Overdrive pedals for a Fender style amp

preston61 · April 2016

So I recently bought a Tone King Imperial and think it's awesome!!

Now sadly playing at home means I can't set the rhythm channel so that I get actual overdrive because it might destroy the windows!! I have been setting the channel as a 2nd clean with a bit more mids, but personally I prefer the clean sound and switching channel and switching a pedal on all st the same time is pretty tricky.

So i'm looking for what pedals people have liked with blackface fender style amps? I am using a Van Weelden for low gain/dumble style lead stuff and it sounds very special. I used a Timmy yesterday and in a live situation it just didn't cut through the mix at all. Great at what it does but I don't think transparent is going to work for me here.

Those that have used Imperials, your input would be much appreciated.

swlabr · April 2016

A mate of mine had a Tone King Imperial mk2 so we had a go at some of my overdrives as he had the same problem as you at home volumes and asked for my help as he had never been a pedal guy.

We used his CS62 strat with stock pickups and afterwards with Klein pickups. Out of curiosity we both prefered the stock pickups.

Our favourite pedals were (not in order of preference): Blue Note, Über Bee and Little Green Wonder. All were especially articulate and sensitive to pick attack.

Edit: iirc he also liked the prince of tone. I wasn't so keen on that one.

DefaultM · April 2016

I'm using a thorpyfx gunshot. Genuinely really good, and not just because he's on the forum haha. You can get loads of different tones from a bit of grit to a full lead sound.

preston61 · April 2016

Cheers guys, my only guitar is a Fender nocaster, if that helps with the suggestions

darcym · April 2016

Wampler Black 65, Lovepedal Super 6, would work well with your setup, they are basically black face overdrive circuits, stick them in front of a fender voiced amp and they sound great. (the wampler black 65 sounds really good with Tele's for some reason)

you could use a klon KTR which are now affordable in a bit of a different way, actually turn the gain up on it, rather than having it low as most people do, works very nice in front of a Fender amp.

the JHS twin twelve (it's called twin but has nothing to do with Fender twin) works really well at various gain levels in front of a good fender voiced amp.

Keeley Katana Blues Drive (not the Katana boost) very very nice in front of a Fender voiced amp, again various gain levels.

These will all work really well for you based on your description, all slightly different. I've got all of these pedals and put them in front of a few Fender voiced amps and they work great, it's not an in theory test, it's stuff I've personally tried. Based on the tests I've done The Wampler black 65 with a tele was just a superb and natural Fender driven sound, with a good range of gain available, (the exact setup was a Dr Z EGZ50 with 4 x 10 open backed Celestion gold cab with the Black 65 going into the front) just excellent telecaster based sound, probably the best tele rig I've played through....maybe.

i found the lovepedal was better with a strat and Keeley Katana Blues driver was quite a neutral over drive (I believe it's based on the boss blues driver 2 keeley mods and then enhanced some more) worked great into a few Fender amps.

AxeWieldingBastard · April 2016

No experience of the amp you have, but i was going to suggest trying a Fairfield Barbershop as it's quite subtle and does that low gain/ pre amo booster type thing quite well and it's currently my answer to everything. But, it is transparent. You could always throw in an eq?

preston61 · April 2016

darcym said:

Wampler Black 65, Lovepedal Super 6, would work well with your setup, they are basically black face overdrive circuits, stick them in front of a fender voiced amp and they sound great. (the wampler black 65 sounds really good with Tele's for some reason)

you could use a klon KTR which are now affordable in a bit of a different way, actually turn the gain up on it, rather than having it low as most people do, works very nice in front of a Fender amp.

the JHS twin twelve (it's called twin but has nothing to do with Fender twin) works really well at various gain levels in front of a good fender voiced amp.

Keeley Katana Blues Drive (not the Katana boost) very very nice in front of a Fender voiced amp, again various gain levels.

These will all work really well for you based on your description, all slightly different. I've got all of these pedals and put them in front of a few Fender voiced amps and they work great, it's not an in theory test, it's stuff I've personally tried. Based on the tests I've done The Wampler black 65 with a tele was just a superb and natural Fender driven sound, with a good range of gain available, (the exact setup was a Dr Z EGZ50 with 4 x 10 open backed Celestion gold cab with the Black 65 going into the front) just excellent telecaster based sound, probably the best tele rig I've played through....maybe.

i found the lovepedal was better with a strat and Keeley Katana Blues driver was quite a neutral over drive (I believe it's based on the boss blues driver 2 keeley mods and then enhanced some more) worked great into a few Fender amps.

Thanks for all the options and real world feedback there mate, lots to investigate.

AxeWieldingBastard said:

No experience of the amp you have, but i was going to suggest trying a Fairfield Barbershop as it's quite subtle and does that low gain/ pre amo booster type thing quite well and it's currently my answer to everything. But, it is transparent. You could always throw in an eq?

Thanks for the suggestion fella but I don't really want to buy a pedal only to have to buy another pedal to make it sound how I want, and the Timmy does transparent in spades

mike_l · April 2016

Juansolo Blackface 65.

Mine is now with @Jookychap ;

Fannytastic low-mid gain drive, with a Fender flavour.

Gassage · April 2016

@preston61

BK Tube Driver. Utterly sensational with the Imperial.

Make sure to get the 4 knobbed or 5 knobbed version. (cue witty remark)

preston61 · April 2016

Gassage said:

@preston61

BK Tube Driver. Utterly sensational with the Imperial.

Make sure to get the 4 knobbed or 5 knobbed version. (cue witty remark)

Do all the BK Butler pedals have to be powered by their own kettle leads? Would prefer to power everything from the Voodoo Labs 4x4

Gassage · April 2016

All 240v matey, but if you get an IEC Male end you can put into 4x4.

I have the rack version now. It's amazing.

JezWynd · April 2016

Check out Barber Gain Changer and Direct Drive. Both work really well with Tele single coils into Fender 6V6 amps. The Direct Drive will give a Marshallesque tone to the drive while the Gain Changer is more Country sounding (in a very good way).

BluesyDave · April 2016

I really like the Prince of Tone through my Princeton, and you might want to look at the Kalamazoo.

meltedbuzzbox · April 2016

As always I'm gonna say Nobels ODR-1

equalsql · April 2016

If you are playing single-coils then I would definitely recommend you check out the Emma Stinkbug. It seems to have been built for Telecasters into Fender amps.

NotNowJohn · April 2016

Providence Stampede or Free The Tone SOV-2. Both brilliant with Fender-style amps.

MrSwanson · April 2016

Peacekeeper!

preston61 · April 2016

Have gone with the riff rocker that is the ThorpyFX Gunshot, but should that not work out I will using this list as a guide line

BintyTwanger77 · April 2016

@preston61 Very interested in this thread as well, as I'm getting a 65 DRRI this week.

preston61 · April 2016

BintyTwanger77 said:

@preston61 Very interested in this thread as well, as I'm getting a 65 DRRI this week.

You'll need to find a pedal that can reduce treble fella as those amps can be really bright. The Timmy would be great for you as the treble knob reduces the frequency

stefken147 · April 2016

Try the Buffalo FX TD-X if you're thinking of going the tube driver route.

Howdy, Stranger!

Categories

In this Discussion

Become a Subscriber!

Overdrive pedals for a Fender style amp

Comments