Overdrive Boost for a Solid-State Amp?

[GDPunkRock]

Hi guys, intending to get an affordable overdrive pedal(either a Behringer Power Distortion or a Beta Aivin Overdrive) as a boost for my Nux Mighty 15's dirty channel for solos/leads. I'm mainly trying to get more sustain and a little bit more punch, hence an OD pedal to boost.
My main concern right now is, that since the Nux Mighty 15 is a solid-state amp, will this method of boosting work? I've heard from a friend, and from discussion forums that this way of using an overdrive pedal works best on TUBE amps...
What say you guys?

 

[carboxymoron]

I'm tired of hearing myself say this already, but forget the Behringer and Beta Aivin and get a Danelectro Cool Cat (Drive, Transparent Overdrive, or Distortion).

I don't know about the Nux in particular, but I usually prefer to use the clean channel on solid states and get my dirt tones from pedals. Of course it'll work different than on a tube amp, but best is subjective. Don't worry so much about the technicalities.

If you're happy with the tone of the dirt channel but want just a little more, you might consider getting a compressor instead of a drive pedal.

 

[Likui]

for me I never like to stack overdrive on the amp's distortion, I find NuX 15 distortion not bad for a small digital amp, I do own 1 myself. for me I prefer to use the clean channel of the amp and use a distortion pedal. to boost the signal I think u can get some clean boost pedal. For me i use 2 distortion pedals, 1 is kind of my lead tone 1 is rhythm tone.

 

[subversion]

+1 to the Coolcat Trans OD. a simple yet effective OD for boosting function.

i'd also recommend the OD-10 for great boost tones with both solidstate or tube amps.

 

[AaronSoFat]

i tried boosting a dirt channel on a solid state with a pedal before. sounds horrible. haha. but i don't know. seems people recommend pedals for solid states here too. should give it a try i guess.

 

[J.custom]

I'm tired of hearing myself say this already, but forget the Behringer and Beta Aivin and get a Danelectro Cool Cat (Drive, Transparent Overdrive, or Distortion)

Totally agree with this. Those three pedals are excellent and I wouldn't mind using them as my main drives on my board.

 

[GDPunkRock]

+1 to the Coolcat Trans OD. a simple yet effective OD for boosting function.

i'd also recommend the OD-10 for great boost tones with both solidstate or tube amps.

Lol, I actually did try out the CoolCat TOD once at Davis, though it was kinda rushed - poped by after school, +many customers at the time, so I just gave it a short test. From what I remember, the on/off pedal switch was rather tiny in comparison to the whole thing(it's like all the way at the tip and the shape is funny too for a pedal) and kinda hard to press down, anyone else has this problem? Or was it just that particular one I tested. Tone-wise, I did try using it to boost an amp's dirty channel - might just be me, but the boost wasnt very distinct, hence transparency I think. I should head down and try it again some day since I didn't get to tweak it much then.

btw carbo, in what way are the CoolCats better than the Behringers/BetaAivin's(cos honestly i've yet to try these 2)? Btw,they are cheaper than the double B's right? Like 40+ or something I think

oh ya,sub, how does the CoolCat fare against the Biyang one? The Biyang one seems to have more versitality with the 3 mode switch? Looks more sturdy too,with a metal housing

 

[J.custom]

The on/off switch is pretty big what. Compared to that of standard pedal footswitches because it stretches along the whole of the bottom part of the pedal.

With regards to boosting the amp's dirty channel, which amp was it? Maybe you did not have enough time to tweak it to your preferences.

Well, the Cool Cats are better than them because
1)Metal enclosure
2)True Bypass
3)Better tone in general

Only thing I don't like about them is the knob placements, but for $35 what can I say? I'm extremely satisfied with them.

 

[GDPunkRock]

The CoolCats are metal housed? Omg, I fail!!! I thought it was plastic when I handled them lol :|
Yeah, I kinda think that last time was because I didn't get to tweak around much, pretty much used the amp as it was set up,even the pedal - it was really busy in Davis, so I told myself to come back another day but have yet to.

$35?! That's incredible !

 

[J.custom]

Well at least the few that I had were in metal enclosures. Not sure now. Yeah it's about $35+ la. Quite worth it.

 

[carboxymoron]

Yeah, Cool Cats have exceptional build quality and sound for the price. Don't mix up with the plastic Fab series or food named series from Danelectro also.

I do find the switches a bit tough to press. With shoes its ok cos I just kick the damn thing

You might prefer the Drive or Distortion compared to the TOD as they have a bit of their own character.

 

[subversion]

oh ya,sub, how does the CoolCat fare against the Biyang one? The Biyang one seems to have more versitality with the 3 mode switch? Looks more sturdy too,with a metal housing

yes the Biyang pedal looks more versatile with those 3 modes BUT they are only audible if your primary distortion source isn't over-powering.

IMO, a solidstate amp could use a booster units with more dirt, in this case distortion instead of overdrive.

 

[GDPunkRock]

hmmm, but i'm afraid that distortion + distortion might color the tone so much that it becomes ugly instead of a boost :| i was thinking an overdrive with wide tonal variety would be better than a distortion pedal in this case?

 

[GDPunkRock]

Yeah, Cool Cats have exceptional build quality and sound for the price. Don't mix up with the plastic Fab series or food named series from Danelectro also.

I do find the switches a bit tough to press. With shoes its ok cos I just kick the damn thing

You might prefer the Drive or Distortion compared to the TOD as they have a bit of their own character.

btw carbo, the CC Drive is an overdrive not a dist. right?

 

[subversion]

hmmm, but i'm afraid that distortion + distortion might color the tone so much that it becomes ugly instead of a boost :|

if you do not wish to hear too much tone changes- do consider a clean boost instead...

 

[GDPunkRock]

I think I'd still rather an overdrive over a volume booster since I can't play too loud at home. Anyone has the CoolCat Drive AND Transparent Overdrive? Thinking of getting either, but not sure which would work better on a SS modelling amp's distortion channel.

 

[Likui]

I think digitech bad monkey would be good, it's an overdrive u want to boost it with overdrive u just crank the gain, u want a clean boost, u just cut the gain and increase the level. Boost as you wish

 

[GDPunkRock]

expensive compared to the CoolCats leh Likui :|

plus,i saw a demo with a CoolCat Drive beside a Fulltone OCD - wow damn similar!!

 

[subversion]

I think I'd still rather an overdrive over a volume booster since I can't play too loud at home.

clean boosters aim to pump in more gain, not volume.

 

[GDPunkRock]

clean boosters aim to pump in more gain, not volume.

is it? from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HDcGlERMZWs&feature=related, it's like the more you crank the booster, then the more gain you will get. that means if i want the highest distortion setting out of the booster,i'll also need to go higher in volume ... it's literally a booster in both sense.