+1 on the "less gain is more" approach. Also should noted that if the amp is well behind it's edge of breakup a clean boost can be used as a simplified volume pedal (for solos, etc.)
A well done, non-overly technical explanation of two different audio events. And bravo for addressing the "you don't need as much distortion as you think" issue. Some of my favorite "heavy" tones are from the 80's era Judas Priest albums. And of course, Malcom Young used tones just this side of country clean and got a huge tone in the context of AC/DC. Greetings from Austin, Tx! K
I think a lot of people want that compressed singing tone, but try to get it with loads of distortion or overdrive instead of pushing amp volume. A boost pedal can help, maybe a little compression in front of the amp.
@@AdamManley7 I said "this side of country clean"...which with today's country isn't exactly pristine. I was implying that there was some grit to the tone, in contrast to a raging JCM900. The best example I can give you is Malcom's tone on the "Black Ice" album, especially the track "Rock-N-Roll Train". You can hear the pick attack and each note in the chords. That was what I was trying to get at.
This is one reason I love the Wampler Pantheon. It is one of the few OD pedals that lets you switch between soft or hard clipping, as well as basically turning it into a boost pedal when you turn the gain down but the volume up. So versatile.
I play drums but always try to learn about other instruments to meet the best sound a band can get. I really appreciate things you explain for that purpose
If I could only use one pedal for the rest of my life, it would be the zvex SHO boost. It was one of my first pedals that really made me LOVE pedals. Keep up the great work Rhett! :)
@@9277707 - I’ve never had an issue with the noise floor, especially in a live context. Run, don’t walk, to get one (it’s also great as half of the zvex Box of Rock, by the way!)! 🤘😊👍
Wonderful video Rhett, I love doing stuff like this. By the way, I have a Quad Cortex coming on Friday, thanks to you. I have always been an old school tube amp guy, I dipped my toe into the digital world with the HX Stomp, also thanks to you. Now moving onto the Quad Cortex. I was inspired by the video you made putting your board together for some of your recent gigs with the QC at the core of the board. Looking forward to it and thank you! Your videos are great an inspired me to start a RUclips channel. Just getting into it and learning a ton from you.
I’m a mainly metal guitarist and I totally agree, I’ll put a boost (or an overdrive with very little gain) in front of my amp and it really tightens up the sound; it’s great.
Nicely done! I like the way you helped us explore ALL the options. Thought-provoking and it always makes me head straight to my rig to try this stuff out. Thanks, Rhett!
Drybell’s Unit 67 is also a great boost worth checking out! It’s a clean boost, with a 2 band EQ, an optional dedicated range master style boost knob, and a blend knob for a 1176 style compressor. Very versatile!
@@johnhowlett9829 great! I use it first too as a solo boost mostly! Volume past noon, range at 1 o’clock, lows at 11 o’clock, highs at noon, and the sustain at 9 o’clock just to add subtle compression, High input for single coils, low for humbuckers. But honestly, there is no bad sound in it, in front of a dirty amp, cranking the range master is awesome!
@@Burst006 Pete Thorn sold me on this pedal - he now has one on his board. I'm anywhere from noon - 2 o'clock on the Vboost, range at 12, EQ about the same but Sustain around 1-2 o'clock. I'm using a late 90's 212 Deville, Tele and Strat. Today I'm going to pop it after my OD just to hear the diff. Thanks for the reply too.
I think this is why there are so many great overdrive and boost combo pedals. Really useful to have both at your feet depending on how you set your amp.
This is a concept that this old metal head (turning blues player) had never even considered until seeing this video. I've always been the hard core distortion pedal kind of guy, but now I'm over 60 yrs old, I'm looking to more refined tones. This video has truly opened my eyes to something that I have never before even considered. (or,... for that matter, even realized existed !) I've been working for some time now, on a symphonic metal sound with injection of more bluesy types of guitar tones. This video has given me a whole new angle to look at, using pedals I have never really even considered. Thank you very much for this eye opening video ! It will have a HUGE impact in my future tone ! (I'll finally have something that is worth posting, if all goes well....)
Great demo! I just rearranged my board to try these options. I'd truly never thought of using them together in that way, using the Overdrive clipping, to push the amp clipping, and then the boost to push both for yet another level of distortion. It's so simple, it's genius! Your explanations on the use of each effect, how to use them combined, AND then reverse? I couldn't help but think, all this combined with working the guitars volume for dynamic range , more subtle change and your easily dialing in 6 distinct levels of saturation! This opened my eyes to a whole new way of looking at the interplay between amp, pedal, and a front end push on the gain stages & clipping, throughout the chain. Dude... Bro... You killed it! Bravo, good sir.👏🏼 Bravo.👏🏼
I am always delighted to see pro guys use Xotic pedals in these demos…..they are rarely “in vogue” but so many pro players use them for reasons Rhett has shown us SO clearly! I have got to the point where I use nothing else but Xotic for boost / gain! Super Sweet into RC, BB for heavier stuff with Gain rolled way back, and an EP at the end for solo boosts. Magical into a Vox AC amp 😎😍😎
i agree with rhett in terms of the tone he gets from a boost instead of an overdrive. but for live situations using a boost pedal also adds alot of volume to your amp, which is not desirable if you want a level volume between your clean sound and your overdriven sound. I would take his advice and use a boost instead of an overdrive if I didnt run into this issue but I tend to use my boost ontop of my overdrive for leads only.
Good point. Boost can change the volume drasticly in relation to the clean tone. I’m using a precision drive with a little bit of distortion and volume at unity, into a really moderated distorted amp, just a bit after the breakpoint. Sounds good, and I can get nice clean tones just playing softly.
