Stacking overdrive pedals: tips?

[JakeK]

After two years of no new pedals, I just picked up a Way Huge Red Llama overdrive pedal and love the amount of gain and drive it has. There is no loss of low end and plenty of note definition, too. The Tube Screamer is now being used for solo boost, but I can't seem to stack the drives together without getting the dreaded horrible howling/squealing feedback.

Does anyone have tips on how to stack (all types of) overdrives together to get a nice raunchy sound without getting howl or squeal? Yes, I've searched in Google, but I was hoping to find out what works best for you all.

[sloop_john_b]

IMO there is no magic pedal sequence that will solve your problem. It's a technique thing; i.e., stomping the pedal on exactly the beat you need it and shutting it off as soon as you're done; learning to work your guitars volume knob while you're letting notes decay; not being turned towards the amp unless you're trying to coax it. If your guitar has microphonic pickups, you have to be extra vigilant and even then there's little you can do.

[whojamfan]

The whole pedal stacking rage is pretty much a big internet myth on a few other forums. Unless you are setting one fairly clean after the dirty one, and as a boost for a solo per se, 99 out of a hundred times you end up with squealing mud and loss of your guitars personality. I have tried it with a boatload of pedals with bad results every time. Even pedals like the GT-500 from Fulltone which is a boost and distortion in one pedal, made my guitar sound like useless garbage. Using one clean boost like a Timmy or a slightly dirty one like an EP Booster worked well for solos, but stunk for leaving on all the time as a base sound. I'm sure some folks have different experiences, but in all my pedal junkie years, the whole stacking thing just sounded like lo fi noise, even the 400 dollar worlds best handmade by Tibetan Monks from Germanium transistors foun in Eric Claptons guitar case from 1968-haha

[8mileshigher]

but in all my pedal junkie years, the whole stacking thing just sounded like lo fi noise, even the 400 dollar worlds best handmade by Tibetan Monks from Germanium transistors found in Eric Claptons guitar case from 1968-haha

[whojamfan]

Does anyone have tips on how to stack (all types of) overdrives together to get a nice raunchy sound without getting howl or squeal?

You can get more "raunch" out of your technique than any pedal will ever get you. Kieth Richards and Billy Gibbons are two rock staples that get their signature raunch from HOW they pick and play their strings, and these are basically turned up tube amps with less gain than your standard distortion pedal gives you, and done back in the days when you had a small handfull of pedals, most of them fuzz left over from the 60s.

If you want an interesting pedal-go buy a Digitech DF-7 distortion factory. They are like 50 bucks used and have 7 different distortion modes in them. If you want that "been drinkin moonshine all night and woke up face first in the toilet" tone, it's there, as well as the "slashed my speakers" sound and the crybabies of Grunge greatest hits, as well those early Black Flag and now Off kinda tones. Cheap pedal, and gets about as raunchy as a rat sandwich if you want it to

[Chrome Aardvark]

Put the Tube Screamer first and play round with the tone and volume/level knobs until you get the results you desire. If you're using the Tube Screamer as a boost, then you don't want to drive it too much. Mine sits in front of a Big Muff and is set at Drive: 1 O'clock, Tone and Level: 12 O'clock.