Does Horsemeat play nice with other pedals?

[Alnus Rubra]

You need no pedals, Mr. Amp Ho!

“Amp Ho, Amp Ho, Amp Ho, Amo Ho-oh-ohh”

(To the tune of Jolene)

For Me - The Best And Favorite Drive Pedal I Own Is Simply Having The Right Amp For The Job.

Edit: Pedals Can Be Fun Though.

On this topic, at rehearsal the other night, my Mesa Studio 22/attenuator/clean channel/MIJ Strat on position two, was jangly tonal bliss for “I’m A Believer” & “Footloose”.

Introduce the lead channel and “yum” for lead bits on “Murder On The Dancefloor”. Obviously perfect for clean rhythm bits too.

Sorry for the derail.

 

[slyfox]

Over the years I've had a lot of different types of amps from high gain 50 watt heads, combos, more vintage style amps or clean platforms and I've always been able to get what I want out of them with a couple pedals. No matter the amp I've had, I've found adding an overdrive over a dirty amp isn't about giving the amp more gain than it has available but adding the ovedrive makes the tone more sensitive and gives more sustain to legato and leads. I'd sooner use less gain on an amp and add some overdrive to get that sensitivity and sustain than not using an overdrive and cranking the volume and gain on the amp. I always thought the usefulness of an overdrive pedal is hinted at in the name...to be used OVER DRIVE.

 

[László]

I'd sooner use less gain on an amp and add some overdrive to get that sensitivity and sustain than not using an overdrive and cranking the volume and gain on the amp. I always thought the usefulness of an overdrive pedal is hinted at in the name...to be used OVER DRIVE.

I agree. I think it's because what I'll call the "sandy texture" of a transistor overdrive sounds uninteresting on its own (just my opinion), and needs the different texture of the tubes gradually going into distortion to create a satisfactory mixture.

Transistor overdrives with a very clean amp sound awful to me. Tube overdrives sound better with a clean amp, for obvious reasons.

Overdrives make great color boxes at low gain to push the front end of the amp a bit so the transition from clean to overdrive comes a little sooner (the amps and guitars here have plenty of their own sustain).

Speaking only for myself, though, the usefulness of a pedal often depends on the amp.

F'rinstance, most overdrive pedals annoy me with Plexis, Mesas and Two-Rocks. These sound way better to me with boosts or fuzz than overdrive, but even then I prefer what the amp does all by itself. They have enough complexity and drive without the pedals, though the square wave coming out of a fuzz seems to work when I want intentionally wacky sounds (like I used on some Ford Truck ads where the creative request from the agency was for a purposely over-the-top tone to underline the sarcastic tone of the voice talent).

I've found exactly one overdrive pedal I can stand with 6L6 Mesas in the 30 years I've had one or more Mesa in my studio - again, this is just personal preference and YMMV. The one I've found that works was designed as a very low gain pedal, the Pettyjohn Edge. It works with my Lone Star and Fillmore amps, and sadly, they don't make it any more. But I'll sell you mine for Ten Zillion Dollars.

My DG30 works very well with lots of pedals, but it was designed to do so.

 

[ViperDoc]

Buy one and find out.

 

[SteveGlitch]

I've found adding an overdrive over a dirty amp isn't about giving the amp more gain than it has available but adding the ovedrive makes the tone more sensitive and gives more sustain to legato and leads. I'd sooner use less gain on an amp and add some overdrive to get that sensitivity and sustain than not using an overdrive and cranking the volume and gain on the amp. I always thought the usefulness of an overdrive pedal is hinted at in the name...to be used OVER DRIVE.

This actually exactly how I use my compressor lol Even a well made tube amp can feel "choked" at volume 4 out of 10, so I use a compressor pedal to simply add that "cranked to 10" feel without changing the sound or character of the amp, nor does the compressor alter the dynamics in any way. The compressor can even boost the signal and push the amp. Even better if it's a footswitchable boost like the Wampler Wong Compressor FET boost or the Pigtronix Tone Philosopher 2 Germsnium/Silicon boost.

If you want a "MORE" option without adding sustain and without altering sensitivity, as Andy Wood, Shuan Tubbs and Andy Timmons calls it, a simple clean boost pedal would do.

While it's true that overdrive pedals were originally meant to simply overdrive your amp, today overdrive pedals are really used to change the amp to a desire sound. A Fender amp can be made to sound like a vintage Hi Watt, your ears wouldn't be able to tell the difference. Players now days seek to have different pallet of sounds available to them, it's great as long as it doesn't get muddied or get lost in the mix.

I use a Marshall JTM Studio which is Marshall's pedal platform flagship amp. Every pedal sounds great on it regardless of volume, if I use a "Marshall in a box" type pedal, it sounds amazing on it where as it would sound terrible on something like a Marshall DSL40. So it depends on the amp, speaker, pickups combination as well.

Out of my many years of touring and working in the studio, so far my JTM Studio is the only amp I've played through that sounds exaxtly how I want it to. I am a pedal player though, so a 1 channel jumpered low wattage tube amp is a dream.

 

[LaxActium]

This actually exactly how I use my compressor lol Even a well made tube amp can feel "choked" at volume 4 out of 10, so I use a compressor pedal to simply add that "cranked to 10" feel without changing the sound or character of the amp, nor does the compressor alter the dynamics in any way. The compressor can even boost the signal and push the amp. Even better if it's a footswitchable boost like the Wampler Wong Compressor FET boost or the Pigtronix Tone Philosopher 2 Germsnium/Silicon boost.

If you want a "MORE" option without adding sustain and without altering sensitivity, as Andy Wood, Shuan Tubbs and Andy Timmons calls it, a simple clean boost pedal would do.

While it's true that overdrive pedals were originally meant to simply overdrive your amp, today overdrive pedals are really used to change the amp to a desire sound. A Fender amp can be made to sound like a vintage Hi Watt, your ears wouldn't be able to tell the difference. Players now days seek to have different pallet of sounds available to them, it's great as long as it doesn't get muddied or get lost in the mix.

I use a Marshall JTM Studio which is Marshall's pedal platform flagship amp. Every pedal sounds great on it regardless of volume, if I use a "Marshall in a box" type pedal, it sounds amazing on it where as it would sound terrible on something like a Marshall DSL40. So it depends on the amp, speaker, pickups combination as well.

Out of my many years of touring and working in the studio, so far my JTM Studio is the only amp I've played through that sounds exaxtly how I want it to. I am a pedal player though, so a 1 channel jumpered low wattage tube amp is a dream.

I have the same amp and would like to pick up the Horsemeat!
Have you tried putting it on the effects loop instead of right after the guitar?