Hi Dan & Mick, Almost 2 years ago I suffered a significant concussion and whiplash injury that had a serious impact on my vision, balance, equilibrium, and damaged my pituitary function. This left me a shut-in who couldn't read or watch TV. I was left dealing with nausea, migraines, and head fog on a daily basis. I could only leave the house for short bursts before I was overwhelmed with symptoms. I could only listen to audiobooks, podcasts to stem the boredom. As my vision improved slightly I stumbled upon TPS, and found I could listen to you guys all day long. The side effect was that along the way you reignited my passion for the guitar in general and pedals in particular. I'm not yet fully recovered, but I'm finally on the right path with vision therapy, vestibular rehab, PRP injections, physio and weekly hormone injections. Just wanted to say a humble thank-you for what you do. Your joyful enthusiasm for the guitar went a long way to keep my spirits high on my long journey back to the light. Bless you, boys!
The healing power of some friendly voices and music is magical. So glad to hear you are on the mend and back on track. You have a strong spirit. Keep going! :)
There! All those viewers that think your shows are too long or “rehashing old topics” needs to be aware there are people that enjoy every minute of TPS. Thanks for your therapeutic value.
Boost into an overdrive: Blues Driver. Boost after an overdrive: Blues Driver Boost to shape tone: Blues Driver Boost to go underdrive: Blues Driver Drive: Blues Driver 5 Blues Drivers should do the trick.
You forgot splitting the signal to run 5 blues drivers in parallel. So 10 blues drivers in front of the amp and 4 in the loop and your good. Boss should copy TC an create the blues driver x14 with stereo signal path.
what you always have to remember ( in the immortal words of a man taken much too soon) that 'Ariel, that Joey, that JOSH, heck that Jimi " He's not the Messiah. He's a very naughty boy.
Now we are talking! That intro. That's my kinda tone. Love it! Got a Bad bob, Zvex SHO, Skreddy Hybrid Fuzzdriver...yeah baby. Had a SHO for 15 years. It's special because its a boost and a sonic maximizer in one effectively. It strips away the odd order harmonics with it's negative feedback loop. Cleans up your guitar tone before you bring in the gain. It's fabulous!
My favorite boost to use as an underdriver AND boost into OD: Empress Para EQ! I have mine set to attenuate different frequencies, so all the EQ is reduction, plus a -6dB input pad. Then the boost side can go wayyy over the top, giving me "on and quiet," "off and medium," "on with boost and loud." All this into a Greer Lightspeed works like magic.
The boost in the Para EQ is amazing. If you like the amp distortion already it just takes it to 11. I have mine after all other gain stages and into rhe Empress Tape Delay...which has it's own boost but not sure it is the same as in rhe Para EQ.
The Empress ParaEQ is a "secret weapon" in my opinion for all the reasons you stated above Rob. Plus, being on my board for both acoustic and electric applications it makes it easy to tame any feedback acoustics sometimes incur. A really great pedal that gets overlooked for all the other fancy stuff!
@@markedwards7721 No. They say "game". Just sounds like "gain" to you. Also, what was really the point of your comment other than to announce that you're racist and weird?
Dan made the point, but I'll reiterate it. In a band, with say a drummer and bassist thumping along, many (most?) of the lovelier tones presented here would dissolve away. But the Beano, which didn't sound that great alone, would shine when used properly. So the context is just as important as the pedal/amp use concepts you've outlined. I think this may explain why more than a few guitarists find pedals so frustrating.
So true. But the caveat that it was all good for “bedroom noodling” was made early on. You have to train your ears when listening for “good tone” to consider the context it’s heard in. Lots of pedals seem to be produced to mimic a certain well known sound or other in isolation. Does this spur you to play the instrument (your guitar and amp) more creatively? YMMV. Interesting that many of the iconic effect pedals were effectively “misused” by guitarists who transcended their intended sound to create new musical tones. Maestro Fuzz to sound like a saxophone, anyone?
