Using Overdrive Pedals into Clean or Overdriven Amps

Using overdrive pedals with an amp is a key part of many guitar players tones. Some prefer to play a clean amp and get all their drive from the pedals, others prefer to overdrive the amp and use gain stacking to push their tone further.

Gain stacking is a trick that you can use to boost your amps existing gain levels, or totally transform it tonally and give you more options to play with.

There is no correct way to nail your tone, but there are plenty of options to consider and things to try out. In this article we’re going to cover some of the main ones.

Overdrive Pedal into a Clean Amp

Using an amp as a clean pedal platform is a very common approach for many guitar players. This approach allows you to get your tone regardless of what amp you get provided with for a gig, as long as it has a decent clean tone. This approach is great for gigging musicians who are unable to transport their own amps to shows and rely on hired backline.

When you run overdrive pedals into a clean amp you get more headroom for volume, but less gain, unless you are using a high gain overdrive pedal. This is because the clean channel of most amps will have a high headroom, meaning the amp itself will not go into natural overdrive, all the drive will come from the pedal.

Many players prefer 6L6 style amps for this due to their high headroom, but you can also get great results with all other tube types. An EL34 amp for example will still work, but it will hit the natural breakup point at a lower headroom level.

Overdrive Pedal into an Overdriven Amp

If you have an overdriven amp that you like the tone of, but you want to push it a little harder, or get a little more gain from it, this is a great approach.

This approach utilizes gain stacking. Stacking the gain from the pedal into the gain of the amp. When doing this, the pedal will also have an impact on the amps tone. If you love the tone of the amp, you can adjust the tone of the pedal so that the EQ impact is minimal.

You can also use this approach to add frequencies to an amp that aren’t already there. For example, using a Treble Booster with an overdriven amp that is EQ’d too dark will add some top end sparkle, or using a mid-humped overdrive into a scooped 6L6 amp will add the midrange back in.

If you want to boost the amps natural gain, set the volume of the pedal high and the gain low, let the volume push the amp harder. If you want more added gain, use the pedals gain to add that higher gain second gainstage.

Overdrive Pedal into a High Gain Amp

If you play a high gain amp, especially if you use lower tunings or extended range guitars, there is a simple trick you can do to tighten up your tone and make it a little easier to sit in the mix.

If you play heavier styles of music with a lot of gain, you’ll find the amp will have a lot of low end response. This will sound great in isolation, but when you put this into a mix with a drummer and bassist, it will muddy up the low end.

A simple trick you can do with an overdrive pedal is to use a TS style pedal which typically shaves off the low end, and set it with the gain on zero and the volume on full. Putting this infront of your high gain amp will push the preamp a little harder, but also shave off some of the lows giving you a more articulate tone that sits better in the mix.

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About the Author

This article on using overdrive pedals with clean or overdriven amps was written by Leigh Fuge. Leigh is a professional guitarist and content creator and also works alongside musicteacher.com to create guitar focused, educational and entertainment content.

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