The One Pedal Every Guitarist Needs (boost vs. overdrive)

[@DrFearCo]

According to the analytics... 60% of the time, it works every time.

[@MichaelBrewster-x7n]

Paul rudd strikes again ❤

[@mykhedelic6471]

Rhett Rudd, Rhett Rudd, Rhett Rudd!!!

[@TheGhostGuitars]

Seems like Analytics is telling EVERYONE that 60% is not subscribing. I'm starting to suspect someone, or something, is lying.

[@kareguritsu]

@@TheGhostGuitars could be. I subbed because I know this dude knows what He's talking about ( I think every one of Us has both agreed and disagreed with even the best channels talking about audio (Guitars, Bass, Drums, Recording, Etc...) but most of the time it's a personal preference ( that or Some Channels and KZbinrs are completely full of *expletive deleted*).

[@rigelloar7474]

As a teenager in the mid 60s, I had the dubious distinction, of being the first musician to use distortion (intentionally) in a professional recording studio, in my hometown of Raleigh North Carolina. I had purchased the very first available Maestro Fuzz Tone , and took it into the studio with my band, to cut some of our original tunes. In the middle of our first tune, I stomped down on that bad boy, and the engineer and his boss (who owned the studio) FREAKED OUT BIG-TIME ! They came running out of the control room, thinking something had gone terribly WRONG ! When I explained what it was, they were scratching their heads, and were very confused. When they got home from work that night, I'm sure they told their wives, about this crazy kid, who spent good money on a gizmo, to make his guitar sound like shit ! I wish everyone could have experienced the 60s. Everything was changing, it was incredible. Good Times !

[@-jank-willson]

dang you must be in you 80's 90's by now... too bad you didn't get the same level of recognition as hendrix, the stones, clapton, etc. the maestro fuzz tone advertised itself as 'making your guitar sound like it was a saxophone', which, to people who had never heard distortion before, it probably did...

[@rigelloar7474]

@@-jank-willson There is a lot more to the arts, than recognition, Jank. In every large city on Earth, there are many unbelievably accomplished musicians, whose work leaves no doubt, that the famous names you mentioned, are merely entertainers, who use a little music, to entertain an unsophisticated pedestrian audience. And those same celebrities you mentioned, would tell you the same . . . . .

[@-jank-willson]

@@rigelloar7474 in the mid 60's, was your music more psychedelic, garage, blues, or surf rock?

[@rigelloar7474]

@@-jank-willson Even as a teenager I was eclectic as "F", and still am today. I studied classical guitar with a maestro, while teaching myself to play : folk, rock, pop, country, R&B, funk, jazz, fusion, you name it, I've played it. There are incredible musical artists working in ALL genres, and my musicality is informed by them ALL. Other musicians call my music "Jazz", but my inspiration (and intent) are NEVER stylistic , but always specifically melodic, harmonic, and rhythmic. With my heart and soul, I steadfastly channel the will of the MUSES, into the physical world. . . Dig ?

[@sisfortis1296]

That is a great story

[@vids595]

I tired a lot of overdrive pedals but it was an eq pedal that did what I wanted in the end.

[@delefo]

That is real, if you like eq and have not tried a parametric type you may also like that as well. I am running one always on and two more for spot use to dramatically alter tone.

[@KoaCharvel]

I went down a rabbit hole once and got into building pedals. I have drawers of sorted components and enclosures and knobs. I have designed several boosts, overdrives, and fuzz circuits. It started out as copying effects that I wanted, then modifying it beyond recognition. Adding and deleting from circuits for taste. A fun hobby. Highly recommend.

[@DenariusHaveNarius]

I started with pedals but moved on to building synths. Now I'm messing around with the CMOS chips.

[@jamespuhakka2833]

It is a deep hole and fun indeed 😅

[@Craig52-zq1bt]

​@@DenariusHaveNarius CMOS hex drivers make a very nice tube sound overdrive. Made one of them back in about...1975.

[@DenariusHaveNarius]

@Craig52-zq1bt Ah yes. I built The Anderton Tube Sound Fuzz. I built a low gain version. I think I'll breadboard one today and experiment with it.