If anyone is interested in trying some boosts and is willing to install the circuit boards (pots included) into an enclosure, I’ve got loads of boost-type circuits stacked up in my ever-growing stock of effects pedal builds. I’ve built all kinds of boosts, from treble to full range, jfet, mosfet, IC and so on, as preamp, straight boost, and all things in between. Most, if not all, get the job more than done and add lots of snap to your signal. If needed I can throw them into an enclosure for you, but I know I’ll be less inclined to open the flood gates if it means I must drill the enclosures to house a million circuits. What Rhett says is true when it comes to boosts, and since I can’t possibly use all the circuits I’ve built, I figured I’d give the generosity route a go. Otherwise, I just have to put them on heavy rotation and/or use them as boosts in multi-effect pedals in the future. Aloha, D 🤙
That is very generous of you. I am interested in building them as well, I just dont have the time, nor do I have a tube amp; I play at church directly into the sound system. What type of amp are you using?
@@danielmiller2886 Aloha, Daniel. I mainly use my Princeton to test my circuits. Sometimes my Champ, or non-tube amps like a Katana, various old Guyatone solid states, etc. But I typically go for the tubes. The good news is that there are a lot of good quality boosts available for relatively cheap. If you are really looking to tinker but lack the time, you might consider using a breadboard to build prototypes directly from schematic. It takes very little time, once you get the hang of it, and parts/components are fairly inexpensive. Hopefully you can get around to it eventually. It is good fun (though not without its frustrations) and opens up a world of new circuits. If you do get into it and want some recommendations, feel free to hit me up. I’ll try to help. ✌️🙏🤙
I totally agree on the boost pedal - my 'secret weapon' pedal is my Echplex Pre-amp pedal which is what people like Jimmy Page and Jeff Beck used back in the 70's (they used an echoplex delay which had the preamp built in) and my lord, what it did to my tone was amazing its now an 'always on' pedal and i just use my volume/dynamics to control gain - I use a Marshall Silver Jubilee and the combination is amazing! Boost pedals all the way...
I’m preferring boosts over drive I have an EP Boost, been tinkering with a tube screamer as a clean boost but I think it’s gonna get pulled off the board, I also like the pre amp on my tremolo pedal the Fender tre-verb as a boost it adds sparkle to the sound really subtle. That being said the Origin Effects revival drive compact pedals are really good.
I really love booster pedals but as a guitarrist that mainly rely on cheaper amp simulators(tube amps aren't that cheap where I live) overdrive pedals help me so much more by bringing tone character and different voices to my sound. But if a good tube amp is available for me to play within the context of a gig or a recording, a good booster is hella good for sure. Great video as always, sir!!
That was an excellent classroom of ideas for boost and overdrive in either order . Learned a bunch as usual here and I liked your comments of playing with less gain . I recently have started backing off the gain on my drive pedals and I do get better cut in band mix as a result. Big difference !
You are making the amp ad harmonics and with a pedal it can add them. If you love your amp’s distortion (hopefully you do) then a straight boost is perfect. If you don’t like your amp’s distortion, or just want a different type of distortion, then use an OD or distortion pedal. There’s no right or wrong, just tonnes of cool options to play with! I have amps that I like the distortion of, so I tend to set them at the edge of breakup and just push them to varying degrees for more or less breakup. I actually use OD pedals for this, sometimes with the gain rolled back and the volume rolled up, so that they act more like a boost. When close to amp breakup, the OD “colors” things less as well. If I wanted to “emulate” many different guitar tones for an event band type show, I would go with a clean amp as a pedal platform, or better, a digital profiler that can sound like many different amps.
I use the Voodoo Labs Sparkle Drive which is a clean boost that mixes in a TS 808 style overdrive to the signal. Extremely versatile and tremendously underrated pedal. One time after years of heavy use the footswitch broke and I mailed it in to them and they fixed it free. Really a tough pedal not to love.
Prefer a clean boost. Bought a vertex and it broke down pretty quick ( used it 4 times live )…. Could be a one off problem …and get that…. but found the Twin stomp far better been buying up as many as I can …. TwinStomp have great after service too … in all fairness to vertex they said send a video of how pedal is broken but think I ll return it and buy a spare twin stomp …. Admittedly the buffering is great but I ll get pre and post buffers for my rig ..but you are so right that clean boost is essential to ‘my’ or ‘the’ sound you want
I always prefer to keep my dynamics as much as possible, without sounding harsh or too up front . The most important factor for whether I like a drive is the compression characteristics
The Kingsley Page boost is awesome! Boost with some light clipping if desired. There’s new versions with more gain i think which are all pretty cool! Kingsley and Simon Jarrett are great!
Cool little known fact.. Rhett was born in the main studio during the making of Steely Dan's album Aja. Some say he is the walking embodiment of the Band and that Album to this day.. Just Kidding Rhett, I love your channel and videos Always!
You can also put an EQ pedal in front of an overdrive to tweak how it reacts to your guitar. If your overdrive sounds a little too muddy, notching out some low mids can make a big difference. But personally, I just don't care for the "edge of breakup" amp tone. My gain settings tend to be very "all or nothing" because I like having access to that buttery smooth super clean tone you get from amps with very high headroom, maybe with a hint of tremolo or vibrato on top.
@@myoriginalname I'm certainly not gonna bad mouth either of those pedals, because they are fantastic. (a friend of mine used to Rock a Jackhammer and *chef's kiss*) But the built in EQ on on the pedals is usually to sculpt the tone after it's been clipped. Whereas cutting some low mids before the OD reduces the amount that those frequencies are clipped in the first place. That's why so many guitarists use tube screamers as their boost pedal, because the screamer pushes the upper mids, ensuring they clip first and more prominently that the rest of the frequency range. (it's also why tube screamers can sound nasal if your tone doesn't actually have any low end problems) But hey, tone is a balancing act. There's no wrong options, just undesirable results.
