Using a drive pedal

Rocker · July 2023

Do you switch on your drive pedal and regulate the drive using your guitar’s volume control or do you step on the pedal for a volume boost?

Asking for a friend....

Cirrus · July 2023

Image: https://i.etsystatic.com/16437136/r/il/721030/1639679073/il_794xN.1639679073_86y0.jpg

Keefy · July 2023

Either.

Fishboy7 · July 2023

A bit of both I guess. I usually start with the guitar volume at about 2/3 so there's always some volume/gain in reserve.

slacker · July 2023

Depends what the pedal is and how the amp is set. I generally preset the drive and run the guitar at full, sometimes ride the volume with or without pedals. A fuzz face allows a lot of variation a fuzz factory changes squeal pitch on volume roll down.

Then there's pickup type, twin channel drivers, boosters, geranium boosters and overdrive, running three boosters together...

LionAquaLooper · July 2023

Depends on so many things in the signal chain. Even depends on the song I'm playing.

stickyfiddle · July 2023

It depends on the pedal, and the guitar and the amp and what I'm playing.

For my live pedalboard I mostly keep everything on 10 on the guitar and turn pedals on & off to get louder and/or more dirty sounds as required. For that setup I use an Origin Revival Drive Compact (which makes my Fender amp sound more like a Marshall) and a Vemuram Jan Ray (which just pushes everything a bit harder and makes whatever you're playing sound bigger and fatter - mostly for solos). Sometimes I'll also run a clean boost which is there purely to make everything louder without adding distortion. That's mostly with a Strat or ES-330

At home last night I was plugged into just a Benson Preamp, and would use the guitar's controls to adjust the sound, turning down to get a bit cleaner, and turning up for solo passages. This was using a Gibson CS-336 with PAF-style humbuckers

TheBigDipper · July 2023

With my band, I'm currently singing 80% of the songs and we have some extreme changes in guitar sounds mid-song. The structure of the songs means I don't have time to adjust the guitar quickly enough most of the time, so - for performance - I'm using presets (Boss ES-5) and pedals to change volumes, boost etc.

Sporky · July 2023

I turn on the pedal for more filth at the same volume.

Guitar volume always at 10. Otherwise you're wasting some of the output of your pickups, and that's morally wrong.

fretmeister · July 2023

With a drive pedal in front of the amp at some point it does not add any more volume, it just gives more dirt and a lot more compression.

The popular TS into an already overdriven amp does that. Then for a volume boost you need something in the FX loop instead. Either a simple level boost (no extra drive) or an EQ pedal is very good for that.

How the overdrive is used is user and amp based. Some people keep the pedal drive low and crank the output so it's really boosting / compressing the input of the amplifier. Others add all the pedal drive but keep the pedal output low.

There's no rules.

Well apart from...

Sporky said:

I turn on the pedal for more filth at the same volume.

Guitar volume always at 10. Otherwise you're wasting some of the output of your pickups, and that's morally wrong.

and

Guitar>Drive at max>JCM800 dimed.

Just can't beat that. Loads of filth but with a clarity and string separation that a lot of modern high gain amps just can't do.

roberty · July 2023

Sporky said:

Guitar volume always at 10. Otherwise you're wasting some of the output of your pickups, and that's morally wrong.

I agree!

CaseOfAce · July 2023

I never have my guitar volume knob at 10 - it's always backed off 2/3 and then I take it from there.
When using my channel switching amp - I use a Boss SD-1 (high level, low gain) into the drive channel for a (creamy) lead boost for solos. I NEVER use this on the clean channel - it sounds brittle / harsh to me.

At tonight's rehearsal I'll use the SD-1 with the gain higher and the level backed off so as to add a makeshift crunch channel to my (single channel) Fender Pro Junior when I step on it. For lead boosts I'll max my guitar volume knob.

BigPaulie · July 2023

Sporky said:

I turn on the pedal for more filth at the same volume.

Guitar volume always at 10. Otherwise you're wasting some of the output of your pickups, and that's morally wrong.

LOL!

Spoken like a true pedal-head! :-D

JCA2550 · July 2023

I tend to back volume and tone off to about 8 on humbucker equipped guitars, but usually when using a fuzz first in chain or an amp-like distortion pedal. Mainly to get a touch of filth with nice separation, then up to 10 for soloing. This all changes if I'm singing though, too much to think about so everything flat out letting the pedals do the work.

Sporky · July 2023

BigPaulie said:

Sporky said:

I turn on the pedal for more filth at the same volume.

Guitar volume always at 10. Otherwise you're wasting some of the output of your pickups, and that's morally wrong.

LOL!

Spoken like a true pedal-head! :-D

Thank you.

Other fine approaches exist and work, but my fingers are confused enough with normal duties - adjusting switches and knobs while playing is like trying to play the accordian and knit at the same time. Whereas stamping on things is more or less doable.

BigPaulie · July 2023

Sporky said:

BigPaulie said:

Sporky said:

I turn on the pedal for more filth at the same volume.

Guitar volume always at 10. Otherwise you're wasting some of the output of your pickups, and that's morally wrong.

LOL!

Spoken like a true pedal-head! :-D

Thank you.

