Pedal friendly amps

professorben

Ok so we hear the above term used quite a bit. 
But does it only relate to drive/gain pedals? 
Have you ever found a phaser that doesn't work with an amp?
or a delay that kills in one rig but sucks in another? 

JezWynd

I found that my Phasers (DOD 201 and Boss PH-1) didn't work well with an Excelsior amp, could hardly hear the effect. Using a Laney Cub 10 into the same 15" speaker and they worked fine. Haven't got a clue why that would be.

professorben

JezWynd said:

I found that my Phasers (DOD 201 and Boss PH-1) didn't work well with an Excelsior amp, could hardly hear the effect. Using a Laney Cub 10 into the same 15" speaker and they worked fine. Haven't got a clue why that would be.

Interesting. That's exactly what I mean. 

Grunfeld

There are amps, and there are pedals.
Some amps are friendly with some pedals.
Some amps are friendly with some other pedals.

This is how I own so many other other pedals.

ToneControl

pedal friendly amp?
that would be one that's clean enough to not kill the pedal, I would have thought

Matchless DC30 cleanish
Dumble clone , Mayer-style, cleanish

some twins and I assume Deluxe reverbs
Hiwatt

pintspiller

I find my Sound City 50+ sounds great with pedals at bedroom volumes

professorben

Grunfeld said:

There are amps, and there are pedals.
Some amps are friendly with some pedals.
Some amps are friendly with some other pedals.

This is how I own so many other other pedals.

Yes but which pedals do you find cause the most awkward combinations?

professorben

ToneControl said:

pedal friendly amp?
that would be one that's clean enough to not kill the pedal, I would have thought

Matchless DC30 cleanish
Dumble clone , Mayer-style, cleanish

some twins and I assume Deluxe reverbs
Hiwatt

Yes but if o took that to the 'nth degree then a flat PA would be the best pedal platform?
to my mind the natural compression and tone of the pre amp causes all that lovely drive and complexity, BUT. Is that not compromising elsewhere with modulation and time based fx?

professorben

pintspiller said:

I find my Sound City 50+ sounds great with pedals at bedroom volumes

What about when you turn the wick up?

pintspiller

A.clean/PA-Style amp will reproduce the new exact sound of your pedal(s). Some pedals do not appear to work/like other pedals (ie some don't like buffered pedals before/after, etc

professorben

pintspiller said:

A.clean/PA-Style amp will reproduce the new exact sound of your pedal(s). Some pedals do not appear to work/like other pedals (ie some don't like buffered pedals before/after, etc

Yes but the exact sound of the pedals is rarely desirable in drive/gain tones, it's the shaping of the pre amp that gives the nice tones, but what about what it's doing to the other pedals in the chain

p90fool

ToneControl said:

pedal friendly amp?
that would be one that's clean enough to not kill the pedal, I would have thought

some twins and I assume Deluxe reverbs

I find these two to be very picky about drive pedals in particular, almost an electric guitar plugged into a hifi type of sound.

thomasross20

I'm not saying just because I consider(ed) getting one, but everybody seems to say the Victory V40 takes pedals really well? 

Sassafras

I find no amps respond well to chorus pedals.

Have you guessed I hate chorus?

professorben

Sassafras said:

I find no amps respond well to chorus pedals.

Have you guessed I hate chorus?

Ha ha, me too, but I think it's the player not the amp, I'm less hating on the chorus if I put it into the front, it's a bit less 'hi-fi' and sweet.

professorben

thomasross20 said:

I'm not saying just because I consider(ed) getting one, but everybody seems to say the Victory V40 takes pedals really well? 

Exactly what I'm talking about, people say it takes pedals well, but what pedals?
i have an Avid 11r which has models of all the usual suspects ( Rat,TS,Muff etc)
and I find I much prefer the Rat and Muff models to the real thing.
its rare anyone says " yeah tried a BassBreaker the other day, sounded great with my CarbonCopy but sucked with the DD7"
its almost always drive pedals people refer to when describing how 'friendly' an amp is to pedals.

ToneControl

I think complex time-based FX sound pretty crappy with dirtier amps
you know, Big sky, etc
Best on an FX loop  I guess for those FX

I think all the FX loops I've tried damaged the tone , even when using a Kleinulator, but I am  more inclined to use a boutique amp with no pedals than most people

some ODs need a dirtier amp to round off their  spikiness

I think you'd need to subdivide types of pedal before saying which amps  work well:
e.g. an ultra clean Low-power  Tweed twin will take  all delay FX, compressors and mellow OD well, but not  a  fuzz box (I assume)

professorben

ToneControl said:

I think complex time-based FX sound pretty crappy with dirtier amps
you know, Big sky, etc
Best on an FX loop  I guess for those FX

I think all the FX loops I've tried damaged the tone , even when using a Kleinulator, but I am  more inclined to use a boutique amp with no pedals than most people

some ODs need a dirtier amp to round off their  spikiness

I think you'd need to subdivide types of pedal before saying which amps  work well:
e.g. an ultra clean Low-power  Tweed twin will take  all delay FX, compressors and mellow OD well, but not  a  fuzz box (I assume)

This.
its something that piqued my curiosity after reading something on Gilmourish.com
Bjorn ( the guy running it and excellent guitarist with prog rock outfit Airbag) mentioned that F style amps give a less pronounced sound to Phaser/Flanger/Chorus as the lower mids give less emphasis on the sweep, but M style Amps are more extreme in the effects, he also mentioned that delay repeats often get in the way less on F style over M style again due to the mids.......