Drive pedals with TMB controls vs amp EQ

Longtallronnie · September 2013

Not really sure where I'm going with this tbh, got an hour til home time and it's going slooooooowly.

Just wondering on people's approach when faced with a dirt box that has Volume, Gain, Treble, Mid and Bass controls going into a similarly equipped amp.

This is precisely what I have atm (Bogner Blue, Ulbrick Venue 30) and while I like the level of control I have, I sometimes find it harder to dial a good sound. Usually this setup sounds sweet from the start but now and then you find youself in a different venue and everything sounds "off".

I used to use amps with basic controls eg Artisan 15 (volume, tone) or Orange Dual Terror (volume, tone, gain) with typical vol/tone/gain pedals. These were nice and easy to set up but sometimes that lack of extra control was frustrating.

I'm not looking to change any of my gear as I'm generally happy with it but I'm hoping some different perspectives will help me to get the best out of what I've got.

I think what I'm getting at is the relationship between the pedal's eq section and the amp's, how they work together and how they might counteract each other. Or something.

ICBM · September 2013

I set the amp up for the best possible clean sound. Then set the pedal for the best overdrive sound going into that. My experience is that it's usually not that good to run a TMB pedal into a dirty amp with TMB, it can get confused and muddy or clangy and harsh as the two EQs either fight each other or reinforce certain frequencies.

If you really want to do it that way, you probably still want to set the amp up with its normal tone first, but set the pedal to more like a single-tone circuit, which with a conventional tone stack normally means putting the mid up full, the bass as high as it will go without making the low-end sound overblown, and using the treble as the 'tone' control. Not all TMB EQs work like that though, so you may have to experiment - but you almost certainly want more mids and less bass than if you're running into a clean amp.

But I may be over-analysing it

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Longtallronnie · September 2013

That's pretty much what I do now, set the amp for a clean sound I'm happy with and adjust the pedal to suit.

Fwiw, I have the bass slightly below half, mid a little over half and the treble a bit more than the mid. I think the pedal is probably set similar to this which is probably what got me thinking about it. Am I setting them with my eyes or my ears?

I have it in my head to cut bass, boost mid and treble to help cut through as I've probably read it here or in Guitarist etc. As much as this is probably true, it's probably another example of paying too much attention to how the controls look rather than the sound they make.

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Drive pedals with TMB controls vs amp EQ

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