Balancing levels between clean and overdriven sounds.

[jazzyvee]

I don’t use overdrive or rocky sounds much on the gigs i do on guitar save for the odd solo or unison melodies and lines. In these instances i’ve never found a consistently successful method for setting up the volume of the overdriven sound so that it is at the right volume when i kick it on for a line or solo. It is always either too loud or not loud enough so i get distracted from what i’m playing in order to get the volume right so i can hear it clearly and fit the volume to the music. I use a Radial trimode which has two channels so i can set one for lead and one for melodies but they seem to behave differently based on the volume set on my guitar. I also have a radial classic and a pro co rat at my disposal tough the rat sounds a bit tizzy with an alembic guitar. I have a dep guitar gig coming up next month with a band and want to get my sounds right. 🫣

[gtrguy]

My small go to guitar pedal board has a J. Rockett Audio Designs Archer Boost/Overdrive Pedal next to a clone of the Timmy Overdrive (original Danelectro Cool Cat Transparent Overdrive CTO-1 and hard to find) with a older Catlinbread Topanga reverb (has just a touch of tube sounding OD)

All 3 pedals have a level knob but I only tweak the OD units volume to get what I need and run my amp with the Topanga always on and the amp reverb shut off. Before a gig I tweak the 2 OD pedals volume to even them out with the amp and reverb pedal volume and that way I don't have hardly any volume issues. If I do I usually just up or lower my amp volume. Frankly I could probably get away with just 1 of the 2 OD pedals but each sounds different with what guitar I use.

[lbpesq]

Having gone through several OD pedals over the years, I’ve settled on the Sarno Music Solutions Earth Drive.  I also keep my guitar volume on “10” and place a volume pedal last in my effects chain.   I set the volume on the Earth Drive for leads and use the volume pedal to tweak the volume when I kick in the Earthdrive.

Bill, tgo