I got an email yesterday asking me what I thought about doubling up on overdrive pedals and if that was ok to do. I think I’ll answer it in a more broad sense. When its time to play a solo or a line that needs to jump out what do you do? Lets think about some other things with that. Do you want it to jump in volume only? Drive level increase? How about a mid bump or high frequency increase?
Lets talk about a few of the options starting with the question I got.
Double overdrive/Distortion:
There are a lot of guys that do something like this because when their solo jumps out they want the overdrive level to increase. They want the drive level as well as the volume to increase. For instance I have a friend that uses a Fulltone Full-Drive as his main sound and then uses a Keeley TS-9 for solos. This is a good option but the rookie mistake here is to use both pedals with the drive up which makes the tone muddy and forces the sound guy to reach for your guitar level and pull it down. If you want to take this option you usually want to pull the drive most of the way down on the second pedal and push it with the volume. This is really nice with a tube amp because you can get a bit more grit out of the tubes that way as well.
Clean Boost/ Power Boost/ Boost
This is also a great option for guys who want to keep a consistent tone but want to push the overall volume and maybe even push the tubes in the amp a little bit. Some guys like to be all over the map with different types of distortions and levels and such--- other guys like to have one staple drive tone they use and boost it.
Channel switch with pedal
The primary drive sound that most people like to hear is actually the tubes breaking up and not a pedal. Tubes have the most natural sounding overdrive and so it sounds great to have a overdrive channel on a tube amp and boost it with a pedal. In this case either of the first two options will work depending on what you want.
Volume knob
Here is the old school way roll. You’ve got your amp cranked to a place that it’s distorting nicely with your volume knob on the guitar rolled back a few notches. Its time for a solo and you roll the knob forward which increases volume and a bit of drive at the same time. This is a great way if you can get used to having a stable place to move back and forth.
---- Side note on this! Most modern pickups have been over wound to produce more out put volume and have sacrificed tone in doing so. Some of the best sounds I’ve gotten have been by turning the amp up and the guitar down. This warms up the tone and gives you somewhere to roll up to for solos where it can be a bit more aggressive.
Treble boost/ Mid boost/ ect
Back in the 70’s this guitarist (you may have heard of) named Brian May started using a treble boost for solos. Few guys I’ve heard have done it well but sometimes its nice to not just jump out with drive and volume but also with frequencies that can cut through the mix and help you be heard. There is another called a germanium boost which gives a nice bump to the mids, which a good place for a guitar solo to jump out since those are the primary frequency covered by a guitar.
Higher output pickup
The last is worth mentioning. Some guys will have their amps and pedals set but use different levels on their pickups. (More of a Gibson thing) Then they will switch pickups to create the illusion of turning on an overdrive pedal. I saw Jimmy Page do that in the movie “It Might Get Loud.” He had the front pickup turned down and played a riff on it before switching to the other pickup, which was cranked for some killer lead riffs. Other guys will actually have a lower and higher output pickup they switch between for lead tones.
And lastly… some guys play light…. And then just dig in when its time to scream.
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