Rockerverb, AD30 and pedals

[Lekorn]

I was also concerned about the RV and pedals.

And, while it's true that you will have to spend some time tweaking, you should be able to get most of your pedals to work. The place to start is on the Dirty channel (no, not Clean - you would think so, but nope.) Set the gain with only slight breakup, say around 10 o'clock, and set the volume around 2/3 to 3/4 about what you need. Get the rest of your volume needs with your pedal tweaks. You should then be all set.

In addition to Clean not being good with pedals (this isn't a Fender...), if you send your OD/Distortion/Fuzz chain into an already distorting Dirty channel you will get Mush. Your pedals will lose their character, the highs will go brittle and the low's will get flabby. I spent a whole day in a guitar store with an arsenal of boutique pedals... And it all starts with your amp settings.

Second tip: turn the reverb to zero or thereabouts, as it will not sound great with most fuzzes, especially germanium driven ones (I don't know why).

Here are pedals that work just fine:

Catalinbread: dirty little secret (remember to let the pedals drive the amp)
Catalinbread : Formula 5
Catalinbread : Naga Viper
Analogman : Beano
Ibanez : TS9 (this actually also works on clean)
Big Muff
Pretty much all Retroman Fuzzes
Fulltone Fuzzes and OD : OCD, Plimsoul, 69, 70
ZVex Box of Rock (needs some tweaking)
No problem with phasers
Chorus and especially Delays should be in the effects loop (turn the Reverb to zero)



Hope this helps.

[Orangesoda]

I was also concerned about the RV and pedals.

And, while it's true that you will have to spend some time tweaking, you should be able to get most of your pedals to work. The place to start is on the Dirty channel (no, not Clean - you would think so, but nope.) Set the gain with only slight breakup, say around 10 o'clock, and set the volume around 2/3 to 3/4 about what you need. Get the rest of your volume needs with your pedal tweaks. You should then be all set.

In addition to Clean not being good with pedals (this isn't a Fender...), if you send your OD/Distortion/Fuzz chain into an already distorting Dirty channel you will get Mush. Your pedals will lose their character, the highs will go brittle and the low's will get flabby. I spent a whole day in a guitar store with an arsenal of boutique pedals... And it all starts with your amp settings.

Second tip: turn the reverb to zero or thereabouts, as it will not sound great with most fuzzes, especially germanium driven ones (I don't know why).

Here are pedals that work just fine:

Catalinbread: dirty little secret (remember to let the pedals drive the amp)
Catalinbread : Formula 5
Catalinbread : Naga Viper
Analogman : Beano
Ibanez : TS9 (this actually also works on clean)
Big Muff
Pretty much all Retroman Fuzzes
Fulltone Fuzzes and OD : OCD, Plimsoul, 69, 70
ZVex Box of Rock (needs some tweaking)
No problem with phasers
Chorus and especially Delays should be in the effects loop (turn the Reverb to zero)



Hope this helps.

Hey man thanks for the advice.

I don't think I ran the pedals through the RV cuz I just didn't like the cleans. But I think I'm going to try the TH30 and Rocker. BUT......if those don't really have the versatility I'm looking for this is what I'm gonna do.....

I'm going to keep my TT or maybe get a newer one and run that through my 412 cab and also buy a Deluxe Reverb and have that through my cab as well with a Radial Headbone that can switch em.

I'm thinking my guitar might not work well with the Natural channel of the Rocker (maybe a bit muffled) and the gain of the TH30 might be a tad fizzy. But I'll try em and hopefully they work.

But I do like the idea of the TT as my dirty/lead/solo sound but also run pedal through it and the Deluxe Reverb as my clean channel and also run pedals through it for a different sound.

[Borderline Productions]

Never understood the pedals throught the RV50 debate. Once I got the RV50 never saw the need to have a pedal. I only run a SansAmp through it to get that Blackface tone through the clean channel that you can't get with a Fender unless you have one of the originals or you have very understand neighbors.

I found that pedals on the dirty channel only messed up a good thing.

[Orangesoda]

Never understood the pedals throught the RV50 debate. Once I got the RV50 never saw the need to have a pedal. I only run a SansAmp through it to get that Blackface tone through the clean channel that you can't get with a Fender unless you have one of the originals or you have very understand neighbors.

