Hey guys,
I was wondering if anyone on here is using a clean blend overdrive or distortion and if they could explain to me the purpose of doing this. I know bass players like to do it to add low end back into their distorted tone and help cut through the mix but is this still necessary as a guitar player? I primarily use transparent ODs (a Klone and Fairfield Barbershop) and occasionally some very high gain tones and thought I'd be able to blend my clean tone in with these with a Boss Line Selector, but would it be worth it? Apparently it's also quite difficult to set the blend right as it differs depending on the acoustics of the room...
Cheers
Comments
The main problem with balance is that overdrive naturally compresses the signal. If the clean part is just a straight though then the attack and decay can sound completely different to the driven part. Often the clean attack is louder than the driven part, but then the clean decays faster too.
The Boss LS2 is great for adding compression to the clean part of the signal as a compressor pedal can be used on the clean side and not the driven side. Then just set the compressor so the note behaves the same way for each part.
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I'd imagine it's similar with a normal od. I've only tried a sparkle drive and with any cleans it sounded pants.
I've yet to find a pedal where it sounds good.
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I've never heard it sound good any other time either - at least without using two completely separate amps for the clean and dirty sounds, which does work OK for some reason.
For some reason it does sound OK with bass, although I think I still prefer a straight overdrive/fuzz sound with enough EQ to beef the bottom end up again.
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I sgree with @ICBM about the Sparkle Drive - the issue for me was that the 'drive' side of it sounds so poor - there was never a chance that the blended sounds would work well.
"Take these three items, some WD-40, a vise grip, and a roll of duct tape. Any man worth his salt can fix almost any problem with this stuff alone." - Walt Kowalski
"Only two things are infinite - the universe, and human stupidity. And I'm not sure about the universe." - Albert Einstein
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In a klone such as the VFE Merman, though, the external controls allow one to adjust this manually.
p.s.
Going back to your original post...
I feel a clean blend with a transparent overdrive would be of limited benefit. I feel a clean blend is more useful when using higher gain dirt and/or with dirt of a certain EQ characteristic.
(Look at the Voodoo Lab Sparkle Drive pedal - it's a TS clone with an external clean blend control.)
I like the idea of parallel signal paths and being able to blend different dirt effects.
Effects for Me & my Monkey YouTube channel Facebook Fretboard's "resident pedal supremo" - mgaw
You need a boss ls-2.
The sparkle drive is utter wank!