I just purchased a Soldano Hot Rod 50. I have my rhythm sound down, and I want an od thatll add a bit more gain and boost my volume for lead work. The Soldano has bundles of bite, and I want an od that'll smooth it out a bit. Any suggestions?

i'm tired of living the bosses' dream
they'll squeeze you dry man if you let em
better take your - take your - take your chances

Are u into TS type pedals? If so, get an Aramat Green Machine, the SMoothest TS type pedal I've got.... cheap as well

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Originally posted by od1017:
Are u into TS type pedals? If so, get an Aramat Green Machine, the SMoothest TS type pedal I've got.... cheap as well

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Honestly im a total noob when it comes to pedals. I was a rack guy until i realized i wanted good tone. Im assuming TS stands for Tube Screamer. What are some tonal characteristics of a TS? What other types of od are there?

i'm tired of living the bosses' dream
they'll squeeze you dry man if you let em
better take your - take your - take your chances

does Nair make an od??

ive been waiting here for hours to meet you Mr King...why in the hell didnt you come down to my new club?

Texas Two Step!

I'm The Original Heavily Littered Pedalboard Man..

I had a soldano hot rod 50 when they first came out, so it's been a while. I did use a ts-9 with good results. So i expect something in that ball park will work well. I had a SLO (still do) when i bought the 50, it had been advertised as a SLO lead channel, but was far from it.when i lived in LA mikey was my amp tech, and i really should have called him to ask if the add copy was true .

Anyhoo, i heard the someone does a mod that really gets it closer to true soldano sound, fred zadick at fred's guitar mentioned this to me yr's ago. E- mail me and i will get you his Ph # . VDG

I am NOT too loud!

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Originally posted by voodoogreg:
I had a soldano hot rod 50 when they first came out, so it's been a while. I did use a ts-9 with good results. So i expect something in that ball park will work well. I had a SLO (still do) when i bought the 50, it had been advertised as a SLO lead channel, but was far from it.when i lived in LA mikey was my amp tech, and i really should have called him to ask if the add copy was true .

Anyhoo, i heard the someone does a mod that really gets it closer to true soldano sound, fred zadick at fred's guitar mentioned this to me yr's ago. E- mail me and i will get you his Ph # . VDG

I am NOT too loud!

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I am NOT too loud!

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Originally posted by TurtleHeadBlues:
does Nair make an od??

ive been waiting here for hours to meet you Mr King...why in the hell didnt you come down to my new club?

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No but I think Immac does.

when I hear "smooth" I always think Baby Blue from BJFE. very warm sounding pedal and "smooth" seems to be part of its personality(for lack of a better term) in that you don't have to dial it in to get it to sound smooth, it comes out of the box like that. The Barber Burn Unit is another one that comes to mind and IMHO is even a better choice than the BB because it is more versatile and can achieve a wide variety of tones all of which are equally nice.

if you like tube saturation check out the tubester. it's can go from smooth to gritty, and it does both very well, especially with another tube pedal before it.

This pedal is the smoothest overdrive that I have ever played. It is a bit on the darker side though (which should be good if you are looking for a smooth sound). Toyz sells them and the sound clip is amazing. Very dynamic and touch-responsive. A bit expensive, though. Well worth the investment, IMO. I guess it has 3 of the chips used in vintage Tube Screamers. Maybe I'm wrong, but I think you can equate that to having 3 overdrives in a row....all feeding each other. That's smooth!

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beep........bop.....................doo...................bop..............bebop.
-Miles

In my experiance, unless you getting all or most of your distortion from the pedal. if the amp Od comes into play the amp wil have a lot to do with the sound ie, smoothness of a box.VDG

I am NOT too loud!

That is very true! Amp break up level has a lot to do with the sound of the OD boxes before it. This one reason why a lot of guys try to get low wattage amps. They can achieve that creamy brown sound with their OD boxes at club levels.

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beep........bop.....................doo...................bop..............bebop.
-Miles

I usually only use a clean amp anymore...if I could regularly play with my amp at breakup volume I wouldnt need overdrives.... and playing dynamics are 'difficult' at amp breakup levels as usually the amp also compresses and treble begins to taper off......cranked amp sounds great, but I enjoy the dynamics and colorations possible by using pedals into clean amps........its also the best way to get clean and dirty sounds and like both - for me anyway.......

Ohm,Ohm on the range...(8~}

I sorta feel the exact opposite.I think pedals have really got better at that for sure, but a slightly OD'ed tube amp has always had more touch sensitivity. it's why early on i got into tube amps, in particular non master amps. IMHO.

