Anyone have suggestions for distortion pedal that sounds like Eagles guitar distortion.
Which effects pedal?
I am using a Fender Twin Reverb (reissue) and I was told that the Tube Screamer is made for a guitar input amp (without effects loop).
Anyone have suggestions for distortion pedal that sounds like Eagles guitar distortion.
Anyone have suggestions for distortion pedal that sounds like Eagles guitar distortion.
# 1
A Tubescreamer would work great with a twin. Sorry if I am reading a misunderstanding where there is none, but what your friend might have meant is that an overdrive pedal, like a Tubescreamer, would normally go between your guitar and the guitar input on the amp. The effects loop is generally used for other effects, like delay, phaser, etc.
Sorry, can't help with a specific Eagles style of overdrive, but you could get some great SRV with a TS & a Twin :)
Sorry, can't help with a specific Eagles style of overdrive, but you could get some great SRV with a TS & a Twin :)
...so ever since then, I always hang on to the buckle.
# 2
I would say that the Tubescreamer would be a good play in this case. Fender Twin Reverbs are great amps for clean tones. They are just very hard to push into overdrive without getting VERY loud. The lack of a master volume doesn't help you out in that case...
There are tons and tons of overdrives out on the market. The Tubescreamer just happens to be the most widely used one. I'm sure Johnny Winters has one or something very similar on his pedal board.
You might want to check out the MXR Custom Bad Ass Modified OD. I have one on my pedal board and it's a versatile little pedal. It does the same thing as a Tubescreamer but it has some nice EQ options that allow you to shape your tone a little more. I am pretty pleased with it. It's also pretty inexpensive. I don't use a lot of OD... I'm more of a Fuzz guy but I like that pedal quite a bit.
There are tons and tons of overdrives out on the market. The Tubescreamer just happens to be the most widely used one. I'm sure Johnny Winters has one or something very similar on his pedal board.
You might want to check out the MXR Custom Bad Ass Modified OD. I have one on my pedal board and it's a versatile little pedal. It does the same thing as a Tubescreamer but it has some nice EQ options that allow you to shape your tone a little more. I am pretty pleased with it. It's also pretty inexpensive. I don't use a lot of OD... I'm more of a Fuzz guy but I like that pedal quite a bit.
# 3
All really good advice given. For the "Eagles" style of distortion, I think I know what you mean.. its a fairly bright tone, and not too heavy on the amount of distortion or length of sustain... are you thinking of stuff like "Life in the Fast Lane"? If so, keep in mind that back in those days, they would get a lot of their "distortion" or "overdrive" for recording by simply turning up a quality tube amp as loud as it needs to be in order to get a nice, "clean" overdrive sound. I know "clean" doesn't make much sense, but what I mean is, its not this "wall of amps" howling lead sound. Its crisp and each note is relatively easy to hear.
I think its hard for many players now to appreciate just how different playing through a hard driven amp is compared to pedals or especially "amp simulators". The real thing is subtle, but distinctly different. Kind of like when you rent a movie, and you can tell it was shot on video, not film.
Good news though is that the pedals, amps and simulators available will do a really good job. For your pedal, I'd say keep the output quite high, but the amount of distortion fairly low. For amps, its finding that perfect blend of master gain/channel gain. If you keep the Master Gain really low, but roll the Channel Gain up high, the amp will over-drive, but probably too much... if so, roll back the Channel Gain and add more Master until you find the right mix. If you're working with an amp simulator, try looking for a Marshall JCM 50w preset, and play with that. You should be able to get pretty close.
I think its hard for many players now to appreciate just how different playing through a hard driven amp is compared to pedals or especially "amp simulators". The real thing is subtle, but distinctly different. Kind of like when you rent a movie, and you can tell it was shot on video, not film.
Good news though is that the pedals, amps and simulators available will do a really good job. For your pedal, I'd say keep the output quite high, but the amount of distortion fairly low. For amps, its finding that perfect blend of master gain/channel gain. If you keep the Master Gain really low, but roll the Channel Gain up high, the amp will over-drive, but probably too much... if so, roll back the Channel Gain and add more Master until you find the right mix. If you're working with an amp simulator, try looking for a Marshall JCM 50w preset, and play with that. You should be able to get pretty close.