I found that pedals on the dirty channel only messed up a good thing.

No I wouldn't wanna run pedals through the dirty channel. I don't like to do that. But I do like different flavors of OD and distortion

[koclem]

FWIW I have a TV200 and my distortion pedals make it sound like crap, amp distortion sounds amazing however...

[Woodsie]

Never understood the pedals throught the RV50 debate. Once I got the RV50 never saw the need to have a pedal. I only run a SansAmp through it to get that Blackface tone through the clean channel that you can't get with a Fender unless you have one of the originals or you have very understand neighbors.

I found that pedals on the dirty channel only messed up a good thing.

I agree. My RV has all the OD tone I need. My MXR 10 band eq in the loop is also a great tool on this amp.

[jesperbc]

Until recently I owned an AD30, which I became very dissatisfied with after both my Blackstar HT-Dist and Wampler Plextortion sounded awful through it. I traded it in for a TH100 after having tried it, and I mentioned my problem to the guy that sold it to me.

He told me that many distortion pedals don't really sound good if you run them through a amp/channel with a built-in gain circuit, since the gain from the amp will mix with the gain from the pedal and make the pedals fizz instead of roar. I tried out my Plextortion on a Vox AC30 and it roared like the Marshall JCM800 it's supposed to, but on my AD30 it just fizzed and boomed. I have yet to try it with my TH100, but will report back I've tried it out. The TH100 has a clean channel with no gain circuit, so the only way to make it overdrive, is to crank it... Lemme get back to you.

[Orangesoda]

Until recently I owned an AD30, which I became very dissatisfied with after both my Blackstar HT-Dist and Wampler Plextortion sounded awful through it. I traded it in for a TH100 after having tried it, and I mentioned my problem to the guy that sold it to me.

He told me that many distortion pedals don't really sound good if you run them through a amp/channel with a built-in gain circuit, since the gain from the amp will mix with the gain from the pedal and make the pedals fizz instead of roar. I tried out my Plextortion on a Vox AC30 and it roared like the Marshall JCM800 it's supposed to, but on my AD30 it just fizzed and boomed. I have yet to try it with my TH100, but will report back I've tried it out. The TH100 has a clean channel with no gain circuit, so the only way to make it overdrive, is to crank it... Lemme get back to you.

Great! In the meantime I have other ideas for my rig

[Woodsie]

I guess bottom line, if you're a pedal guy, Orange amps aren't neccesarily for you. There are a lot of guys out there that get all their different tones, OD's, Dist from pedals. There's nothing wrong with that at all, just not what Orange was built for. That's probably why you almost never see a pedal demo through an Orange. Usually they use Fender, Dr Z or Marshall.

[Orangesoda]

I guess bottom line, if you're a pedal guy, Orange amps aren't neccesarily for you. There are a lot of guys out there that get all their different tones, OD's, Dist from pedals. There's nothing wrong with that at all, just not what Orange was built for. That's probably why you almost never see a pedal demo through an Orange. Usually they use Fender, Dr Z or Marshall.

I like all types of sounds. An Orange happens to be one of them and the one I like the most. But I started a new thread with what I'm thinking of going with

[jason41224]

As much as I love Orange, there are much better pedal platforms out there. That's why PGS uses a Fender DRRI almost exclusively. I retubed an 94 Crate Stealth Gt head for a friend of mine a couple of weeks ago. Worst OD channel I've ever heard. But, every OD and Dist pedal I own, that I no longer use, sounded superb through its clean channel. You never know.

see, i'm a pedal guy and i can't stand DRRis. i'm just not a fender guy. the bass is flubby, the highs are shrill, and the midrange is nonexistent (EQ non-withstanding, that's those amp's "sweet spot). i've discovered i'm more of a JTM-sound kind of guy, and i think the Rocker sort of gets in that ballpark in terms of frequencies...though not dynamically. it's got tight bass (unlike a fender) that's still present (unlike a vox), and highs that aren't shrill (unlike either of them) but still chimey and clear. the mids just mean that you can't use a TS type drives that boost excessive mids around 700hz for everything (like one might with a fender), or use totally transparent drives like a timmy for everything (like with voxes), but rather you get to sample from both camps for different sounds. i much prefer it.