Boost into effects loop is the best. Got a Talisman with the boost at 12 ’o clock and reverb set super low/subtle, it’s become a mainstay. Makes stuff sound the way it’s “supposed to”. Doesn’t really add gain, so much as it adds “balls”. If anything, it’s un-compressing the signal and opening things up. Excited to try out some more power amp boosting ideas now.
Nice. Boosts are so good. I find myself using fewer ODs since I got a Power Station, because I can run my amps hotter and get most of my drive from the power tubes, but I always have at least a couple of boost pedals to shape the tone and to give me more control over the amp's drive. And a treble booster into an overdriving amp is such a great sound, especially in a live band mix.
I am excited to watch this. You guys keep giving me fresh ideas of how to use my pedalboard. It's almost like looking at the board as an additional instrument, which I never used to do.
Under-driving is also really cool with other pedals that have a "master volume". Most vibe and tremolo pedals have this. So you can put them before gain and get a cleaner sound when using the effect. Thanks for a great show as always :)
My favourite boost is when Mick says something insightfully philosophical while ripping up and down the fretboard without even looking at the guitar. That always gives me a lift. And Dan's exclamations of joy (current #1 "Thrust me, baby!") boost my mood no end.
I'd add string gauges to that discussion. After watching Rick Beato's vid on string gauges I've changed both strings (8's) and action (lower) and I'm over-the-moon happy with the results.
My "always-on" tone is a comp & two boosts. Been using that setup for years and people called me crazy! The joke is on them now, TPS stamp of approval :D The second boost is more like "almost always-on" - it's for changing guitars/pups.
I was sad that you didn’t show all the power of the Fire Bottle at single coils. It is a game changer in tone in cleans sound in any volume range (in my opinion 😆). You guys have a such great show by the way! Keep going!
I used the Super Hard On as an always on pedal for atleast 10 years. Not only does it sound wonderful, it also cleans up the whole signal path dramatically, because of its great buffer. I needed that. I ran around on large stages, while using 10 or 12 meter long cables (!!!), 'cause I didn't want to use a wireless system. I don't even remember why I bought it. I just did. I switched it on, it blew me away and I never switched it back off again.
That episode could have gone on another hour. “10 ways” is such a brilliant series for so many different types of players at almost any level to learn something new or think through another approach to something they do often. Please keep these coming 🖤
I bought my first boost thinking I would use it for solos but I always missed it when it was off, so now it's always on for me! Just sweetens everything up without changing things drastically
Yup, EP Booster is just a fantastic “make everything sound way better” pedal. I don’t think I play without it. It works on both my strat and my humbucker guitars. It’s just all around good.
Nice to see an Effectrode pedal on the board. Funny, just before I saw it, I was thinking that I sometimes use my Tube Vibe with the intensity turned down as a boost pedal. P.S. Much love to Phil and his lovely wife, who offer the best customer service I have come across yet. I phoned them a while ago for help and his wife answered the phone, she was so friendly and helpful.
Points 1-4 are exactly what I do (yay confirmation bias!). The first pedal in my chain is a Bad Bob, which is off most of the time. The always-on pedal is a Strymon Deco, which is highly underrated as a light boost/crunch pedal (Saturation at 1:00, Volume at just above unity, usually pointed at the "A" in Saturation). When I need a bit more overdrive, the Bad Bob at 10:00 pushes the Strymon into heavier overdrive with just a bit of volume boost. Both pedals are ahead of an always-on Bearfoot Pale Green Compressor set to light compression & output just a hair above unity.When I need a lead tone, I turn the Deco OFF. The Bad Bob into the Bearfoot bypasses the compression of the Decco and hits the amp significantly harder, the Bearfoot catching the spiky transients. It's glorious.
These last two episodes have been really helpful even though you’ve done them before. The basics can be covered over and over again, especially given that there’s a seemingly endless supply of new gear. Thanks so much!
