Need a "third channel" on my Rockerverb 100

[David Verb]

Hi community forum,

I play modern progressive rock, and I would like to achieve three diverse sounds.

Clean, clean on the verge of breakup (or that dirty texas sound) & moderate hi gain (like a steak done medium well. hehe).

My Rockerverb 100 offers me all of these tones, however, I can only have two dialled in at once (at moderate SPL's... I am aware that I can crank the clean channel and use my volume pot to clean up my humbuckers, however, I have neighbours too).

A simple solution to my problem, would be an overdrive pedal on my clean channel. Problem is, I have 3, and IMHO they sound shite.

The pedals in question are a MI Audio Tubezone (which is an 18V monster with tonnes of headroom), MI Audio Blues Pro & MXR Zak Wylde Overdrive.

Is it just my ears or does the Rockerverb dislike O/D pedals?

I will use the Tubezone as an example. Plugged into my abused and cheap solid state Ashton GA100 amplifier, using the diverse settings on my Tubezone, I can develop a fat flubby hi gain distortion. But using the same settings on my pedal transferred to the Rockerverb... it's just not the same magic, the tone is biting and almost thin.

What would be the solution to my problem? Anyone here have a sweet O/D that sings tone through the Rockerverb, should I look at clean boost's... Or should I just suck it up, purchase a tiny terror and use an A/B selector!!! Hehe.

Regards, David.

P.S. I may be a new member, but I have been silently following this forum for quite some time. Glad to officially be a part of the Orange community!

P.P.S. For those who are curious my signal chain is as follows... I tried to fit it in my signature, but it wouldn't fit in the word limit! hehe.

Guitars
Yamaha RGX420S (Ash body with Seymour Duncan Jazz Neck and JB Bridge)
Fender Showmaster (Mahogany body with Seymour Duncan Jazz Neck and JB Bridge)
(one day I will buy a PRS... *sigh*)

Pedals
MI Audio Pollyanna -> MI Audio Blues Pro Overdrive -> Korg Tuner -> Subdecay Prometheus -> Boss Noise Suppressor -> MXR Zakk Wylde Overdrive -> MI Audio Tubezone -> Boss Compression Sustainer -> Boss Line Selector -> EHX Small Clone -> MXR EVH Phase 90 -> Boss Digital Delay -> MXR Carbon Copy -> EHX Holy Grail Plus.

Amp
Orange Rockerverb 100

Cabinet
PPC 412 HP 8

[jason41224]

a tubescreamer or an OCD might do the trick two really great sounding pedals. also check out the Visual Sound Open Road. it's overdrive with a flatter frequency range than say, a tubescreamer, which might be useful. there's plenty great dirtboxes out there, and i'm sure the RV would take it.

just one question though, you're running it through the loop, or in front? that might have something to do with why you're not satisfied with your current pedals.

the other thing i've found taht works for me (since i'm sorta in the same boat) is getting a compressor with an output control, and setting it for a slight boost. not only will the compressed signal push your tubes harder, the extra output would too. i leave mine on most of the time, but i take it off on my lead channel when i wanna get a medium-gain tone. works like a charm.

[OU818]

I use a Lovepedal Eternity Kanji on my Rocker 50 and it sounds mint.

However if you want clean on the verge of breakup I would more suggest a boost, maybe an MXR MicroAmp or a SHO.

[David Verb]

Hi guys,

Currently running all pedals in front of the amp. I had used my effects loop previously for my modulation, delays and reverbs. But for some reason my Boss DD3 wet signal would clip??? I don't use any effects on distortion so I put it all in the front. So much easier to set up, and I use less signal cable.

I have a boss CS-3 that I could use for what you are describing. But I feel slightly "overcompressed" when I use it on the clean channel. I was going to take it off the board, IMO the clean channel, has quite a compressed sound already.

I hadn't considered trying my compressor on the dirt channel yet though. Although I'm predicting a lot of noise for my current gain setting! haha. Might try turning the gain down and giving that a go.

All these pedals sound wicked, now to find where they are in stock.

Would I be hijacking my own thread if I was to ask, what signal chain you guys use? haha.

I am Australian, and good tone, comes far and few between here. I haven't met another Orange owner yet, so I have little comparisons to go by.

[indianDYsummer]

I just bought a fulltone OCD and it's an AWESOME pedal. I really like it a lot and I also think it would help you get what you need from your amp. Any quality clean boost should help though.

I would set the clean channel to clean. Then, I would either set your dirty channel to crunch and use your boost to get those higher gain tones, or set the dirty channel really dirty and use the boost on the clean channel to get your crunchy tone.

Actually, with a clean boost you should be able to get a 4 channel amp using it on both channels

[jason41224]

^i think it would be better to use it in the clean channel. just because, when you use a boost/od pedal, you're hearing the tone of that pedal, not the amp. if you buy an orange to hear that awesome overdrive, why ruin it by setting the gain low and using a boost? my 2c though. and +1 on the OCD. great pedal.

I have a boss CS-3 that I could use for what you are describing. But I feel slightly "overcompressed" when I use it on the clean channel. I was going to take it off the board, IMO the clean channel, has quite a compressed sound already.

I hadn't considered trying my compressor on the dirt channel yet though. Although I'm predicting a lot of noise for my current gain setting! haha. Might try turning the gain down and giving that a go.

All these pedals sound wicked, now to find where they are in stock.