[@stoneysdead689]

The thing that reviewers don't really stress enough to ppl is that the overdrive, distortion, or boost pedal is only one component in whatever tone it is you're chasing. The pickups and the amp are the other two, primary components and they matter- just as much as the pedal. I see ppl posting all the time about how they heard this amazing drive pedal on someone's KZbin show, but then they bought it and it sounded like crap- and then you find out they heard someone play a Les Paul through this pedal into a Mesa Boogie Rectifier and are now upset that their Strat and Katanna amp doesn't sound like that with the pedal. They have only 1/3rd of the ingredients but can't understand why their chili doesn't taste right. You got to have something at least similar- some higher output humbuckers and some kind of tube emulation might work- it doesn't have to be exactly what they had, but it needs to be in the ball park with it. I don't know how solid-state amps are today but back in my day, the 80s- peavey stuff- you didn't want to boost a solid-state amp- it wasn't pretty. If you got distortion it wasn't going to be good distortion. But they had distortion built into them so- you could just go that route. They sucked- I'll be honest, nowadays there are some great solid-state amps and stuff, but our Peaveys sounded like harsh crap compared to the stuff you get now. There were a few solid state amps- Roland Jazz amps, Fender had a Princeton that wasn't that bad, that sounded good. But most of them were bad, mine was. I had a Peavey Rage 80- sounded like angry bees in a box.

[@vorpalblades]

Every recording you've ever heard has a mic involved. That's what missing.

[@-jank-willson]

and don't forget the speakers too! They make a big difference - the amp speakers, as well as the speakers of the laptop that you are listening to the youtube video demo through...

[@-jank-willson]

@@vorpalblades the very first distortion you hear back in the 40's was microphone distortion

[@davidpaul6656]

I've used many different ods, distortions, etc over years. From a blues driver, to a plexitone, but when I discovered the J. Rockett Steve Stevens Rockaway pedal I stopped searching! What an amazing pedal!

[@garycrosby7658]

I agree, the best tone shaping pedal ever. I stack it with every overdrive I have.

[@andywoodmusic]

The boosted supro (first pedal) just sounds fantastic!!!

[@AnemoiacAndroid]

Great video - helpful comparison and breakdown. That DCX Boost is an absolute gem. It helps sculpt my base tone, push the signal, and add a beautiful drive that stacks nicely. I'm so glad I found it.

[@thrillvilled111]

Been loving your album after listen to it since launch! 👌

[@BOSSenjoyer]

Use it to give a song a signature sound. You have your amp OD which is better than any pedal, throw on the most unique distortion you can dial on top.

[@georgekingston6389]

The best video I've ever seen from you, extremely informative and well-paced - thank you Rhett.

[@DevourTheBleak]

This video helped, I’ve been shopping these pedals for my electronic drum kit output, since I’m limited to the one outsource picking the right distortion that works across my kit is important factors to ensure it’s not overdriving. Cool video!

[@timholtguitar6999]

I’ve never found a boost that works for me, but that Zio sounded fantastic! Awesome video as always!

[@IanLoughead]

Same here. But I did add the Berengher Fuzz pedal on a whim to try out fuzz a bit and it has a switch to go straight to boost mode. So I do try it out sometimes at the start of my signal chain. It is fun to experiemnt and the cost on that pedal is so stuppidly low..

[@KoaCharvel]

What amp do you use?

[@PatrickNorris10]

I grabbed their EQ2 because it’s an EQ, boost, and tuner. It’s absolutely essential for me now because of all it can do. You like tube screamers? Mid hump+boost. You like muffs? Mid scoop+more boost.

[@jackbenson8228]

dirty tree by pepers pedals

[@Slappedkat]

Have you tried a Rangemaster? Maybe build one on a bread board to see if you like it seeing as there isnt many components.

[@billsybainbridge3362]

A really useful (and Studio friendly) way to think about it is in two parts: the Tone Shaping (via the pedals' EQ and Saturation Curves), and the overall Gain in dB's. For things like "stepping up" for a solo or "preconditioning" a rig for "Edge Of Breakup", the predominant utility is for level adjustment in dB's, whereas the Tone Shaping function is where the "colors" help provide distinct differences in the song's form without modifying the guitar's place in the mix. Because of this, a two pedal solution (or its equivalent in Modeler Gain Staging) may be all that's required for maximum versatility: Dry, Conditioned, or Toneful (Wet). I wish more pedal Gains or Level knobs were expressed in approximate dB's to allow easier transition in the Studio; although by using a better Volt/Ohm meter, it's possible to mark off those knobs for known amounts of change in dB's (3, 6, and 12 dB are very useful Perceptual Points - barely noticeable, moderately louder, and slightly more than twice as loud).

