Overdrive experience with 330s with toasters

[whojamfan]

The Walrus Audio Mayflower is starting to really grow on me, and no piggy squeal! I just really need a chance to check this stuff out at band levels to really be able to tell.

[Hotzenplotz]

I like it old school:

Amp: AC 30 (VR) or AC4C1 with a 12" greenbacked VOX cab (actually preferred combination)

Compressor: Marshall ED-1 ("Ed the compressor")

That's all!!!

Even this configuration offers four different access points to create a real (tube) overdrive:
1. the guitars pots
2. the compressor's output
3. the preamp level
4. the power stage (master volume)


The level pot of the compressor is very good to blow at the preamp's tube.
The gain/ volume pot of the amp do the rest. I love a nice, smooth break up most.


Have a close look at the guitars pots, too! It is a good start to open the guitars pots (volume - and tone!) only about 60-70 %. (Fully open tone and volume sound a bit shrill to my ears.)
To use the guitars dial's is a very often unused option to create a nice sound.

Look here what Brian May explains about that. It helped me much:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nnDr-90moxc

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ttwveIDkNiE


Btw. I use TI flats, that makes the old school tone perfect. IMHO toasters need flats badly.



- Did I took You right this way?

[electrofaro]

To use the guitars dial's is a very often unused option to create a nice sound.

I've always had the feeling that with most Rickenbacker players it's "open all knobs fully and play clean", or even if they don't want to play clean they never look at the knobs! Good tip, Sascha!

[Hotzenplotz]

Oh boy, there is so much the guitar's pots can do for a nice sound!!!!...

A friend showed me that two years before. Unfortunately I can say that I sold amps that I really never heard!!! This "all open" is a strange thing, very much guitar players do.

Based on using a tube amp, flats and toasters try this:

Neck and bridge PU at 80% open, tone of both about 20-30% open. Treble at the amp at 2:00 to 03:00, bass at 09:00 to 10:00. The more You reduce the volume the more You open the tone now when searching the point of breakup. The toggle switch delivers three different basic sounds, the rest is the dials work.

BTW: Play with the 5th knob, too. It can be used to mix the sound in the middle position or to equalize the loudness of all positions.

Especially the VOX AC4C1 (with a 12" cab) is the perfect way to learn how they made all their sounds in the old days. It responds immediately when You change the guitar settings.

[fireglo67]

I gave up with toasters long ago. Apart from compressors, they are certainly not the 'pedal fiends' friend.
In the past I considered getting a 340 with hi gains with the intention of swapping the middle pickup for a toaster, so you sort of get the best of both worlds. But when I actually tried out a 340 I couldn't play the thing. My playing technique meant that I kept hitting the middle pickup with my guitar pick. Clack clack clack clack. Definitely not the sound I was looking for!
The quest for tone continues........

[scotty]

Clack clack clack clack. Definitely not the sound I was looking for!

It was the best youve sounded

[fireglo67]

Clack clack clack clack. Definitely not the sound I was looking for!

It was the best youve sounded

I think you might be right. Quick, someone give me a 3 pickup Ric!

[Medicus1963]

Hi,
I use the Proco Rat for Overdrive and distortion and a very odd AC30 with MusicmanSpeakers!

Very sweet tone!

Peter

[paologregorio]

The double bound models work much better with a Tube screamer. . . .

I use a Tube Screamer, a Daddy-O, or a Sparkle Drive....sometimes all of them together....sometimes on purpose, sometimes accidentally.

[JakeK]

I just picked up a Way Huge Red Llama and immediately tried it out with my '86 1997 and was mightily impressed. Lots of gain and drive, no loss of low end and plenty of note definition. As for piggy squeal or flatness, I'll let you be the judge of that, Snowman!

My Tube Screamer is being retired and only used for solo boost, but that may change too. Next drive pedal I want: a Timmy!

[BuddyDog]

Mike,

Next time we get together, I'll bring the Timmy and the Analogman Silver Maxon OD-9, so you can test drive

[Chrome Aardvark]

Tube Screamer coupled with a Big Muff. Occaisionally I'll stick a Boss OD-1 in the chain to overdrive the overdrive and go all shoegaze. I've also got a Proco Rat, but rarely use it.

[whojamfan]

Steve,

I had a Timmy-great pedal. I was using a Crowther Hotcake the other day at the Jinglebell jam. Got rid of the Mayflower, just got lost in a band. I didn't have a 330 6 string at the time, or I would never have gotten rid of the Timmy.

[whojamfan]

I have to say, if you are using a 330 with toasters, a Crowther Hotcake in the Bluesberry mode is a must have. It's the only pedal you can set where you will hear no difference between it being on or off at the lowest gain settings, and you get a nice, gradual light to medium overdrive that doesn't sound like a whispy "transparant" disappearing act or a midrange overwhelming belch. As you turn the gain up, it will go into almost a Big Muff type fuzz to an over the top deal at it's max. Really a versatile pedal that does exactly what I'm willing to bet what you want it to do through Vox tube amp. Both my AC4C1-BL and AC30 with blues really love this pedal. Works nicely with my Hiwatt as well.

OK, very important to point out before you try one and think I'm smoking crack because the pedal doesn't sound like I'm saying. The controls are very sensative, and extremely interactive with each other. You must spend some time with this pedal to figure out exactly how the controls work together. Forget the standard settings most other drives have and start with the drive all the way off and the level around 1:00 and the presence at noon. slowly bring up the gain until you findyour desired drive, be it a little "Petty" breakup or "Jam" type higher drive. Keep turning the pedal on and off to make sure your clean sound and drive sound are the around the same volume and tone, and use the presence control to fine tune the drive to match the clean, and the drive will jangle just like the clean sound without adding sgrill, feedback prone levels. DO NOT TURN THE DRIVE UP ANY HIGHER UNTILL YOU FIND THIS PROPER BALANCE I can't stress this enough, as the second you go over your dialed in overdrive, things can get ugly really fast, and not being familiar with how these controls interact with each other, will have you dismissing this as a 1 trick pony. I assure you, it is not, but you really need to spend some time with it to get the sound just right.

I just have toasters, so I can't speak for any other of the pickups you may have in your guitar. I use a Vox AC30 with Celestion Blues(which can be a treble nightmare) and this pedal works some serious magic in getting everything from a clean boost, to Petty slight to med crunch, to the Jams heaviest sounds, all the way to high fuzzy greasy stuff.

There are boatloads of drive pedals out there that over promise and under deliver. This is one of the first ones ever made, and it was designed specifically to work with AC30s. If you have a Rickenbacker with toaster pickups that you would like to have a versatile-non metal drive pedal to get great classic sounds out of, the Crowther Hotcake should be in your collection.

[wmthor]

... I was really digging the Timmy, but had to get rid of it before I got my new 330VP.
So, what's working for you folks and why

I only own two pedals, a Tim and a JangleBox.