NAD: Retro with questions

[Jetfire]

So, picked this up just before Brum guitar show and finally taken it to a few practises now and the clean channel is working perfectly for me sound wise. Super clean all the way up with great open back sound so its just lovely and actually quite warm too! However, gain channel, not so muc. So, Im thinking of binning off the o/d channel in favour of pedals. Picked up a Moen pedal at the show (which is now going for sale shortly) so Im wondering, can Solid State stuff ever have a pedal in front of it and actually sound decent? I tried 12 pedals in a row the other night (back to back, ranging from MXR's to Marshall and EHX) and they all sounded ok but nothing truely got me interested.. )

So, its doing at least 75% of the job so far, just need the drive to be extra 25%!

[erictheweary]

My ten cents is No - if by 'in front of' you mean into the distortion channel. Or at least its a rare combination. I suspect you will have better luck using the clean channel plus a pedal that will give you all the distortion you need rather than trying to add an overdrive onto an already distorting SS amp. Some SS amps cope well if you add boost from the pedal ( ie everything gets louder, won't get all valve squashy) and some won't (the circuit won't cope with it and you get a series of fart noises). I don't know which Moen pedal it was but TS type pedals , IMHO, aren't the way to go here as they aren't designed to sound good just as your sole source of distortion. You need something that does an amp in a box impression. Presumably a Marshall in a box sound, lots of previous threads on that and pedals from Marshall, ZVex, Tech 21,etc,etc that cover that area.

[Jetfire]

Yeah, not sure if it came over or not but I have tried boosting the overdrive pedal and its ok but essentially, Im looking for something as you're describing but Zvex and Tech21 havent been on my radar so Ill defo check them out now

[jalapeno]

My SS backup amp is currently a Marshall MGFXHD 100, I use a TRex Moller into the clean channel for good sounds.

Those SS Marshall dirty channels are one trick ponies really. Passable 70s rock sound but that's it.

[fretmeister]

The tech 21 GT2 is the answer. Incredible pedal and worth every single penny.

[erictheweary]

Just thinking that £160 for a Tech 21 pedal might be on the steep side to plug into what was, presumably, a budget amp buy. The Joyo British Sound is the cheapest pedal I can think of that is supposed to do a decent Marshall in a box impression, which is only about £30 IIRC (and plenty of others inbetween). I use a ZVex Disnortion as a Marshally pre-amp in front of SS amps, the ZVex Box of Rock has the same basic circuit plus a boost function and second hand versions of these crop up quite often. A couple of knob twists and it works as an overdrive in front of valve amps. The BofR also seems to be one of the most popular pedals to clone so those pop up pretty cheap as well.

[danomess]

There was a Tech 21 British sound for sale in the classifieds, assuming its not gone...
http://forum.musicradar.com/showthre...-British-sound

[ICBM]

Unfortunately it looks like your Mosfet is the later version without the Pull EQ switch on the lead channel tone control. I have no idea why they did this (well actually I do, to save money) but it turns the dirty channel into a total one-trick pony and not a very good trick at that.

Worse, it can't be modified to the other circuit - it isn't as simple as adding a switch, they did all sorts of other stuff to it and you'd have to totally rebuild the circuit board. I tried once and it wasn't worth it.

So oddly enough, it's a great Marshall that doesn't do a great overdriven tone!

[erictheweary]

There was a Tech 21 British sound for sale in the classifieds, assuming its not gone...
http://forum.musicradar.com/showthre...-British-sound

that looks like the one with the speaker emulation on/off as well - handy. In theory if the Mossfet blew up mid gig you could go straight from the Tech 21 into the PA and sound pretty reasonable if you turned the emulation on.

[fretmeister]

Just thinking that £160 for a Tech 21 pedal might be on the steep side to plug into what was, presumably, a budget amp buy. The Joyo British Sound is the cheapest pedal I can think of that is supposed to do a decent Marshall in a box impression, which is only about £30 IIRC (and plenty of others inbetween). I use a ZVex Disnortion as a Marshally pre-amp in front of SS amps, the ZVex Box of Rock has the same basic circuit plus a boost function and second hand versions of these crop up quite often. A couple of knob twists and it works as an overdrive in front of valve amps. The BofR also seems to be one of the most popular pedals to clone so those pop up pretty cheap as well.

Got my GT2 on eBay for £40