[@bymbie]

I know it's not as sexy as a pedal, but we also have some knobs on the guitar that do magic... like pushing an amp more when needed.

[@dannywoody5497]

Thanks Rhett always make things easy to understand. Greatly appreciate it.

[@JimVincent]

I have 20 pedals hooked up right now, 10 in front, 10 in the loop. The first board has eight different dirt pedals - Tube Screamer clone, Moskey Silver Horse (Klone), "crunch distortion," "Ultimate Drive," Rat clone, Holy War, Pure Sky (Timmy clone), Behringer Fuzz SF300. Second board has a Joyo American Sound, so it has drive as well. I tried to make it simple, had a board with only seven pedals, then pulled everything out and went wild.

[@madsenamplification]

Big fan of boost into a broken up amp and using the guitars volume to go from clean to dirty! I do have some OD and distortions I enjoy, and some fuzzes too!

[@Davey480]

Heck yea. Thanks for the Audioslave riffs.

[@averagemike7554]

I’ve been using the Zio for about a year and it’s great. Really flys under the radar!

[@5timesthepain]

A Boss SD1 straight into a Fender Hotrod Deluxe 3 with a Eminence Wizard is my go to rig

[@bmphil3400]

Less is always more especially if you have a good amp with a good reverb..... I'm not far from that. I have a tube screamer and boss eq into a Peavey classic 30.....

[@Vito_Tuxedo]

Rhett: I do gain stacking, but generally avoid pushing any device into clipping. I want fat, rich sustain, with just a bit of edge-of-clipping distortion. For that purpose, I use the Origin Effects Cali76 Stacked Edition Dual=Stage Compressor, which provides the extra sustain, without hitting downstream pedals or the amp so hard they clip. Plus, the "DRY" control lets me mix in as much of the uncompressed signal as I want so I don't lose the sparkle or bite of the transients. That works best for my sound.

[@jrjazz]

Rhett, Key with all of these pedals is the amp. I have an AC 15 and Fender Supersonic. Most of us don't have boutique amps. I would love to see an episode comparing sounds of pedals and different mainstream amps and highlighting the basic sonic signatures of the pedal, amp combinations. I know these combinations are vast but some basic overall differences would be great to know. ❤

[@mainiacman8]

love that audio slave riff. NAIL IN MY HAND

[@vorncoza]

I mean, maybe running a boost into an overdrive is broadly understood but would've liked to see / hear more of that in this comparison 😊 Great video! Great tones!

[@greggibbs2017]

Great tones ! Sabbath tones my favorite. But all very good. P90 helps for classic sound

[@mark.guitar]

I can recommend the Boss dd200 as a workstation to find out which two pedal types sound good with your rig. There are some aspects of this pedal that are a bit annoying and make using it live a pain, but you can put two chosen pedals in series and parallel and adjust every aspect of the tone, drive and outputs of both. The big plus is that you can use the memory slots as A/B comparison. I found what was needed in front of each of my amps and then took the dd200 to my local music store and easily replicated the sounds with two pedals that don't have any issues. I ended up with a TC Spark and a cheap second hand Blues driver clone. They sound exactly like the sound that was in my head, which is very pleasing as they cost less than 100 notes including a pack of patch cables. Good vid Rhett.

[@Esmith4422]

I play through two Friedman amps, twin sister and small box. I've found after purchasing maybe 10 OD pedals, that I mainly just like using the buxom boost to push it much harder and modify the EQ a little. The overdrive pedals usually make it sound worse if I turn up the drive at all. The amp distortion just sounds better. The exceptions being a tube screamer because it just pushes the mids, or my favorite OD pedal the fulltone full drive 1, which just sounds like a thicker tube screamer. So I run just the fulldrive and the boost, and I rotate a 2nd OD/distortion pedal just because it's fun to try new pedals. I imagine at some point I should add just an EQ pedal before the boost.

[@christianboddum8783]

2 drives and a clean boost works for me!

[@whyceeguy]

As some others have pointed out your amp needs to sound good first, everything else will follow. It is also important to talk about what type of music you are playing, how much gain do you want/need? I have an amp with a solid state pre and a tube power that sounds great for clean styles. I have another amp that has a tube pre and solid state power that works well for crunchy styles. The way I am going to choose what to put in front of each one of these is entirely different. I also have guitars with both single coil and humbuckers so I can get the gain boost by switching pickups. The more you can get done with your guitar and your amp the better.

