redisburning
Les Paul Froum Member
- Joined
- Aug 7, 2015
- Messages
- 256
Whenever I see this thread, I always think:
- Set amp for Solo tone with guitar volume full up (possibly with guitar tone control rolled back a bit).
- Turn down guitar volume for clean(er) rhythm sound (with guitar tone up if not 50's wiring).
Is it not that simple?
But do get the switch for your amp. Probably the cheapest easiest option aside from the above.
It can be.
But that's not the path everyone takes.
I really bought into that kind of thinking in the past. I had an 18 watt Marshall clone and I ran it ragged and thought I had it all figured out. I learned how to play guitar with that amp on the verge of exploding, riding that envelope with extreme care.
Until I got fed up with the lack of real clean volum, causing me to buy a 50W Marshall and a $100 Fulltone Pedal, which absolutely ****ing smoked the 18 Watter for my ears. And I had a real clean sound at volume, including the more compressed sound of running my humbuckers on 10 and not having absolute mush. It was, to put it mildly, revalatory. Probably to the same degree that just as many people have gone the literal complete opposite, trading in their big amps and OD pedals for a smaller amp.
Your setup is one sound; the amp and the amp more compressed. That can be AMAZING. But with a pedal, you can have true clean one moment and cascaded gain the next. And if you get tired of your drive sound, well sell your pedal and buy another one.
Both are viable answers but the truth is that if it were that simple for the OP he'd have figured it out by now. It's not like a Blues JR comes with the full compliment of Steel String Singer switches, the 8 channels of a Bogner or the interactive controls of a Boogie.