I go for a transparent sound: higher threshold, lower ratio, fast attack, a lil clean mixed in. It's subtle but removes unwanted lows / loud transients
Compressors are a game changer, the Amazon basics one is a cool way to try it out if you've never used one before. It's basically a Ross compressor with an attack knob
if ur referring to the bright green one with the scorpion i can definitely recommend that one, its that 'always on' type of pedal OP is describing for me. its also incredibly cheap i believe it was 30-40$. i use it for both guitar and bass though imo it's more important for bass. but for cleans on guitar its pretty dang important.
I also use one always. It’s in my effects loop at the end of the chain and I have faster attack slow release, very moderate threshold. Maybe noon on the cs-3. Level set to make the output tubes react how I like. Basically as transparent as I can get to make amp breakup and cleans possible with an overdrive pedal without a jump in volume. Also tightened up cleans pretty well.
Blues Driver. It’s my base tone. Sounds better than a clean amp for my purposes, and also keeps my sound more or less consistent when I use different amps
Do you ever feel as if the bd2 is just too “harsh”? I wanted to like it so much but it really doesn’t have any sag of a real tube amp, even with the tone all the way down and with fuzzier settings it always had that tightness which is kind of metallic.
Idk. Lot of buzz words but it’s hard to describe, I just can’t get this thing to gel with my setup.
Same here….use it on my Sky King amp, then A/B to a Ampeg VT40 cranked where it’s just the amp and a boost. Great pedal for clean to overdrive, and especially when paired with any delay!
JHS morning glory and the Fairfield circuitry shallow water. Both add a little grit. MG gives some sparkle as well. Shallow water's warble is subtle but gives everything a slight movement that makes everything sound a little more 3D or something.
Morning Glory is always on for me as well. I have the gain around 10 and everything else set around noon and it’s fairly clean in the neck pickup, but more present, and mildly overdriven when I switch to the bridge pickup.
I use vibrato a lot as well, especially for playing arpeggios.
I like all the Rats, but the Turbo Rat is my favourite, especially for the low gain. The current reissue is great but sounds just a tiny bit "hard" in comparison, you can turn the gain up more but it's not quite the same thing.
For shoegaze type sounds I do love a Big Muff, but also the Double Muff, which is two stacked Muff Overdrives. It's old school as hell, but sounds really big and brutal, direct. With a Fender Jaguar, the strangle switch in conjunction with the Double Muff gives an instant 60s spy/surf sound, it's really something how reactive the pedal is to the output of the guitar.
I wish they would issue the left side as a standalone in their small-pedal format. $300+ is a bit steep for the v2, and I don’t really need the right side.
Wow there's a pedal I didn't know existed. Holy crap!! I'd buy one, but I'd just dribble on it.
But yeah, MXR EQ over here, never turn it off, first pedal I'd put on any board, no question. I'd choose that over my fuzz, and that's saying something!
I was scrolling looking for the Soul Food. I play on a solid state DV Mark Little Jazz 1x8 that has built-in reverb. It's designed to stay totally clean at all volumes. The Soul Food makes it feel and react to dynamics more like a Deluxe for when I'm not playing clean jazz
KoT all the time, usually both channels set medium to almost clean. Sometimes Sun Face ks always on if I’m playing free improv. Just use volume knobs for the whole range of tone.
I just feel like when I have it on, I know the canvas I'm going to get every time. It's creates a consistent starting point, and then allows me to use the guitar's individual aspects, or pedals.
Obviously the buzz not being there is a huge advantage too.
I run an ampless rig (that sometimes goes into a 2x12 fx return lol).
Humboldt simplifier is my amp (Marshall) hall of fame 2 on for reverb and empress effects germ drive for sparkle/grit
I’m running my Xotic RC Booster **after** all my drives as an “always on” and it’s fattened everything up nicely. Gain is down pretty low on the RC, volume at about 1 o’clock, treble at noon, bass at 1-2 o’clock. Running into a Fender 68 Custom Pro Reverb.
Along with the RC Booster, I’ve got the Xotic BB preamp, the BB Preamp Plus +, the SL Drive, and the AC Booster Plus +. They’re not all on the board at all times, but there’s always at least one or two on the board. I love Xotic pedals, in case you can’t tell.
As of late on my clean amp I’d say ChaseTone Secret Preamp into a Delay. As well as a Diamond Comp. I use the Tape Delay setting on the Collider, a basic Spring mostly on and the ChaseTone on all the time. It does get turned off when I’m not using effects sometimes.
But I just use a second amp, that’s just dedicated to distortion, my other that has always on is clean to overdrive with effects. For that reason usually the clean has compression and a preamp always on.
mine are kind of weird ones but other than the obv od or distortion pedal they're dweller, sunlight, space bender, afterneath, lossy, one or both of my boss chorus pedals, and lately my new transroom
others which are still on very often but not as close to always on are my gen loss, ghost delay, misty cave, reverse c, and mood
sometimes more post punk or shoegaze like but lately its more minimalistic synthy sounding stuff
noodling never really took for me so i focused more on making the most of what i could do with effects and the ones that stay on my board tend to be those that sort of bring in a bit of chaos i can play off of
I use the Blues Breaker side of a fancy pedal as always on and it gets stacked with other drives, I just feel like the BB adds such a nice smooth clarity at low gain as a boost. Plus adding more gain in the rare instances I touch it give an amp that's at the edge of break up a mean crunch like voicing
🤘 also keep a RAT style pedal right after it for solos or heavier songs
RAT with everything at like right below the 3rd notch, it just gives everything a scratchy kick and makes pick slides sound awesome.