[@guitarwalljams]

Great video! Love using a a boost to hit an overdrive pedal get it to saturate more.

[@andrewbecker3700]

Before I watch the vid, I wanna suggest you do more simple breakdowns like this, of common gear. What they do, and how they're used. You'd be surprised how many people are lost when it comes to the differences. There's no right or wrong way, just the BEST ways. Peace!

[@mortonwilson795]

Great overview, thanks! As you say there are lots of options out there so, here goes! Since the late '70s I have used Paul Crowther's Hot Cake for OD and switched to his Double Hot Cake when he released it for the 2 added colours of OD it added. I also hung onto my old MXR Distortion+ but only for one specific 'vintage Fripp' sound. All thru those years I was going into Fenders - mainly Twins, then a Blues Jnr. OR DI into a Neve Desk. I have recently added the Effectrode Blackbird with 3 Vacuum Tubes Preamp Pedal which is magic - it's an 'always on' pedal Dumblish 'halo' with Creamy & Classic OD switches there for lead breaks. For more jangly chordal stuff the Aclam Dr. Robert in front of the Victory Copper Pre-Amp Pedal is fun, esp. when you hit the 'Mach Schau' OD with your Casino or my 1957 Hofner Club 60 or Gretsch Solid Body - modern take on Fab goodness 😂 Final touch, not an OD pedal per se, but lots of overload on-board is the Neo Ventilator II 'Leslie' Pedal which is the closest to gently overloading a Leslie I have found over the years (think Clapton's bridge in Badge). I have the TCE Mojo Mojo on hand should I need it . . . more of a live gig standby.

[@robinjgill]

I bought quite a few ODs over the years but no longer use them. Now it's just boost for a bit of hair and volume/EQ change. Amp and sound environment are just as important. In chaotic sound environments the type of gear sometimes seems irrelevant:)

[@lanceleslie5165]

A boost pedal is key, especially when playing live. And boosts are all different beasts. I use an Analog Man Bad Bob, Xotic EP Booster, MXR Timmy and an MXR Duke of Tone. They all have a slightly different character and work differently when gain staging in various pedal configurations.

[@lorelei2002]

I absolutly agree. There is a huge difference that boost allows. I dont own one yet but I can see the difference just by using my knock off strat compared to my wolfgang. The strat pickups are so hot that it pushes even a jcm 800 into heavy distortion you usually need a tubescreamer traditionally for while not changing the tone from a fat one

[@delefo]

Personally I use all the above. But out front first are two treble boosters, one Germanium, one Germanium - Silicon hybrid. I am stacking so many overdrives and boosts lately I am now using distortion much less. So much fun.

[@alvarado8740]

Always informative, always entertaining, always clear and concise, thank you! 🙏

[@jasontanner5836]

Nice overview! Great tones! I’m using a MXR distortion plus (hard clipping) as an overdrive by setting the gain pretty low and then boosting afterwards with a booste grande. The booste grande tames the highs and brings the level up because the MXR lacks headroom. But the MXR distortion plus has tons of character like almost fuzz like

[@brendanf8969]

Tyler is a beast 🤘🏻

[@waltleve]

I had an SG junior in the early 70s. Loved it. It was so playable.

[@Severinate]

Yep, after years of differnt drives, from Boss OD 1 (88) - Marshall Guv II, Tech 21 (the original one) (90's), Catalinbread DLS, Walrus Iron Horse, 2x EQD Plumes, J Rocket Archer. Finally settled on the JHS morning Glory with the Red Remoate in the front and a CAE Boost/Line driver for the effects loop. I think I'm done. Though the Browne Carbon X is tempting.

[@maxwellblakely7952]

The Guy V1 is pretty great too

[@Smart-Alex]

REVV G3 pedal for the distortion win!

[@bryanwalters9574]

My approach is to put my favorite overdrive (currently a BD-2, but frequently changing) last and then boost it with either a tube screamer, klon, or clean boost (whatever compliments the main OD).

[@CakedNinja]

On the clean channel of my 6505 I use UA 1176 to compress, into a Notalkon with little gain, into a Boss Fender '65 with gain nearly off volume up, essentally as a boost with tone shaping. Hall of Fame 2 or Dunlop Echoplex in FX loop. Allows me to get a huge amount of classic tones. Sometimes I'll throw a tone bender in front. Heavy OD/Distortion is a whole other thing. Different set up entirely.

