Trying to find a “always on” OD/boost pedal

Whodat84

Dadbod model
Joined
Jun 15, 2022
Messages
40
Location
Lafayette, Louisiana
I’m trying to decide between and archer Ikon or a morning glory. My board has a fulltone wah, ocd and lucky cat delay, so I’m trying to find something that will give my clean a little life and add to the OCD. Anyone have any experience with these?
 
I am running the JHS MG V4 into a Fulltone OCD V1.7. The Morning Glory is great for base tone, and stacks really well with the OCD. If you get a MG, get the Red Remote too, it gets you 2 gain stages in 1 pedal.
ABF3-F73-B-3-B05-41-E2-B5-A2-095-D0-B65410-A.jpg
 
I am running the JHS MG V4 into a Fulltone OCD V1.7. The Morning Glory is great for base tone, and stacks really well with the OCD. If you get a MG, get the Red Remote too, it gets you 2 gain stages in 1 pedal.
ABF3-F73-B-3-B05-41-E2-B5-A2-095-D0-B65410-A.jpg
That’s the feedback I was looking for! So the red remote works as a boost to the MG or just a 2nd gain stage?
 
I am running the JHS MG V4 into a Fulltone OCD V1.7. The Morning Glory is great for base tone, and stacks really well with the OCD. If you get a MG, get the Red Remote too, it gets you 2 gain stages in 1 pedal.
ABF3-F73-B-3-B05-41-E2-B5-A2-095-D0-B65410-A.jpg
I see you’re running the TC Spark on your board too. I could use one of these, set low, as an always on pedal.
 
A couple of options I like for that are (as @WEDGE noted) the EP Boost, which works especially nice on tube amps at the breakup edge; the Chase Tone Secret Preamp pedal, which I first noticed as an “always on pedal” being used by G.E. Smith for exactly what you describe (very last pedal on his board); and have recently really enjoyed the Ryra Klone, a one-at-a-time handmade Klon clone that delivers better than any pseudo-Klon I’ve heard or tried. It does the Klon thing really well, and sounds pretty killer gained up, too.

Of the three, the Chase Tone pedal is probably the most direct link to your post, followed by the EP, but that Ryra is sure a lot of fun!
 
A couple of options I like for that are (as @WEDGE noted) the EP Boost, which works especially nice on tube amps at the breakup edge; the Chase Tone Secret Preamp pedal, which I first noticed as an “always on pedal” being used by G.E. Smith for exactly what you describe (very last pedal on his board); and have recently really enjoyed the Ryra Klone, a one-at-a-time handmade Klon clone that delivers better than any pseudo-Klon I’ve heard or tried. It does the Klon thing really well, and sounds pretty killer gained up, too.

Of the three, the Chase Tone pedal is probably the most direct link to your post, followed by the EP, but that Ryra is sure a lot of fun!
Big +1 on the Ryra Klone
 
J Rockett Blue Note Pro Series. Creamy D-Style tones, with a hot switch built in for added gain. I originally stacked this with a Decibelics Golden Horse. Here's who got my blood flowing regards this...

 
One off my pedals is always on by design, a preamp/buffer/boost by Pettyjohn Electronics called the Lift. But I don't think of it as a pedal, I think of it more as a conditioner and preliminary EQ (I like to cut a little low frequency content just a touch to prevent muddiness in recordings).

However, they also made a pedal called the Edge that's nearly always on when I use most of my amps. One of their pedals called the Chime is on most of the time for the DG30 amp. Both of these are low gain pedals. I use very little dirt when I play through them. I don't use a dirt pedal with the HXDA, that amp needs nothing.

The Edge is the only 'grit' pedal I find useful with my Mesa amps; for some reason they seem to dislike dirt pedals, even clean. But the Edge works well with them.

Unfortunately, Pettyjohn is currently only doing limited runs, but my goodness, their pedals sound great because they use studio-grade electronic parts. Here's the Edge demo I think really does justice to the pedal. You have to click on it because it's Vimeo, and you can only watch it on that site. Still, it's great.

I don't know if it's still possible to by an Edge at retail. Dealers might still have some hanging around.


I think of my Pettyjohn stuff as 'betterizers', however I have one pedal from Suhr that I use as an always-on for very clean tones with a couple of amps, called the Kokoboost. I don't even use it as a boost for the most part, I set it to unity gain, so the volume doesn't change, but for some mad scientist reason the pedal makes the signal hitting the amp sound better. It's subtle, but it's there.

Anyway, that's what I use. I did try the Morning Glory, and it wasn't my style, so I returned it. I mean, we all have our preferences and all are legit, it's whatever works with your rig, and that's going to vary from player to player.