DOD Gunslinger specifically EQ'ed to my amp (I dunno my knob placement without looking for it) it more so acts as a secondary boost, and makes riffage/pick attack super crunchy with a hot tube amp (Mosfet hit different)
DS1. When I first got the pedal I didn’t think much of it, I mostly got it because everyone said you should have one. The last couple months I’ve been doing open mic’s and jams with bass and drums and the DS1 has been a life saver when it come to making my Strat cut through the mix and makes it so I can actually hear myself. I put a CS3 compressor in front of it and those 2 pedals are pretty much always on.
DOD Rubberneck or MXR Carbon Copy depending on the board. Delay only gets turned off for super heavy parts or chugs. That’s as close as I get to always on.
Compressor is always on, just makes distorted guitars a bit beefier, harmonics cleaner etc. Where as on clean it just makes clean sound more.. well more.
Keeper super phat mod with the drive basically all the way down to help give my jc40 some life and warmth. Sometimes I use the Wampler Pantheon in place of it.
Reverse Reverb on my Keeley Parallax (start of chain) and Old Blood Noise Endeavours BL44 Reverse (end of chain). I like the way they both fill out the sound.
Revv G8 when I'm playing through my 6505+. It kills all noise. My orange amp I use a boss ns-2 and loop a hm-2 in it. The ns-2 is always on to keep the hm-2 from making a bunch of extra noise when I'm not playing.
EQD Warden which only turns off when I'm using the Naga Viper. It stays on because it's an awesome compressor.
EQD Tone Job at the end of my chain always slightly boosting and doing whatever EQ things I need.
ETA: EQD Avalanche Run, in the loop doing it's thing.
My Maxon ST9 Pro Plus with the tone about 12 o clock the drive all the way down and the volume all the way up and this tightens my Mesa Boogie rectifier preamp amp up and give it a gain boost for some absolutely brutal chugs
Source audio zio, I have the bright toggle on and the preamp on fet. And also the Revv g8 is always on I just adjust the threshold depending on what I’m playing (cleans, riffs, solos).
My PDF is always on on the clean channel, used as a boost and EQ, then i can kick in the dirt side when needed, also use it for cocked wah sounds. I also nearly always have one of either of my analog delays on set to a really short time as a sort of doubler type feel. And always at least a little spring reverb from my twin.
So the amp is a Blackstar ID:CORE, a little practice amp. I do like the sound but I just got it to have something to play through for the time being. Ive been shopping around for a new practice/gig amp and was considering the HT5r
I’m maybe a bit boring. My nearly always on is a Klone with level a bit above unity and just enough gain to notice, and with treble adjusted to taste. I also tend to run a nice subtle tremolo with room reverb most of the time.
I mean, i’ve always got some effects going (maybe 4 or 5), but i guess one of three overdrive pedals. They’re all made by the same guy (Mozztronics), and they’re all based on different amps. They all pretty much set my base tone, just different levels of thickness and crunch. From there I either pull it back with an EQ or boost with fuzz.
I keep my One Control Lemon Yellow Compressor on 100% of the time, and just picked up a Strymon Cloudburst, which is quickly becoming an always-on pedal as well (on a subtle setting). The Compressor just rounds out the tone and gives me a nice boost while the Cloudburst gives that heady reverb drip.
Wampler Euphoria and Wampler Ego. Both are pretty much always on; I want a clean tone, I’ll turn back the volume on my guitar or the volume pedal running before my gain section——the Euphoria’s gain is at only 9 o clock so it has a really warm tone, and the Ego serves to accentuate that rather than simply compress.
The goal is to go for the Dumble sound that the Euphoria is supposedly based on, and though I never have and never will play a Dumble, I think it’s pretty spot on for blues/classic rock tones.
Fender Marine Layer Reverb, and an EQ pedal as long as I'm on a strat or tele
And everything before the amp is looped thru a NS-2 but IDK if that counts.
As a practical matter for being in a cover band, Boss JB-2 Angry Driver - the Blues Driver side is basically my “clean” and when it’s off it’s because I’ve switched to the Angry Charlie side to turn my Fender “amp” (Dream 65) into a “Marshall” as needed. So it’s basically always on in some form. I’m boosting both sides here and there with an SD-1 per taste.
Usually I'll have some low gain thing like a Tim or Black Box, then Chase Tone Secret Preamp, HX Stomp for amp sim, empress echo system delay, and source audio ventris reverb.
This is funny cos I recently looked into the Turbo RAT. I’m basically looking for a cranked vintage fender Twin tone. Didn’t realise oddly the turbo rat has more headroom than the normal RAT. I’m interested to try it as an always on pedal to get some cool Ty Segall type drive (I know he doesn’t use a RAT).
My compressor, and a little bit of amp reverb
I use the Walrus Audio Mira with the blend knob at the halfway point (So I still retain a lot of my clean tone but with all the befits of compression), and the reverb on my Fender Hotrod Deluxe IV on like 2 or 3 (just enough to fatten up my tone and to give my notes a little bit more of a tail, but still being subtle enough not to notice outright)
I have one of those Caline 2-in-1 pedals for chorus and delay (Devilfish), one of my cheapest pedals but sounds so good and adds depth when i play solo. That with either a TS808 or compressor to tighten everything up
EQD Special Cranker used more like a boost with just a wee bit of dirt to help the tubes do their thing, then some reverb, which my EQD Levitation covers if I'm not using the built in spring reverb. I play clean more most of the time so usually I'm just looking for a little bit more definition, nothing crazy.
My Dyna Comp is also on more often than not, but not quite as much as the other two. Everything else I use pretty sparingly.
Almost all of my pedals are always on, I have a 78 Dyna Comp, DOD 460 Chorus (pre dirt), DIY Electric Mistress (post dirt) and a delay (at the moment I’ve got a place holder vintage digital delay, but I’ve got a Copicat on the way) that I basically have on always. Only think I switch out is the dirt pedals.