[@JSaltyfabricator]

EQD Plumes is my favourite. Boost or various ODs. Just love it.

[@BrentGrowe]

Nice! Great video. I use a dual Hot cake with the Benson boost pedal. It really covers a lot of ground if you integrate the volume knob.

[@lightningrt434]

As I watched this, my doorbell rang and a Zvex Box of Rock was delivered- Boost and distortion. That will be added to my King of Tone, Pedal Pawn Texas Twang, Heaby MkII Overdriver, Blue Whale Rangemaster clone, and Pigtronix Class A boost. All on my gigging board. Do I have a problem? Yes!

[@caelenselke-minogue]

I think a distinction should be mad with soft and hard clipping. Soft clipping is achieved with clipping diodes in the feedback loop of a transistor or opamp, whereas hard clipping is achieved with the clipping diodes going straight to ground. In other words, not all of the signal is clipped with soft clipping, but with hard clipping, all of it is. Generally speaking overdrive and distortion (and fuzz for that matter) are more or less the same, with the only real difference being the amount of clipping. For example, the EHX Big Muff uses two soft clipping feedback loops in series but is extremely gainy, and the Fulltone OCD uses hard clipping. It really has more to do with how much the signal is being amplified (like with a boost) before it hits the clipping stage, because clipping diodes work as a cutoff point; if the signal is too loud, the diodes will clip it, maintaining an even amount of gain.

[@shawnpage1605]

That SG Junior sounds fantastic!

[@bluzzjazz]

I have a Mad Professor Bluebird as my always on OD. In front of it I have an original Zendrive (gooped). A Katana clean boost is after the Bluebird. I sometimes pair the Zendrive and the Bluebird and kick on the boost when that extra is needed. I'm playing through a Fender 60w SuperSonic, so it has plenty of headroom.

[@charvelsocalplayer9874]

Show Me How to Live sounded great with the Hard Drive!

[@madsenamplification]

Great video! Insightful discussion on boost, OD, and distortion.

[@devilsdoorbell]

I caught onto this a couple years ago and found that unless I need a distortion that does impossible things, a boost and/or od really makes the amp distorition nice. (Orange!). Although the Daredevil pedals Hype! Boost is out of production now, it's my favorite way to slam the amp.

[@jeffreymarchese1762]

I like the Wampler Equator for boost -- great tone shaping. For overdrive In front of that, I have a Barber LTD, JRockett Colt-45, and a Zen Drive clone (AionFx Azimuth kit). Great tones all around.

[@chrisreese2361]

My first ever overdrive/distortion was a fulltone OCD v2, I still have it to this day.

[@AmiGuitar]

Mine was boss sd1

[@madmick78]

Both good choices. Mine was an '85 white face Rat. I was happy for years with just my guitar, my Rat and my amp. I still love that sound, but I've grown to appreciate many other sounds too. Do what works for you!

[@gdaddy2300]

Thanks Rhett, always enjoy your stuff 👍

[@DanielNourry-hd8sz]

Hiya Rhett, I've recently discovered the channel and will slowly go through your work here. But, as I am watching you, my mind keeps coming back to the same question(s): what is a day/week like in the life of someone who does what you do here? Have you made a video along these lines? I have just seen the video you made about more musicians making music on YT, and I have to watch it, but I wanted to thank you for your work and ask my questions. So, what is a day/week like in the life of someone who does what you do here? Have you made a video along these lines? Anyway, thanks!

[@dedalusjmmr]

One thing that was a bit oversimplified in the explanation is that with saturation or soft clipping the wave starts to fold on itself as it reaches the limit, and that's where the harmonics come from. Pure distortion or hard clipping is the equivalent of an infinite folding, which is the same as chopping off the wave.

[@faustthehammer8706]

Found a 1961 sg junior here in small town kentucky on the cheap sounds great through my blackstar 2 12 60. It is painted over gold poor thing but plays solid... tubes do so much to tone... I have a 1967 Princeton reverb as well it's just my fave small room amp

[@patrickmcelligott5646]

I love the Zio as well. Always a part of my pedalboard

[@danielbarbieri8199]

JHS colorbox is the universal solution. A bit expensive, but it will follow you all your life.