I still love the old Catalinbread boosts that I have. The Serrano boost and the sagrado pablano stout boost can do wonders. From that "more" pedal, to pushing an amp or other gain pedal. Really like those, and they're what got Catalinbread on my radar years ago
What a fabulous episode - I love stacking boosts and drives for texture and feel, and now you’ve given me even more new things to try. Thank you so much - yet again. 😁
Guys, I have to say that 2020 has thus far heard great things from TPS. I feel like you have continued to improve and refine the channel's output whilst still remaining true to why you started it all. From someone who you continue to inspire and make laugh, thanks once again.
Another on point one. Gain stage stacking is probably the big thing I've learned from TPS. And that covers what you're putting into what. Madam. In other words, how your choice of amp can be enhanced, but also what it can't deal with.
I recently got an axe fx3, and I couldn’t recommend it more to people. I’ve been selling off all my pedals, and it’s so damn freeing I can’t even tell you. The time suck of wiring pedal boards and looking at pedals so often and the money suck of buying them all gone in the best $2k I’ve ever spent. Instead of fooling around with boards and looking into pedals and trying to make them sound better, I’m playing guitar. Hundreds of amps in one place, every effect you could want, all of which sounds amazing. Entire rigs switched over with the push of a button. If you’re big into pedals, cool, whatever floats your boat. But to anyone thinking about doing it, totally do it. It’s so liberating I can’t even begin to overstate how great it’s been to leave the pedal world behind. 🤘🏻🎸
That Pedal Show exactly, for some it’s pedals, and that’s awesome, and for some it isn’t. Just trying to help out my fellow guitar players who may be frustrated with the pedal routine by sharing my experience 🤘🏻🎸
“Is there any way of losing that horrific treble?” Here I was thinking. That sounded amazing. Funny how deeply subjective taste in tone is. So many of my biggest influences have extremely bright guitar tones. D Boon, Steve Albini, Billy Bragg, Paul Weller, Carl Barat etc.
Ha! Indeed. Hearing it back, it was way more harsh in the room. I think Fraser may have tamed some high end on this whole mix. Me too for what it’s worth - thought it sounded great in the vid!
Even though I use a multi-fx unit, I still gain useful strategies from TPS - eg. the section about using the EP boost into the EP compressor for a better clean feel is something I will experiment with. 👍
One of my favorite things to do lately is to stack an Ep Booster into a Greer Lightspeed into a Tumnus, all with very little gain, but with the levels all above unity. It is sooooo touch sensitive, and gives a great feel especially when rolling off the volume knob on your guitar. Its fantastic.
Looking forward to watching this! Incidentally, two best boosts I've ever had are the preamp in the Fulltone Tube TTE and the preamp in the Effectrode TubeVibe. Effect turned completely off. Then both function as a pure clean boost but they just have that extra magic :)
johnny bwinger Those pedals that just make everything better just for being in the signal chain are my favorite. The Solo Dallas pedal is like that, and so is the EP pre-amp (although not the Xotic EP-Booster).
I just bought a Hot Rod Deluxe IV and have been struggling with it a bit. I also found it to be very spiky and had this nasally mid-range honk that couldn't be dialed out. The amp just felt sterile and lifeless. I started to roll some tubes and found a 12AT7 in V3 for the phase inverter helped tame some of the huge spikes. The mid-range honk was still present and it was still slightly too spiky for my liking. I took the back cover off and checked the bias of the power tubes. Turns out Fender just sets the bias of these amps to 60mA and ships them out. From my calculations, that was only about 40% plate dissipation. That is just way too cold for any amp. I calculated for 60%, which was about 86mA. Turned up the bias pot to that setting and the amp came to life. It sounded warmer, had better dynamics, the high-end spikes were tamed, and the nasty mid honk was gone. Literally everything I thought was wrong with it was fixed. It was like a completely different amp than it was when I first got it home. Cleans sounded lovely like a proper Fender should. I would highly recommend you guys turn that bias knob up so the tubes can work properly. It's actually a very enjoyable amp to play through now. I never understood why Fender set them up so coldly. It definitely sounds like how it was meant to sound when biased correctly.
