New pedal day, the gain stage.

[Bushleague]

RIMG0013 by , on Flickr

It started with one pedal just to boost my digital modeling amp, then I realised that the analog gain sounded much better at higher volumes than the digital amp overdrive. Besides gain and reverb I dont use a ton of effects but I play alot of different types of music and I'm pretty darn picky about getting those two things perfect, so just last week I finished "The gain stage".

The Plumes is on almost all the time, its marketed as a Tube Screamer, but to me it sounds closer to a Blues Driver/ OD3. I'm getting a wound out Vox type tone out of it. Using my guitar controlls I can get anything from the lightest of blues breakup to an AC/DC ish crunch. Very dynamic with amazing note clarity for more complex chords, good sustain for blues/ classic rock leads.

The MXR is my Power Chord and lead gain, I think its supposed to sound like a modded Marshall but you can get all kinds of tones out of it. Lots of gain if you want, but a fairly warm sounding pedal. I'm getting a pretty hot JCM 800 tone out of it.

I just got the TC boost, and to be honest I though it might be a bit redundant. It does beautifull things to either pedal though, bumps up that 800 sound into chugging territory, and it makes the Plumes sound HUGE while still retaining all the things I like about that pedal. This one has an EQ that I use to cut some of the bass out of the boosted tone to keep things from sounding too muddy, as well as a switch that can make it boost the mids or the bottom end which I dont use.