Bare Knuckle Pickups Forum
Forum Ringside => Guitars, Amps and Effects => Topic started by: silentrage on November 03, 2008, 06:48:13 PM
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pardon my noobishness once again but,
I have an amp that's lacking in gain and has a bottom end that sounds like an elephant farting while submerged in a mud/feces soup.
No exaggerations.
I thought maybe a boost pedal could help clean it up and add a bit of gain? But I'm not too sure what all the difference ones sound like and whether they'll do what I want.
Will someone explain to me please?
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What's the name of your name? What brand, if its really that bad it might be worth buying a new one all together
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boost do exactly what they say on the tin... they boost the signal going into the amp. some do it quite cleanly without adding much colour, but most add there own flavour to the sound.
I find boost pedals are good for pushing an amp you already like that little bit harder, i wouldnt be after one to make up for a bad sounding amp
I really like my BYOC tribooster, it actually has 5 different boosts - and the difference between the boosts is not subtle at all
http://www.buildyourownclone.com/triboost.html
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What's the name of your name? What brand, if its really that bad it might be worth buying a new one all together
boost do exactly what they say on the tin... they boost the signal going into the amp. some do it quite cleanly without adding much colour, but most add there own flavour to the sound.
I find boost pedals are good for pushing an amp you already like that little bit harder, i wouldnt be after one to make up for a bad sounding amp
I really like my BYOC tribooster, it actually has 5 different boosts - and the difference between the boosts is not subtle at all
http://www.buildyourownclone.com/triboost.html
I'll look into those.
By amplifying the input signal, you're pushing the preamp tubes harder, therefore getting a little bit of distortion out of it, right? But by how much is what I'm wondering.
Or am I thinking overdrive?
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What amp do you have?
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What amp do you have?
http://www.elevation-music.com/caglx30guam.html
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What amp do you have?
http://www.elevation-music.com/caglx30guam.html
Looks shitee to me, you might want to consider selling it and saving for a better one.
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What amp do you have?
http://www.elevation-music.com/caglx30guam.html
Looks shiteee to me, you might want to consider selling it and saving for a better one.
It is... I'll try, lol.
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Don't boosts sound a bit wrong with a s/state amp
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Yeah, even something like a peavy backstage (i own one nice distortion on it) or (dare i say it) a marshall MG would be better than that. look around at your local music store for some nice bedroom amps.
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A level boost raises the signal level going into the amp. With a valve amp, that means you push the gain stages harder & get more overdrive.
But using a boost into a solid state amp doesn't give you much benefit - SS amps simply arent as dynamic (i.e. sensitive to changes in level, attack etc) as valve amps & if the overdrive is lousy in the first place, you aren't going to improve it or get much more out of it with a boost.
Trust me on this - playing into a good valve amp is a totally different experience to a transistor amp, it's like a night & day difference. Seek out a decent valve half stack at the first opportunity.
If you can't change your amp right now, the best (cheapest) option would be to get a distortion pedal rather than a level boost - set the amp to a clean sound & use the pedal like an extra channel to switch in the filth. There are some perfectly respectable SS distortion pedals out there that will give you 100 times better sound than the cr@ppy built in one on your amp.
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I have the MT2 right now, and it's making my warpig sound exactly the same as my stock pups, so I'm gonna have to punish it.
Any recommendations on a good hi gain pedal that doesn't wash out your tone?
Oh yeah, I'm shopping for a valve amp right now. Looking at the line6 spider valve FTM.
(I'm poor)
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Might be worth getting a valve pedal, like one of the Blackstar ones. They do one that will do a 2 channel amp, and from what i've heard they can do a good gainy sound.
If you do like Antag said and set the SS amp to clean, then use the pedal, you might find you'll get a decent tone.
Trust me on this too, i recently upgraded to a valve amp (Orange Tiny Terror) from numerous SS amps, and the difference in sound and feel is astounding.
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@Antag TedNNeo
Thanks for the sound advice. I'll be getting a tube amp for sure now, nothing too crazy since it's my first one, but I'm stoked about the difference it'll make!
Cheers
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Go and torrent guitar rig 3!! :lol:
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I've tried that out too. :)
Not working out that great with my onboard soundcard, the source signal is so saturated with noise from the PC that it's impossible to use any heavy distortion.
I'm looking into a nice inexpensive pre-amp for this purpose though, I heard the Revalver from Peavey does a pretty impressive tube sim.
Therefore I'm on the lookout for a Engl E530 preamp, I've heard some good results with this thing plugged into the PC and ReValver as a Poweramp sim and the GR3 thrown in for effects when needed.
One thing I love about Guitar Rig is the drag and drop effects chains.
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Don't boosts sound a bit wrong with a s/state amp
But using a boost into a solid state amp doesn't give you much benefit - SS amps simply arent as dynamic (i.e. sensitive to changes in level, attack etc) as valve amps & if the overdrive is lousy in the first place, you aren't going to improve it or get much more out of it with a boost.
It depends. A clean boost probably won't help you much, but an overdrive pedal does more than just boost the signal. It tightens the lows, boosts the mids, and basically changes the character of your sound in a way that tightens things up, be the amp tube, solid state, or digital.
I have the MT2 right now, and it's making my warpig sound exactly the same as my stock pups, so I'm gonna have to punish it.