@Pinned Commentyeah that's it, all the jazz, country & rock players that make up the majority of rhetts viewers should just play a 7 seven string & that's your advice for great tone
Thanks Rhett. This video was truly inspiring. After watching it I was able to dial in a "better" distortion than I thought was possible on my rig. I have old school setup with a chain of pedals that makes most people laugh. And a slo by wampler with a boost. Boogie F30 built in distortion is my first choice given the chance to play loud. I don't play loud anymore much. So I have been relying on a joyo uzi to get e in the neighborhood at low volumes on my clean channel. But dialing back the gain to about 30%, adding the contour(not digging the second channel without it to be honest), adding the boost cranked to max, than adding a golden horsie, lastly adding a noise gate. Just pure heaven to me. Again, THANKS MAN !!!
Does your amp lack a master volume? If so, you should definitely get a JHS little black box. ($30.) I have a Peavey 6505MH head, and, before I had the little black box, it was impossible to get the tone I wanted without cranking the post gain to ear- splitting volumes. Now, I get the tone I want at the volume I want, every time, without having to add anything to the front end of the amplifier. Boom! This was still an awesome video, however. All of it rings true.
That just makes a whole lot of sense! You rarely see someone who can explain what you're doing to the amp with your overdrive and boost pedals. That explanation makes me want to go to pedalboard and try out stuff with a new set of ears.
So true. I got completely lost on the vast sea of overdrive’s. Until I discovered the j rockett clean archer. A Klon style mid range boost. Really digging it.✌️
Ive watched a ton of your videos. Listened to Dipped in tone. Seen you on other channels. Thank you. This video was incredibly insightful and interesting. I learned alot. I am checking out your courses . Cheers this made my day ubderstanding boosts for the tone quest Im on. Cheers G
Absolutely brilliant Rhett. I learn a lot from your vids which in and of itself is saying something seeing as I’ve been doing this now professionally for 34 years. -Seal. ✌🏾&💜
i saw you guys the other night opening for Willie . Wasn't expecting you guy's but walking into the show i heard Noah's voice and you guy's sound great live. Thank you for the music.
Great video - and yes, you often need way less gain than you think. One thing you didn't mention is amp headroom - if you boost a Showman or a Twin Reverb or a Hiwatt DR103, it can be painfully loud with not a lot of breakup - there an overdrive may be a better choice. I love my original Direct Drive, but am finding I only have the gain at 10-11:00 or so with volume at noon. Still trying to wrap my head around the Gristle King, which I picked up at Greg's show last week. Very different, higher gain, but sits well in the mix and pre/post boost options. But I still love my EP Boost with that midrange...
Buy an attenuator man- then you can turn it wide open to get break up, if you want- and adjust the master volume on the attenuator down as low as you want without losing breakup. This is how ppl get that edge of break up tone without having to have their amp up so loud the neighbors are phoning 911. A lot of more modern Tube amps come with either a bult in attenuator or- overdrives built in- for this very reason. If you really had to just turn it up to get breakup- a lot of tube amps would be nearly impossible to use at home. Personally- I run the Peavey Trans-tube studio pro 112 which is a solid-state amp with mosfet clipping built in to emulate the sound of a tube amp. Mosfet transistors do the same thing as tubes- if you push them, they start clipping the signal- sounds a bit different than tubes but it's close. The amp I run has adjustable headroom- so I can dial it up so that it stops clipping unless I really push it hard- it's a 60-watt amp, or I can dial it down where it starts breaking up at relatively low volumes when I'm at home.
I have been playing through a late 70s solid state CMOS amp, with a dual od/boost (switchable order as well) pedal, and have been getting fantastic results! The experimentation is always pretty fun too!
Also depends on whether the amp is tube or solid state. If you have the amp on the verge of break up on the front end, and then hit it with a good boost, then you actually get overdrive without adding distortion because that added boost drives the tubes into a more natural gain stage. Oh how I love tubes!! This is why it is so common for electric guitar players to set their amplifier right at the threshold of its own OD so that you can just roll back on the volume knob to clean it up a bit, or punch in a boost and you get the amplifier’s own sweet and creamy overdriven signal if it is a good amp. This is also why tube amps are superior to solid-state ones (let the debates begin!). You let the tube amplifier do its thing by pushing it with a stronger and hotter signal driving the amp from the preamp stage into the back end stage of the amp (6L6 and 6V6 tubes respond very well to being pushed by a boost like the one you have). Great video. We live in a great time of music history.
nice.. that's why I usually use my overdrives more as boost..to shape the eq more towards mids and the "tone" of the "cut through". I love to ad a clean boost to the mix also.. like the mxr micro amp or something like that.
Thank you so much for posting this! I am going to try that. Have been searching and listening for some time now. Going to fire up my Super Twin Reverb with a boost pedal. Maybe a diy. Decision made, no TS , no Klons. And btw good to hear lz
I generally prefer to have an amp that I like the drive of, and then push it to get MORE of that sound. Of course one needs multiple amps for different situations to do that. I do mostly low volume electric lead for acoustic singer songwriters at coffee house levels. So I use very low wattage amps for that. I often don’t even need a boost. If I ended up with a higher wattage amp that is too loud to get toob distortion without endangering the front few rows, I will go with an OD. Understanding gain staging and room acoustics really helps one to deal with most situations. Coffee shop gig with a borrowed TR, pedal into a clean amp. Low wattage amp at a jam with an enthusiastic drummer? Ad a mic, etc..
I tried with my Boss Katana 100W Head, used the on-board effects, put the clean boost instead of the screamer that I had before: boy oh boy what a killer tone. Have my gain at almost noon on both Lead and Brown channel (I play mostly high gain), and the “Drive” control of the clean boost at 10/11 o’clock. It’s very saturated, but pristine, very clear, killer tone for hard rock/heavy metal, even extreme metal. I noticed that clean boost adds a sort of “gentle compression” that give meat to the bottom end and tame the screaming highs of a high gain tone. Thank you for this advice Rhett.