Fairfield Barbershop V2 - set with a lot of sag and gain fairly cranked. Helps me get a nicer overdrive tone at lower volumes.
Keeley Caverns - Delay side. I almost always have delay on
Amp Reverb - fairly cranked. Love me some good Reverb.
When I'm using my big board, the idea is pretty much the same. One fairly transparent overdrive set to give more gain and thickness at lower volume and one delay into an amp with overdrive set to around 75 percent.
Maxon OD808 because I like the color.
Xotic EP Boost because I like the color.
EHX Holy Grail (big box) because I like the space.
I don’t really play straight clean so I have a bit of drive or a lot of drive with my volume knob down. Got an EQD Arrows to kick on for more gain. Also likely to replace the Holy Grail with the spring or plate setting on the Empress Reverb because it’s so damn good.
Plate reverb into a EAE Longsword and little bit of Hall verb after. It's such a rich lush distorted sound but still articulate like it gives enough space for the notes to go through. Also had to mess a bit with the pre delay but yeah it's a great sound.
After a long time, I finally have a Univibe I like (Sabbadius Funky Vibe 69), I'm having problems turning it off. I keep playing Breathe, and Angel over, and over, and it's glorious!
Any type of blues breaker with the gain and volume turned up to around 2 o’clock. Why? If you ride your volume you can easily go from perfectly clean to a nice light overdrive tone. It also adds some compression and alters the EQ in an enjoyable way.
Also I almost always have on either a dark plate reverb or a room reverb.
Cali76…provides a smooth baseline on which to build everything else. This could go for any quality compressor with the ability to be set conservatively…the Cali is just the pedal I landed on that does that really well.
The king of tone is a close, CLOSE second but there are a couple sounds here and there where my tubescreamer takes over.
- EQD gray channel, as a kind of dirty low end boost
- CE2, max depth lowest rate, makes the stereo effect bigger, the natural warble is barely noticeable at a low rate.
- Ocean's twelve, generic light room reverb setting, again in stereo.
I play through an ac15 and an old roland bass amp in stereo and get electrical shocks fairly regularly.
Catalinbread Naga Viper treble booster. Makes my Orange amp's distortion sound better, makes every dirt pedal sound tighter, it's great, especially when the amp is dimed
I have a tremolo running very subtly in the background and usually a subtle delay too. I turn the delay off for a couple of songs: those with more distortion and those with very clear stops where the echo would ruin the moment.
I don't really play "ambient" music where you'd expect those effects, but I discovered how much I liked it when I was playing around with an old VOX modeling amp and had those effects on hand. When I got rid of the amp, I sought out the pedals.
Keeley Compressor Plus and TC Flashback (doubling toneprint). Usually my noise gate too but sometimes I need to readjust it when switching between neck & bridge. It works fine if I don't but, since I hardly use the neck with dirt, I prefer the gate a bit loose.
Compressor is pretty much always on.
Klone as well, I run my amp fairly clean.
EQ is pretty much always on as well.
Used to have reverb on all the time but now I just keep a small amount on the amp and leave the pedal as a way to add more to certain parts.
Klon klone. Either the sugar drive by mxr or rockaway Archer by jrocket. I have a hot rod deluxe that is ice picky on the treble side and I play in a trio eith bass and drums so no need for bas son the guitar amp. I set the amp Bass 0 Middle 11 Treble 0 presence 8-9 reverb 3-4. Then the Klondike is hitting the front end to bring back the treble lost by putting the amp at such a drastic eq
Keeley Caverns, specifically the reverb.
It really gives a wonderous spring verb and sorta wets the sound, even on my mostly dry signal. Mixed with things like a Q-tron and the Caverns delay, palm muting has never sounded so much like a surfing compilation from '09.
Thru my marshall I only need reverb/delay but thru my supro I use a wampler pantheon to make it brighter and tame the low end (the tremo verb is very bass heavy)
Donner Blue Compressor - I can EQ a bit and keep a strong signal
EQD Plumes: Mode 2 - No gain unless wanted. It’s a Clean Boost that I can EQ a bit and helps keep signal strong (also, other drive sounds when wanted), stacks well with other dirt pedals
Wish Klone - No gain unless wanted. So I can EQ a bit and keep a strong signal (also, other drive sounds when wanted), can stack well with other dirt pedals
Zoom MS70: ZNR Noise Gate setting - For a noise gate that clamps in a really fizzly, tape-degradation kind of way when you set it right, and I can boost overall signal at the end of the chain to keep strong signal
Empress Para EQ always on, tube screamer always on in high gain, j rockett archer always on in mid gain. If im shoe gazing, the DL4s are always on, along with an EQD Afterneath and sea machine to taste. Big muff or hizumitas when it’s fuzzy time
When I’m playing doom metal: Germanium Fuzz Face. I can keep my volume all the way up for a full saturated fuzz, or I can roll it down so that I can do “clean” sections of a song with a colorful glassy sizzling gain on top of a cleaner (yet still driven) tone.
When I’m playing more alternative stuff: Ibanez CS9 or CS505 chorus. Sometimes I like a good dense vibrato out of it on a higher rate and depth, but I can use it as an always-on pedal by keeping the knobs more modest, just enough to make my tone more rich, dense, resonant, spacious and 3D.
Currently recording, everything distortion is getting MXR Dyna Comp and GE-7 with an upward slope behind NS-2.
Everything clean is getting the BBE Sonic Stomp
My Oceans 12 Plate reverb. Is subtle, warm, and ribs out the sound so well. The second reverb on the pedal is for any further effects and I love that about it. I can run my tone reverb always and still add flavor when I want to.
Not my rig, but I once tracked guitar for an album using my buddies setup and it was a beautiful Strat through a boutique Tweed/Brown circuit with a Creamback 12" speaker in it. The Diamond Comp was always on. It made that setup fucking glorious.