Other fine approaches exist and work, but my fingers are confused enough with normal duties - adjusting switches and knobs while playing is like trying to play the accordian and knit at the same time. Whereas stamping on things is more or less doable.

Couldn't agree more.

munckee · July 2023

Only time I ever turn down volume on single coils is exceptionally bright bridge pickup.

I use either clean amp with two stages of overdrive or edge of breakup with a single stage.

guitarmangler · July 2023

I have an amount of gain the amp , and a tiny amount of gain on the pedal so I can turn my volume down to get my clean sound. Volume full up for a heavy sound. Tubescreamer for solo boost.

When I did need a mostly clean sound, with gain occasional, I’d use less gain on the amp, a bb preamp for heavy gain and a tubescreamer for the solo sound. Still fiddled with my volume on my guitar, tho

ewal · July 2023

Sporky said:

I turn on the pedal for more filth at the same volume.

Guitar volume always at 10. Otherwise you're wasting some of the output of your pickups, and that's morally wrong.

ditto

LastMantra · July 2023

I generally set things with the guitar volume/tone on full, and to the very extreme (plus some) of what I'll need, then roll the volume/tone back to get my basic sound.

Usually, as I generally play on my own at home, I don't need to jump from one sound to the other quickly. An exception would be something like nirvana style quiet/loud/quiet/loud rhythm.

I usually use a looper and record a rhythm pattern with a little dirt then change settings for a suitable lead tone to play over it, generally with more dirt.

In short, I don't usually stomp in the middle of playing.

EricTheWeary · July 2023

When I was playing pub gigs I tended to have an overdrive pedal more as a different voice to the amp alone so I was still controlling level from the guitar. Guitar-pedal-amp is an interactive system that is affected by other variables, primarily how loud can you play, so there was always adjustment as I went along. Using an OD or any other pedal as a boost for solos assumes that all your other settings stay the same from gig to gig and/or that you have a decent soundcheck neither of which were true for many of the gigs I played.

Edit: for home use I wasn't stomping on pedals and shouting "thank you Wembley" to the dog.

Fez · July 2023

I use an overdrive so that I have two base sounds - clean and driven then a spark mini after the drive for solo boost.

ICBM · July 2023

I never use an overdrive pedal as a clean-ish boost, or a dirty boost, or to push the amp harder - I know a lot of people do all of those things but it just doesn't work for me - I always find it produces either harshness or mush, or an odd combination of the two. (I never use a clean boost to push the amp either.)

I use overdrive pedals to give overdrive, with the output level set at unity with the clean sound or very slightly above it, so that if used into a clean amp the result is crunch at the same volume in the mix. What's interesting is that used like that, the classic Tube Screamer/SD-1 type pedals work just as well into an overdriven amp - at least if not too heavily distorted - and even more remarkably still produce a volume boost, so you get both an alternate crunch sound and a solo sound from the same pedal settings.

I do use the guitar volume sometimes to give a slightly reduced amount of dirt or boost, but it's not really a major part of my sound/technique - apart from once I was in an unusual type of band for me, where for some reason it seemed to work perfectly to leave the pedal on all the time and control *everything* from the guitar. I don't know why, and I haven't done it again since.

ElectricXII · July 2023

I nearly always run my guitars with the volume knobs on 7-8, overdrives at a little more than unity gain, and then I use an LPB-1 for solos or parts that need to stand out more, and/or I roll the volume knob up to 10 for these parts. I don't understand why people have the guitar controls on 10 at all times. They're basically losing tweakability on the fly.

The way I look at it, having the guitar volume at 8 means I always have a bit "more" if I need it at any time.

Rocker · July 2023

I too use a LPB-1 @ElectricXII which works as you describe on my Strat but my LP does not work as successfully as I prefer the mixed output. Then again I play at fairly low volume levels and don’t gig on six strings.

distressed · July 2023

LionAquaLooper said:

depends on the song I'm playing.

+1

Supportact · July 2023

Live I tend to have the overdrive volume the same as my clean sound, rather than use it as a boost. Then adjust the volume on the guitar volume knob. For recording, anything goes really.

26.2 · July 2023

I always have an overdrive pedal on - usually have 2 different ones (one light, one a bit more crunchy) that also stack well so I have 3 sounds. I do adjust the guitar volume a bit but mainly I get different shades of drive for different parts of the song by playing harder or lighter. For a bit ‘more’ for any of the 3 base sounds I use the level control on my DMM.

Currently my 2 overdrives for live work are the Duke of Tone (light drive) and a Gain Changer (crunchier).

TheBigDipper · July 2023

Supportact said:

Live I tend to have the overdrive volume the same as my clean sound, rather than use it as a boost. Then adjust the volume on the guitar volume knob. For recording, anything goes really.

Me too - like many others posting, my "crunch" tone is at unity and the extra volume comes from the ES-5 or a Spark at the end of the chain.

Rocker · July 2023

@TheBigDipper and @Fez, you both mention your use of a Spark at the end of the chain. Could you please elaborate as I am way out of the FX gear loop. Thanks.

roberty · July 2023

The humble DOD 250 is my overdrive of choice for a Fender style amp, at unity with a fair bit of gain. I will clean up with the volume control on the guitar despite what I said earlier

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Using a drive pedal

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