NOW, I understand...finally! Thank you, Rhett, for this video. I'm much better at building guitars than playing them, but trying hard to change that. You just made sense of what I've really been chasing (but not finding) in my own fledgling tone journey. Thanks from NashVegas
It’s funny, b/c I absolutely love messing around with dozens of pedals and getting lost in the GAS/how many wild sounds can I create. And a lot of that is gain based effects…boosts thru fuzzes and stacking them and all that. But when it comes down to it & im jamming and loving it…I’m usually just playing an amp cranked on its own or 1 simple boost or light overdrive pedal. Love it and for as much fun as it is to mess around with 6+ pedals…I lays seem to come back to a cooking amp and something simple to push it a bit. Lol who knows? Great vid & that Lester is stunning 😍
the « less drive is more » thing is absolutely true, but sometimes, pushing an amp that is already at full gain and full volume a bit further (a lot) will make you discover territories of tones that you would have never heard before. A boost at full volume in front of a tweed deluxe which is already at full volume will make it sound like it’s falling apart in the best way possible (think « Hey Hey My My (Into the Black) » by Neil Young, absolutely killer tone) :)
Excellent presentation of what can be a confusing subject. Easily digestible, and straightforward. Sorry I missed you at the Ohio State Fair w/Willie Nelson. Couldn't make it. Hope you had a great show!
that was and outstanding overview of these 2 types of pedals and their interplay with a tube amp. truly. thank you. awesome teaching and instruction. i wonder how many players are like me, though, who use digital amps (Boss katana, etc) becuz of their price point and there bedroom volume capabilities, and therefore the most enjoyable aspects of these pedals within that realm.
Thanks for the advice. I just got the Exotic boost cause of this. I use it in conjuction with a tube screamer (I know, they are evil in your eyes...dont worry, I just ordered the JHS pedal). Even with the TS doing this sounds great. Far better than the overdive channels on my Marshall DSL. Thanks again.
All the leading RUclipsrs have done their videos on boost-OD-gain stacking… but here, Martha Stewart of guitar has pulled off the ultimate demo. This is the definitive explanation on this subject. Perfectly and simply explained, succinctly demoed with the appropriate guitar parts to accompany the sounds demoed. Kudos! Pedal Show: you’re good, but you better get cracking to top this. Long-winded really hurts them. Shuck licks and then over-complicating, speaking in complicated lingo hurts most of the these guys. Notice how Male Martha Stewart makes an effort to play musical parts. He plays a healthy blend of riffs, open chords, power chords, leads, rarely wanking those godawful pointless staccato, stuttering shuck licks that predominate most demos. You know what I’m talkin about.
Thanks for the shout out Rhett! Great video!
+1 on the "less gain is more" approach. Also should noted that if the amp is well behind it's edge of breakup a clean boost can be used as a simplified volume pedal (for solos, etc.)
"Less gain than you think"
Rhett proceeds to play with tons of crunch and calls it "edge of breakup"
yep...
@@andrewbrowning6357 Perfect!
Also the meaning of "really clean" that he often uses is never the same as mine or most of jazz players.
2:15
@@erickpontes2564 yes he is taking us for deaf fools :)
A well done, non-overly technical explanation of two different audio events. And bravo for addressing the "you don't need as much distortion as you think" issue. Some of my favorite "heavy" tones are from the 80's era Judas Priest albums. And of course, Malcom Young used tones just this side of country clean and got a huge tone in the context of AC/DC.
Greetings from Austin, Tx!
K
Great answer Ken. totally agree.
I think a lot of people want that compressed singing tone, but try to get it with loads of distortion or overdrive instead of pushing amp volume. A boost pedal can help, maybe a little compression in front of the amp.
What kind of country do you listen to, AC/DC is definitely crunch not clean
@@AdamManley7 I said "this side of country clean"...which with today's country isn't exactly pristine. I was implying that there was some grit to the tone, in contrast to a raging JCM900. The best example I can give you is Malcom's tone on the "Black Ice" album, especially the track "Rock-N-Roll Train". You can hear the pick attack and each note in the chords. That was what I was trying to get at.
Am I right in thinking Young basically avoided pedals?
This is one reason I love the Wampler Pantheon. It is one of the few OD pedals that lets you switch between soft or hard clipping, as well as basically turning it into a boost pedal when you turn the gain down but the volume up. So versatile.
Sold!
I was at Sweetwater today staring at the Pantheon, wondering if I could do just that. Thanks!
I play drums but always try to learn about other instruments to meet the best sound a band can get. I really appreciate things you explain for that purpose
If I could only use one pedal for the rest of my life, it would be the zvex SHO boost. It was one of my first pedals that really made me LOVE pedals. Keep up the great work Rhett! :)
@ John Sawyer - Been eyeing the SHO for years, , , just haven't pulled trigger yet. How is the noise floor?
@@9277707 - I’ve never had an issue with the noise floor, especially in a live context. Run, don’t walk, to get one (it’s also great as half of the zvex Box of Rock, by the way!)! 🤘😊👍
@@johnsawyer6145 Thank you, maybe I've waited long enough -)
SHO is my absolute fav
Wonderful video Rhett, I love doing stuff like this. By the way, I have a Quad Cortex coming on Friday, thanks to you. I have always been an old school tube amp guy, I dipped my toe into the digital world with the HX Stomp, also thanks to you. Now moving onto the Quad Cortex. I was inspired by the video you made putting your board together for some of your recent gigs with the QC at the core of the board. Looking forward to it and thank you! Your videos are great an inspired me to start a RUclips channel. Just getting into it and learning a ton from you.
I’m a mainly metal guitarist and I totally agree, I’ll put a boost (or an overdrive with very little gain) in front of my amp and it really tightens up the sound; it’s great.
Awesome tutorial!
