what pedals do you use with your vintage ampeg?

[Fred Rocker]

i'm looking to get an old mxr distortion +.
i like a pretty crunchy tone with some reverb in there.
i think the mxr will crunch things up and i can keep the volume down.
it's been 30 years since i used a distortion+. when i had one they didnt have an a/c input, just battery.
i'm wondering if they are noisey?

[Liquids]

i'm looking to get an old mxr distortion +.
i like a pretty crunchy tone with some reverb in there.
i think the mxr will crunch things up and i can keep the volume down.
it's been 30 years since i used a distortion+. when i had one they didnt have an a/c input, just battery.
i'm wondering if they are noisey?

Personal opinion - The distortion+ is fairly straight ahead, but has no tone control. The schematic shows VERY minimal passive treble cut after the distortion. There is bot a lot of control to dial in a specific tone. That pedal is probably better with an amp that is already crunching a bit, and for adding a subtle amount of gain/crunch boost on top of that. They are maybe not as good for going into a clean & clear amp.

The current MXR line has other 'distortion' pedals in the line that have at least a tone control to help the pedal tone match your straght tone.

The old MXRs may have been more noisy than they current ones, simply due to op amps being a lot better than they were 30+ years ago in terms of noise. But yes, you will still be boosting noise due to gain, compression, etc.

Personal opinion - if you are open to suggestion, try something like the Barber "Direct Drive," or even a "RAT" pedal. The RAT is classic and at least has a tone control. The Barber is also not that pricey, and has slightly more control with more thoughtful circuitry for good crunch tones.

I also find that crunch pedals sound a lot better into an amps when the amp's bright switch isn't on.

As always, your mileage may vary.

[Fred Rocker]

that sounds like good info to me.
i remember the rat pedal from the early 80's and it did sound good.
i dont think i want a tube screamer type... would that work at lower volumes?
i like an 80's crunchy sound. i have a jcm800, but i prefer to use my crate v5112 for gigs.

i'm just noodling at home with the ampegs. no real intention to gig with them altho i did buy a reverberocket 2 because of the smaller size; so maybe...

[Liquids]

that sounds like good info to me.
i remember the rat pedal from the early 80's and it did sound good.
i dont think i want a tube screamer type... would that work at lower volumes?
i like an 80's crunchy sound. i have a jcm800, but i prefer to use my crate v5112 for gigs.

i'm just noodling at home with the ampegs. no real intention to gig with them altho i did buy a reverberocket 2 because of the smaller size; so maybe...

The tube screamer type circuit, when it's set for higher drive settings, is a bit more of a 'tame' sound than a marshall/rat/distortion+ type crunch that you spoke of. The tubescreamer tends to feel a bit more compressed when set for higher drive. There is certainly overlap in all of these things, and these are broad generalities. There is no substitute for going to a store/borrowing someone's and comparing them for yourself when possible.

I think the Rat is a good tried-and-true, affordable starting point that is not too hard to track down, if you don't want to try out a multitude of pedals to find a very particular one that you like best--there are PLENTY of other good pedals that will yield interesting variations on the crunch sound, but yeah, the RAT is good, cheap, simple, and classic.

[Fred Rocker]

yes. i'm gonna get the rat.
wow folks are asking big money for the old ones on ebay.
i see the newer ones are cheaper. i will try one soon.

[Hangman]

I use a Rat too. it was one of the "Vintage Rats" that Proco made a while back. It uses the LM308 like the originals. Although I put one of the metal can LM308Hs in.

The Rat really is a great pedal. aside from that I use one of the Tank Green Russian big muffs, a Maxon AD900 delay, and Boss RV-5.

I switch between the rat and the bigmuff for different distortion voicing. The rat has a really well defined distortion that can be a bit more aggressive than the bigmuff, I feel like the big muff really excels at smoother fuzzy sounds. I've tried to eliminate one or the other, but I always end up missing the one I take out

[Fred Rocker]

just bought a ts9 tube screamer. sounds good. I wasn't able to crank it yet tho.
I want to get an old e/h small stone phase shifter then my pedal board will be complete lol