Overdrive Stacking And Gain Stages - Types Of Overdrive Pedals

Not so much a lesson in technique or style as tone chasing...
As much as I love a cranked up vintage or modern amplifier, that's not often practical and I've come to almost prefer just using a basic, clean tone, plus some pedals to get me where I want to be.
In this video, I'll show you how I approach using multiple overdrive pedals for various levels of gain for rhythm or lead playing, on either a Strat or Les Paul style guitar.
My Rat is modified by Modest Mike at modestmikesmods.com and I highly recommend his mod. I prefer it even to the other modded Rats I've tried over the years (which is a lot of them.)
BUT, don't feel like you need modded or special pedals to do this. A stock Blues Driver, Tube Screamer, and Rat will all do you just fine and I used stock pedals for years before these mods became so common.
Enjoy the video and happy tone chasing!
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Hope you dig the video!

[@apoxygraph]

one of the better videos that's actually helpful to musicians; unlike many of the super popular and prolific channels making similar videos.

[@jaseyn]

One of the most important and useful guitar videos I've ever seen. I wish I had seen this 10 years ago. All sounds is just volume as it changes over time. This is the fundamental thing that is the basis for the guitar. I think there are very few good explanations of the structure of gain in the guitar world. This is definitely one of the best. Thank you.

[@joesilvasi3614]

Thanx for the insights! Too often players will say "you need this or that" but not give you and reasons why **or** show you so you can hear the differences. Experimenting is one thing, having a little insight into the whys of what you are doing so you can twist the knobs in a meaningfull manner or knowing what the objective is goes a loooonnnnggg way. This was GREAT !

[@user-ed9fj5el2q]

Griff I was talking all over the BGU forum about this video today. I am not surprised by the huge positive response. Hopefully you see this request on either the forum or here on KZbin. Please do equipment videos just like this on modulation various effects, reverb delay compression and noise gates. Also I have been setting my amp as you describe flat clean. More on amp tone would be welcomed. Thank you!

[@pamorales69]

Really good good good lesson on Overdrive pedals Stacking, not only do this or that but a really incredible explanations of How to, Two thumbs up!!

[@BrianLeverett]

Fantastic video! Thank you so much for this information and explanation. This helped me a lot more than other videos I’ve watched on the subject. I’ve learned a lot.

[@tommywilliamsjr.697]

Fantastic video! I also have one of the BD-2's I sent to Keeley back in the day. Love how you are using it!

[@gilbydeluxe8419]

This is an excellent video...thanks Griff!

[@massimos6863]

Great Demo great advice great playing.

[@solomonwaigani4512]

Such a clear explanation of the subject. Many thanks! 👏👏👏👏👏

[@ntomatas1]

I tried this and it works great. Awesome tone.

[@schesser]

Excellent vid. Simple and realistic explanations for everyman Joe players. Thanks.

[@jimmyjams1974]

Great approach and video!

[@collierrocks]

I’m starting to get it now. Thanks Griff!

[@Craig_Fussell]

Great video man! Thanks for sharing your rig. I have a Rat on my board as well and it really is a lot more versatile than one might think! Great to stack low gain ODs into.✌🏻🎸🎶

[@austinfailz]

I love Rats. I have owned a ton of them over the years. My favorites of late are the ProCo Fat Rat, ProCo Deucetone Rat, and JHS PackRat.

[@Meylan191083]

Great video mate!! I have always gone for a single pedal with the gain cranked for rhythm and a higher gain pedal (also cranked) for solos: BD-2 and UM300 for example. You have got me thinking about how much gain I put on each pedal now and the combinations I can use. Like and Subscribe very much earned.

[@thisdyingsoul76]

It really is fantastic time to be a guitar player. Not only are there a lot of options for pedals in terms of how they impact your sound, but there is something in every budget range that gets you the sound you're after. For every expensive boutique pedal there is an inexpensive equivalent. Is there a difference in quality? Sometimes. But you don't need to spend lots to get in the ballpark of the tones your after.

[@MK-tj5bf]

Thank you! Very useful information!!!

[@shader26]

Meant to add, that was no critique of you! I very much enjoy your video here. I’ve always struggled a bit with stacking in that I could get the sounds I wanted but the volumes were unpredictable (at least by me, because I was going about it wrong I think) so I’d be playing something, step on another OD to solo, and often either got too squishy or worse, lowered the volume. Sometimes even if each OD was boosted over the clean signal. So thank you, you gave me a new way to look at it and new ideas to try!

