Boosting a High-Gain Amplifier with an Overdrive Pedal

It seems like a strange idea, to spend so much money on a full valve high gain guitar amplifier like a Peavey 6505, Soldano SLO-100 or (my personal favourite) a Mesa Boogie Dual Rectifier, and put a solid-state overdrive pedal in front of it. You’d be forgiven for thinking this makes no sense; don’t valve…

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Why Put a Distortion Pedal Before a Distorted Amp?

Right, so: you already understand why you’d use a clean boost, or even an overdrive pedal, before a hi-gain amp. But why would you ever put a distortion pedal before one, and why do so many famous guitarists do it? Clever question. At first glance, it makes no sense: you’ve got two, three, even four…

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Angel of Rock Distortion Pedal
Holy Driver Overdrive and Boost Pedal

Boost Before Overdrive or Overdrive Before Boost?

Pedal order is always a tricky one to tackle, not least because the rules of the game are more guidelines than anything else. For every tone guru who declares that gain pedals go before the amp, and modulation effects go in the FX loop, there’ll be a guitarist breaking the rule and sounding awesome doing…

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Using an Overdrive Pedal with a Distorted Amp

So; you’ve got yourself a fantastically high gain amp (6505, TSL100, Powerball etc). Why, when you’ve got that whole world of gain available, would using an overdrive pedal with a distorted amp be a good idea? The answer is simple: to get a better quality of distortion tone. Sounds very strange, putting a little solid…

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Angel of Blues Overdrive Pedal

Overdrive Pedal vs Amp Distortion: Which is Better?

Overdrive Pedal vs Amp Distortion: The Grudge Match Second only to the buffered input / true bypass argument, the clash of overdrive pedal vs amp distortion arguments has been raging for years on various forums since the invention of shouting at people via the Internet, and in person at gigs since time immemorial (or, more…

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Angel of Blues Overdrive Pedal
The Separator ABY Pedal

The Joys of an ABY Pedal: Top 5 Tone Tips

An ABY Pedal can make you sound huge. There’s no doubt about it; splitting your signal and sending it to two separate amps can turn your tone from a nice, solid, good sound into a room-filling, bone-shaking, absolute monster of a sound. There’s several things you can do to experiment, and you don’t have to drop…

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How Long Does a True Bypass Looper Record For?

One of the questions we’re most frequently asked here at Vein-Tap.com is; how long does the Noose True Bypass Looper record for? What is a True Bypass Looper? It’s a very different pedal that the Digitech Jamman or Boss Loop Station series of riff-recording pedals. A true bypass looper like the Noose doesn’t actually record…

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Can I Use a Volume Attenuator in My Effects Loop?

Many folks with big valve amplifiers will often find that their tone never sounds so awesome as when they’re cranked really loud. Unfortunately, this can lead to ASBOs, turf wars and anonymous flaming-bag situations (you know what we mean). One solution is to invest in a Power Soak volume attenuator, which goes in between the…

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Leech Passive Volume Attenuator
Skinny Little Twins Dual Momentary Footswitch

Which Pedals Can Use the Skinny Little Twins Dual Momentary Footswitch?

The Skinny Little Twins Dual Momentary Footswitch is an incredible bit of gear. Not only do they work with a great range of loopers, amps, multi-effects units and effects pedals, but they do it with a tiny footprint and for less that you might expect. We’ve composed a brief and incomplete list of gear we’ve…

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Why Would You Need a Tap Tempo Pedal with Polarity Switch?

What is a Tap Tempo Pedal with Polarity Switch? Easy. A polarity switch is a little flick switch which allows you to choose whether your tap tempo pedal (or any footswitch, for that matter) is “normally open” or “normally closed”. What’s the difference? Another easy one. If a switch is “normally open”, then clicking the…

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Vein Tap Plus - Tap Tempo with Polarity Switch
Vein Tap - Tap Tempo Pedal

Tap Tempo Pedal

Tap Tempo Pedal. Simple but Brilliant. Relying on a drummer to keep perfect time isn’t something you can really get away with. They’re brilliant, don’t get me wrong, without them we’d be screwed; but sometimes they’re quick (angry) and sometimes they’re slow (hungover). Back in the day, this meant having to re-calibrate all your time-sensitive…

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Which Pedals Can Use a Tap Tempo Pedal?

This list is a non-exhaustive list of pedals which we can confirm will accept a Vein Tap as an external tap tempo pedal. There’s hundreds more, but this list consists of pedals we’ve had here at Vein-Tap.com to personally audition. The following pedals require a “normally open” Vein Tap: Behringer DD600 Digital Delay DW400 Dynamic…

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Vein Tap - Tap Tempo Pedal