Pedal for leads through clean channel

[1cmb]

Hey guys! So I picked up a lonestar classic a while back and I really, really love this amp. Both channels are great, but whenever I use it live I stay to the clean channel and run my board through it. I have a nova delay, holy grail reverb, the zakk Wylde chorus, ocd, satchurator, and a bad monkey. I get the rhythm tone I'm looking for using my OCD with both my les Paul and my tele, but I find it lacking for leads. Im looking for a liquid type lead tone, very petrucci-esque and am wondering if there is another od pedal to boost the OCD just for the leads or if there is another really good pedal alone to get them. The satchurator is fizzy and unusable for me personally (even though i like satches tone, i dont like that pedal) so I'll probably sell that. when I Try to boost the OCD with the bad monkey I don't care for any of the tones I get, and I have set it multiple different ways and can't really Get those two to work together like I would hope, and I am about to exchange it for a fulldrive 2. So I guess I am really looking for a replacement for the satchurator that is smoother and less fizzy sounding to get those petrucci style lead tones. Any help is greatly apreciated and I am sorry about the thrown together uncollected thoughts, I am terrible at trying to tell people what I am thinking. If anyone is too confused just ask questions about my question and I'll answer as we go along. Thanks you guys.

 

[plan-x]

Welcome dude to the forum. I'm a big fan of Barber pedals. 2 of my favorites for lead are the Direct Drive and the Dirty Bomb. The DDSS or DD mod pcb will do slightly better than the standard stock version. The Dirty bomb is just an annilator of gain and easily sets up an over the top Vai/Satch lead tone. I'm not really sure if you can push an OCD into awesome lead tone. Didn't hang on to one long enough to find out. The Barbers were smoother and more amp like IMO. Next!

 

[1cmb]

Thanks man I'll definitely check them out. I think this is the first time I have ever actually heard anyone ever talk about the barber dirty bomb on any of the forums I have just looked at. Is it just a higher gain version of the direct drive or is voiced a bit differently too? I've played a direct drive live when i used a friends board one night. Used it for a clean boost cause that's what he had it set up for haha. Wish I would have known.

 

[ifailedshapes]

I would also look into Xotic Effects. Either the BB Preamp or the BB+ would be a good fit.

 

[1cmb]

Yeah Andy timmons uses the lonestar bb preamp combo, and I dig his tone, but can the bb give a little more saturation when using it on the clean channel? Or should I just get over the channel switching and use the lead channel live?

 

[ifailedshapes]

The BB can get pretty dirty. I don't own one, but a friend has one, and it's a killer pedal. He also has a Barber (forget which one) which is just as good. I really don't think you can go wrong either way. Hopefully you live in an area where you can check some of this stuff out in person, rather than buying in faith.

 

[1cmb]

Yeah the in-town music store is a joke but we have a gc and another places that's probably even better about an hour a way. I just never really have time to Go. I don't think either of them have the xotic pedals though.

 

[plan-x]

The BB doesn't really have a lot of gain. It can do some medium gain bluesy stuff really well. The BB+ running both ch's will get you into scorching lead territory. I currently have a BB MB. The Dirty Bomb is similar to the DD in the sense that it has that Barber clarity and general voicing, but is more versatile in EQ than the DD. Stacking another pedal into a DD (ie: LTDSR) can hit some high gain that has a great lead voice. The DB is close by it's self, and has more voices(and twice the gain) but the DD has a sweet spot for a thick chewy lead at band level volume. That's one of my favorite lead tones. A DD mod pcb can get there w/o a stack due to the extra gain switch and other EQ adjustments. But, I'm currently using the Dirty bomb for high gain lead. It's a kickin' pedal! My board is viewable at the myspace link below.

 

[1cmb]

Nice rig man. And I'll need to get my hand on that barber then. The bb is nice and I might get it as well but just for my personal enjoyment at the house for that Timmons tone. All the videos I find of the barber they don't do any lead type stuff and if they do it's someone who has it dialed weird for leads. I hate not having a good music store really close to me where I could try out these pedals.

 

[1cmb]

Does anyone know if the bb preamp can be used to take the OCD to the level I'm talking about. I don't like using the OCD for solos a lone because of the rawness or the openess of it, And while it sounds good doing some lead stuff, it's not quite what I'm looking for. I hear the bb is pretty much the opposite of this being compressed and smooth, which is what I like in a lead sound, and it could increase my sustain. Anyone use the bb to boost their OCD? How good to they work together to get that liquid lead tone I am wAnting?

 

[kdorsey]

Though I play through a MkIII, I use an OCD plus either a Keeley TS-9 or a Fulltone Full-Drive 2 thru my Twin. Anymore, I'm also using the Full-Drive with my ch3 on the MkIII to help me keep the drive down for heavy crunchy rhythm tone. Gives me a broader difference between ch1, 2, and 3 for the covers we do. The Full-Drive is able to be a clean boost or dump tons of extra 'chunk' with added brightness. The TS-9 is less bright with typical mid boost and more distortion - thank you Robert Keeley! Using my Cu24 on neck pu, dial back the tone and maybe a little off the vol knob, it's very liquid. Add a little MXR Carbon Copy to add ambiance and swish. 8)

Otherwise, I crank my ch3, which is unfair because it's not a LS. But if I were to buy another Boogie it would certainly be a LS.

Good luck!

 

[1cmb]

Thanks man, I'll try it with my fulldrive when I get it. I think my friend has a keely modded tube screamer I could ask to mess around with. Hopefully it will work better than the bad monkey... Haha. To be honest ive never used a real tube screamer, I got the bm as an alternative because it got good reviews and was cheap. I like it by itself but paired with the OCD I can find anything I like. I'm sure a real one with or without the keely mod will better

 

[GearAddict]

I have a Lone Star Classic as well. I have the the Andy Timmons BB preamp and an Ibanez Tube King. I think the Tube King will give you what you are looking for. It has a 12ax7 in the pedal and is like adding an additional gain stage. I use it on the clean channel and it provides enough gain to peal the paint from your walls.

 

[stokedpoke]

I use a BB Preamp with my Lonestar Classic as well as a Keeley modded TS-9 tubescreamer. Between the two channels of the amp and the pedal combinations, you can get a pretty wide variety of tones including some really nice saturated tones. The Keeley TS-9 has more gain than a standard tubescreamer and meshes really nice with the BB preamp on the clean channel.

 

[1cmb]

thanks for all the suggestions guys ill have to try them out when i get the chance, i dont like buying blindly