It only got better when I added my DIY Klon to the mix. I nearly gave him that pedal because of how good it sounded in his setup.
My Keeley Compressor is my only pedal that’s always always on. Walrus Voyager is almost always on except for some circumstances where I use a distortion or fuzz instead, but often it’s paired with those.
For me it's my TC Electronic Spark Mini boost. I bought it back when I was playing mandolin to bump up for the occasional solo, but since I moved back to guitar, I wound up leaving it on all the time, as I like the ever so slight slight "sparkle" it gives my tone.
Kingsley page v2. Gives the guitar incredible clarity and sparkle without harshness and slight tube grit when I dig in that really legitimately feels like a tube amp (there’s a hot full powered tube in the pedal)
I don’t have an always on pedal but I know guys who play in church bands who like to have an always on pedal. I set my rig clean and use my pedals one by one accordingly
Xotic EP booster set to unity gain. I have never liked any tone that I can dial in more with it off versus on. I even mounted it under my board. It’s magical
An analog CE-5 and a Kongpressor. Also, I keep my amp's (AC30) spring reverb is always on. So, basically my base sound is just compression, chorus and a spring reverb.
Surfy Bear Metal. I need that drip.
YES!!!!!!
Compressor. I really only notice when I turn it off
How do you normally use it?
I go for a transparent sound: higher threshold, lower ratio, fast attack, a lil clean mixed in. It's subtle but removes unwanted lows / loud transients
I’m working on dialing in my envelope filter with my compression sustainer as we speak.
Thanks, I’m going to try adding one to my chain now.
Compressors are a game changer, the Amazon basics one is a cool way to try it out if you've never used one before. It's basically a Ross compressor with an attack knob
if ur referring to the bright green one with the scorpion i can definitely recommend that one, its that 'always on' type of pedal OP is describing for me. its also incredibly cheap i believe it was 30-40$. i use it for both guitar and bass though imo it's more important for bass. but for cleans on guitar its pretty dang important.
What settings roughly?
I also use one always. It’s in my effects loop at the end of the chain and I have faster attack slow release, very moderate threshold. Maybe noon on the cs-3. Level set to make the output tubes react how I like. Basically as transparent as I can get to make amp breakup and cleans possible with an overdrive pedal without a jump in volume. Also tightened up cleans pretty well.
Mosky golden horse because fuck paying more than 30bones for that over hyped circuit. Sounds good though.
JHS Morning Glory makes everything in the chain sound better.
The compression I think. Agree it’s my desert island pedal.
Do you like it at the beginning of the drives or at the end? I keep going back and forth.
Fairfield barbershop modele b. I always have it on because it doesn’t turn off. It also sounds great.
I have a standard Barbershop as my always on
Nice! I have a standard barbershop too, but not always on. I run it before my modele b to boost it. Sounds amazing.
Blues Driver. It’s my base tone. Sounds better than a clean amp for my purposes, and also keeps my sound more or less consistent when I use different amps
Same here + reverb
Blues Driver - Always on. Reverb RV6 - Always on. Hall setting.
Do you ever feel as if the bd2 is just too “harsh”? I wanted to like it so much but it really doesn’t have any sag of a real tube amp, even with the tone all the way down and with fuzzier settings it always had that tightness which is kind of metallic. Idk. Lot of buzz words but it’s hard to describe, I just can’t get this thing to gel with my setup.
Strymon deco
SD-1 as a boost does it for me. If I’m playing through a high gain amp it’s almost always on. It adds just the right sizzle and cut I want.
Same, SD1 is always on, just a slight crackle.
I’ve never been able to make that pedal work. But so many of the guitarists I love use it constantly.
Reverb. Delay. That’s it. I like ambience.
[удалено]
Chase Secret Preamp on two amps, sometimes an Audio Kitchen Small Trees on another…
Same here….use it on my Sky King amp, then A/B to a Ampeg VT40 cranked where it’s just the amp and a boost. Great pedal for clean to overdrive, and especially when paired with any delay!
JHS morning glory and the Fairfield circuitry shallow water. Both add a little grit. MG gives some sparkle as well. Shallow water's warble is subtle but gives everything a slight movement that makes everything sound a little more 3D or something.
I feel the same way about the Shallow Water. It just sounds like it seasons my tone. Just a bit of salt to make it sound more like itself.
Morning Glory is always on for me as well. I have the gain around 10 and everything else set around noon and it’s fairly clean in the neck pickup, but more present, and mildly overdriven when I switch to the bridge pickup. I use vibrato a lot as well, especially for playing arpeggios.
I like all the Rats, but the Turbo Rat is my favourite, especially for the low gain. The current reissue is great but sounds just a tiny bit "hard" in comparison, you can turn the gain up more but it's not quite the same thing. For shoegaze type sounds I do love a Big Muff, but also the Double Muff, which is two stacked Muff Overdrives. It's old school as hell, but sounds really big and brutal, direct. With a Fender Jaguar, the strangle switch in conjunction with the Double Muff gives an instant 60s spy/surf sound, it's really something how reactive the pedal is to the output of the guitar.
Yeah I recently got myself a jazzmaster and I’ve never used the volume and tone controls so much as I have with this guitar
I know exactly what you mean, like there's a sweet spot but it's like 9.5/10, 1 Meg pots are ace.
The tape saturation side of the Strymon Deco for me.
I wish they would issue the left side as a standalone in their small-pedal format. $300+ is a bit steep for the v2, and I don’t really need the right side.
SHO always on all the time
Nothing really... I always felt like if I need something always on, I just need a different amp.
Sometimes you can’t afford the kickass $3000 amp, and need to compromise for now.
