what type of distortion pedal am i looking for?.....

[liam012]

Firstly sorry for the strange title but it'll make sense in a second
Ok so the other day i plugged into an old fender vibrolux with a master volume and was able to run the preampp low vol and output tubes almost to max say 80%
wow - that was the most amazing quality distortion i ever heard
now my dilema is i have a tweed bassman and i dont fancy master voluming it as i like it as is but i do want to get my hands on a pedal that will bring me as close tp that type of sound as possivle - wahat i really like was the warm natural break up of the sound (sorry if my eplanation isn't good) i have used a tubescreamer and while i love that for what it is , it is too wirey cold and transisitor like hairdryer distortion compaired to the vibrolux distortion.
has anyone any reccomendations on what might or mmight not suit for a possible pedal that would come someway close to that sort of sound ( i apprecciate i will never get the sound of 4 6l6's out of a stomper but i'd like to try!) it goes without saying i would be building not buying so just incase anyone reccomneds any way huge schematicless pedals!
thanks for you thoughts
liam

[JimRayden]

That's what most of the pedals out there are trying to produce. Lol. Actually I've heard the BSIAB be pretty good. But I haven't actually built it, so don't listen to me.

Yes, power tubes are the best.

---------
Jimbo

[nelson]

Right, build yourself the same amp, but make it footswitchable on/off, attach an attenuator to the speaker out, and your bassman to the line out, if it has one if not add one... voila.



Sorry :evil:  :evil:  :evil:  :twisted:  :twisted:

[object88]

...attach an attenuator to the speaker out...

Exactly.  The Weber MiniMASS is reputed to sound great.  It's essentially a coneless speaker driver.  I'm assuming that your bassman is a head, and not a combo.  Course, you could put a MiniMASS in a combo, but you might have to cut some wires if the speakers are hardwired.

[nelson]

I meant just leave the bassman as it is and have the home built fender reverb outputting a line level signal into the bassman, to get the output tube distortion through his bassman. Cause thats the only way he is gonna get the true sound lol.

[WorkBench]

I have heard that much tone is sacrificed using an attenuator, no?  
Chirs

[bwanasonic]

Have you tried some sort of relatively neutral *clean* boost? Something AMZ Mosfet/ MXR Microamp/ Zvex SHO ish might fill the bill. The ROG Fetzer Valve works well as an added gain stage with Fender amps as well.

Kerry M

[sean k]

In my experience with tube amps,which really isn't that much,I find its the Output transformer and,even more so,the speaker its pushing.The speaker is so much the tone maker its easy to forget that and because of that I've spent alot of time sourcing old alnico magnetted paper cone speakers with bugger all suspension and those babies just about make evrything that pushes them sound good but then again theres nothing like a good sized OT and cathode bias and a hard working power transformer to put the icing on the cake....sp maybe start at the end of the line and work your way back instead of starting at the front.
Oh,and master volumes after the phase inverter ain't such a good thing,better before the phase inverter.

[bwanasonic]

old alnico magnetted paper cone speakers with bugger all suspension and those babies just about make evrything that pushes them sound good

I like them for distortion sounds, but not so much for clean. But yes, I have spent a lot of time recently myself, speaker swapping and noting the importance of the speaker in the whole tonal recipe. One example that comes to mind is Derek Trucks using old Pyle car stereo speakers in his Fender Super reverb.

Kerry M