Gain Boost on Dirty Channel? - RV50

[riggatron]

Good day--

I have a Rockerverb 50 that I absolutely love. I bought it a couple of years ago to replace an ailing Marshall JCM 900 (4100 model from the early '90s) as my main amp. While I find the Orange to be tonally superior to the JCM, there is one bit of functionality that I miss from the Marshall- which is a separate gain control for the clean channel. With that, I was able to get a nice tube crunch for my "clean" tone and then the classic Marshall distortion when I switched over to the lead channel.

With the Orange, the clean channel is so pristine, I can't get it to break up without cranking it up further than I want. I am not a fan of attenuators, so I do not consider that an option. So nowadays, I just use the dirty channel with the gain around noon as my clean/crunch and use a pedal for my heavier distortion.

My problem: all the distortion/OD pedals I have sound like garbage with it. I don't know if it is a function of the amp or the pedals I have, but there is clearly no headroom and it all just turns to mud- before the amp and in the FX loop. The pedals I have tried with it are: Fulltone GT500, EHX Big Muff Pi, and a ProCo Rat (from the 90's). These are all just pedals I have from previous rigs, and not anything I bought to specifically use with the RV50.

The Fulltone GT500 is what is currently in my pedalboard as it sounds the best of what I have, but the FET circuit doesn't really lend itself to the orange's tone (in my opinion).

Does anyone have any suggestions of pedals I could use for this gain boost without losing a lot of tone/clarity?

Many thanks and all the best.

[Belzebuth]

I use an Xotic RC booster in the front of the clean channel to push it to the breakup point. It's a Real Clean boost and it's like pushing the amp itself and keep its caracter, it feels "right" to me!

[riggatron]

Holy crap! I had no idea that these things existed- and that sounds exactly like what I am looking for. Upon a little research, it looks like TC electronics makes a similar pedal as well.

Jeez, you think that after playing guitar for 20 years, I'd have a good idea of what was out there- ha ha.

Thanks a lot- this looks like a great path to look down.

[Belzebuth]

just a link: http://www.bestguitareffects.com/xotic- ... ost-pedal/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[apocalypsedude]

I use to own a JCM900 Dual Reverb combo, upgraded to the Rocker 30 head. Like you I sorta miss the ability to dirty up the clean channel, I really liked being able to do that on the 900, dial a bit of reverb in on the clean channel w/ the gain up around half way, then keep the other channel dry and gained out. That amp also took my Fulltone Fatboost very well in the front end. However, the Rocker 30 I feel was a HUGE improvement in the overall character of the distortion compared to the JCM900, left it in the dust really. Been trying to do the same thing on the Rocker, dialing back the gain on the dirty channel for a "cleanish" tone then hitting it with pedals.

Have you tried a Fulltone OCD? Works well for me in conjunction w/ the Rocker's dirty channel, I usually set the lo/hi switch on the pedal to lo, keeps the noise level down.

I've been sorta interested in the Timmy lately, but never played one. Lots of people over on The Gear Page rave about it, its supposed to mesh really well w/ any amp, and not change the tone or the character of your amp, just give you more dirt. I think they cost about the same as an OCD, but availability seems to be rare.

Catalinbread also makes a bunch of "foundation" drive pedals, sorta similar to the RC Booster, one I've been interested in is the 5f6, supposed to be a Fender tweed Deluxe amp in a pedal, but able to get a lot dirtier.

[Boy_Narf]

Wampler Euphoria, Timmy, or Fulltone OCD?

I had the RC booster and ended up swapping it for the Euphoria. I don't regret it one bit.

[Les Paul Lover]

Let us know what you get and how it works for you. I have a RV50 too and a boost is something I'm looking at too. Considering making a clone of the zvex super hard on, lots a kits available online. The microamp too sounds tempting.

[saturnine]

I use a MI Audio Blues Pro - as a boost for the drive channel on my RV50 and as light overdrive for the clean channel. It suits me and my preferences pretty good and I always recommend it to other guitarists. It's best described as a fatter sounding Tubescreamer , but you won't know if it fits your style unless you try it, of course

/J

[Spaceboy1]

I use an Xotic RC booster in the front of the clean channel to push it to the breakup point. It's a Real Clean boost and it's like pushing the amp itself and keep its caracter, it feels "right" to me!

I have been trying to use a couple different clean boosts in the front of an RV50 and it's not causing breakup, it's into increasing volume, as it would if it was in the loop. I have a TC Spark Booster which is similar to the Xotic RC. If I crank the gain knob there's an unpleasant high end, not breakup from the amplifier. How are you getting the RC to work?

[Bensnake]

Try the Exotic BB preamp instead.

[Woodsie]

Try the Exotic BB preamp instead.

That. The AC or RC Boosters as well. All Xotic pedals are really good.

[Spaceboy1]

I'm looking more towards a Wampler Black 65 at the moment. I don't need much gain like a BB Preamp, and the one chance I had to fool around with one (through AC30) it didn't really impress me. I have an EP Booster on almost all the time. How's the RC different than the Spark Booster? It has almost the same features other than the Fat/Mid switch, and most reviews prefer the Spark. It just doesn't work well on the RV clean channel. I only want to add a little sparkle and light gain, not total overdrive.

[Woodsie]

there's not really much you're going to be able to do to the RV50's clean channel to get any kind of overdrive. at least in my opinion. It just stays too clean and doesn't really play well with OD pedals. I had more luck driving the OD channel with a pedal to get more gain. Other's opinions may vary, but that's what I found.

[mattg2321]

Hey there, I just got a RV50 Combo and came over from an old Laney which was a 30W and the clean channel was a compromise and never cleaned up 100%. The amp in general was pretty muddy (clean and dirty) and the dirty channel never saw much use. I used to clean up the clean channel as far as it would go and then add drive pedals up front for the dirt. Changing over to the RV50 was pretty extreme as the clean channel is truly pristine. It kind of magnifies the imperfections in the dirt going in.

I had used a Mooer Green Mile (TS clone which pushed fuzz pedals well) and with the RV50 the OD just sounded really thin and fizzy. I just got hold of a Mooer Rumble Drive (low gain Zendrive clone) and found it massively better than the TS clone (I'm not pushing Mooer just the pedal size matched and made the swap easy to the Rumble Drive and I couldn't stand the TS clones fizz anymore). It seems that there are a lot of people who really like the OCD and I want to give that a go at some stage and see how it works with the clean channel, however the Zendrive clone works for now. The pedal is kind of rounded and somewhat transparent, it is in no way a massive gain push, it just adds a nice amount of push and dirt. I also found that it really goes well with the mod effects that are in the effects loop also. It gave them this sparkle and sounded so different from the old set up I had been using.

It works with the dirty channel for a bit of a bump, though you have to roll the amp gain off to before noon to get any definition from the pedals. I found driving an op amp Big Muff clone with the OD into the cleaned up dirty channel works pretty well. Gives you 3 layers of drive. For a cheap trial, give the Rumble Drive a go, I didn't expect much and was pleasantly surprised and it played well with the clean channel too.

[ngocthuc08290]

You can refer to here: http://playyourbeat.com/category/guitars/