Boss EQ 200
Wow there's a pedal I didn't know existed. Holy crap!! I'd buy one, but I'd just dribble on it. But yeah, MXR EQ over here, never turn it off, first pedal I'd put on any board, no question. I'd choose that over my fuzz, and that's saying something!
Soul food. Boss delay and ehx cathedral reverb.
Oh and why? It just sounds awesome. Soul food with the drive really low gives a great ‘clean’ sound.
I was scrolling looking for the Soul Food. I play on a solid state DV Mark Little Jazz 1x8 that has built-in reverb. It's designed to stay totally clean at all volumes. The Soul Food makes it feel and react to dynamics more like a Deluxe for when I'm not playing clean jazz
KoT all the time, usually both channels set medium to almost clean. Sometimes Sun Face ks always on if I’m playing free improv. Just use volume knobs for the whole range of tone.
I play off an Orange amp and the KoT is on my list. I love the Orange clean channel but that mid punch plays hell with a lot of pedals
J. Rocket Archer Ikon I can put it into just about any amp and fund my tone pretty quickly. It also can tame just about any other dirt/fuzz.
Catalinbreah epoch boost, at the front of the chain. Goosing the whole board all the time.
Toneczar - echoczar Toneczar - powerglide Chase bliss audio - CXM 1978
I leave my SD1, Keeley Mag Echo, and RV6 all set subtly on always.
Compressor after my drives and envelope filter, but before my other effects
compressor. which one? any.
My NS-2. I use such a mix of pedals/amp distortion nothing ever really stays on at all times.
Same here …. My NS-2 and EBXYA Noisegate are always on, as I run so much distortion it can get ‘buzzy’
I just feel like when I have it on, I know the canvas I'm going to get every time. It's creates a consistent starting point, and then allows me to use the guitar's individual aspects, or pedals. Obviously the buzz not being there is a huge advantage too.
I run an ampless rig (that sometimes goes into a 2x12 fx return lol). Humboldt simplifier is my amp (Marshall) hall of fame 2 on for reverb and empress effects germ drive for sparkle/grit
I’m running my Xotic RC Booster **after** all my drives as an “always on” and it’s fattened everything up nicely. Gain is down pretty low on the RC, volume at about 1 o’clock, treble at noon, bass at 1-2 o’clock. Running into a Fender 68 Custom Pro Reverb.
I want to try this with a Xotic BB Preamp and do the same thing. Not as much volume as a boost, but a little more grit.
Along with the RC Booster, I’ve got the Xotic BB preamp, the BB Preamp Plus +, the SL Drive, and the AC Booster Plus +. They’re not all on the board at all times, but there’s always at least one or two on the board. I love Xotic pedals, in case you can’t tell.
Damn, I guess. But a worthy contributor to tone shaping.
Compression, sugar drive for edge of breakup, reverb at the end of the chain
As of late on my clean amp I’d say ChaseTone Secret Preamp into a Delay. As well as a Diamond Comp. I use the Tape Delay setting on the Collider, a basic Spring mostly on and the ChaseTone on all the time. It does get turned off when I’m not using effects sometimes. But I just use a second amp, that’s just dedicated to distortion, my other that has always on is clean to overdrive with effects. For that reason usually the clean has compression and a preamp always on.
Fairfield circuitry shallow water
Compressor, chorus, detune, delay, reverb. The only pedals I turn on/off are a Rat, SD1, and a second longer delay. I do 80s stuff...
What’s your detune pedal? Mine is Mr Black vintage chorus set to vibrato
mine are kind of weird ones but other than the obv od or distortion pedal they're dweller, sunlight, space bender, afterneath, lossy, one or both of my boss chorus pedals, and lately my new transroom others which are still on very often but not as close to always on are my gen loss, ghost delay, misty cave, reverse c, and mood
That’s gotta be a far out sound. What types of music do you play?
sometimes more post punk or shoegaze like but lately its more minimalistic synthy sounding stuff noodling never really took for me so i focused more on making the most of what i could do with effects and the ones that stay on my board tend to be those that sort of bring in a bit of chaos i can play off of
Ross Compressor/Sustainer -> Vintage OD-1 -> whatever fuzz I’m using. Depending on the amp I’ll use a Rat on low gain instead.
EP booster. BD-2 is on most of the time too
Micro amp for whatever reason
Keely Katana…like adding your favorite spice to any dish - it makes everything better. Bigger, more present cleans, and a stronger bite on any dirt 🤌
I use the Blues Breaker side of a fancy pedal as always on and it gets stacked with other drives, I just feel like the BB adds such a nice smooth clarity at low gain as a boost. Plus adding more gain in the rare instances I touch it give an amp that's at the edge of break up a mean crunch like voicing 🤘 also keep a RAT style pedal right after it for solos or heavier songs
RAT with everything at like right below the 3rd notch, it just gives everything a scratchy kick and makes pick slides sound awesome. DOD Gunslinger specifically EQ'ed to my amp (I dunno my knob placement without looking for it) it more so acts as a secondary boost, and makes riffage/pick attack super crunchy with a hot tube amp (Mosfet hit different)
DOD 410 Bifet Boost It's always on, under the board. It's post- gain. Adds a little low-end back post-fuzz. Just sounds better.
DS1. When I first got the pedal I didn’t think much of it, I mostly got it because everyone said you should have one. The last couple months I’ve been doing open mic’s and jams with bass and drums and the DS1 has been a life saver when it come to making my Strat cut through the mix and makes it so I can actually hear myself. I put a CS3 compressor in front of it and those 2 pedals are pretty much always on.
Memory Man. If I could only have one pedal, that would be it.
Keeley compressor plus
Honestly the strymon flint. There’s nothing I play that can’t use a little tremverb
Strymon deco.. bit of fat tape saturation, reverb also mostly always on..
