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Heritage Owners Club

Stacking Pedals


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When I find myself not having the time to play, I like to catch up on gear and ideas on YouTube.

I started following JHS Pedals Channel... Josh is a rather unique pedal builder that gives a lot of props to his competitors and lots of good advice on pedal usage.

While not a recent video, I found one in which he talks about stacking overdrive/distortion/fuzz and/or boost pedals.

I primarily use a Digitech Bad Monkey as my preferred OD pedal.  I've used a few others before, but I've been drawn to use this one for the past 10 years.  Probably the oldest pedal I have on the board.

After watching the JHS video of stacking pedals, I dug out my rather inexpensive Electro-Harmonix LPB-1 Nano.  I bought this years ago when I bought my Traynor Guitarmate 4.  It really pushed the OD tones of that amp.  After I parted ways with the amp, I tossed this pedal in a box and forgot about it.

Last night, I put the pedal on the board in front of the Bad Monkey.  

Whoa!  What a sound.  Mixed with the Bad Monkey, the sustain is killer and the saturated overtones really stand out crisp and clear.  I've come so close to buying more overdrive and distortion pedals when all along, I had the tone I was looking for in my pile of junk.

Just incredible!

For reference, here's the video:

 

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Wow! That dude has a lot of pedals!

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I would love a show called “gear hoarders .” I might be inspired to buy more gear in order to feel better about myself.

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1 hour ago, rwinking said:

I would love a show called “gear hoarders .” I might be inspired to buy more gear in order to feel better about myself.

I can imagine a few here would be among the gear hoarders. Would a base of half a dozen guitars and half a dozen amps quality?

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6 minutes ago, TalismanRich said:

I get tickled when I read TGP and a guy says that he's got 20 Strats or 15 Les Pauls.   I don't get the idea of having 20 of the same thing.    I might have a dozen guitars, but there's variety in them.  

I agree.  Every guitar I have is different and serves a different purpose.

I think I need more amps though... ?

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3 hours ago, rockabilly69 said:

that's a start!  Actually I would be considered a gear hoarder as I like to try new rigs but i hate selling stuff.

I must confess I'm beyond that point. I have a nice balance of guitars. Four with humbuckers and four with P-90s, and a pair of acoustics, and pair of basses. Better keep the numbers even. Eight amps should be enough too. 64 combinations. Even Steven.

 

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Just for the record we were not, I say not really big fans of horrible fuzz. We were listening to cranked Fender twins (Johnny Winter played through 2 Twins, one stacked on top of the other, that's 170 tube watts thru 4 JBL D120s) Marshall stacks and walls of Sunn amps (the great Jimi Hendricks). No transistor fuzz boxes just gobs of tubes... cranked.

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I don't know about that, Pressure.    Jimi used a Fuzz Face AND the wall of amps.     There were lots of people who used fuzz in those days, including me.  Jeff Beck,  Keith RIchards,  Norman Greenbaum.   They all used fuzz in those days.   

Going back and listening today,  I'm more of a fan of OD than fuzz.   Give me a Tube Screamer over a Fuzz Face or Big Muff any day.  

 

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I saw Beck, Richards, Jimi, Townsend, Winter, Blue Cheer, Ten Years After and many more live, No fuzz boxes, just lots of very loud amps. At some point some of them may have selectively used effects (Keith Richards, Satisfaction) but it was not their "sound". I have no idea who Norman Greenbaum is. The only Fuzz box available then was the Maestro built by Gibsons.

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Eric Claptons brown sound.

Clapton worked his amps by pushing them to their limits. In John Mayall & the Blues Breakers, he was using a Marshall Bluesbreaker — a JTM-45 combo amp. ... The distortion you hear on the “Beano” record and Clapton's other 1960s recordings is from the amp being cranked.

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Keith used the fuzz on Satisfaction.  Norman Greenbaum used a fuzz on Spirit in the Sky.   Jeff Beck used a Tonebender on Over Under Sideways Down  and Heart Full of Soul.  Iron Butterfly used a lot of fuzz.  Strawberry Alarm Clock used one on Incense and Peppermints.  

It was well known that Jimi used the fuzz face.   Here was his Woodstock Rig

image.png.bed3aa096f1b9f7a1af50ceb70cfaf96.png

 

  • A 1968 Fender Stratocaster

  • B Coiled Cable

  • VOX wah pedal

  • D  Dallas-Arbiter Fuzz Face

  • E Uni-Vibe with expression pedal

  • F Marshall 100w Superlead Plexi heads with 4×12 stacks

 

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Well your right Rich, Fuzz was used as I said selectively and rarely. When I saw Jeff Beck with the Yardbirds, The Jimi Hendricks Experience, The Rolling Stones in fact every band I saw live, No Fuzz, no effects of any kind. Just answering Ts original statement that nobody back then (60s) was a fan of Fuzz. The 70s, I'm not responsible for that. And just for the record I did have a Maestro Fuzz box, bought in I think 1964. The first one anybody had ever seen, maybe Chicago was a test market? Played it at band rehearsal once and when everybody stopped laughing I put it back in the box.

I still don't know who that Norman guy is.

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