I knew the difference between the two going in, but learned a lot about making them work together
Take a shot every time Rhett says “edge of breakup” in all his vids and you’re hammered
Kudos for including the clipping diagram, very nice. Double kudos for making it transparent.
Nicely done! I like the way you helped us explore ALL the options. Thought-provoking and it always makes me head straight to my rig to try this stuff out. Thanks, Rhett!
Drybell’s Unit 67 is also a great boost worth checking out! It’s a clean boost, with a 2 band EQ, an optional dedicated range master style boost knob, and a blend knob for a 1176 style compressor. Very versatile!
I've just added one to my board - still working through it and have it currently first in chain. Any advice? Thanks -
@@johnhowlett9829 great! I use it first too as a solo boost mostly! Volume past noon, range at 1 o’clock, lows at 11 o’clock, highs at noon, and the sustain at 9 o’clock just to add subtle compression, High input for single coils, low for humbuckers. But honestly, there is no bad sound in it, in front of a dirty amp, cranking the range master is awesome!
@@Burst006 Pete Thorn sold me on this pedal - he now has one on his board. I'm anywhere from noon - 2 o'clock on the Vboost, range at 12, EQ about the same but Sustain around 1-2 o'clock. I'm using a late 90's 212 Deville, Tele and Strat. Today I'm going to pop it after my OD just to hear the diff. Thanks for the reply too.
Excellent presentation to the point, no fluff. Awesome tones and great playing, thank you !
I think this is why there are so many great overdrive and boost combo pedals. Really useful to have both at your feet depending on how you set your amp.
Great vid Rhett! I own all these but the ZIO! Couldn't agree more with the findings!
Every new guitar player who is wanting to use pedals should watch this video. The teaching is perfect!
Rhett's basement is a dungeon of guitar pedals, alphabetically sorted and held back by 12 foot lengths of Mogami Overdrive Rugged cables...
Mmmm... Mogami.... *droolz*
@@GimmeJimmy23meh
MEH?!?!? HUH?!! We like Rhett!!
The RC v2 after an overdrive is such an amazing tool. I was so happy when I figured that out.
This is a concept that this old metal head (turning blues player) had never even considered until seeing this video. I've always been the hard core distortion pedal kind of guy, but now I'm over 60 yrs old, I'm looking to more refined tones. This video has truly opened my eyes to something that I have never before even considered. (or,... for that matter, even realized existed !)
I've been working for some time now, on a symphonic metal sound with injection of more bluesy types of guitar tones. This video has given me a whole new angle to look at, using pedals I have never really even considered.
Thank you very much for this eye opening video ! It will have a HUGE impact in my future tone !
(I'll finally have something that is worth posting, if all goes well....)
Great demo! I just rearranged my board to try these options. I'd truly never thought of using them together in that way, using the Overdrive clipping, to push the amp clipping, and then the boost to push both for yet another level of distortion. It's so simple, it's genius!
Your explanations on the use of each effect, how to use them combined, AND then reverse? I couldn't help but think, all this combined with working the guitars volume for dynamic range , more subtle change and your easily dialing in 6 distinct levels of saturation! This opened my eyes to a whole new way of looking at the interplay between amp, pedal, and a front end push on the gain stages & clipping, throughout the chain. Dude... Bro... You killed it! Bravo, good sir.👏🏼 Bravo.👏🏼
Excellent, and super helpful demonstration and EXPLANATION.
Quick and CLEAR and easy to understand.
Very well done.
😎👍👍
I am always delighted to see pro guys use Xotic pedals in these demos…..they are rarely “in vogue” but so many pro players use them for reasons Rhett has shown us SO clearly! I have got to the point where I use nothing else but Xotic for boost / gain! Super Sweet into RC, BB for heavier stuff with Gain rolled way back, and an EP at the end for solo boosts. Magical into a Vox AC amp 😎😍😎
i agree with rhett in terms of the tone he gets from a boost instead of an overdrive. but for live situations using a boost pedal also adds alot of volume to your amp, which is not desirable if you want a level volume between your clean sound and your overdriven sound. I would take his advice and use a boost instead of an overdrive if I didnt run into this issue but I tend to use my boost ontop of my overdrive for leads only.
Good point. Boost can change the volume drasticly in relation to the clean tone. I’m using a precision drive with a little bit of distortion and volume at unity, into a really moderated distorted amp, just a bit after the breakpoint. Sounds good, and I can get nice clean tones just playing softly.
Love this idea of boost vs overdrive vs amp. That Supro sounds soooo good!!
If anyone is interested in trying some boosts and is willing to install the circuit boards (pots included) into an enclosure, I’ve got loads of boost-type circuits stacked up in my ever-growing stock of effects pedal builds. I’ve built all kinds of boosts, from treble to full range, jfet, mosfet, IC and so on, as preamp, straight boost, and all things in between. Most, if not all, get the job more than done and add lots of snap to your signal. If needed I can throw them into an enclosure for you, but I know I’ll be less inclined to open the flood gates if it means I must drill the enclosures to house a million circuits. What Rhett says is true when it comes to boosts, and since I can’t possibly use all the circuits I’ve built, I figured I’d give the generosity route a go. Otherwise, I just have to put them on heavy rotation and/or use them as boosts in multi-effect pedals in the future. Aloha, D 🤙
That is very generous of you. I am interested in building them as well, I just dont have the time, nor do I have a tube amp; I play at church directly into the sound system. What type of amp are you using?
