How To Get the Most Out of Your Overdrive Pedal
We get asked on a daily basis which pedals sound the best. That is always a hard one to answer because it is such a personal thing. It depends on what you like, what amp/guitar/pickup combo you have, what speaker you have, what strings you use, how you set your amp and on and on and on.
The variations are endless including how well your amp takes pedals. Vox amps at least classic AC circuits are know to be fincky with their front end so finding an OD that works well with them is tough. When you hit the front end too hard you hear a fizzy, unnatural distortion that is pretty obvious and unappealing.
The mistake we often see is setting your OD so that the gain is cranked and the volume is low. With settings like that you are rendering you amp sort of useless because all of your drive is coming from the pedal, a small opamp vs the power/pre section of your amp.
We usually set our amps to "just at that point of slight hair or breakup" and then hit it with an OD. Start by getting your amp to that almost breakup point then set your OD at a transparent setting meaning, set it so you can't really tell that the OD is on for both gain and EQ. Once you reach that point you can start subtly increasing the gain or the EQ to taste. You will find you have a much fuller sound without fizzies and your amp and OD are working in conjunction.
Less experienced players will learn how you can take a very low gain OD and turn it into a beast by setting up this way. Success in complete tone really relys on your gain structure and synergy of components. This is where you will really learn which OD works for you.