Well that's strange: my HRD IV has way too much low-end... sounds like a bass If I want it to. No problems with the mid-range, no spiky treble.... How can we share about gear if we all have opposite experiences with the same pieces of gear? Ha, that's a topic for a new TPS episode!
Hey Rydock, you are spot on. I am a Certified Fender Amplifier Technician. When a coworker called fender and asked about this and "correcting" the bias, we were told it would void the warranty. It is however a very popular modification most make post-warranty phase. Fender says they designed it that way for a reason, and I suspect it has to do more with making it through the 90day warranty for tubes than tone. Cheers!
This is probably one of the best collections of pedals and amps for a variety of budgets. I am most surprised in how subtle the differences in boost tone are, but makes absolute sense. All boost for the most part are just increasing volume all your tone shaping is before and/or after the boost. Cheers guys and thanks for the show.
Man compressor + EP booster just WORKS for clean tones. Specially with the internal trimpots, you can really get a bitier or fatter clean tone. I love it!
Regarding boost you didn’t know you had. The Blues Driver can clean boost with the drive turned all the way down and the tone control allows for treble tuning. This is not an uncommon feature on overdrives. The Tubescremer’s frequent use as a “low/no gain mid boost” being a notable example. As a callback to last weeks show, some customized fuzz face circuits like the MXR Variac which is capable of higher than “normal” headroom can be set up for a fantastic slightly dirty boost with the fuzz set full ccw and the voltage set full cw to 15V. Photocell univibes like the Deja Vibe when set to vibrato mode with the intensity turned all the way down can add very nice warm boost; the Dunlop FET based version can boost too. The Echoplex preamp which the EP booster is based while technically a “full frequency” boost does add some subtle compression and a slight treble roll off which is a big part of what makes it so musical. The MXR Mini Boost is based on the EP Boost concept but allows for the treble to be further adjusted to suit and thus makes for a superb line driver where cable capacitance is a concern. I’d love to see someone make a full featured preamp based on the Echoplex design with treble, mid and bass controls bookended by EP circuits allowing the ability to gain stage within the pedal and throw in an effects loop just for kicks.
Great show and a very timely topic - a subject matter that I’ve been struggling with even after playing guitar for many, many years. I currently get all of my gain from my pedals, using a Greer Lightspeed for medium gain and an Angry Charlie for my high gain. I wanted to add a boost so I could lift the volume of my guitar solos over the mix (without relying on a soundman). I recently added a Suhr Koko Boost Reloaded BEFORE the Lightspeed (added gain & volume) and AFTER the Angry Charlie (added volume). The G2 made this super simple! Additionally, I was able to use the pre-gain & post-gain features of the G2 to further refine those volume levels. Sounds amazing - and works perfectly! 🎸
Another gem, thank you! I've been using tip #1 for ages and have the whole time appreciated that the pedal that makes the tone bloom is the least expensive item on the board.
Got super excited to hear the Storm, which was brilliant. Also loved the Supa-Boost, which reminded me of my beloved Moog Boost with more EQ-shaping potential. The Moog is cool because you could use an expression pedal as a solo-boost for an always-on option.
I've discovered the trick where I put a volume control in the effects loop of my Hot Rod Deluxe. Totally tames it down and you can blast that preamp and get some compression
Exists as a product... JHS Little Black Amp Box, or Carl's Effects Original Volume Box Guitar Amp Attenuator, or even a Donner EMO-AMP Controller Signal Converter... etc
30:40 I use a similar trick with 'un-boosting' a overdrive, but I use a compressor. My Catalinbread DLS is set up to sound like a breaking up Marshall, but I can turn the compressor on (set below unity gain, mild compression, blend at 50%) and turn the DLS into an almost clean Marshall. The trick is that compression allows maintaining a similar 'average' volume level, but without the spikes that would push that virtual Super Lead into the dirt territory, yet still achieving what ends up sounding like valve saturation.