[@Ojedator]

Very interesting video 🙌

[@rwziebell]

Great video! Thank you! Subscribed!

[@stevenrutherford3649]

Great video. I use an HXStomp. My favorite amp is the Bassman. I did what you recommended, ie, Blues Driver into HXStomp, Ratatouille HX module followed by HX Bassman module. I duplicated your recommended pedal settings and,voila, got the same sounds as yours. Thanks.

[@thisdyingsoul76]

I'm amazed how the Blues Driver and Rat gave your tone a very SRV type vibe. I never would thought that. I would have just tossed a TS in front of the amp, dialed it in to what sounded close to my ears and went with it.

[@bluesguitarunleashed]

The RAT is a very misunderstood pedal. At lower gain settings, it's extremely close to what a TS does, but at higher gain settings it gets fuzzy. They can be tricky, but I love them.

[@thisdyingsoul76]

@@bluesguitarunleashed I like mine too at lower gain settings. It's surprisingly similar to an amp-like overdrive

[@the4thway51]

Wish i had found this a year ago, i finally have an understanding what i am hearing from my pedalboard..

[@gianluca.i]

Really great and useful video.. one of the best lesson about blues tone I've ever watched! So in the chain the last place is for a 'cranked amp in a box style' (blues driver, jen ray, zendrive etc...) while other overdrives like TS or RAT have to be placed before it in order to increase gain and cutting lows... But ehat do you think about 'klon style' overdrives? I think that they boost mids... Where do you eventually put one of these in your chain?

[@hgostos]

Excellent!

[@perrybutt801]

Great video good info.Thanks

[@bluesguitarunleashed]

Glad it was helpful!

[@jpsilvermusic]

Good video nice one thanks

[@ediblues1]

Great video ! From Argentina.

[@hgostos]

Very good!!!

[@josesuzuki3709]

Excelente explicação! Obrigado!

[@hoosierdaddy2308]

Great video.. I Just found you .. I'm going to subscribe.. I'm building a cool strat now.. Two EMG"s though.. Humbuckers as I play more rock, but blues based. EMG 85 bridge and 60 neck.. I'm hopefully going to be playing thru a modeling multi effects because where I play you have to almost always go direct or use the amp they have.. No stage volume at all basically, so I want to be able to choose patches based on tones I need.. This is still very valuable though. Great video and very well explained.. The rat is a great pedal. Back in the day I did use a Fender Twin cranked with a rat! That's so funny and then found this video! Thanks again. From the heartland (Indiana. USA) Tim

[@dnt7593]

Masterclass

[@innocentoctave]

Excellent overview, and excellent tones. I'm not sure whether the pedals 'cut bass' so much as boost mids (Tube Screamer) or mids and treble (RAT) to produce the impression that bass has been cut: but the effect is pretty clear. G&L's PTB tone circuit puts a bass cut pot on the guitar: I've always found it very useful for tightening up a flubby bottom end, and it works well with overdrives and distortions.

[@austinfailz]

They are cutting bass and treble (not treble in the case of the Rat, but whatever), while the mids aren't really getting boosted. It just gives the impression that mids have been boosted.

[@imannonymous7707]

Wow great strat tone...i cant remember a tone shaping tutorial here before, cool. And im not even a strat guy, i prefer teles....but again wow

[@mattgilbert7347]

Great advice, thanks. A TS, Blues Driver, & RAT can pretty much cover every drive tone with most standard backline amps (and a Bluesbreaker-derived pedal, that's just my personal preference).

[@mattgilbert7347]

Robert Keeley doesn't do mods anymore, but he makes the Keeley Red Dirt (his Tubescreamer mods in one pedal) and the Keeley Super Phat Mod which is his wonderful BF-2 mods in one pedal.

[@dickie7311]

Hey Griff, i have been reseaching this information. You have answered my questions, thank you! I have a 69 super reverb and am trying to figure out how to fix the ground so it doesn't shock the s*** out of me lol. Also would like to know if these pedals will work ok with my Fender GTX 100 watt modeler, thanks again.

[@bluesguitarunleashed]

There's no reason they won't work with whatever amp you have. The knobs will be in different places on different amps, but you can usually make it work.

[@Mr131313ck]

Very interesting. Question: how about using the gain of an amp eg Marshall JCM 900 while keeping the master volume down (hence avoid the loudness at home) instead of a boss pedal? how will that affect the base aspect, and could that be rectified by altering the guitar or the amp tone knobs? The reason i am asking is that when i put in the boss blues driver in, i notice a substantial deterioration of the sound quality compared with the sound created by the amp gain. Many colors are cut off together with the "tub" sound. Thanks Sorry you already covered that partially in 25th min!