Any recommendations on a good hi gain pedal that doesn't wash out your tone?
Have you thought about getting your MT-2 modded? Stock, they're noisy and tough to distinguish, but modded they can be pretty neat. The last few days I've been using my modded MT-2 into a Crate Powerblock as kind of a practice rig, and I'm surprised at how good it sounds. It's very thick and heavy, but it's still pretty clear, too.
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and it doesn't hide your original sound characteristics?
Which mod did you get? I was looking at the monte allum mods for a long time, but I'm really thinking I should get a proper amp before tweaking the pedal, I mean if I get one with a good enough tube distortion I might just sell the pedal for some cash.
I'd hate to mod it, then find out the amp still doesn't clear up, and now I have to get a new amp anyways.
As of now, it sounds like mud with or without the pedal, like, there's no thump to this bass, it's just HUMMMM HUMMM, it's hard to describe.
Have you ever had one of those cheap plastiky japanese cars drive by, and it's blasting hip hop or techno and the bass is making the car's body panels hum giving out this really ugly and dull angry bee hive sound?
That's kinda how my amp's low end sounds like right now.
Is that something that's fix-able with a good OD or modded MT2?
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As of now, it sounds like mud with or without the pedal, like, there's no thump to this bass, it's just HUMMMM HUMMM, it's hard to describe.
Have you ever had one of those cheap plastiky japanese cars drive by, and it's blasting hip hop or techno and the bass is making the car's body panels hum giving out this really ugly and dull angry bee hive sound?
That's kinda how my amp's low end sounds like right now.
Is that something that's fix-able with a good OD or modded MT2?
Sounds like a combination of a poorly constructed combo amp with a cr@ppy speaker and too much bass. You really do want a new amp, I know you do.;)
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It cuts some bass and boosts some mids, but it doesn't make the original tone unrecognizable or anything. It just emphasizes certain parts of it.
I got mine modded by a guy who does great work but isn't currently doing his pedal modding. He's the same guy who made my overdrive. But Keeley is probably the most popular and well known place to send an MT-2 to get modded. I think the MT-2 pedals used in Cannibal Corpse are Keeley modded. The best distortion pedal isn't going to be as good as just getting a good amp, though. I was just offering a relatively low cost option if you decided to go the pedal route. Though a modded MT-2 into a good amp will destroy.
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As of now, it sounds like mud with or without the pedal, like, there's no thump to this bass, it's just HUMMMM HUMMM, it's hard to describe.
Have you ever had one of those cheap plastiky japanese cars drive by, and it's blasting hip hop or techno and the bass is making the car's body panels hum giving out this really ugly and dull angry bee hive sound?
That's kinda how my amp's low end sounds like right now.
Is that something that's fix-able with a good OD or modded MT2?
Sounds like a combination of a poorly constructed combo amp with a cr@ppy speaker and too much bass. You really do want a new amp, I know you do.;)
You know me well my friend...
It cuts some bass and boosts some mids, but it doesn't make the original tone unrecognizable or anything. It just emphasizes certain parts of it.
I got mine modded by a guy who does great work but isn't currently doing his pedal modding. He's the same guy who made my overdrive. But Keeley is probably the most popular and well known place to send an MT-2 to get modded. I think the MT-2 pedals used in Cannibal Corpse are Keeley modded. The best distortion pedal isn't going to be as good as just getting a good amp, though. I was just offering a relatively low cost option if you decided to go the pedal route. Though a modded MT-2 into a good amp will destroy.
Duely noted, I guess I'll keep the pedal, get a new amp with a good distortion, then continue my world domination plans from there.
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Hey guys, the more gear I look at the more confused I get, so here I am again.
It seems like there are a few types of pedals that could boost your signal, I was specifically looking at the BYOC ones because I'm noticing good things being said about them.
The triboost, the 10 band graphic EQ, the TS808 OD clone, were the ones that seemed interesting (and GAS inducing) to me.
So... aside from the obvious main functions, how are the boosting pat of these pedals different?
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I got a broken boss hm-2 from ebay, fixed it up to test as a boost.... its noisy and unfocused... sort of makes my guitar sound in pain.. could be useable to that effect but no more..
my advice is avoid the hm-2... i like the tubescreamers. i do want to try the MXR ZW bost.. i cant stand zakk tho, if i got one and liked it, i would have to repaint the caseing... and claim its something else altogether... maybe paint it in the colours of a boss ds-1 and write that on.
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I got a broken boss hm-2 from ebay, fixed it up to test as a boost.... its noisy and unfocused... sort of makes my guitar sound in pain.. could be useable to that effect but no more..
my advice is avoid the hm-2... i like the tubescreamers. i do want to try the MXR ZW bost.. i cant stand zakk tho, if i got one and liked it, i would have to repaint the caseing... and claim its something else altogether... maybe paint it in the colours of a boss ds-1 and write that on.
use a ruler and scratch stripes out of it, and write EVH on it. :)
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i do want to try the MXR ZW bost.. i cant stand zakk tho, if i got one and liked it, i would have to repaint the caseing... and claim its something else altogether... maybe paint it in the colours of a boss ds-1 and write that on.
I've got one, wouldn't recommend it either. Very spikey sounding.