AC 30 - what drive/distortion pedals do they like/dislike
Just wondering seeing as I have just acquired a rather nice Cc2x
I know it's all subjective but are there any well known "no no's" or "must haves" in the world of drive and distortion
My bro has a chinese one, it didn't like anything from my big muff family. Mostly to do with the speakers, blue ones.
it's all in the fingers
I had a handwired one with blues a few years ago. It loved my Klon, King of tone and Sunface. I can send you clips of it with the Klon and Sunface if you like?
Yeah!!! It doesn't like my muff!! Loves my TC spark booster on the Fat setting thoughOriginally Posted by boyhowdy
I've got a C2. It definitely doesn't like Muffs.
It didn't like my Blackstar HT Dual either.
The best option I have in my arsenal is a Visual Sound Route 66, which is a TS9 and a Dynacomp in one pedal. The regular tubescreamer mode sounds naff, but running it with the bass boost seems to work. It isn't really a bassy drive with that engaged, it just isn't so obviously mid humped like a tubescreamer is - makes it a bit flatter and fatter. Also, the compressor used as a boost with the tone knob seems to work.
But to be totally honest I don't even bother using the Route 66 as it doesn't touch the amp's natural drive tone. The best thing I've found is to just accept it is what it is, a great single channel classic amp. All I use is a volume pedal if I play a guitar with more than one volume knob, and control the drive from there. It means your cleans will be quieter than you drive tones, but if that will work for your situation then you're sorted already.
I loved my cc2x. Kinda wish I still had it to be honest.
If you intend to use pedals for distortion with the cc series it's a good idea to clip the top boost channel's bright cap, otherwise it'll be difficult to dial out harshness. There are plenty of resources showing you how if you google search, I did it and it made a definite change for the better.
Secondly, don't use the standby switch; it's poorly implemented in the CC series and can blow your rectifier tube/other components. LUCKILY, the circuit doesn't need a standby switch as the valve rectifier provides a gentle voltage increase as it warms up. So just leave the standby switch in the play position, forget it exists, and that'll give you the best reliability.
As for pedals, I agree with the others: not a big muff style. The amp doesn't have the headroom or clear bottom end to work well with that tone. Tubescreamer style pedals are hit or miss: the vox has plenty of mids already. That said at some settings with some guitars they work well. I particularly enjoyed the sd-1 and Fulldrive 2 for lower gain, creamier overdrive. For my strat I liked the OD-3 as it fattened up the single coils.
Higher gain, the Rat is my favourite distortion. It's voicing and the way it doesn't push much bass perfectly blends with the ac30's own voicing to give you a Grinding distortion that still sounds musical. There are plenty of flavours/clones. For something more amp like, I had great luck with the OCD and Distortron. The Crunchbox too, but I found it more of a one trick Marshall stack-a-like pony.
A clean boost is a great tool to have in voxes too, since their chimey clean isn't too much of a volume boost away from overdrive.
How you set the amp up makes a big difference to how well it'll take pedals. Generally, the normal channel with its less hyped high end and greater headroom takes higher gain stuff more predictably well whereas the top boost can get flubby, harsh or funky sounding if you're not careful. I always found the best tones came from turning the master up full, preamp volume knob to whatever volume you need then getting pedals to go more distorted from there. Turning the preamp gain up and trying to tame the volume with the master volume was always a recipe for splatty, flat sounds so I'd advise against that.
Last edited by Cirrusband; 4th January 2013 at 11:19 PM.
I went through a couple of muffs, a mad professor sweet honey and a fuzz factory before settling on a crowther hotcake for leads and a tc electronics spark boost for clean/crunch. I use the spark boost backwards though - I have the amp set for crunch and the boost set at less than unity gain to give me a clean(ish) sound - a bit like turning your guitar volume down to clean it up. Both pedals are keepers with my cc2, which has most of the Lyle Caldwell mods, Tayden ace and G12H speakers and old mullards.
Cheers, John
Wasn't the Crother Hotcake developed for use with the AC30?
I wouldn't be surprised if it was - it works great with one for everything from clean boost to fuzzy stuff. Extremely versatile, great sounding pedal. Try it at stage volume though - sounds a bit underwhelming at low volume
This!!! Perfect combination.
Add Rat for extra gain and that's all you'll ever need
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