm not playing, even with the NS2 noise gate, but i can easily switch channels or lower the volume.