Boost/ Distortion pedal for Victoria Bassman

[Marky D.]

I bought a used Victoria 45410 about a year ago.. 2 reissue Jensen alnicos on top, 2 THD ceramics on the bottom. Someone had modified it slightly, so I went through and changed the component values to stock. Recently, I had trouble biasing it and found and extra resistor in the bias circuit. Removed it, and found much improved tone! Now, I'm hearing the 3D sounds attributed to this amp design...it actually sounds better w/ no reverb.

As happy as I am with the clean sound, I'm having trouble matching a distortion pedal with it. I've tried OCD, DS-1, Bluesdriver, Marshall Bluesbreaker, and SD-1 pedals and found that they work well as a clean boost, but at higher distortion levels, the mids are kind of overwhelming. Any advice on matching a pedal w/ this amp would be much appreciated..

Thanks!

[Justinvs]

What kind of distortion are you after?

[twangjeff]

Well my natural answer would be... TURN THE AMP UP!!!

But seriously, what kind of drive sound are you going for? I would think that something like a Timmy, or an AC Booster would marry nicely with that amp.

[Marky D.]

I'm shooting for a David Grissom-like tone, using a P90s, Teles, and Strats. Nice amount of crunchy drive at full volume, but somewhat clean at low volume for pseudo pedal steel sounds. A benchmark for the tone I'm after is Grissom's on "Letter to L.A." from Joe Ely's Live at Liberty Lunch album. A lot of great licks on that album - I've worn it out!

Thanks for your replies..!