Isn't clean clean anymore?

[Brent Hutto]

I've been pondering this since posting on the thread previously and I have it figured out.

"Clean tone" in this context simply means "My sound with this one pedal turned off". It doesn't mean "clean" at all w.r.t. distortion.

I realized this after noticing a few demos of things like reverbs and chorus pedals where the demo'er says, "Here's my clean tone" before turning on the pedal being demo'd.

Kind of like "transparent overdrive" which means nothing to do with "transparent" in the sense of not changing the sound. It's just code for "doesn't sound like a Tube Screamer".

 

[Refugee]

here's my Fender. Clean as heck I don't consider reverb distorted. I do kick on a Phase 100 about halfway through. Love the Fender/JBL sound!

Oops. Forgot to post link.

 

[WalthamMoosical]

How many kidneys if I also want fret marker dots?

 

[tonedover]

these kind of comments always make me suspect some of you just recently discovered how to search youtube or something… its been this way for at least FIFTEEN YEARS.

 

[RobRiggs]

There are very few truly clean amp/pedal demos on YouTube, that’s a given. Does it make their reviews of questionable utility to some? Yep.

 

[4pickupguy]

Shawn Tubbs explains this pretty well in one of his videos. “Some pedals are designed to hit a clean amp, say, like a Rat, and some do better into a driving amp like a Fuzz Face.“
He points this out quite often throughout his videos.

Now, I love the dead clean sound of my Deluxe and effects cabs. I use it 50% of the time. But, I really like the clean sounds some dirt pedals offer.
I have an Ethos TWE-1 on my board and it’s almost Fuzz Face levels of cleanup. Not crystalline like a FF, more Super Reverb breathing heavy. Then of course the FF clean thing is super addictive and its never completely clean, yet, with that sparkly thing it does, you perceive it as cleaner than it really is. It’s clean, only softer.
A Fuzz Face turns your volume knob into a throttle… and clean is perception.

 

[cyclopean]

It's all relative.

Case in point: even Chet's tone was not that clean. It's the distortion in the signal that gives the guitar character. Is Chet relatively clean sounding compared to Metallica? Yeah he is.

A truly clean tone is a pure sine wave, and this is what makes pure sine waves very unmusical. There's no distortion or harmonics in a perfectly clean signal.

"You WANT me on that wall. You NEED me on that wall."

-Jack Nicklaus as Colonel Distortion N. Harmonicks, in the film A Few Good Minstrels

Metallica isn’t all that distorted though.

 

[bobio]

My clean tone has always had a bit of delay and reverb in it courtesy of a BOSS RV-3 which lived on every pedal board I ever had and was always on.

 

[Telecastoff1]

Squeaky clean here....Telecaster directly in to an Ultra-Linear Twin Reverb or a Peavey Nashville 400....old-school Country cleans. Not too many players could do that. That squeaky clean brings out every wrong note and mistake floating right to the top. Even if playing that way/style is not your thing, it's good practice to make you a better player....imho of course.

 

[Killing Floor]

“clean” on a demo means “without this affect engaged”. If I’m looking for a boost or a drive that is best when stacked it’s useless to demo that through a Milkman. That’s why “clean” sometimes is already a little dirty. It’s not the best choice of words.

 

[radtz]

Yes I agree with this observation. People think "clean" means distorted. I think the clean sound of an electic guitar is pretty glorious, and if I want to know about a piece of gear I want the clean sound as the starting point

I totally agree with this and I am all about heavy distortion. I had a Marshall DSL1 and I liked the full gain sound, but there was now way to make the clean sound usable. I sold it and bought a Joyo Zombie for its high gain rectifier sound. The big difference is the clean channel sounds great.

Another factor besides cleans for me is how well its takes pedals in the effects loop and at the front end.

Getting back on topic, I've noticed for a lot of youtube reviews clean means "the non-high gain setting I like".

 

[printer2]

It's all relative.

Case in point: even Chet's tone was not that clean. It's the distortion in the signal that gives the guitar character. Is Chet relatively clean sounding compared to Metallica? Yeah he is.

A truly clean tone is a pure sine wave, and this is what makes pure sine waves very unmusical. There's no distortion or harmonics in a perfectly clean signal.

"You WANT me on that wall. You NEED me on that wall."

-Jack Nicklaus as Colonel Distortion N. Harmonicks, in the film A Few Good Minstrels

Uh, yeah? I use my signal generator when I want sine waves, not my guitar.

Metallica isn’t all that distorted though.

And ACDC, listen to the people doing tutorials on some of the songs, almost set for a metal fest.

 

[cbnutt]

Yes i hate it , i want to hear a something like a Deluxe or twin set low like you would play in a older contry band ( Haggerd , Buck Owens ETC .) but most of the time even with those amps , its overdrive on those videos .

 

[Brent Hutto]

Yes i hate it , i want to hear a something like a Deluxe or twin set low like you would play in a older contry band ( Haggerd , Buck Owens ETC .) but most of the time even with those amps , its overdrive on those videos .

Of course we need to keep in mind the reason those demos exist (the ones with decent playing and recording, anyway) is to move lots of units of pedals. Probably the folks wanting to hear older country band tones are NOT the same folks who buy a new overdrive pedal every week or two!

 

[cbnutt]

Of course we need to keep in mind the reason those demos exist (the ones with decent playing and recording, anyway) is to move lots of units of pedals. Probably the folks wanting to hear older country band tones are NOT the same folks who buy a new overdrive pedal every week or two! > Yes i was thinking on the amp only , was half asleep and didnt notice the pedal part .

 

[Refugee]

here's my Fender. Clean as heck I don't consider reverb distorted. I do kick on a Phase 100 about halfway through. Love the Fender/JBL sound!

Oops. Forgot to post link.

 

[robt57]

Clean is clean does. #richterscale

 

[Lynxtrap]

Of course we need to keep in mind the reason those demos exist (the ones with decent playing and recording, anyway) is to move lots of units of pedals. Probably the folks wanting to hear older country band tones are NOT the same folks who buy a new overdrive pedal every week or two!

Well... When I started this thread I was in the market for an overdrive pedal and so I want to hear the overdrive pedal. If I wanted "older country band tones" I wouldn't be in the market for an overdrive pedals in the first place.

But I want to hear the pedal into a clean amp, because the reason I need an overdrive pedal is that I already have a clean amp. A "pedal platform" if you like.

Sure, many use an overdrive pedal to push an already overdriven amp and they can demo that as well. But I want to hear the pedal through a clean amp, and it just bugs me when someone even says "this is the clean sound" and it sounds like the pedal is already on.

 

[Brent Hutto]

Well... When I started this thread I was in the market for an overdrive pedal and so I want to hear the overdrive pedal. If I wanted "older country band tones" I wouldn't be in the market for an overdrive pedals in the first place.

But I want to hear the pedal into a clean amp, because the reason I need an overdrive pedal is that I already have a clean amp. A "pedal platform" if you like.

Sure, many use an overdrive pedal to push an already overdriven amp and they can demo that as well. But I want to hear the pedal through a clean amp, and it just bugs me when someone even says "this is the clean sound" and it sounds like the pedal is already on.

Amen to that Brother Lynxtrap, I'm with you!

My amp is a Katana and try as I might, I just can't fall in love (or hardly even "fall in like") with anything other than its Clean channel. So I do turn the Gain knob all the way up, maybe there's ever so slight hint of a limit to its headroom when its driven hard but it's a Clean Pedal Platform all the way.

Very, very rare is the YouTube demo that tells me anything about how a drive pedal is going to perform into a clean Katana.