The big trick in the early plexi days was to use a treble booster. This didn’t just boost the input level but added more treble frequencies, which in itself caused more gain in the first preamp stage of a tube amp . It didn’t actually sound that much more trebly at all in most cases
I love the way Dan closes his eyes and sort of savours the guitar sounds whatever they're like, and usually says something like "that's amazing!". I seriously think if I plugged a guitar into an AC30, turned it up flat out and then kicked the whole lot down the stairs he'd say..."that was awesome!".
Well, yet again boys you’ve completely blown my mind with subject material that, on first reading the episode title, I thought would be dull; I could not have been more wrong! Wow, that that bloody fascinating. It also managed to piece together lots of other bits of knowledge that I’ve picked up from watching your show and just kinda bring it all together 👍 Brilliant. Thank you ever so much. You guys are a real gold mine of information I’ve wanted to know for years but never known the right questions to ask or where to start to get there. Cheers guys
I have a deluxe and the volume is unbelievable. I use it for church, unmiced, and 2 is plenty enough, but it’s definitely one of the best pedal platforms.
Great show guys. I am putting a strat specific 5 pedal mini board together and I wanted to include the EP and the SP, and I've been going back and forth on where to put the EP in the order. I learned something new today, thanks Mick, definitely going with the EP in front of the SP, thats why I tune in every week. Top Notch.
Good show. I use my boost (em-drive) to lift me a bit closer to unity with my next gain stage so when I go from clean to OD it doesn't scare anyone. I find my OD pedals come alive at a certain volume. I also use a Klon clone (ryra) for my clean, cut-through-mix sound, and as a solo boost after my ODs.
I have the D&M-Drive from Keeley. Mick, your are my solo-boost. Last in the OD-chain, sweet midrange presence. Mad Professor Forest Green Compressor -> Boss Angry Driver (Mostly using the BD) -> D&M. Then into a Walrus Defcon 4 for further tone-shaping before entrering the realm of delays and tremolo (Walrus Arp-87 and Monument). The glory of gain-stacking, indeed. Thanks for the show!
I learned something this weekend - don’t ever, ever, ever discount the effectiveness of compression. Like many of us I grew up playing crappy amps with zero dynamic range (or sounded terrible on the transients), so I wrote off compression as unnecessary unless you play country. I also had a Rockman briefly which is ALL compression and it sounds terrible. But I discovered something after watching this video - compression applied correctly can actually *correct* your tone. I’ve been struggling to get that “big 60’s Marshall in meltdown” sound (Cream, JHE, etc) with pedals but something was always missing. Finally stumbled on it - at that insane volume there was a LOT of compression happening which altered the character of the overdrive. You can’t replicate that at small stage volume without adding extra compression. Thanks again D & M - every time I think I know pretty much everything I need to, they prove me wrong!
I simply use a 10 band EQ instead of a boost (like the EP boost) The EQ, does exactly the same thing- plus I can easily tweak the amount of low/high added using the sliders instead of internal dip switches. Yes, I A/B'd against an EP boost- identical result. Bigger, yes, but not a problem for me-
Doesn’t do //exactly// the same thing because, depending on the EQ, the boost will be achieved in a different way. But very similar, yes, quite probably. Cheers!
@@ThatPedalShow Well, of course, depending on how you set the EQ level and frequency. Given, the EP booster (and similar clones) will add +3db highs and lows depending on the DIP switches.- What I did is A/B'd against my a regular EP boost pedal, and set the EQ's selected high and low frequencies at about +3db gain- couldn't tell any difference whatsoever, and I listened very carefully. The advantage of the EQ pedal is that you can pick and choose what frequencies you would like to tweak, whereas the plain boost, you are pretty much stuck with the internal preset frequencies. The EQ allows for wide flexibility in frequency tailoring and amount. That being said, if the EQ pedal doesn't allow 18volt power, the EP booster (at 18v) will give you a little more headroom. And of course, if your pedal board space is limited, the EQ will take up a smidgen more room. Thanks- Neil
I’ve just adopted point #1, replacing an always-on buffer with a mostly-on Chase Tone Secret Preamp. I had no idea how artificial the top end of the buffer sounded until I made the switch.