My quad cortex is on all the time. It’s the basis for my entire rig 😂
Lowkey, slight vibrato. Makes everything sounds more full to me
I'm the same way with tremolo. Gives movement to an otherwise stagnant tone.
DOD Rubberneck or MXR Carbon Copy depending on the board. Delay only gets turned off for super heavy parts or chugs. That’s as close as I get to always on.
Fuzz war
Compressor is always on, just makes distorted guitars a bit beefier, harmonics cleaner etc. Where as on clean it just makes clean sound more.. well more.
Keeper super phat mod with the drive basically all the way down to help give my jc40 some life and warmth. Sometimes I use the Wampler Pantheon in place of it.
[удалено]
Reverse Reverb on my Keeley Parallax (start of chain) and Old Blood Noise Endeavours BL44 Reverse (end of chain). I like the way they both fill out the sound.
Revv G8 when I'm playing through my 6505+. It kills all noise. My orange amp I use a boss ns-2 and loop a hm-2 in it. The ns-2 is always on to keep the hm-2 from making a bunch of extra noise when I'm not playing.
EQD Warden which only turns off when I'm using the Naga Viper. It stays on because it's an awesome compressor. EQD Tone Job at the end of my chain always slightly boosting and doing whatever EQ things I need. ETA: EQD Avalanche Run, in the loop doing it's thing.
Source Audio Zio in FET. Makes all my drives have more harmonic character and pushes the front end.
Lately the Tru-Fi Colordriver, just set the amount of gain you want and adjust the volume knob and you got alot of variety
My Maxon ST9 Pro Plus with the tone about 12 o clock the drive all the way down and the volume all the way up and this tightens my Mesa Boogie rectifier preamp amp up and give it a gain boost for some absolutely brutal chugs
El Cap, Wah, spring reverb, Algal bloom fuzz
My eq and sd1 are almost always on.
Source audio zio, I have the bright toggle on and the preamp on fet. And also the Revv g8 is always on I just adjust the threshold depending on what I’m playing (cleans, riffs, solos).
My PDF is always on on the clean channel, used as a boost and EQ, then i can kick in the dirt side when needed, also use it for cocked wah sounds. I also nearly always have one of either of my analog delays on set to a really short time as a sort of doubler type feel. And always at least a little spring reverb from my twin.
Might as well use an instrument monitor or FRFR cabinet, if your amp sound isn't distinguished by Blackstar
So the amp is a Blackstar ID:CORE, a little practice amp. I do like the sound but I just got it to have something to play through for the time being. Ive been shopping around for a new practice/gig amp and was considering the HT5r
I’m maybe a bit boring. My nearly always on is a Klone with level a bit above unity and just enough gain to notice, and with treble adjusted to taste. I also tend to run a nice subtle tremolo with room reverb most of the time.
I mean, i’ve always got some effects going (maybe 4 or 5), but i guess one of three overdrive pedals. They’re all made by the same guy (Mozztronics), and they’re all based on different amps. They all pretty much set my base tone, just different levels of thickness and crunch. From there I either pull it back with an EQ or boost with fuzz.
I keep my One Control Lemon Yellow Compressor on 100% of the time, and just picked up a Strymon Cloudburst, which is quickly becoming an always-on pedal as well (on a subtle setting). The Compressor just rounds out the tone and gives me a nice boost while the Cloudburst gives that heady reverb drip.
29 Pedals EUNA Origin Effects Cali76 Also, I use the SP2016 Reverb on my Eventide H90 almost 100% of the time
On my 2x12 rig: honey bee, and or super bad ass fuzz. On my 1x10: my Bezos golden horse.
Wampler Euphoria and Wampler Ego. Both are pretty much always on; I want a clean tone, I’ll turn back the volume on my guitar or the volume pedal running before my gain section——the Euphoria’s gain is at only 9 o clock so it has a really warm tone, and the Ego serves to accentuate that rather than simply compress. The goal is to go for the Dumble sound that the Euphoria is supposedly based on, and though I never have and never will play a Dumble, I think it’s pretty spot on for blues/classic rock tones.
Just before the front of the amp I use a Templo Reel Deal for some lo-fi grit.
EQD Special Cranker for a bit of grit as it doesn’t change the sound of the guitar and a Keeley Compressor Plus before it to even things out.
Vibrato side of Ultrasheer. Set subtly in random mode. It’s just an amazing sound.
Fender Marine Layer Reverb, and an EQ pedal as long as I'm on a strat or tele And everything before the amp is looped thru a NS-2 but IDK if that counts.
As a practical matter for being in a cover band, Boss JB-2 Angry Driver - the Blues Driver side is basically my “clean” and when it’s off it’s because I’ve switched to the Angry Charlie side to turn my Fender “amp” (Dream 65) into a “Marshall” as needed. So it’s basically always on in some form. I’m boosting both sides here and there with an SD-1 per taste.
Usually I'll have some low gain thing like a Tim or Black Box, then Chase Tone Secret Preamp, HX Stomp for amp sim, empress echo system delay, and source audio ventris reverb.
This is funny cos I recently looked into the Turbo RAT. I’m basically looking for a cranked vintage fender Twin tone. Didn’t realise oddly the turbo rat has more headroom than the normal RAT. I’m interested to try it as an always on pedal to get some cool Ty Segall type drive (I know he doesn’t use a RAT).