Here‘s my board. The Edge is lower right, KokoBoost is upper right, Lift and Chime lower middle. Signal hits the Lift first (to the left of the expression pedal), then >> Kokoboost >> Edge >> Filter (EQ Pedal) >> Suhr compressor >> Suhr tremolo > Suhr chorus >> tuner >> H9 >> patch bay on side of the board so I can use the second H9 separately with a second amp, or at the end of the chain playing through one amp (the patch bay is normalled with the second H9 in the chain, but the normalled signal chain can be tapped between the two H9s to use one with a second amp, or to insert external gear like a Tape Echo, volume pedal, etc).
7TVIKPg.jpg
 
Last edited:
One off my pedals is always on by design, a preamp/buffer/boost by Pettyjohn Electronics called the Lift. But I don't think of it as a pedal, I think of it more as a conditioner and preliminary EQ (I like to cut a little low frequency content just a touch to prevent muddiness in recordings).

However, they also made a pedal called the Edge that's nearly always on when I use most of my amps. One of their pedals called the Chime is on most of the time for the DG30 amp. Both of these are low gain pedals. I use very little dirt when I play through them. I don't use a dirt pedal with the HXDA, that amp needs nothing.

The Edge is the only 'grit' pedal I find useful with my Mesa amps; for some reason they seem to dislike dirt pedals, even clean. But the Edge works well with them.

Unfortunately, Pettyjohn is currently only doing limited runs, but my goodness, their pedals sound great because they use studio-grade electronic parts. Here's the Edge demo I think really does justice to the pedal. You have to click on it because it's Vimeo, and you can only watch it on that site. Still, it's great.

I don't know if it's still possible to by an Edge at retail. Dealers might still have some hanging around.


I think of my Pettyjohn stuff as 'betterizers', however I have one pedal from Suhr that I use as an always-on for very clean tones with a couple of amps, called the Kokoboost. I don't even use it as a boost for the most part, I set it to unity gain, so the volume doesn't change, but for some mad scientist reason the pedal makes the signal hitting the amp sound better. It's subtle, but it's there.

Anyway, that's what I use. I did try the Morning Glory, and it wasn't my style, so I returned it. I mean, we all have our preferences and all are legit, it's whatever works with your rig, and that's going to vary from player to player.

Here‘s my board. The Edge is lower right, KokoBoost is upper right, Lift and Chime lower middle. Signal hits the Lift first (to the left of the expression pedal), then >> Kokoboost >> Edge >> Filter (EQ Pedal) >> Suhr compressor >> Suhr tremolo > Suhr chorus >> tuner >> H9 >> patch bay on side of the board so I can use the second H9 separately with a second amp, or at the end of the chain playing through one amp (the patch bay is normalled with the second H9 in the chain, but the normalled signal chain can be tapped between the two H9s to use one with a second amp, or to insert external gear like a Tape Echo, volume pedal, etc).
7TVIKPg.jpg
Is the Mission Engineering pedal for volume or expression? Considering getting their volume pedal and wondering how linear the sweep is.
 
Is the Mission Engineering pedal for volume or expression? Considering getting their volume pedal and wondering how linear the sweep is.
It's an expression pedal they make for the H9. I don't use a volume pedal often.

I have an Xotic volume pedal, but it's not on the pedalboard, I like it because it doesn't seem to suck tone the way some volume pedals do, and because it doesn't need power it's easy to set up quickly during a session.

If I was to get one to permanently install on a pedalboard, I'd consider getting the Lehle because the sweep is electromagnetic instead of mechanical, which seems like the most robust way of doing it, and my experience with Lehle products has been pretty darn great!
 
A couple of options I like for that are (as @WEDGE noted) the EP Boost, which works especially nice on tube amps at the breakup edge; the Chase Tone Secret Preamp pedal, which I first noticed as an “always on pedal” being used by G.E. Smith for exactly what you describe (very last pedal on his board); and have recently really enjoyed the Ryra Klone, a one-at-a-time handmade Klon clone that delivers better than any pseudo-Klon I’ve heard or tried. It does the Klon thing really well, and sounds pretty killer gained up, too.

Of the three, the Chase Tone pedal is probably the most direct link to your post, followed by the EP, but that Ryra is sure a lot of fun!
Totally agree. Two thumbs up!

It’s very amp-specific, but I’ve always liked the Klon thing. With the EP Booster, it pushed the SuperD’s input just right. That’s the challenge of finding the right stomp boxes for your rig.
 
What OD/boost to use as an always on pedal is hugely dependent on what type of tone your going after. Having said that, I've had great luck on my board running an Ibanez TS 808 HW Tubescreamer into a Friedman BE-OD. The Tubescreamer adds just a little bit of grit with the drive knob all the way down and also adds a slight boost in the upper mid range in the event that you have a scooped amp (i.e. lots of older Fender and Mesa circuits). Now that I'm using a Helix into an FRFR, I find I'm using the OD that models the Klon or the model of the Horizon Precision Drive, both of which, to my ear anyway, tend to not have as pronounced of a boost in the upper midrange frequencies and tend to stack better into the amp models that I use (for cleans I run the Mesa Mark IV model, the Orange Rockerverb model, or the Friedman BE-100 model; dirty tends to be the Orange Rockerverb, Friedman BE-100, or Diezel VH-4 Lead).
 
Back
Top