[@marcaustin]

Rhett my guy. This is a GREAT video. I've had some of this knowledge half-cobbled in my brain here and there, but you presented it so well with the playing samples. I was a little surprised you don't keep a fuzz on the board. If you were to choose a fuzz for your style - would it be more of a Muff style or more modern? TKs

[@dougiemonday]

I feel like this video topic can be redone and regurgitated over and over and over again, and it will never ever ever be less valuable

[@seniordh500]

Omg now your going to have me shopping for new pedals 😂 Great info ! Thank you sir

[@chrishowitt9654]

I have a Mooer Micro boost in front of 2 Sinvertek distortion pedals. The boost really gets that edge of breakup, the Sinvertek Distortion No5 is my overdrive/distortion kinda sound and the N5+3d is my full on distortion. When I stack all three, watch out. 😆

[@zachmiller4575]

I use a boss angry driver on the blue side for my clean always on tone then I stack a wampler triumph into the front of it for more drive. What’s great about the angry driver is if I need to solo I can switch it to the red side set that has more mids set with the volume higher as a dirty boost for solos

[@mattg082]

Always on Microamp to get natural amp breakup, and can dial it with my foot per song, over drive and distortion after set lower than normal to match the always on boost. That way when the overdrive is off, I go back to my base amp breakup sound. Plus can take it off if I want super clean. Good to have a transparent boost and a color fist and last! That’s given you like your amp breakup more than a colored always on OD.

[@nedludd3641]

Excellent. This is really helpful to me. I wish Mr Shull would show me what he'd do to get a decent sound out of a Boss Katana 50. How do I get The Eagles circa. 1977 sound?

[@donadams1505]

I agree with some of what was said that some of these videos would have been useful many years ago like when I was learning about this myself.. Two be honest so many players collect amps and it's funny because there is always a video where a new amp has all of this tone or great distortion or something and then there are 30 behind them so what are they for ? Well nowadays they are a collector of gifts or thoughts of the past ,As a player I have had several guitars for tones whether it was a JEM or Jackson V just like amps or pedals and one day with a lot of these videos I emptied almost everything but I never collected amps I used great amps and when they wore out bought new I miss my Crate Excalibur but I miss the Crate Blue Voodoo but once I got to my Carvin Legacy I stayed with it till it was stolen in the road.. Now I have my EVH 80 w one pedal which is a Distortion and between my amps and guitars do everything I need and I have two Tele Customs and Music Man EVH does everything I need. I still have my JEM'S and RG 550's but those were so hard to get but they sit in a case or hang , pedals I threw away if it did nothing for my tone.. I keep a TC Electronics pedal for a little chorus, delay depending on what I am playing but if some information had been more visible and every guitar player didn't have a major ego I could have reduced my space by a lot . Rhett's good words of wisdom and I respect the honesty of it all and making today be simple like yesterday should have been... Cheers

[@edtaylor7816]

@RhettShull So...the question before me is: Helix Stomp or pedals. I have a love hate relationship with my Stomp. It's a rabbit hole. I long for my days in the 70s with a limited number of choices. OTOH, one can't deny the ease of use of the Stomp. Not including the OD presets, which just don't do it for me... Thoughts?

[@TheMasonator777]

Why not a Helix stomp and a couple pedals? It takes pedals well. John Nathan Cordy’s channel. Thank me later.

[@normbarrows2]

It seems there are two schools of thought on how to get tone. group A uses tube amps, overdriven pre-amps, volume and tone controls, etc. Group B uses pedals for signal processing, and clean channel chip amps (not overdriven) for volume. Group B has no use for boost.

[@TheBlund1971]

The Zio is rad! Thanks for the cool video>

[@ilikelittlebikes]

I would argue that with a decent amp, all you really need to get any tone you want is a compressor pedal going into an eq pedal then into a clean boost. getting used to a decent eq pedal and it's insane utility absolutely changed how I build tones.

[@zoomzoom3950]

I have tube amps that already sound good to me; if I use a pedal in front of the amp, the only pedal I use is EQ; especially with single channel amps it gives me a different tone and optional clean boost for leads, like an extension of the sound of the amp which I already like. I have a few EQ pedals, I've been using a Source Audio EQ2 for last several years or since it was released.

[@JHPRS]

Hi Rhett. I was just watching your Axe-FX 3 video from 2 years ago. I was wondering if you ever considered Cooper Carters' Master Class for the Axe 3. It really is the best source for learning everything about Fractal devices. :)

[@andrewmaher8409]

Guitar into Decibelics Golden Horse (micro Klone), into Wampler Ratsbane (do-anything micro RAT dist/fuzz), into Clinchfx EP Pre (very clever, tone sweetening Echoplex preamp). into amp.

