How many of you plug straight into your amp?

[J-man]

I love using pedals, but I very much dislike how much a chain of effects pedals alters the overrall sound when bypassed, so I usually end up plugging straight into my amp. My amp has fantastic distortion/overdrive tones and a useable reverb, which is usually enough.

 

[cnlbb]

Usually I go straight into my 6G2. Sometimes I use my single distortion pedal (mojohand magpie), have mostly decided my reverb pedal has no use. (I am interested in the mojoverb however.)

(link removed)

 

[Zepfan]

I only have Reverb and Chorus on one of my amps. Everything is straight in.

 

[Maricopa]

I run a reverb pedal on my Brown Deluxe and occasionally use a wah, delay and boost but I could live without any processing in my signal at all and do so at jams and short sets where I don't want to deal with the extra cables and plugs.

 

[MilwMark]

For me less is more. But almost never "none". I use pedals sparingly (my "big" board has 5 including volume pedal and tuner + OD, delay and trem, for anyone who is counting).

But very much echoing Tim, I think the sum of nice amp cooking + carefully selected OD pedal set just about unity and adding just the right amount of dirt is greater than the parts (or the amp alone). Dynamics, punch, volume knob taper are all better. Tone at least as good.

The one added variable of an OD just seems to be a "mix saver" at so many shows. I've played without one and it was fine (particularly quiet shows). But having one provides a lot more flexibility that I often need. And no, I'm not playing crappy amps. It's been that way for me even with revered circuits (Bassman, Marshall 2061x, Deluxe Reverb, I could go on).

And not all my amps have reverb. None has delay or tremolo. Hard to play lap steel without reverb and/or delay. And I'm just not good enough to create tremolo solely with the volume knob, while playing.

So there you have it.

 

[Frodebro]

Straight in if the amp has a good dirt channel and a loop for delay and reverb, otherwise through pedals first.

 

[supersoldier71]

I'm going in the opposite direction from the OP; I was never really happy with the reverb on my Peavey Classic 50, but I added a Korg SD-D3000 on a whim, dialed in some "kosmic" reverb and voila, I loved my amp again. I've also got a Soul Food, TS-9, DS-1, TR-2 and a Gravy chorus pedal. If I could find a multi-channel amp that gave me clean, OD and distortion,plus reverb, I could live with just a tremolo pedal.

Or I could just keep what I have and be content.

Now that rig is geared towards playing in church. For my my originals or just jamming with friends, I can plug my LP Faded Special right in and be perfectly happy with the results.

 

[Geoff738]

Pretty much straight in. I like how my amps sound.

But I do have some pedals. A bunch of Ods (Tubescreamer, Blackstone, a Suproesque one, and wouldn't mind having a klone. Some of the Orange flavoured ones have my interest as well), a wah, a tremolo, an ancient, noisy bucket brigade delay. Maybe even a compressor.

For live/jams I do use an OD. At home its straight in unless I want term pretty much. None of my amps have reverb. I'm ok with that.

Cheers,
Geoff

 

[homesick345]

1 pedal.

 

[adjason]

90% straight into a fender amp. 9% Boss od1. 1% chorus, delay etc

 

[trev333]

Straight in to a twin with a 12" bin hooked in ... drive channel with some reverb...

 

[sjruvolo]

"Fingers ---> guitar--> amp--> ears, and repeat".
Grabsplatter, you have got it right. A nice guitar a good amp and a little bit of talent goes a long way.

 

[RoscoeElegante]

Probably 50% of the time. Amp-only dynamics are still unique. I split this time again probably 50/50 between playing through one amp and playing two in stereo. All depends on the song, or the mood, or what I want to work on, or how intent or lazy I'm feeling. But since I'm relatively new/late to pedals, they still hold a lot of fascination and fun.

 

[KC]

yeah, I don't know, it depends. I had a smallish pedal board that still screwed up the sound and dynamics -- I suspect impedance mismatches. So I went to no pedals, just the builtin reverb & trem on the AC15. Tuner moved to the headstock in the form of a Snark. Lately I've been adding in the Alter Ego V4 echo, just because it sends the dry signal through pretty much like a wire -- no coloration, no screwing with dynamics. I've also been playing around with an old Magicstomp, which seems similarly well-behaved, but I haven't gigged with that yet.

I have been playing a lot of slide lately, though, and I need a little compression and either a hot amp or a dirt box to get the sound I'm after. Origin Slide Rig on the way. We'll see.

 

[stnmtthw]

My experience is different- when I was younger, I was a straight to amp guy, but now that I don't have to choose between buying pedals and buying food, I'm happy to play around with pedals. I've even messed around enough to have preferences these days- a Boss DS-1 for distortion, an Xotic SP compressor, and a wah pedal that a friend of mine built.

 

[Zebulon Bluze]

Got rid of all the pedals. Lots of problems with noise. Then I bought a couple of multi-pedals for fun (Zoom G1on and Vox Stomplab). Fun to play around with, but when I really want to play music I plug straight into the Blues Jr.

 

[Tele-Caster]

I pick a Lagunal LE-300 "Super Strat" with my bare thumb, index, and middle finger, with the signal going out of the instrument via a directional Planet Waves cable and in to a Peavey Vypyr 15W or one of three modified Fender Frontman 25R's.

I still play both of my home-cobbled Telecaster-Shaped Objects, and my G&L Legacy less often, but that rear-loaded, swamp ash bodied, LE-300 has been my "main squeeze" since buying it used over the Internet last summer for under $150.00.

I like the Vypyr for playing small gigs because it's light hasn't given me any problems. While it is a modeling amp, I basically use two presets -a "Twin" with a hint of reverb and flat eq; another "Twin" preset with a touch more reverb and different eq; and an AC-30ish model with a hint of reverb.

 

[telecastertodd]

I love pedals, but have been using just a tuner and a boost.

That's been enough given the reverb on the amp.

Have yet to gig like that. That will be the real test...

 

[Flash1909]

I do
Tele-Hotrod Deluxe

 

[kelnet]

Straight in. Once you get used to it you realize how much better an unprocessed tone sounds.

You can get an unprocessed sound only from an acoustic guitar. The sound of every electric guitar and amplifier is processed in some way.