I am NOT too loud!

Gonna share my useless 2 cents. I tried jamming out with my 2 amps cuz my wife's not home, and I got a 1/2 power switch on the 80-watt Tonesavor. So messing around with the combinations (2x12, 2x10 or all 4), I found that nothing satisfies me as much as the max headroom of my clean amp at full power with all 4 speakers. For pedals, for clean, everything sounds better to my ears. The 2nd amp is a 15-watt class A 6V6 no-namer that's a bit too shrill, so i use its speakers as an extension cab. Bottom line is that once the amps begin to breakup, it's far too loud (even the no-namer and the Tonesavor at 1/2). Gonna be pedals for me, and good ones sound absolutely fine. MyTonebone sounds so good for distortion that I can't understand why anybody would feel they have to buy a Mesa rectifier or monster Marshal. Maybe that's cuz I never played through any of those cranked, which I'm sure is fun, but I want to be able to hear when I'm 60.Getting way off topic -sorry!

I am asomehwat familiar with the Hot Rod 50, though I've never owned one. My first suggestion would be to use an EQ pedal with boosted volume, boosted mids, and reduced treble. The volume boost will cause a fairly large increase in your overall distortion in the Hot Rod 50 because you'll be slamming the preamp section of the amp and contributing to the cascading gain.

By cutting treble in the EQ, you'll greatly smooth out the tone (decrease fizziness). The resulting tone will be extremely fat and singing.

I have tried this trick out with the Hot Rod 50 before and it really works well.

I have also seen Warren Haynes a few times using a Soldano SLO (the big brother of the HR50). He used the SLO for a crunchy rhythm tone, then stepped on a Klon Centaur for his lead tone. Basically, he was using the Klon for a volume boost and to punch up the mids and simultaneously reduce treble. That's what the Klon excels at doing.

Another player who uses an EQ pedal with a master volume amp is Slash. He plays a Marshall Jubilee head and steps on an EQ pedal for his fat lead tone.

If you really want to go with an overdrive pedal, I would go for a Tubescreamer type pedal that provides lots of volume boost and can roll off treble. There are loads of options, ranging in price form $50 (Nobels ODR1) all the way to the Klon (lots of money).

With a lot of good master volume amps (like the Hot Rod 50), you don't need a pedal that adds gain -- the amp's preamp section has loads of available gain which is realized when you hit the amp with a boosted signal. Instead, you just need something that boosts the signal and adds a little tone shaping (usually treble rolloff and increased mids).

The nice thing about using the EQ idea is that the difference in your rhythm tone and lead tone will not be too drastic. You can have a detailed crunchy rhythm tone, then step on the pedal to cut through the mix and have plenty of sustain.

Good luck.

Harris

Jeez, I almost forgot to mention another player who used an EQ boost into a Soldano (see my post immediately above). Eric Clapton.

Back in the 80's and early 90's, Clapton used his signature Strat into a Soldano SLO. For his lead tone, he would simply engage the mid-boost preamp that was built into his Fender signature guitar. The preamp basically boosted his midrange by several decibels and gave him a fat singing lead tone. Think of the song "Forever Man". That was his tone back then. This was kind of a cheesy period for Clapton, but he definitely got a singing lead tone through the Soldano.

Now, I'll be the first to admit that I preferred Clapton back in his Bluesbreaker and Cream days, but now you know how he got his lead tone when he was playing a Soldano. It was simply an EQ boost.

Give it a try.

Regards,

Harris

I have spend some time with warren and did a few shows where we opened for gov't mule. he does use a klon some but for yr's he just stayed on the lead ch, and used his vol and tone controls.(the haynes mod does a lot to soft that channels brightness he uses the klon more with the diaz amp. in the allmans (although i haven't seen him since he rejoined he never used any pedals, just a delay in the loop. I ran into his tech brian farmer at techstar, and said he was using a plexi hundred a lot off and on now with the brothers. Be honest, i liked his tone best in early mule when he had just a korg lesle simulator, and the delay.VDG

P.S. I got to try out one of his medicine bottles that Dickey gave him, that had belonged to duane allman. man!! just glass, but it sure was a thrill!

I am NOT too loud!

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Originally posted by J:
when I hear "smooth" I always think Baby Blue from BJFE. very warm sounding pedal and "smooth" seems to be part of its personality(for lack of a better term) in that you don't have to dial it in to get it to sound smooth, it comes out of the box like that.

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Yep, smoooothh and fat, Fat, FAT.

Is it you or the equipment?