Let’s face it. We all stack our overdrives. There might be a few Worship guitar players out there that utilize their amps gain and only use a single overdrive pedal, but most guitarists use a clean’ish amp with 2-3 overdrive pedals stacked on top of each other to get a wide range of overdrive/distortion levels. Most guitarists, including myself, run their overdrive pedals in order of gain level. Most start with a transparent low gain overdrive such as a JHS Morning Glory or Klon, then on to a slightly higher gain overdrive such as an Emerson Custom Paramount, then on to a distortion pedal such as a Rat. But is there a better way to do it?
In short there is no right or wrong way to stack overdrives. In fact, most of it is all personal preference. So those of you who were looking for a quick answer to this question need not read further because there is no quick answer. Sorry. What I am tackling in this article is the long more analytical approach to stacking drives.
As most of our readers know I have recently switched to lead electric guitar from an acoustic guitar. My pedalboard for the past few months has consisted of the following in order of the signal chain:
- CMATMODS Signa Comp Compressor
- Tapestry Audio Fab Suisse Overdrive (Middle, Clean Boost/Light Overdrive Setting)
- Pedal Monsters Klon Klone Overdrive
- Bondi Sick As Overdrive
- Visual Sound Jekyll & Hyde Overdrive/Distortion V1 (Sometimes this isn’t on my board)
- Electro Harmonix Nano POG
- Tapestry Audio Bloomery Volume > TC Electronic PolyTune Mini
- Visual Sound Dual Tap Delay
- Boss DD-20 Digital Delay
- Keeley Aurora Ambient Reverb (Plate Setting)
- Boss RV-5 Digital Reverb (Hall Setting)
- Radial Engineering SGI Box Out to Amplifier
I build the drive section of the board based on gain similar to how most guitarists do. Honestly, it sounded great, for a while anyways. Over the past couple months I started to notice that with certain guitars, amps, songs, riffs etc, I was not always liking my overdrive tones. So I ripped my board apart. Well, the drive section anyway. I started by moving my Bondi Sick As first in the chain and lowering the gain. The reason I did this was that the other two pedals into the Sick As made it sound extremely honky and the mid-range sounded disgusting when playing anything other than single note lead lines. This was not a normal characteristic of the pedal so by moving it to the front of the chain I was hoping to get rid of that.
Second I really did not like the Fab Suisse. It had this extremely fizzy fast decaying overdrive tone to it which I only could use on heavy chords and strumming. Nothing like running the pedal by itself. I moved that to last in the drive chain. I also adjusted the clipping switch to the left which is the Hard Clipping section which had a bit more gain. That left the Klone in the middle as my 2nd stage overdrive. Now my drive section looks like this.
- Bondi Sick As Overdrive
- Pedal Monsters Klon Klone Overdrive
- Tapestry Audio Fab Suisse Overdrive (Left, Hard Clipping Mode)
What these changes did was remove the mid-range honk on my Sick As and the fizzy unpleasant tone of the Fab Suisse. Right, about now you might be asking why did those little changes make such a big difference in my tone. The reason lies in how the pedals react to each other.
Believe it or not, pedals react to each other similar to how pedals react with an amp. Loud pedals with tons of signal can overdrive the pedal after it and even the most transparent pedal can color the pedals tone after it. This is part of the reason why people like their transparent overdrive pedals so much. They tend to color the tone of pedals after them.
In my particular scenario and setup, the Fab Suisse which is a slightly darker pedal with a more pronounced mid-range was coloring both of the pedals after it. Since the Fab Suisse was my always on pedal, it was always giving my tone this odd mid-range honk. Additionally, since that pedal was running through the other two the tone/gain was being compressed and filtered giving it the faster decay and fizziness.
That is the non-scientific version of how the pedals interact together because frankly I am not a scientist or an electronics expert. I just know tone. Needless to say, I corrected my tone with a simple swap of two pedals. Initially, I had plans to sell the Fab Suisse and get a Morning Glory or something else. Had I done that I would have missed out on the great tone-scapes I am currently getting with the Fab Suisse last in my drive chain.