In the mid 80's when we didn't have all this fancy **** you kids have today (nor did I have any money to buy pedals) my pedal board consisted of a Boss CE-2 chorus, Boss GE-7 EQ and an Ibanez Tube Screamer... the one with the square footswitch. EQ into Screamer into Chorus (I think. it was a long time ago). I had a Music Man HD 130 2-12 (cleaner than Mother Theresa and loud as sin) amp. I remember setting the EQ pedal peaked at 800 hz sloping down from both sides to unity, and that was my solo boost. It worked at the time. The point being that no matter how loud your amp is, (and our stage volume was god awful loud) in a live club scenario, a mid to high mid boost will always cut through better than a full range boost. You don't need anything below 100hz or anything above 4khz to solo.
once more need to express my gratitude! ESPECIALLY this fantastic outlinig you did on the actual content WITH all the links in the description!!! THAT was a work in itself i quess? THAT is worth a lot!!! my warm thanks to the guy who did that! i guess you´re just a great team at TPS^^!
Being a long-time follower of TPS, most of the 10 ways were known to me - but still very enjoyable. For an 11th way - I personally use a boost in my wet-dry setup to level out the volume difference between the dry and wet amp, which has more headroom than the dry, and as such will be significantly louder when boosted by drive pedals.
Great episode, Lads. An approach I use I use is to always have my Origin Effects Cali 76 Deluxe on going into my Mad Professor Simble PreDriver. It provides me just enough "give" so the feel is there and the Simble gives a beautiful base tone that I can stack almost any overdrive on top and have lovely control. I love the FX loop boost idea. Gotta try that.
Very nice! Cali 76 and Simble. Wonderful! Just as a suggestion, try them the other way around with a bit of clean blend on the Cali... try it. Mick here. :0)
Great show guys! Thanks to this I found out that my tremolo pedal is also an excellent boost pedal, if I turn everything down and just have the pedal on! Need to buy another tremolo pedal now!
Best show I've seen from you guys in a while! Love boosting an amp. Best way to get more from an amp. I use a Wampler Tumnus for boosting a Carr Slant 6v and Artemus. Amazing unique tones
Just watched this again. What it proved to me is that for someone who is 80% a tele guy, the right compliment to that might be a guitar with filtertrons.
Such an inspiring 54 minutes. I play a Roland JC40 as it is sufficiently loud for playing in a band but also portable enough to lug around on trains/underground/buses for someone who doesn't drive. However, I find with a Telecaster (MIJ Jerry Donahue 5 way switching) it can all be painfully bright - to the point I'm regularly turning down the tone nob and having amp settings for treble at 2 or 3. I think your 7th idea with compression and boost utilising FX loop will definitely be worth trying out ... yet more rearranging of the pedal board to go! Thank you again for all endless manners of ideas to play around with!
This channel has helped me so much, for years I’ve been trying to get my gear sounding the way I wanted it 2 but after watching this channel I couldn’t be happier with my sound. Thanks dan and mick 👍🏽
Also, much to your chagrin, I used to run an old DOD 500 series compressor (the big orange label one, 18 volt) with the comp on about 3 and the output way up into a Peavey Stereo Chorus 400 solid state amp with the pre set just a tad dirty. Clean channel set clean. Channel switching. The output of the DOD overdrove the ss pre and it sounded good! Scorpion speakers, 2x12, was not bad. There’s an amp I’ll never see on here! That pedal was pretty cool, though. Ended up selling it for more than I paid for it new. Good times!
Dan and Mick, just wanted to say you guys are great. I love Fridays for many reasons and TPS just rounds it off! I've learned so much, not least, that I need more pedals lol
