LP Special - pedals?

[spenno]

Hey all. First post here. Been playing a while and in fact started out with an SG 25 years ago, had a Junior in between as a back-up but have pretty much been all Tele since then. Anyhow I have my eye on playing some rockier stuff next year and treated myself to the Special, and tried it out this weekend in my current band. The tones are all in there, but obviously had to fiddle about with all my usual amp settings. It took me a while to work out how differently all the pedals were reacting too. What sorts of pedals are people using? I noticed my clean channel (straight from a Blues Junior) was pretty weak, and that I was jumping to the JHS Prestige (one of those 'always on' pedals like the EP Booster) as my base tone. Previously I'd been using that as my main overdrive lol. So I'm guessing I need a pedal to jump up a notch. I wondered about a Morning Glory and was kinda hoping JHS offered a double double with a boost like the Prestige then Morning Glory but not seen one yet.
Anyhow, I was expecting to have to tweak a fair bit and gotta say how much I have enjoyed playing it so far. Love the shorter scale and it's a beast with the fiestier stuff.

 

[charliechitlins]

I've not encountered the idea of certain guitars lending themselves to certain pedals.
I guess higher output humbuckers (as opposed to Tele pickups) might like a different kind of OD, but your amp, style, preferences, etc. would totally overshadow any possibility of generalizing, "LP Special? You need such and such a pedal."

 

[corpse]

I love P90's- it doesn't take much to over drive them. A plain old Boss SD-1 (the yellow one) set for low OD does a lot.
Start with somethign like that.
Nobody here knows what you like or what you are playing for that matter. But start with a little and season to taste.

 

[Nifty]

OMG I dont play in a band but I've caught the pedal virus and need professional help. I have a Gibson LP Classic. I got one pedal way back thinking that would be it but it wasn't it. The local music shop is a lazy susan for used pedals.

I got the Boss Chromatic Tuner, and the Boss Looper (v3 I think). Then I have three overdrive pedals. One is a CB Dirty Little Secret which I really like. CatalinBread has a few pedals that were designed to replicate tones in the past with certain equipment. I have a Boss Blues Driver and an older fuzz pedal that I found cheap. The fuzz is the only one I've been iffy with. I heard the radio when it was on so I had to move it around in the chain. Then after some reading I got the guidance of general order. I didn't know much about pedals. When I got a power supply with isolated power whatever other noise I heard went to near zero.

One distortion pedal I got really cheap on Reverb. Then a Boss tremelo, Boss Chorus, and a phaser pedal from Catalinbread called Many Worlds. That is probably the most interestingly versatile one if you like to tinker with tones and sound. I started drawing pics of the settings because I was finding something cool then the next day couldn't remember the settings.

I have one CB SFT pedal on order (early Stones ampeg sound) and then the local shop is got a delay pedal for me they will sell in a few weeks. (All used items they take on trade they wait to clear with LEO to make sure nothing was stolen.)

I have acoustic guitars I'll run through the pedals too. The 12 string I have sounds amazing with the phaser and chorus.

I will need another pedal board pretty soon, or either create two separate pedal board rigs and run them through two different inputs on the amp.

The entire thing runs into an old Peavey Deuce Tube amp / black widow speakers. 120 watts. I keep the amp's pre and post gain around 3 and i run everything into a lower gain input jack. All the "effects" run through an effects look in the back of the amp. The amp itself has built in phaser and then reverb. When I have the house to myself, I turn everything to 5 or 6. So, yes, some nights I get lost playing with everything.

 

[Wilko]

I can't imagine a Les Paul SPecial not sounding killer plugged straight in to Blues Jr.

Any boost will be great with that amp. Not so different from the tele. Maybe much fatter sounding.

 

[garagemonkey]

Where are your pickups set? I bought an Original Collection LP Special new when they came out in 2019 and the bridge was pretty weak and the neck overpowering until I adjusted them. Basically, try setting the bridge pickup as close to the strings as possible without the pole pieces making contact when you play, then adjust the neck down until they're fairly balanced. Made it a completely different instrument with only pickup height adjustment. That'll help get a lot of oomph out of the guitar.



I use the same pedals with my P90 Special as I do my Les Paul, ES-335, Melody Maker, Ibanez V, Kramer Baretta, etc., so for me at least I don't differentiate by guitar. My pedal choices are all amp based, so I'll tend to use different gear for my Marshalls vs Deluxe Reverbs, etc. I don't have a Blues Jr but for my Tweed Deluxe (a really good 5E3 clone) I'll generally run an RC Booster into a Prince of Tone (if live) or Nordland ODR-C (at home) into a Greer Lightspeed into an Analogman-modded GE-7 set for solo boost. That said, generally all I need for that rig when the volume is at 3 or better is the RC Booster and/or the GE-7....or no pedal at all. A P90 rips, man!

 

[Wilko]

I just thought of something. I had a Les Paul Special Doublecut and it had those P100 pickups. They are pretty anemic. I never could get that thing to sound good. Get Some P90s from Seymour Duncan and don't look back!

 

[charliechitlins]

Yes.
P100s fail to deliver the groceries.

 

[mdubya]

P-90s love fuzz and old germanium and silicon circuits.

Fuzz Face
Tone Bender
Colorsound Overdriver
Rat

My personal favorite is a 70s Maestro MFZ-1 fuzz. Kind of like a silicon Fuzz Face.

For me it is reverb and tremolo on almost clean rhythms and tremolo off and fuzz on for leads.

Break out the credit card.

ETA: Proof of P-90 LPs and a ringer.

 

[Mr. Papa]

I just got a Tru-Fi Two Face Fuzz and it is truly fantastic with any of my LPs, but is really magic for me with P90s. That said I’ve been using a Zendrive with P90s for years and its been my go to for OD. I can confirm that SD-1 also works great.

 

[spenno]

Thanks for the input guys, appreciate it.
For clarity, I love the tones I'm getting, just wanted feedback on what overdrives you were all using with this combination of BJ and Les Paul Special, because as I said they certainly react differently with eachother than my USA Cabnonita (TV Jones Classics) and the same amp. Think I'll grab a Tumnus Mini.

 

[bursty]

many years ago I used a few basic pedals but I switched to plugging straight into the amp a looooooong time ago.

Life is much simpler now and the tone from my guitars isn't being degraded by a bunch of little headaches with patch cords attached

 

[spenno]

many years ago I used a few basic pedals but I switched to plugging straight into the amp a looooooong time ago.

Life is much simpler now and the tone from my guitars isn't being degraded by a bunch of little headaches with patch cords attached

I do like this approach and like to keep things as simple as possible (generally tuner, tremolo and boost up until now), but of course there will be songs where a different sound or sprinkling of magic is needed - in this case just an overdrive to take it beyond the boost.