[@alexdayhay]

I've got 3 stages of overdrives: Greer Lightspeed (always on), Nobels Odr1 and Revv G3...

[@paulcarter105]

Then there’s fuzz and fuzz/distortions like the hm2 that can be used as boosts I gain stage a lot. Compressor into Ts9 or sd1 into hm2w into mt2w

[@Maxaipa777]

Another informative and well done video sir! Zio rules

[@julianmetcalfe1070]

GOOD one Rhett keep up the good work

[@giantcerealbowl2120]

Thank you thank you thank you Rhett, needed this video

[@AndyBoldry]

Hey Rhett! Love your content! There’s a question I’ve been dying to ask you, so if you see this, hopefully you’ll have time throughout your busy day to respond. My question: If you were forced to sell every single amplifier that you own except for one, which one would you choose to keep and why?

[@JulianGaudreau-vy2vv]

Hey Rhett! I listened to your album, and i love the Fuzz tone on Spyglass, what pedal/gear did you use for that?

[@hootowl6354]

How many pedals do I have? Too many. In the end, I just go straight in and crank it up. It's amazing🙄, but I don't have any loose connection issues; and frankly, for me, it sounds better. It really depends on your pickups and amp though.

[@emilemarcotte2782]

Can't wait to watch!

[@AdamLevyGuitarTips]

Most excellent. Thank you, Rhett.

[@halfindy]

In front of my Laney GC30V (the predecessor to the VC30) I only need a Boss SD1 Overdrive in Boost mode with the level at 2-3pm and the drive to 9-10am and the tone to 1-2pm to cut better through the band mix when playing single note lines in solos. That works like a charm! With my Koch Studiotone and the Blackstar HT5 it doesn’t work well at all. Both these amps have a built in second stage/boost that I can’t really make the solo sound cut through the mix the same way. Unfortunately the Laney is too loud in the context I’m using the other two amps. Still looking to fix that problem.

[@ikebeRatLM308]

Stacking all my favorite overdrive and fuzz pedals together never destroy my tone, it does on my back instead.

[@KennethKassabian]

I like the Tolex on the amp. Not the same old black.

[@philipcarollo7721]

@Rhett. In your opinion, what preamp pedal would you recommend to use with the Seymour Duncan Power Boost 170?

[@roscius6204]

Boost>OD>Boost or just Boost and OD within a re-orderable loop matrix, 90% of the job done......and Fuzz.

[@JT-kp8ps]

Zio is THE best pedal I've ever bought, and I've bought lots...

[@benliness]

Most important - where do i get that great mug?

[@maximilian9000]

I am a longtime bassist, but I have a beautiful partscaster that is still a mystery. Is there maybe a 10min practice routine I could do a few times a week to make some progress without cutting my bass time significantly?

[@Sep45]

Note to self: Write songs, write lyrics, make music. Stop watching so many KZbin videos and fiddling with pedals

[@1rgam3r]

Personally, I enjoy learning about gear.

[@jamie21641]

True. So why here?

[@graphicartdude]

But then KZbinrs wouldn’t be able to bombard us with endless affiliate links & afford to add to their unnecessarily large & envy evoking collection of gear.

[@crucifixgym]

Exactly. A decent guitar plugged into a DAW with a USB cable has all the virtual pedals and amps you need while writing and recording music.

[@frankpaparo3045]

Rhett I have a exh lp1 boost, I also have the sweet baby transparent od from joyo, love these 2 together, exactly what is a transparent od? All I know is it sounds amazing

[@ctsilva45]

I would had added Amp In A Box pedals to this. I wish I knew about them when I started playing guitar. I thought I wanted more overdrives and distortions when really what I wanted was a bunch of amps that I couldn't afford. Enter the AIAB pedals and now I can make all of the sounds I want to make and overdrives and distortions are just a color on top of that base sound I actually wanted

[@Scooby743]

The EchoPlex Pre in the ZIO is weak vs the Dunlop EP Pre...real shame as the rest of the pedal ROCKS!!!

[@NickGodwin]

I find clean is great in reggae. And disco. REAL clean. No distortion. IMHO.

[@joshphillips9033]

And funk. But the Wailers had some killer dirty tones in the 70s so I wouldn’t say no distortion