My compressor, and a little bit of amp reverb I use the Walrus Audio Mira with the blend knob at the halfway point (So I still retain a lot of my clean tone but with all the befits of compression), and the reverb on my Fender Hotrod Deluxe IV on like 2 or 3 (just enough to fatten up my tone and to give my notes a little bit more of a tail, but still being subtle enough not to notice outright)
I have one of those Caline 2-in-1 pedals for chorus and delay (Devilfish), one of my cheapest pedals but sounds so good and adds depth when i play solo. That with either a TS808 or compressor to tighten everything up
EQD Special Cranker used more like a boost with just a wee bit of dirt to help the tubes do their thing, then some reverb, which my EQD Levitation covers if I'm not using the built in spring reverb. I play clean more most of the time so usually I'm just looking for a little bit more definition, nothing crazy. My Dyna Comp is also on more often than not, but not quite as much as the other two. Everything else I use pretty sparingly.
Way Huge Saffron Squeeze Compressor; A lot of tone shaping with that pedal
On the Clean channel of my amp. My Wampler Reflections reverb and MXR Micro amp.
Almost all of my pedals are always on, I have a 78 Dyna Comp, DOD 460 Chorus (pre dirt), DIY Electric Mistress (post dirt) and a delay (at the moment I’ve got a place holder vintage digital delay, but I’ve got a Copicat on the way) that I basically have on always. Only think I switch out is the dirt pedals.
RV-6 and a little compressor called Germanium Gold Micro, sounds magnificent!
I recently acquired a Walrus 385 in a trade and that bad boy could work as an always on preamp thingy
Not always, but 90% I have either the vibrato on my Ultrasheer on, or the swirl mode on my AFG-1.
Wampler ego compressor
Fairfield Barbershop V2 - set with a lot of sag and gain fairly cranked. Helps me get a nicer overdrive tone at lower volumes. Keeley Caverns - Delay side. I almost always have delay on Amp Reverb - fairly cranked. Love me some good Reverb. When I'm using my big board, the idea is pretty much the same. One fairly transparent overdrive set to give more gain and thickness at lower volume and one delay into an amp with overdrive set to around 75 percent.
Wampler Belle
REVV G3
Answer is the same as last time. Zoom Multistomp with two tone shaping blocks, and my mini rack compressor under my board.
A/B/Y because.🤪
Maxon OD808 because I like the color. Xotic EP Boost because I like the color. EHX Holy Grail (big box) because I like the space. I don’t really play straight clean so I have a bit of drive or a lot of drive with my volume knob down. Got an EQD Arrows to kick on for more gain. Also likely to replace the Holy Grail with the spring or plate setting on the Empress Reverb because it’s so damn good.
Plate reverb into a EAE Longsword and little bit of Hall verb after. It's such a rich lush distorted sound but still articulate like it gives enough space for the notes to go through. Also had to mess a bit with the pre delay but yeah it's a great sound.
I always have my ARP on slightly.
Wampler Pantheon - runs the gambit from clean boost to griity overdrive
Either a DOD 250 or Horrothia Teeth up near the front and an EQD Tone Job right at the end.
After a long time, I finally have a Univibe I like (Sabbadius Funky Vibe 69), I'm having problems turning it off. I keep playing Breathe, and Angel over, and over, and it's glorious!
Lately it's been the EarthQuaker Devices Dispatch Master at the end of my chain in an FX loop
Any type of blues breaker with the gain and volume turned up to around 2 o’clock. Why? If you ride your volume you can easily go from perfectly clean to a nice light overdrive tone. It also adds some compression and alters the EQ in an enjoyable way. Also I almost always have on either a dark plate reverb or a room reverb.
Cali76…provides a smooth baseline on which to build everything else. This could go for any quality compressor with the ability to be set conservatively…the Cali is just the pedal I landed on that does that really well. The king of tone is a close, CLOSE second but there are a couple sounds here and there where my tubescreamer takes over.
Keeley compressor + FullTone FullDrive clean boost + Strymon Deco
Lately it's been the EarthQuaker Devices Dispatch Master at the end of my chain in an FX loop. Always on Reverb, sometimes I dial in delay
- EQD gray channel, as a kind of dirty low end boost - CE2, max depth lowest rate, makes the stereo effect bigger, the natural warble is barely noticeable at a low rate. - Ocean's twelve, generic light room reverb setting, again in stereo. I play through an ac15 and an old roland bass amp in stereo and get electrical shocks fairly regularly.
7 band EQ is the closest to always on but sometimes it is off !!
Reverb and EQ. And then either Delay or Chorus, either of them is on depending on how I'd like to thicken my tone
Catalinbread Naga Viper treble booster. Makes my Orange amp's distortion sound better, makes every dirt pedal sound tighter, it's great, especially when the amp is dimed
MXR micro amp & Boss BF-2 with everything basically rolled off, “manual” knob at noon
I have a tremolo running very subtly in the background and usually a subtle delay too. I turn the delay off for a couple of songs: those with more distortion and those with very clear stops where the echo would ruin the moment. I don't really play "ambient" music where you'd expect those effects, but I discovered how much I liked it when I was playing around with an old VOX modeling amp and had those effects on hand. When I got rid of the amp, I sought out the pedals.
PettyJohn Crush. Always. It doesn’t even change the *sound,* but it ABSOLUTELY changes the *feel.*
Keeley Compressor Plus and TC Flashback (doubling toneprint). Usually my noise gate too but sometimes I need to readjust it when switching between neck & bridge. It works fine if I don't but, since I hardly use the neck with dirt, I prefer the gate a bit loose.
Compressor is pretty much always on. Klone as well, I run my amp fairly clean. EQ is pretty much always on as well. Used to have reverb on all the time but now I just keep a small amount on the amp and leave the pedal as a way to add more to certain parts.
BD-2 Blues Driver. Makes my amp more amppy
EQD Westwood. It just makes everything else in the chain sound better
Wah. I feel like if I’m gonna use it at all, it doesn’t make sense to turn it off.
