Has anyone ever done this with a dual drive...? (Simultaneous pre and post boost)

[stevejamsecono]

Alright, so this has been getting on my nerves lately and I need some help sorting out my neurosis here.

I'm on a seemingly unending dual drive search lately for my "lazy gigs" board and I keep running into the same issue. Most dual drives seem to focus on either identical sounds (KoT style) in both, or 'flatter" OD (BB or ODR1) being pushed by a clean or mid-boosty (TS, Klon) circuit to get a higher gain sound. My issue with this is the basics of gain-stacking here -- either your regular sound 'gets louder' with no coloration, or it 'gets gainier and EQ-focused' without a useful bump in volume. Frankly, I want both! I want that extra zazz in the tone AND I need it to get louder. Not only that, I want it without having to step on two different things to make that happen.

This seems like it'd be a useful functionality, so I'm sort of surprised no one has done it. A switch that activates both a pre-gain boost AND a post-gain clean boost to give you that bit of extra volume to fill in for the vocals during the solo? I imagine the pros do it with switchers or presets in modelers that achieve the same combination, but for the Pedaltrain Nano crowd like me to have it in a smallish-format pedal, it'd be a godsend.

Does anyone do this in pedal form? Is this an unreasonable ask from a pedal design standpoint?

[OffYourFace]

well what are the two sounds you want? like what is your favorite OD and your favorite boost? But yeah, switching systems are the best way to do this without compromise.

[fuzzjunkie]

I tried to design something like this 15 years ago, except it wasn’t an overdrive, but a fuzz with boost before and after.

I wanted a Fuzz Face that would become a Big Muff, so a boost in front to get more gain and sustain by hitting the Fuzz Face portion harder, then a Big Muff style tone stack afterwards. The Muff has a make up gain stage after the tone section which is a 2nd boost. I never completed mine, but I was reading a year or two ago that someone else was able to build a pedal like that. I don’t recall the name though.

Years ago I was using a Super Duper 2-1 for something like what you’re describing. The 1st section is a SHO and the 2nd is a similar circuit with a master volume control. You can have the 1st, 2nd, or both running. Since the first section lacks a master volume it can actually be louder than the second section and both running together. Not exactly what you’re describing as a circuit, but I think the end result could be similar depending on how you set things up. For instance, J. Mascis sets his rig to a maximum gain and volume level, then uses another pedal to lower the volume. So he has his max gain and tone set, but to make it louder he turns the pedal reducing the volume OFF, so he’s not boosting the signal to get louder and having issues with headroom. With the master volume control on the 2-1 you can do that too.

I replaced the 2-1 with a Throbak Overdrive/Boost because I wanted to color my sound more than the 2-1 did, while still having 2 volume levels.

Finally, there are pedals like the Visual Sound Jekyll & Hyde that have 2 different circuits that can be run as 1, 2, 1+2. In the case of the Jekyll & Hyde it’s a Tube Screamer and a Shredmaster. They have separate volume controls that are not master volumes and both together can be a lot louder than running them individually. I have a version 1 that you can hit both switches at the same time.

Some of those are expensive pedals and don’t do exactly what you’re looking for, but I think if there is something like that it would be expensive. You can still get 2-3 gain stages and volume levels out of them.

Maybe what you need is a dual booster that has an auxiliary loop function that lets you run pedals in between the two sections?

[fuzzjunkie]

Here’s one that’s a dual boost with effects loop so you can boost the front end of your effects chain and then raise the volume on the end.

Edit for More! Details. (sic)

More! JFET Dual boost looper

Apart from being the best clean boost you have ever heard the More! has a not-so-secret feature, the fabled loop. This is the second way to use the pedal, the feature allows you to insert a pedal or pedals of your choice in between the two More!s, allowing you to drive the front end of your chosen pedals with one More! and boosting the result with the other.

Valco also makes a booster/looper, but it has only a single booster stage. The volume is set after the effects loop though, so it’s possible to have 2 separate gain and volume levels from one foot switch.

[marqueemoon]

I like a clean midrange boost placed after my drives.

It lights up the frequencies that cut through and pushes the (tube) amp more without changing the character of the drive too much by pushing into it.

With a tube amp it also does a very useful thing on its own.

I use the mid boost side of my Suhr Kokoboost for this job, but there are a few mini options out there. One Control makes one that looks good.

[Gavanti]

Both the Flower Pedals Poppy and the Black Bobbin boost have inserts, and they'd be more compact than the Valco I think. The Poppy's red boost has a nice mid-boost focus on the EQ. But you'd need a loop switcher unless you modified the switching to turn on both boosts.

A dual drive or boosting a drive into an always-on high headroom preamp like EAE's Citadel or Model FET might work for additional volume boost with extra crunch. Citadel would offer more mids.

Finally, the EAE Longsword pre-boost does add mids and some volume since the main drive has some headroom, so that might be worth considering. It doesn't fit the profile of dual drives you describe insofar as the main drive EQ is very flexible, and a volume pedal after it would allow even more flexibility.

[JSutter]

I have a Truetone Jekyll and Hyde V3. I wired it up so the distortion is before the amp and the od/boost is in the amp's effects loop. It works about how you want it to in conjunction with the amp's gain. The 2 footswitches are close enough together to press simultaneously.