@@danielmiller2886 Aloha, Daniel. I mainly use my Princeton to test my circuits. Sometimes my Champ, or non-tube amps like a Katana, various old Guyatone solid states, etc. But I typically go for the tubes. The good news is that there are a lot of good quality boosts available for relatively cheap. If you are really looking to tinker but lack the time, you might consider using a breadboard to build prototypes directly from schematic. It takes very little time, once you get the hang of it, and parts/components are fairly inexpensive. Hopefully you can get around to it eventually. It is good fun (though not without its frustrations) and opens up a world of new circuits. If you do get into it and want some recommendations, feel free to hit me up. I’ll try to help. ✌️🙏🤙
I'm gonna use these ideas with my modeler, the information here is valuable to any and every guitar player 🙌🏽
I totally agree on the boost pedal - my 'secret weapon' pedal is my Echplex Pre-amp pedal which is what people like Jimmy Page and Jeff Beck used back in the 70's (they used an echoplex delay which had the preamp built in) and my lord, what it did to my tone was amazing its now an 'always on' pedal and i just use my volume/dynamics to control gain - I use a Marshall Silver Jubilee and the combination is amazing! Boost pedals all the way...
I’m preferring boosts over drive I have an EP Boost, been tinkering with a tube screamer as a clean boost but I think it’s gonna get pulled off the board, I also like the pre amp on my tremolo pedal the Fender tre-verb as a boost it adds sparkle to the sound really subtle.
That being said the Origin Effects revival drive compact pedals are really good.
I learned about this stuff a long time ago, thankfully. You do a better job of explaining it than anyone I've ever heard. Killin!
I really love booster pedals but as a guitarrist that mainly rely on cheaper amp simulators(tube amps aren't that cheap where I live) overdrive pedals help me so much more by bringing tone character and different voices to my sound. But if a good tube amp is available for me to play within the context of a gig or a recording, a good booster is hella good for sure. Great video as always, sir!!
That was an excellent classroom of ideas for boost and overdrive in either order . Learned a bunch as usual here and I liked your comments of playing with less gain . I recently have started backing off the gain on my drive pedals and I do get better cut in band mix as a result. Big difference !
I tend to think of “clipping” as a way to add harmonic content, changing the timbre va a boost which just changes the amplitude.
And through doing so the amp does more of the clipping.
You are making the amp ad harmonics and with a pedal it can add them. If you love your amp’s distortion (hopefully you do) then a straight boost is perfect.
If you don’t like your amp’s distortion, or just want a different type of distortion, then use an OD or distortion pedal. There’s no right or wrong, just tonnes of cool options to play with!
I have amps that I like the distortion of, so I tend to set them at the edge of breakup and just push them to varying degrees for more or less breakup.
I actually use OD pedals for this, sometimes with the gain rolled back and the volume rolled up, so that they act more like a boost. When close to amp breakup, the OD “colors” things less as well.
If I wanted to “emulate” many different guitar tones for an event band type show, I would go with a clean amp as a pedal platform, or better, a digital profiler that can sound like many different amps.
I use the Voodoo Labs Sparkle Drive which is a clean boost that mixes in a TS 808 style overdrive to the signal. Extremely versatile and tremendously underrated pedal. One time after years of heavy use the footswitch broke and I mailed it in to them and they fixed it free. Really a tough pedal not to love.
An excellent pedal.
I've started to do the same, driving the front of my amp with a boost pedal. Sounds so much better in a live mix.
nice Ten Years Gone! Such a perfect way to illustrate the effects
Prefer a clean boost. Bought a vertex and it broke down pretty quick ( used it 4 times live )…. Could be a one off problem …and get that…. but found the Twin stomp far better been buying up as many as I can …. TwinStomp have great after service too … in all fairness to vertex they said send a video of how pedal is broken but think I ll return it and buy a spare twin stomp …. Admittedly the buffering is great but I ll get pre and post buffers for my rig ..but you are so right that clean boost is essential to ‘my’ or ‘the’ sound you want
I always prefer to keep my dynamics as much as possible, without sounding harsh or too up front . The most important factor for whether I like a drive is the compression characteristics
The fine line is boosting for the desired clipping but staying within a useable volume level for your playing situation.
The Kingsley Page boost is awesome! Boost with some light clipping if desired. There’s new versions with more gain i think which are all pretty cool! Kingsley and Simon Jarrett are great!
Great video. I went ahead with the Marshall SV20 and set to the edge of breakup and hit it with boosts. It’s absolutely glorious.
Thanks for that ! Boost pedal became the missed link in my pedal chain ! And I love it now !
I prefer boost too! So helpful on solos and punches. Makes my amp's OD sound smoother and fatter. Volume knob OD control. Great vid Rhett! Thank you!
Cool little known fact.. Rhett was born in the main studio during the making of Steely Dan's album Aja. Some say he is the walking embodiment of the Band and that Album to this day..
Just Kidding Rhett, I love your channel and videos Always!
You can also put an EQ pedal in front of an overdrive to tweak how it reacts to your guitar. If your overdrive sounds a little too muddy, notching out some low mids can make a big difference.
But personally, I just don't care for the "edge of breakup" amp tone. My gain settings tend to be very "all or nothing" because I like having access to that buttery smooth super clean tone you get from amps with very high headroom, maybe with a hint of tremolo or vibrato on top.
Or get an OD pedal with built in EQ like the Marshall Jackhammer or the Guv’nor.
@@myoriginalname I'm certainly not gonna bad mouth either of those pedals, because they are fantastic. (a friend of mine used to Rock a Jackhammer and *chef's kiss*)
But the built in EQ on on the pedals is usually to sculpt the tone after it's been clipped. Whereas cutting some low mids before the OD reduces the amount that those frequencies are clipped in the first place.
That's why so many guitarists use tube screamers as their boost pedal, because the screamer pushes the upper mids, ensuring they clip first and more prominently that the rest of the frequency range. (it's also why tube screamers can sound nasal if your tone doesn't actually have any low end problems)
But hey, tone is a balancing act. There's no wrong options, just undesirable results.
