What's your 'guitar solo' pedal(s)?

[redchapterjubilee]

Most of the time it’s Rat with the gain up. But I sometimes double with a lovepedal mkiii (it’s some flavor of tonebender I think). Lots of sustain, girth, and bite. If I’m after fripptone it’s a big muff, neck pickup, and the tone rolled off.

[CorporateDisguise]

Mostly fuzz for me. Either a Superfuzz or a big muff. Sometimes it’s the Superfuzz into the Big Muff. I run the gain low on the Superfuzz, so it’s more like a slightly fuzzy octave.

For lighter/cleaner stuff, I’ll use a clean boost or transparent od, but thats more melody than wheedleydoos.

[MrShake]

My base tone is usually a clangy Rat (10-11 o'clock), so for "solos" -- more of the low E twangle riff variety -- I kick on a Superfuzz (Mode 1) for nasty grindy bite, or a Big Muff (huge added lows and sizzle) on top of the Rat.

It's a simple trick and old hat elements, but it's a classic sound for a reason.

[s_mcsleazy]

i'm going to have to explain this with a photo of my pedalboard.


the blue sparkle pedal on the bottom row. that's a boost pedal of my own design. the "red" channel is a clean boost and that sometimes gets used on solos when i'm using my modded klon (lattehead) and the "skramz" channel is full on overloaded dirty boost. the toggle switch is there to thin out the sound to "cut through" more. that's usually what i use on solos BUT there's one other pedal i use a lot on solos. can we guess what it is? if you guessed phase 100, you know what i'm about to bring up.

ok. so the issue with using a proco rat as your main distortion tone into a twin and bassman is, the more gain you pile on, the muddier it can get. after a while, you're not getting any more distorted, you're just adding more noise to your signal. add a phase pedal on your solo and it will cut through differently.

[level3]

I have 2 methods:


2. More complex: An overdrive, in this case a Throbak Overdrive/Boost.

You have mentioned that pedal many times over the years and I’ve always been intrigued by it. I have to get caught up on a couple other purchases first, then I think I’ll give one a try.

This is the thread that got me interested. It’s from 2008 and I think I discovered it in 2012 and started looking for one.

Throbak ODB

You can see people mentioning using it in place of a Beano Boost, a Klon, a Fuzz Face, a Timmy, and getting Neil Young tones out of it. Anything from a transparent clean boost to slightly dirty, to full on fuzz. It replaced a big box Rat and a Super Duper 2-1 on my board.

Later in the thread a couple people mentioned getting a second one so they could either get more variation on the clean to dirty tones, or put one at the front of their board for the fuzzy overdrive and Fuzz Face tones, and one at the end as a clean boost and gain stacker.

I have the Prescription Electronics Overdriver which is based on the same circuit and it is indeed super awesome and extremely versatile.

Read somewhere that it is all over "A Ghost Is Born" by Wilco which is why I bought it.

[MechaBulletBill]

interesting how many of us go into battle with a superfuzz and muff. mudhoney got it right, it's good to have both those flavours to hand and they mix really nicely too

[fuzzjunkie]

You have mentioned that pedal many times over the years and I’ve always been intrigued by it. I have to get caught up on a couple other purchases first, then I think I’ll give one a try.

This is the thread that got me interested. It’s from 2008 and I think I discovered it in 2012 and started looking for one.

Throbak ODB

You can see people mentioning using it in place of a Beano Boost, a Klon, a Fuzz Face, a Timmy, and getting Neil Young tones out of it. Anything from a transparent clean boost to slightly dirty, to full on fuzz. It replaced a big box Rat and a Super Duper 2-1 on my board.

Later in the thread a couple people mentioned getting a second one so they could either get more variation on the clean to dirty tones, or put one at the front of their board for the fuzzy overdrive and Fuzz Face tones, and one at the end as a clean boost and gain stacker.

I have the Prescription Electronics Overdriver which is based on the same circuit and it is indeed super awesome and extremely versatile.

Read somewhere that it is all over "A Ghost Is Born" by Wilco which is why I bought it.

Yeah that’s another good one. Probably the 1st clone of the Colorsound and I think they’re relatively rare now? I didn’t know about Wilco using one, but I did know a couple of well respected players that were using Prescription pedals around 1996-2002.

The Experience was definitely popular and a great pedal too. I know MaggieO likes the Yardbox. I tried one myself in ‘97 but settled on a Colorsound Tonebender instead.

[BoringPostcards]

interesting how many of us go into battle with a superfuzz and muff. mudhoney got it right, it's good to have both those flavours to hand and they mix really nicely too

Yeah, it’s pretty much how it is for me. I will sometimes also use a Dist+ or a DS-1 for leads, but usually I go the fuzz route. I have four different Muff variants. Lately the Ram’s Head has been getting the lead duty, pushed by a MBM Salt Booster (LPB1 clone), but before I picked up the Ram’s Head, I was using my Black Russian Muff for lead (also pushed by the Salt Booster).

[level3]

Yeah that’s another good one. Probably the 1st clone of the Colorsound and I think they’re relatively rare now? I didn’t know about Wilco using one, but I did know a couple of well respected players that were using Prescription pedals around 1996-2002.

I guess you're right, they seem to be rare and kinda expensive now.

Back on the topic of solo pedals, I have not been able to stack pedals in order to get a good solo sound. Don't know why, but it just doesn't seem to work for me. Either it's not loud enough or tonally weird (too bright or too dark).

[budda12ax7]

Morley Mark Tremonti Wah: Has a volume/boost setting...turn that all the way up, then hit wah...

[bubba899]

Depends massively on the song, but most of the time I take the J mascis approach, and stack a Big Muff with a tone bender or treble booster for different textures. EQD Hoof Reaper covers all the fuzz bases for me, including octave fuzz, and then I use either a run off groove Omega Boost to kick it up or an SD-1 with the gain set really low which has a similar effect.

[øøøøøøø]

I see the TS and the Centaur lumped together as "mid-pushed" here, but I really find the experience of the two to be radically different.

Had it been me that made the list, I might've carved out an additional category for the Centaur, which I'd call "parallel overdrive."

The biggest distinguishing feature of the Centaur when it came out was the fact that rather than just clipping the signal progressively, it blended clipped signal into the clean signal, in progressive amounts (while simultaneously attenuating the clean signal to prevent drastic level differences).

I suspect that this, and not the mid-forward character, plays a bigger role in why I personally like the Centaur.

[Arthon]

I am in a 3 pieces band. No need to push volume for my solos. I have 5 dirts pedal on my board depending on the song (Fuzzrite, Big Muff, FuzzFace, Flatiron Fuzz and OCD) but not of them push more volume then my not-so clean sound.

When I was in a 5 pieces band, with sometimes a 3 guitarists, I needed more volume for solos. I didnt use a pedal but the second channel of my amp.

If you have a effect loop, a eq pedal or a clean boost in it is also a great way to boost solos. I found that a boost/od dont work very well in a low output amp, or a amp build with pre-amp distortion. With those amp without a effect loop or a second channel, the best way to cut out a solo is a mid-boost pedal. A engage wah is also a great trick.

[jorri]

I probably outlie the genre here, but I just step on my amp channel since whatever effects i am using last in chain (such as shoegaze reverb) it will not 'run out of headroom' and just boost the volume. So, yes, I switch to the dirt channel on my amp!

[CS]

I've got various boosters and second channel overdrive. I like , the solo sound to be loader and less bright than the rhythm sound.