Can I boost a distortion?

[mikey5]

Hi everybody. i am starting to regret the purchase of my particular orange tt it seems to sound great one day, and then the next if fickles out. i blame Mexican electricity. I am using a voltage regulator though. Its one you might use for a fridge or some such house appliance. anyway. I have no end of good things to say about my super plextortion. The thing is a little monster delivering great tones. I was comparing it to my Radial Hot British and it kicked its rear with warmth and real sounding distortion. The only advantage the other seemed to have is that channel two of the radial out shone it for solos and a little more grind for slightly heavier stuff. Now these are two different pedals mind you so there would be little sense in keeping the radial onboard, However I was thinking that I might boost my Super with another pedal. I was thinking this amp 50 from lovepedal, which to my understanding is supposed to replicate marshall type stuff. Basically what I want is my plextortion sound enriched and given a little more saturation cranked a little harder. The Pedal I had in mind was this
 http://www.proguitarshop.com/product.php?ProductID=1700&CategoryID=15
Its in the boost section so I thought it might work out

[hamfist]

Sure you can boost a distortion pedal. Treat the dist pedal much like an amp. I find that tube screamer-type boosts usually work really well (especially as a solo boost, as they add mids to help you cut through).
  To be honest I'd advise getting a pedal with at least a little bit of EQ control.  The MI Audio Blue Boy Deluxe is a great booster pedal, that is very tweakable too. I've used it to good effect boosting loads of different amps and distortion pedals .... just one that I'd recommend.
  My BYOC tube screamer clone was awesome for that too.

[viking]

Yeah,i always use my Maxon AD-9 for that.

[mikey5]

So you guys use this method of boosting your distortion pedals. Excellent. One question what kind of amps do you have?

[hamfist]

If you're boosting a distortion pedal, you'll be needing a fairly clean(ish) amp or you'll just get way too much overall background noise.
 I've generally used vintage Marshall circuit amps (or derivatives thereof) for running distortion pedals and boosters into.

[MrBump]

I find that my Tone Rider American OD works well going into my Crunchbox.  Roll the drive back on both and it sounds ace.

[viking]

So you guys use this method of boosting your distortion pedals. Excellent. One question what kind of amps do you have?

  M&B Nomad 55 and,recently,a Egnater Rebel 20.

[mikey5]

What about the Xotic BB preamp? Is that too high gain? I kind of liked the saturated low gain sound from the clips. I guess I dont know exactly what I should be boosting a high gain pedal with. Something light something that will give me a 15-30 db boost. Something thick. I guess I will be taking my distortion to the states with me and try out some different stuff in GC. I know they wont have anything like xotic or lovepedal though

[hamfist]

What about the Xotic BB preamp? Is that too high gain? I kind of liked the saturated low gain sound from the clips. I guess I dont know exactly what I should be boosting a high gain pedal with. Something light something that will give me a 15-30 db boost. Something thick. I guess I will be taking my distortion to the states with me and try out some different stuff in GC. I know they wont have anything like xotic or lovepedal though

TO boost a distortion pedal, you'll ideally need something designed to boost an amp. So it won't need that much gain of it's own. The tube screamer, a treble booster or a clean boost are the "classic" boost pedals that have been used for decades, because they work well.  For boosting a Marshall plexi-type sound, I'd go for a tube screamer or variant.

[mikey5]

thanks thats cheaper anyway

[jerry]

Try a treble booster ; they're the great secret weapon of guitar tone ! The Homebrew Germania works and is reatively inexpensive . Lo Fi Mode replicates the old Dallas Arbiterb Range master , but you might find H Fi mode more useful for the application you have in mind - it gives a full range boost and can really add some hair to the sound .