What's a Good Low Gain OD when You Can't Crank the Amp?

Hi Guys,



I play a lot of gigs, and 99% of them are low-volume venues. Not elevator quiet, but we get a lot of work because we manage the volume. It's aggravating sometimes, because I would like to juice the amps. With that said, I am looking for a quality low gain pedal that sounds like a tube amp that is just starting to get hair. I pretty much have the medium and higher gain pedals figured out. I get great tone by using the best clean sounding amp that I can, then using pedals for dirt. Now, I am experimenting with three pedals that are known for low gain: Timmy, RC Booster and Honey Bee. What I am hearing is that while all three pedals are great, they really shine when you can turn the amp up a little. My question is this: Is there a pedal that excels at this sound on its own, without having to drive the amp, and without drastically changing the character of the amp when switching between clean and dirt? I would especially appreciate feedback from giggers. Amp-wise, I go back and forth between a '65 Princeton and a Matchless Lightning.



Thanks,



Phil

The Lovepedal Eternity Fuse is my favorite low gainer... I use the center toggle position, which is the least gain setting. It's very touch sensitive, cleans up well with the guitar's volume knob, and stacks well with my other pedals (Timmy, Zendrive, Fuzz Head). I play through a BFPR in a 1x15 cab, a '59 Bassman LTD, a Richter 5e3, and sometimes straight to the board through a Tech 21 Blonde Character pedal... the Fuse sounds great through all of them.

http://www.lovepedal.com/pedals/e_fuse.html

m2sd2G16kyg

Dude get a Tc electronic mojo mojo its very open sounding not compressed at all. Low or high gain sounds great.

Bad Monkey (ducks)

Lovepedal Kalamazoo is a great pedal, used as a boost it sounds almost just like the Klon. It can do overdrive and a "dirty boost" amp on the edge of breakup tone you are talking about at low volumes...

First the showdown vs the Klon. VVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVV Then the reaveal VVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVV

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Now just Lovepedal

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For me its an MHP "Galaxie Mod" Blues Driver with my clean Blues Jr., a GC/Classic Distortion with my old Deluxe Reverb, or a Dano TOD V.1 with either amp- they all have lots of Gain and Tonal range and IMO are completely controllable to give me a very nice breakup at pretty much any amp volume needed...

Tele > Zendrive > Lightning.......awesome from bedroom to Arena.

Many of the "new breed" of lower OD pedals don't sound great at lower volumes IMO, because they don't provide enough coloration or harmonic content on their own - these are all the so called "clarity pedals."

Lower volumes requires a different approach - you need a pedal that mimics what the amp does "naturally," a bit more. The byproduct of a pedal with too much "clarity" with low volume tends to give a static "sore thumb" sound, or perhaps even a few glitchy artifacts that can sound buzzy or unnatural.

IOW, you want something that has higher harmonic content and is very VERY dynamic from clean to overdriven and back again.

I'm not at total liberty to give my suggestions, since I am a pedal builder, which brings my "motives" into the picture. You might get a little help from other folks here who can speak on my behalf, and who's word is not questionable. I apologize for this in advance!

For me its an MHP "Galaxie Mod" Blues Driver with my clean Blues Jr., a GC/Classic Distortion with my old Deluxe Reverb, or a Dano TOD V.1 with either amp- they all have lots of Gain and Tonal range and IMO are completely controllable to give me a very nice breakup at pretty much any amp volume needed...


Ditto. I have experienced no better pedal to give me the breakup effect I needed until I found this pedal.

Catalinbread DLS

Many of the "new breed" of lower OD pedals don't sound great at lower volumes IMO, because they don't provide enough coloration or harmonic content on their own - these are all the so called "clarity pedals."

Lower volumes requires a different approach - you need a pedal that mimics what the amp does "naturally," a bit more. The byproduct of a pedal with too much "clarity" with low volume tends to give a static "sore thumb" sound, or perhaps even a few glitchy artifacts that can sound buzzy or unnatural.

IOW, you want something that has higher harmonic content and is very VERY dynamic from clean to overdriven and back again.

I'm not at total liberty to give my suggestions, since I am a pedal builder, which brings my "motives" into the picture. You might get a little help from other folks here who can speak on my behalf, and who's word is not questionable. I apologize for this in advance!


11 Gauge nails it here. A lot of the "better" OD's out there assume the user will be using them to push a tube amp over the edge and, IMO, can sound a little artificial at low volume. On the other hand, you've got the amp-emulation pedals that impose another amp's character on your sound. Although these have their uses, I wouldn't recommend one with a PR, which has such a strong personality of it's own.

The Boss BD-2 is a very amp-like pedal in design and should work well for you without covering up your amp's tone with another layer of EQ. The Machine Head Pedals Galaxie Mod plays on the BD-2's strengths and eliminates all of it's perceived weaknesses. While the stock pedal seems to work fine for some, the GM is a big improvement for what I do. I've played it at all levels through a number of amps with no problems. For me, it's a winner and worth checking out.

I'm using a fulltone fat boost 3 for this at the moment...

Although it's a boost, if you run the gain high and the volume low, it works really well as a light OD... I can get it to sound very close to my PRRI when it's cranked, it's not quite the same as you don't get that speaker compression of the note blooming, but it's pretty good!

My band rehearses pretty quiet (the PRRI rarely goes above 4) and the fat boost lets me get that 'briiiiing' of a slightly overdriven amp, then I juice it with an mxr micro boost for leads...

I have two, and they both do for me what you desire:

http://www.stevesmusiccenter.com/BossOD-3Big.jpg


I have a 12AY7 in the pedal below, instead of the stock 12AX7:

http://files.effectsdatabase.com/gear/pics/tubeworks_901_002.jpg

I think the Barber LTD sounds good at low volumes. Maybe not as good as high volumes, but workable. Also, probably one of the Catalinbread pedals, as someone else mentioned, although in that case, I think you might get better results by cranking the gain and lowering the master volume. If you're going to go that route (which isn't really "low gain" per your original request), there are a lot of distortion pedals (not low-gain OD) that would sound good in that setup.

Alternatively, try running one of the low-gain OD's (like a Timmy) into an amp-like pedal (like one of the Catalinbread jobbies) and see how that works out.

Bad Monkey (ducks)

+1

I had an FD-2 that I felt required needing to be turned up more than I can in my home to use it to it's full capability. I loved the FD-2 loud, but rarely got the opportunity to turn up. The Bad Monkey can be turned down to rediculous low levels and it still maintains nice tone and growl to my ears. However, I will be in the market for a second pedal for higher gain sitations soon (probably OCD).

Jim

If you want cranked tweed, the cbread formula no 5. If it's Marshall sound you're after cbread dls. I play at low volume levels because I play at home. I run these into an Epi valve jr half stack and couldn't be happier with my distortion tones. I went through box after box and these were the best I tried, IMHO. Check out the demos.

Let me jump in and recommend the low to medium gain pedal I've been using at very very low volumes - Machine Head Pedals' 72 Degrees Overdrive (yes - built by 11 Gauge!). I play my Tele with a 65 Fender Champ at very low volumes late at night in my apartment using the 72 Degree overdrive - I have the Gain at around 3:00 and the harmonic content and clarity are all there in droves. I back off the Gain if I'm playing at louder volumes (rarely) and this allows me to enjoy some really amazing overdriven tones at home and enjoy my Lollar SPecial T bridge pick
up.