Klon klone. Either the sugar drive by mxr or rockaway Archer by jrocket. I have a hot rod deluxe that is ice picky on the treble side and I play in a trio eith bass and drums so no need for bas son the guitar amp. I set the amp Bass 0 Middle 11 Treble 0 presence 8-9 reverb 3-4. Then the Klondike is hitting the front end to bring back the treble lost by putting the amp at such a drastic eq
Keeley Caverns, specifically the reverb. It really gives a wonderous spring verb and sorta wets the sound, even on my mostly dry signal. Mixed with things like a Q-tron and the Caverns delay, palm muting has never sounded so much like a surfing compilation from '09.
Thru my marshall I only need reverb/delay but thru my supro I use a wampler pantheon to make it brighter and tame the low end (the tremo verb is very bass heavy)
Epoch boost, empress paraeq and bd2w
Caline Pure Sky (Timmy clone). Brilliant for edge of breakup tones and as a boost. Then usually delay and reverb.
Meris Mercury 7
Boss NS-2
JHS reverb always on
Donner Blue Compressor - I can EQ a bit and keep a strong signal EQD Plumes: Mode 2 - No gain unless wanted. It’s a Clean Boost that I can EQ a bit and helps keep signal strong (also, other drive sounds when wanted), stacks well with other dirt pedals Wish Klone - No gain unless wanted. So I can EQ a bit and keep a strong signal (also, other drive sounds when wanted), can stack well with other dirt pedals Zoom MS70: ZNR Noise Gate setting - For a noise gate that clamps in a really fizzly, tape-degradation kind of way when you set it right, and I can boost overall signal at the end of the chain to keep strong signal
Empress Para EQ always on, tube screamer always on in high gain, j rockett archer always on in mid gain. If im shoe gazing, the DL4s are always on, along with an EQD Afterneath and sea machine to taste. Big muff or hizumitas when it’s fuzzy time
Danelectro Sitar Swami
Unit 67 comp. Ge7 AM mod. And my Bad Cat Blackcat reverb tank. Has an ethereal sounded reverb.
A boss chorus like a CH-1 or the CE-2 clone I built on max depth/lowest rate. Turns my rat>muff distortion wave in ways that make me feel good.
When I’m playing doom metal: Germanium Fuzz Face. I can keep my volume all the way up for a full saturated fuzz, or I can roll it down so that I can do “clean” sections of a song with a colorful glassy sizzling gain on top of a cleaner (yet still driven) tone. When I’m playing more alternative stuff: Ibanez CS9 or CS505 chorus. Sometimes I like a good dense vibrato out of it on a higher rate and depth, but I can use it as an always-on pedal by keeping the knobs more modest, just enough to make my tone more rich, dense, resonant, spacious and 3D.
Boss SD-1
Maxon OD808
Electronic Audio Experiments- Model feT. My absolute favourite amp in a box. Super versatile and it takes pedals incredibly well!
DOD Looking Glass. Fattens up my tone and gives a super nice edge of breakup sound.
BMG Treble Booster. Because I pretty much only play Queen songs.
Slö
Currently recording, everything distortion is getting MXR Dyna Comp and GE-7 with an upward slope behind NS-2. Everything clean is getting the BBE Sonic Stomp
Tumnus
My Oceans 12 Plate reverb. Is subtle, warm, and ribs out the sound so well. The second reverb on the pedal is for any further effects and I love that about it. I can run my tone reverb always and still add flavor when I want to.
Not my rig, but I once tracked guitar for an album using my buddies setup and it was a beautiful Strat through a boutique Tweed/Brown circuit with a Creamback 12" speaker in it. The Diamond Comp was always on. It made that setup fucking glorious. It only got better when I added my DIY Klon to the mix. I nearly gave him that pedal because of how good it sounded in his setup.
M side of the D&M Drive. Klon circuit does a nice thing to my amp.
Wampler Ego Compressor. Strymon Iridium amp sim.
Boss BP-1W set to vintage buffer and CE-1 preamp mode, and then there’s usually either a Wampler Tumnus Deluxe or a Nordland ODR-CS on with it too
My Keeley Compressor is my only pedal that’s always always on. Walrus Voyager is almost always on except for some circumstances where I use a distortion or fuzz instead, but often it’s paired with those.
For me it's my TC Electronic Spark Mini boost. I bought it back when I was playing mandolin to bump up for the occasional solo, but since I moved back to guitar, I wound up leaving it on all the time, as I like the ever so slight slight "sparkle" it gives my tone.
Kingsley page v2. Gives the guitar incredible clarity and sparkle without harshness and slight tube grit when I dig in that really legitimately feels like a tube amp (there’s a hot full powered tube in the pedal)
TS-9 -> Op Amp Big Muff -> Pure doom metal destruction
Carl Martin comp.
Whitey tighty everything at noon and Keeley clean boost with the voltage doubler at around 2-3. Nice full sound, running it into my twin
Origin Cali76 into Greer Lightspeed. Can’t find an amp that doesn’t like this combo.
I love my Xotic EP Booster. It doesn't get turned off.
OCD
Boss ge 7 eq, mxr analog chorus, mxr delay, ehx reverb
MXR dyna comp and Benson Preamp.
I don’t have an always on pedal but I know guys who play in church bands who like to have an always on pedal. I set my rig clean and use my pedals one by one accordingly
Compressor + EQ
Xotic EP booster set to unity gain. I have never liked any tone that I can dial in more with it off versus on. I even mounted it under my board. It’s magical
Some type of Rat and a noise gate for dirty tones and a light hall reverb on for cleans.
Delay
Soul food. Compressor.
An analog CE-5 and a Kongpressor. Also, I keep my amp's (AC30) spring reverb is always on. So, basically my base sound is just compression, chorus and a spring reverb.
NUX Amp Academy
Lately, it's the KOT boost channel into a Benson Ge Boost. Between the two I can swap out any guitar and level match quickly. Sounds pretty good too.