[jesperbc]

I guess bottom line, if you're a pedal guy, Orange amps aren't neccesarily for you. There are a lot of guys out there that get all their different tones, OD's, Dist from pedals. There's nothing wrong with that at all, just not what Orange was built for. That's probably why you almost never see a pedal demo through an Orange. Usually they use Fender, Dr Z or Marshall.

I tried my various dirt pedals in front of my TH100 last night, and they all sound great going in the front of the amp's clean channel. It's a huge improvement over the fizzy sounds that came from some of them when they went into my AD30. Mind you, I've not changed any of the settings noticably.

The Plextortion roared just the way it did when I tried it out at the shop on a Vox AC30 reissue.
The Big Muff was thick and had that awesome violin-like sustain that I love about fuzz pedals (gotta get a couple more!).
The Tubescream was actually the only pedal that I didn't like, but that stems more from the fact that I've come to find the TS overdrive to be too flat for my taste. I might consider selling it and get a Mad Professor Little Green Wonder instead - it has more bass and an overall wider tonal range.

But I gotta say, with the Shape knob on the TH100, I find that the Plextortion is kind of redundant in my board, since setting the Shape knob at 9 o' clock releases a RAWK N' ROLL RAAAAWRRR that sounds even better than what I can coax from the Plextortion. The Plextortion retains its place in my board, due to it's vintage/modern switch and it's 3-band EQ. The vintage mode is a great alternative to the roar of the TH100 dirty channel, as long as the Shape knob is on the left side. On the right side it just gets too metal for my taste.

I'm running my TH100 with 2 output tubes bypassed, so it runs at 50 watt - that's already way too loud for my rehearsal space, but it sounds just right as I've dialed it right now. If you're looking for a varied dirty channel and a good clean channel, I would recommend the TH30/TH100, on the basis that it takes dirt pedals really well. In my experience...

[Woodsie]

That probably explains the reason why I said there are almost no pedal demos through Orange amps. I saw a Way Huge Green Rhino demo through a TH30 and it sounded really good.

[TESLA_EL34]

Never understood the pedals throught the RV50 debate. Once I got the RV50 never saw the need to have a pedal. I only run a SansAmp through it to get that Blackface tone through the clean channel that you can't get with a Fender unless you have one of the originals or you have very understand neighbors.

I found that pedals on the dirty channel only messed up a good thing.

I agree. My RV has all the OD tone I need. My MXR 10 band eq in the loop is also a great tool on this amp.

many players want different distortions, for some songs i prefer a more sharp and tight distortion, for some it should be fuzzy...
its just the way it works for most people. i agree the orange od tone is amazing but for me it gets a bit boring if i use it the whole set.

but that i just the way it is for me. i like pedals a lot if you use them right. orange amps arent good pedal platforms.
u will be ashmed how much better the pedals sound through an hiwatt, vox normal channel, marshall set clean or fender/ampeg amp.

[Orangesoda]

Never understood the pedals throught the RV50 debate. Once I got the RV50 never saw the need to have a pedal. I only run a SansAmp through it to get that Blackface tone through the clean channel that you can't get with a Fender unless you have one of the originals or you have very understand neighbors.

I found that pedals on the dirty channel only messed up a good thing.

I agree. My RV has all the OD tone I need. My MXR 10 band eq in the loop is also a great tool on this amp.

many players want different distortions, for some songs i prefer a more sharp and tight distortion, for some it should be fuzzy...
its just the way it works for most people. i agree the orange od tone is amazing but for me it gets a bit boring if i use it the whole set.

but that i just the way it is for me. i like pedals a lot if you use them right. orange amps arent good pedal platforms.
u will be ashmed how much better the pedals sound through an hiwatt, vox normal channel, marshall set clean or fender/ampeg amp.

Yes I love the Orange distortion. Have to have it. I actually did have a Marshall DSL 100 and the pedals didn't have any balls. Sounded thin. Had a Fender Hot Rod Deville and they sounded pretty good through that one. Still prefer the way they sound through the TT better. They sound big and thick.

I started another thread in which I state I'm going to use a Deluxe Reverb in my setup for cleans and an Orange for dirt. Maybe TT, Rocker 30 maybe TH30. Still need to try out Rocker and TH.