[@bluesguitarunleashed]

I'm a big fan of amp gain, personally, but with that comes some trade offs. First, if you want any delay or reverb, it has to be in an effects loop or it sounds really messy. 2nd, different amps have different masters, and some are better than others. My 100 watt JCM 2000 at .5 on the dial doesn't really do it for me compared to a clean amp with a pedal sometimes. It's totally up to you, though, either way. And gain stacking still works the same, I just use the Boss BD2 typically as my "amp gain" box.

[@GtrPknMama]

“Rock in a Box” pedal should help you out with that. Or get an “Attenuator” that lets you crank your amp and play at a lower volume.

[@650thunderbird5]

👍🏻👍🏻

[@martydurlam]

The only dirt box I use is an Idiotbox Redrum. Hands down best distortion pedal

[@shader26]

I’ve come to the conclusion that it’s ok to want a certain sound, but for myself, I’m always keeping in mind not to let it become obsessive. Couple of reasons. Take one, Stevie Ray. Guitarists go after his “sound” (and I’m not EVEN going to get into that “tone in the fingers” debate. Definitely the fingers, the string gauge, etc. are part of it but…) except as I listen to SRV he didn’t have just ONE sound. He had several nuances and even several very different tones he used. He wasn’t trying to cop someone else’s sound so he was free to put out whatever sound/tone tickled him at the moment. The tone chasers only want his sound, usually an idealized sound which brings to the second reason it can be bad. That is, it’s inherently negative. As someone obsessed about copping a certain persons sound it for one ends up being a parody sound, like a caricature. But the other is every damned time all they ever hear is failure. Even folk that to you or I sound JUST LIKE SRV, the holy grail chaser is only hearing what is not there, what isn’t “quite” there yet. It’s just negative. If someone practices someone licks, style, gets in their head and cops someone’s playing style, it would be way better and not as dependent on perfection in gear?

[@austinfailz]

Tone is from the notes, before anything is electrified and amplified. This is what they mean by "tone is in the fingers." Voicing, on the other hand, is based on all of the pedals, pickups, cables, buffers, amps, speakers, etc. that you use. So if you want to sound more like someone, then you should probably study their playing techniques, learn some songs, then be content with the fact you can get close, but you won't be them. That said, if the voicing (again, from all of the electronics) is not right, it won't fit well. For instance, attempting to play John Mayer with a Metallica voicing (or vice versa) likely isn't going to achieve your goal. You may end up coming up with an interesting style all your own by doing that, however.

[@carolhanson9454]

what do you think about Spark amps. vs me buying 3 pedals? im probably never going to gig, so just for home use?

[@gilbydeluxe8419]

I have a spark amp and love it. If you just play at home it is a good choice. It sounds the best of the small practice amps IMO. I am talking about the 40w, not the new mini. You can get just about any sound you want from it.

[@carolhanson9454]

@@gilbydeluxe8419 thanks for input. the only thing im not sure of on the spark is the technology...im old n not to tech savvy

[@RogerThat902]

I have a spark and a lot of other amps...I love the Spark. I probably wouldn't recommend it someone who wanted to gig someday because could get a Katana or something like and have all in one, but if you know you don't ever want to gig it's great. The thing is it gets loud enough to shake windows so it's plenty loud for home use. The other cool thing is all the pedals and amps being in the box will help decide what amps/pedals to try/buy if/when you go the "real" route.

[@thomasross785]

@@carolhanson9454 i'm not tech savvy either. I have a spark amp and it is great. By the way I am 68. you are never too old.

[@carolhanson9454]

@@thomasross785 im 73 so, if i gig o6t will be at the old folks home, and they cant hear anyway. lol i think i might buy one...is the white one any different, besides color of tolex?

[@artwhat..]

Riff, great vid. I think you nailed it, tone is a personal thing, I hate Les Paul's, I think you have more tonal options with the single coil pickup especially in a Stratocaster configuration, I disagreed with a lot of things you said, tone is personal, one person on a dial could be one digit up and disagree with a different person.. bye'eeee..

[@savoirfaire8979]

No one has made a video that simply explains their pedal placement choices. Too many caveats and historical anecdotes. Just give us the A/B tone comparisons of gain stacking. Otherwise we could use the same time to experiment ourselves.