# 4
With your specific amp, the Fender Twin Reverb, you don't have a master volume to be able to control the overall output in relationship to the channel output...
Something that players can do in this case is to use your guitars volume control as a Master volume contol over your amp's channel volume. There are still variables that may cause this to not work properly or you might see tone changes in the different volume levels using this type of control. For instance, when you turn your volume control on your guitar down you probably notice that the treble frequencies start to get rolled off a bit and at about the 3-5 range (assuming your knobs read 1-10) you notice a sharp decrease in output almost to no output at all. This is due to the type of potentiometers that guitar companies use on their volume controls. They use what is called an "audio taper" pot which is different than a normal tone or amp volume control pot which are called linear taper potentiometers. The difference being that the linear taper pot has an even frequency response through out its sweep. You will experience equal change in output from 10 down to 5 as you would from 5 down to 0. With audio taper pots the output decreases slightly from 10-7 then a little sharper decrease from 7-5 then it almost completely cuts the signal around 3 or 4.
This might be a bit more info than you need, but it's good stuff to know when you're starting to build up a pedal board it's important to have a good understanding of how all of the components of a rig work together and affect each other when certain knobs are turned. I don't know how many times I have dialed in a sweet tone while being a bit inebriated and never being able to get the knobs back to that tone again... Now, the more I understand the volume knobs, EQ knobs, pedal output levels, pedal gain levels, and the other various knobs and switches on my pedals and amps... the easier it is for me to get to the sound that I want without fumbling through tone hell before I stumble upon it.
For your amp, being a 2x12 combo 40 watts, I believe... I would suggest an overdrive pedal. Getting tube overdrive on a tube amp IS one of the cool things about owning a tube amp and many pro players prefer that tone, as the guy above me pointed out... But the Fender Twin Reverb amp was designed for clean tones... and it does that very very very well. You would have to get very loud with that amp in order to get it to overdrive... An OD pedal will get you the tone you want at no cost of permanent hearing loss and countless noise complaints.
Check out these OD's:
Fulltone OCD
MXR Modified OD
Ibanez Tubescreamer TS-808 (the original circuit... little more expensive but much more organic sounding)
BOSS Blues Driver
Those are just a few of the common OD's out there.
Something that players can do in this case is to use your guitars volume control as a Master volume contol over your amp's channel volume. There are still variables that may cause this to not work properly or you might see tone changes in the different volume levels using this type of control. For instance, when you turn your volume control on your guitar down you probably notice that the treble frequencies start to get rolled off a bit and at about the 3-5 range (assuming your knobs read 1-10) you notice a sharp decrease in output almost to no output at all. This is due to the type of potentiometers that guitar companies use on their volume controls. They use what is called an "audio taper" pot which is different than a normal tone or amp volume control pot which are called linear taper potentiometers. The difference being that the linear taper pot has an even frequency response through out its sweep. You will experience equal change in output from 10 down to 5 as you would from 5 down to 0. With audio taper pots the output decreases slightly from 10-7 then a little sharper decrease from 7-5 then it almost completely cuts the signal around 3 or 4.
This might be a bit more info than you need, but it's good stuff to know when you're starting to build up a pedal board it's important to have a good understanding of how all of the components of a rig work together and affect each other when certain knobs are turned. I don't know how many times I have dialed in a sweet tone while being a bit inebriated and never being able to get the knobs back to that tone again... Now, the more I understand the volume knobs, EQ knobs, pedal output levels, pedal gain levels, and the other various knobs and switches on my pedals and amps... the easier it is for me to get to the sound that I want without fumbling through tone hell before I stumble upon it.
For your amp, being a 2x12 combo 40 watts, I believe... I would suggest an overdrive pedal. Getting tube overdrive on a tube amp IS one of the cool things about owning a tube amp and many pro players prefer that tone, as the guy above me pointed out... But the Fender Twin Reverb amp was designed for clean tones... and it does that very very very well. You would have to get very loud with that amp in order to get it to overdrive... An OD pedal will get you the tone you want at no cost of permanent hearing loss and countless noise complaints.
Check out these OD's:
Fulltone OCD
MXR Modified OD
Ibanez Tubescreamer TS-808 (the original circuit... little more expensive but much more organic sounding)
BOSS Blues Driver
Those are just a few of the common OD's out there.
# 5