Would I be hijacking my own thread if I was to ask, what signal chain you guys use? haha.

i don't like the CS-3 either, for that same reason-everything seems too squashed. there's no such thing as a transparent compression when it comes to that thing. i love mine-a Visual Sound Comp 66. it's very transparent, if you like, or really squishy, if you like that too. and it has a clean boost circuit built in, to do the trick that i described in my last post. you might wanna try that or something similar instead of your Boss.

and i can go through my signal chain, though i must admit i'm not an Orange owner...YET i'm literally $100 away from getting my R30 on Humbucker Music. in the meantime, i'm content to playing my friend's RV50 and trying out my stuff with that.

right now, i've got a Gibson Les Paul Standard running into a Korg Pitchblack, a Comp 66, Jekyll and Hyde (distortion side as my lead channel, overdrive set as a clean/treble boost), and a TC Electronic Nova Repeater in front of a 1989 Carvin X100B with EL34's. sounds okay, but i wouldn't mind getting rid of the JH and using only amp OD...i just don't like the sound of the Carvin's dirty channel, so i set it clean, which sounds gorgeous by itself. anyways, i'll be making some modifications to my chain in about two weeks when i get my orange!

[ironlung40]

I had a RV100 for a short week or so. I used the mxr microamp for the exact reason you posted. it works well. I still have a R30, and the microamp sounds good with it too. give one a shot....return it if you don't like it.

[bclaire]

I wouldn't be surprised if this worked:
http://www.butleraudio.com/tubedriver.php" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;



I just got a TC Electronics Nova Drive and the overdrive part seems to work well with my Orange, like another channel might...



BUT, I would try them with the clean channel, not an overdriven channel.

[baytamusic]

Microamp, or Danelectro Transparent Overdrive Version 1 (Timmy Copy) on the clean.

I personally use both pedals. I leave my Microamp on all the time though. I just think it makes amps sound better, a little more aggressive I guess.

[Le Chat Noir]

I wouldn't be surprised if this worked:
http://www.butleraudio.com/tubedriver.php" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Those pedals have always seemed incredibly overpriced to me! You can buy several top class overdrives for the cost of one of those units...

[Wendigo]

Instinct tells me you will get MUCH better results by using a drive pedal of some kind on the distortion channel of the amp. Set your clean to clean, the distortion to crunch (edge of breakup) and the drive to just a little bit of boost. That will drive the crunch sound into full-on distortion without getting too out of control in the feedback department.

[a.hun]

Hi community forum,

I play modern progressive rock, and I would like to achieve three diverse sounds.

Clean, clean on the verge of breakup (or that dirty texas sound) & moderate hi gain (like a steak done medium well. hehe).

My Rockerverb 100 offers me all of these tones, however, I can only have two dialled in at once (at moderate SPL's... I am aware that I can crank the clean channel and use my volume pot to clean up my humbuckers, however, I have neighbours too).

A simple solution to my problem, would be an overdrive pedal on my clean channel. Problem is, I have 3, and IMHO they sound shite.


What would be the solution to my problem? Anyone here have a sweet O/D that sings tone through the Rockerverb, should I look at clean boost's... Or should I just suck it up, purchase a tiny terror and use an A/B selector!!! Hehe.

Regards, David.

Hi David. Welcome!

I'd be surprised if this didn't work for you:
http://www.award-session.com/jd10.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Hugely versatile and great sounding piece of kit. I really wish someone other than BrianGT and myself would try them, but since they aren't 'boutique' (or expensive) nobody seems to think they are worth trying. Believe me they are!!!
http://forum.orangeamps.com/viewtopic.p ... hilit=jd10" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
http://forum.orangeamps.com/viewtopic.p ... 10#p499439" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Sold under the 'Morley' name in the US I believe.

I know I'm not totally mad, but it'd be nice if someone would just try one sometime and confirm that...


Andy.

[ironlung40]

Instinct tells me you will get MUCH better results by using a drive pedal of some kind on the distortion channel of the amp. Set your clean to clean, the distortion to crunch (edge of breakup) and the drive to just a little bit of boost. That will drive the crunch sound into full-on distortion without getting too out of control in the feedback department.

+1

This is exactly how I used my microamp on my RV100 when I had it, and how I currently use it on my rocker.

I don't like to use distortion pedals on my clean channels as I don't want a distortion pedals coloration. I use a transparent drive on my distortion channel to just increase the gain, but keep the amp's tone in tact as much as possible.

[DoctorJay]

Hi David, nice to see another Aussie here.

I have a TubeZone, but just a TT, not a RockerVerb.

However, the TubeZone is a complete bitch to dial in, and I tend to use my Boost n Buff v2 more.

With the TZ, try boosting the mids quite a bit, and running the gain less than half, perhaps down towards 9 o'clock, with the level fairly high. This will give you more of a mid boost than full on distortion, and probably work better into a slightly dirty rockerverb channel. It should push it into further distortion, with some compression and an increase in volume as well, but not as much as if you did it into a clean amp. You can tweak the character and tone knobs to taste. The other option is to use it on your clean channel, set up similarly, but probably with less actual level. Despite its huge gain range available, it runs slightly distorted quite well. I'd assume the Blues Pro would be dialed in similarly, but it has less gain overall. I'd have been better off with that I think.

Me I like the BnB 2, because at low gain, full volume it's a full range boost, as you increase the gain it becomes a treble boost, and you can tame the overall level with the level so you can get the treble boost without the most enormous volume jump. You should be able to dial in either of the two dirt boxes to do a similar thing.

You could try the guitargear.net.au forum. Michael Ibrahim is a regular on there, as is his main repair/builder guy.

[baytamusic]

I'd just stay away from anything that colors your sound if you like your tones already.