The moral of the story here and the lesson I have learned is that sometimes it isn’t as easy as putting your lowest gain overdrives first and working up. Sometimes you have to look at the entire complexity of each pedal. Think about it’s strengths, and it’s weaknesses. Most pedals are made to do multiple things well. Those same pedals usually have one thing that they do spectacularly. Find what your pedals do spectacularly and place them in a way that enhances those strengths. Sounds a lot like leading worship teams doesn’t it? On a totally separate abstract note, this realization and discovery also caused me to re-think how I approach guitar gear. In the past, I would always get rid of something at the instant that I stopped liking it. Now I am choosing to pull it off my board for a week or two, figure out where I can use it then adjust where it is in my chain. I will always be buying and selling gear but this is improving my consistency and my wallet!
6 Comments
You sound like just another worldly guitar guru man, it is a shame that it is so deceiving the the word “worship” is the only thing that sounds churchy here. Share your lifestyle instead as a testimony that musicians can live a life in obedience to God ‘s precepts found in the scripture. I am a worship lead guitarist myself but I refuse to exaggerate the rule of music in worshiping God in a corporate manner. Worship is either a lifestyle in obedience to God or a good way for apostates to earn tax free money, which one are you?
Thank you very much for your heart and concern. I am sorry that you found this article unhelpful. I do not want to start a debate or argument but I did want to respond to your comment to share a little bit about my story and my vision for WorshipGtr.com.
As for my story I will not write a lengthy comment with all of the details but you can view a small piece of my testimony here https://worshipgtr.com/the-guitar-that-started-it-all/
I started this site as a blog exactly 2 years ago and it came out of my desire to provide resources both gear related and spiritual development related. I was browsing other guitar magazines and websites and found that if I wanted to find out things about playing guitar better or research an amp or pedal, that I was bombarded by scantily clad women and things that worship guitarists should not be viewing. This particular article stems from my personal experience of switching from acoustic to electric guitar and some tricks I have learned that could be helpful to the new lead guitarist.
Not every article that this site publishes and that I write will be 100% scripture focused. That was never our intent. To your point though I do see a huge trend in gear idolatry and my heart breaks over it. I view gear as tools that I use to create music that is pleasing to God and helps others position themselves to hear from God. Like anything those tools can become idolatry. I have written a few articles on the matter. One of which can be found here: https://worshipgtr.com/avoiding-gear-idolatry/
Well I hope this helps ease your mind about our site and again I appreciate your heart and commitment to Christ. All of this being said if you are still not convinced of our site’s contribution to the growth of the kingdom then I politely invite you to not visit our site. While I can appreciate your opinion, personal attacks and judgments should be kept to yourself. Thank you again and God Bless.
Aaron,
Just wanted to say I found this article very helpful. Actually, WORSHIPGTR has become one of my favorite websites. Period. Thanks for all you do and can’t wait for the next article!
Thanks a ton for the kind words Zach! I am super glad that you are finding value and being encouraged on our site. Feel free to reach out if you ever have questions or if I can help you with anything. Blessings to you and your ministry!
It’s amazing what functionality we can squeeze out of the gear we already have, rather than just opting to sell and add to the endless gear cycle! I love taking the time to lay out my pedals in different orders and hearing how they sound in alternate combinations. Amazing what you can find out!
Another way I find I can often get more out of my gear is by going back and looking at online reviews and tutorials of gear I already own…or even reading the manual (eek!). I’m amazed at the tips and tricks I’ve learned by doing that which has breathed new life into gear I was getting tired with. I’ve learned more functionality and how to better tweak to get the sounds I’m looking for.
Thank you for this tip, been stacking od’s for the longest time.. and your insight and approach helped me… God bless from the Philippines.