@Pinned Commentyeah that's it, all the jazz, country & rock players that make up the majority of rhetts viewers should just play a 7 seven string & that's your advice for great tone
@@myoriginalnameparametric EQ in a drive circuit is a completely different animal compared with an actual graphic EQ before or after the drive.... 👍
Thanks Rhett. This video was truly inspiring. After watching it I was able to dial in a "better" distortion than I thought was possible on my rig. I have old school setup with a chain of pedals that makes most people laugh. And a slo by wampler with a boost. Boogie F30 built in distortion is my first choice given the chance to play loud. I don't play loud anymore much. So I have been relying on a joyo uzi to get e in the neighborhood at low volumes on my clean channel.
But dialing back the gain to about 30%, adding the contour(not digging the second channel without it to be honest), adding the boost cranked to max, than adding a golden horsie, lastly adding a noise gate.
Just pure heaven to me.
Again, THANKS MAN !!!
Does your amp lack a master volume? If so, you should definitely get a JHS little black box. ($30.) I have a Peavey 6505MH head, and, before I had the little black box, it was impossible to get the tone I wanted without cranking the post gain to ear- splitting volumes. Now, I get the tone I want at the volume I want, every time, without having to add anything to the front end of the amplifier. Boom! This was still an awesome video, however. All of it rings true.
Congrats on the near half a million mark, Rhett. You certainly deserve it- you have a great, incredibly helpful channel.👍
Never thought about changing up the order of the OD & Bst pedals but makes total sense. I gotta check that out when I get my AC-30.
That just makes a whole lot of sense!
You rarely see someone who can explain what you're doing to the amp with your overdrive and boost pedals. That explanation makes me want to go to pedalboard and try out stuff with a new set of ears.
I really think this type of content is what makes the channel good.
This is a great video, very informative. The differences and similarities between boost and overdrive pedals were presented beautifully.
This is an awesome AWSEOME video. Made me realize what I like in my sound and how to achieve it. Thanks Rhett!
Killer video. to me the overdrive into boost sounded great. In terms of how it feels I'd like the more openness of it
this is my favorite channel on youtube at the moment... great job rhett! thnx :)
So true. I got completely lost on the vast sea of overdrive’s. Until I discovered the j rockett clean archer. A Klon style mid range boost.
Really digging it.✌️
Ive watched a ton of your videos. Listened to Dipped in tone. Seen you on other channels. Thank you. This video was incredibly insightful and interesting. I learned alot. I am checking out your courses . Cheers this made my day ubderstanding boosts for the tone quest Im on. Cheers G
Absolutely brilliant Rhett. I learn a lot from your vids which in and of itself is saying something seeing as I’ve been doing this now professionally for 34 years.
-Seal.
✌🏾&💜
Some of the best tones I have heard on this site. That LP, amp and boost are the perfect combination.
i saw you guys the other night opening for Willie . Wasn't expecting you guy's but walking into the show i heard Noah's voice and you guy's sound great live.
Thank you for the music.
Most OD pedals that I have or had can also be used as a clean boost - mixing and experimenting is always fun, especially for the gig rig.
Me too! Boost and saturation over boost. Currently using Farm pedals Boost of the Dead and Strymon Deco. Sold my overdrive.
Great video - and yes, you often need way less gain than you think. One thing you didn't mention is amp headroom - if you boost a Showman or a Twin Reverb or a Hiwatt DR103, it can be painfully loud with not a lot of breakup - there an overdrive may be a better choice.
I love my original Direct Drive, but am finding I only have the gain at 10-11:00 or so with volume at noon. Still trying to wrap my head around the Gristle King, which I picked up at Greg's show last week. Very different, higher gain, but sits well in the mix and pre/post boost options. But I still love my EP Boost with that midrange...
Buy an attenuator man- then you can turn it wide open to get break up, if you want- and adjust the master volume on the attenuator down as low as you want without losing breakup. This is how ppl get that edge of break up tone without having to have their amp up so loud the neighbors are phoning 911. A lot of more modern Tube amps come with either a bult in attenuator or- overdrives built in- for this very reason. If you really had to just turn it up to get breakup- a lot of tube amps would be nearly impossible to use at home.
Personally- I run the Peavey Trans-tube studio pro 112 which is a solid-state amp with mosfet clipping built in to emulate the sound of a tube amp. Mosfet transistors do the same thing as tubes- if you push them, they start clipping the signal- sounds a bit different than tubes but it's close. The amp I run has adjustable headroom- so I can dial it up so that it stops clipping unless I really push it hard- it's a 60-watt amp, or I can dial it down where it starts breaking up at relatively low volumes when I'm at home.
I use the Gristle King and almost always just use the boost into a broken up Swart AST.
Good demo, full marks also for not having the sound swimming in reverb and delay like some others do.
I have been playing through a late 70s solid state CMOS amp, with a dual od/boost (switchable order as well) pedal, and have been getting fantastic results! The experimentation is always pretty fun too!
Thanks Rhett. For guitar newbies like myself, these types of videos are super helpful.
I use boost and OD each way you described. Love the choices. 👍
Great breakdown of the two pedals and how they interact with the amp.
Good stuff. Loved how you showed how to create different tones. I don't use a boost, but do like overdrive and distortion ahead of my chorus pedals.
excellent job with the Zep.
Also depends on whether the amp is tube or solid state. If you have the amp on the verge of break up on the front end, and then hit it with a good boost, then you actually get overdrive without adding distortion because that added boost drives the tubes into a more natural gain stage.
Oh how I love tubes!!
This is why it is so common for electric guitar players to set their amplifier right at the threshold of its own OD so that you can just roll back on the volume knob to clean it up a bit, or punch in a boost and you get the amplifier’s own sweet and creamy overdriven signal if it is a good amp. This is also why tube amps are superior to solid-state ones (let the debates begin!).
You let the tube amplifier do its thing by pushing it with a stronger and hotter signal driving the amp from the preamp stage into the back end stage of the amp (6L6 and 6V6 tubes respond very well to being pushed by a boost like the one you have).
