Well thanks too to
rtm .
I did, of course, previously know about Tubescreamers but have misunderstood them for many years. I assumed that the pedal, being an effects pedal, was designed to
emulate the effect of screaming tubes. So I got a Joyo Vintage OD tubescreamer clone and played it into my Fender Champ 25SE and was rather underwhelmed - this hybrid amp
has tubes but only in the
power stage. It would only sound a bit overdriven if I began to max the gain on the Joyo but then I was just getting distortion which I really don't like
generally. So I put away the Joyo TS clone.
Then I read a good article on the Gilmourish.com website at how to get good overdrive at bedroom levels. It suggested a clean boost PLUS a compressor to emulate that compression effect of higher volume overdriven tubes. So, misunderstanding that a Tubescreamer could ever be a clean boost (in fact, from it's name I assumed it was the
opposite), I got the Kokko Boost and used it with my Boss compressor pedal into that Champ. But, again, I was not much taken with it. That Champ has lovely cleans but won't break up in the way I was searching for because of those missing preamp tubes. So I put away that Kokko Boost too and only ever used it as a clean gain for a rather low powered Jazz bass.
It was only around the same time as this thread appeared, plus some online reading, that I suddenly understood what was attempting to be achieved here; what a 'transparent' overdrive and a 'clean boost' was.
In the intervening years I had bought a Bugera V22 tube amp and was using an OCD clone into it for a really rather nice overdriven distortion. I was well pleased with it. It did higher gain sounds really well and was right in my ball park. But it wouldn't do that clean to overdriven response through dynamic playing that I was looking for.
Rather unconvincingly, I thought I'd plug that Kokko Boost in to the tube laden Bugera but use it how I now understood it. Turn the master down on the amp, up the clean gain entering the front end tubes on the clean channel a bit using the Kokko Boost and ... hey, what's this? Nicer cleans? A tendency to break up if I hit the strings hard? I've read about this!
. I upped the booster gain a bit more and I now had complete control over that overdrive without ever stepping into any ghastly ripping distortion.
It's so simple in all honesty, but took me years to really understand it. I tried to explain it to my mate who owns a Peavey Classic 30 and he said, "That's sort of what I do when I set my Peavey up."
"What? You use a boost pedal?"
"No just set up the controls so it breaks up a bit when I play hard."
"Yes, but not like this. Not upping the gain HITTING the first tube with a clean boost pedal."
"No I don't like pedals and that sort of distortion." !!!
He's back where I was, misunderstanding the tube reaction.
Maybe some amps
can be induced into this response without a boost pedal and, to be fair, he's more of a fusion player who uses humbuckers with a higher output than my beloved single coils. Perhaps he
does get what he needs in that scenario? I never could with my preferred single coils into his amp. Either way, he's delighted with my new tone.
Naturally I had to test that this really only works with tubes and gave it a go into my old solid state Tokai amp and into my Katana 50 modeller but they weren't having it. No point in it at all.
And that brings me to boost SETTINGS on amps. The Katana has a boost FUNCTION but what is it really doing? Boosting the front end?
Emulating boosting the front end? Or boosting something else entirely? It doesn't sound or feel anything like the same. There's also a boost BUTTON on my Bugera tube amp but it seems to have a very different effect. Perhaps it switches in a distortion chip or something. Again it's not
this kind of boost.
I still try the Joyo TS clone used the RIGHT way, just like the Kokko, but it's more muddy and less pleasing. Might work stacked either before or after the Kokko boost. That's an experiment I'll need to try out for best positioning.
It reminds me that I have a boost function on my Boss ME70 multifx that I have always avoided like the plague. I suspect it won't work in this way because I need to boost the front end of the amp BEFORE adding any effects. Yes there's an effects loop on the Bugera and I'd not found a need for it previously. Now I finally 'get it' and I will use it for my other effects but the Boss ME70 doesn't have it's own effects loop facility to allow me to harness the preamp tube response
first before the rest of the Boss's effects kick in. Boss's more expensive GT range does but not the ME stuff so I doubt I'll get the result I require. We'll see.
So it's been quite a journey so far. It's comparable to me discovering what I subsequently found out to be the pentatonic scale some 25 years ago! Much,
much noodling and I found this pattern of notes that seemed be very usable over a huge amount of music. Sometimes it didn't but often it did. It seemed to unlock the doors to improvisation. I'd found it for myself after many frustrating false starts and misunderstandings of Guitar Magazine articles but not before generations before me already knew about it. See, a teacher would have been a huge help! And this was a game changer. Like an 'always on' pedal.
Cheers.