Great video. We live in a great time of music history.
Great info! I’ve revisited this video a few times now in my guitar tone journey. The only thing that sucks is I can only ‘like’ it once! 🤘
I have totally been on a boost kick. I might have picked up five in the last year. They are all a bit different and all great!
Perfect vid. And I actually purchased one of these pedals from one of your links. Thanks!
Excellent video! Led Zep sounded awesome!
I’ve fallen in love with treble booster. I’ve build it myself and it adds a ton of noise, but it does sound so good in a slightly overdriven amp.
nice.. that's why I usually use my overdrives more as boost..to shape the eq more towards mids and the "tone" of the "cut through". I love to ad a clean boost to the mix also.. like the mxr micro amp or something like that.
I like my OD with gain pretty low and volume pretty high, so it kind of works like a coloured boost.
Great vid as always!
Very cool. Never thought of adding a boost.
Rhett great class this was very informative as usual with your videos!
Thank you so much for posting this! I am going to try that. Have been searching and listening for some time now.
Going to fire up my Super Twin Reverb with a boost pedal. Maybe a diy. Decision made, no TS , no Klons.
And btw good to hear lz
I generally prefer to have an amp that I like the drive of, and then push it to get MORE of that sound.
Of course one needs multiple amps for different situations to do that. I do mostly low volume electric lead for acoustic singer songwriters at coffee house levels. So I use very low wattage amps for that. I often don’t even need a boost.
If I ended up with a higher wattage amp that is too loud to get toob distortion without endangering the front few rows, I will go with an OD.
Understanding gain staging and room acoustics really helps one to deal with most situations. Coffee shop gig with a borrowed TR, pedal into a clean amp. Low wattage amp at a jam with an enthusiastic drummer? Ad a mic, etc..
I tried with my Boss Katana 100W Head, used the on-board effects, put the clean boost instead of the screamer that I had before: boy oh boy what a killer tone. Have my gain at almost noon on both Lead and Brown channel (I play mostly high gain), and the “Drive” control of the clean boost at 10/11 o’clock. It’s very saturated, but pristine, very clear, killer tone for hard rock/heavy metal, even extreme metal. I noticed that clean boost adds a sort of “gentle compression” that give meat to the bottom end and tame the screaming highs of a high gain tone. Thank you for this advice Rhett.
Katana Head into a 1x12, I have a RG Prestige with Di Marzio X2N bridge and Di Marzio EVO neck
NOW, I understand...finally! Thank you, Rhett, for this video. I'm much better at building guitars than playing them, but trying hard to change that. You just made sense of what I've really been chasing (but not finding) in my own fledgling tone journey. Thanks from NashVegas
It’s funny, b/c I absolutely love messing around with dozens of pedals and getting lost in the GAS/how many wild sounds can I create. And a lot of that is gain based effects…boosts thru fuzzes and stacking them and all that. But when it comes down to it & im jamming and loving it…I’m usually just playing an amp cranked on its own or 1 simple boost or light overdrive pedal.
Love it and for as much fun as it is to mess around with 6+ pedals…I lays seem to come back to a cooking amp and something simple to push it a bit. Lol who knows?
Great vid & that Lester is stunning 😍
Really informative video Rhett. I’m currently building up my pedal board, and this had helped a lot!
Super interesting video! Thanks for putting this together.
the « less drive is more » thing is absolutely true, but sometimes, pushing an amp that is already at full gain and full volume a bit further (a lot) will make you discover territories of tones that you would have never heard before. A boost at full volume in front of a tweed deluxe which is already at full volume will make it sound like it’s falling apart in the best way possible (think « Hey Hey My My (Into the Black) » by Neil Young, absolutely killer tone) :)
Excellent presentation of what can be a confusing subject.
Easily digestible, and straightforward.
Sorry I missed you at the Ohio State Fair w/Willie Nelson.
Couldn't make it.
Hope you had a great show!
that was and outstanding overview of these 2 types of pedals and their interplay with a tube amp. truly. thank you. awesome teaching and instruction. i wonder how many players are like me, though, who use digital amps (Boss katana, etc) becuz of their price point and there bedroom volume capabilities, and therefore the most enjoyable aspects of these pedals within that realm.
Thanks for the advice. I just got the Exotic boost cause of this. I use it in conjuction with a tube screamer (I know, they are evil in your eyes...dont worry, I just ordered the JHS pedal). Even with the TS doing this sounds great. Far better than the overdive channels on my Marshall DSL. Thanks again.
Absolutely nailed it Brett! Superb discussion and showcase of different boost and overdrive options!
The old Seymour Duncan pickup booster is like my favorite pedal ever…..
Solid content. Really dig your explanations
I got the zio and the dynamic range and presence it added to my strat on the neck pickup is wild.
Great video and explanation Rhett!
Same. Boosted break up is so smooth.
All the leading RUclipsrs have done their videos on boost-OD-gain stacking… but here, Martha Stewart of guitar has pulled off the ultimate demo. This is the definitive explanation on this subject. Perfectly and simply explained, succinctly demoed with the appropriate guitar parts to accompany the sounds demoed. Kudos! Pedal Show: you’re good, but you better get cracking to top this. Long-winded really hurts them. Shuck licks and then over-complicating, speaking in complicated lingo hurts most of the these guys. Notice how Male Martha Stewart makes an effort to play musical parts. He plays a healthy blend of riffs, open chords, power chords, leads, rarely wanking those godawful pointless staccato, stuttering shuck licks that predominate most demos. You know what I’m talkin about.
I use my Boss SD1 Super overdrive pedal ( on my Blackheart 1 channel amp ) as a Boost with almost no gain & max volume ! Awesome tone !
Really really great video bro. Super helpful
Excellent content man! Great explanation and damn good riffing like always!
Cheers Brett, good topic!! 🍻