Better sound out of a solid state???

Chuxema · Post by **Chuxema** » Tuesday Aug 30, 2011

I'm playing through a Randall RH120 and I'm
looking to beef up the sound a bit. The distortion
on the amp isn't all that great so I'm running
a boss metalzone. Could I maybe use the OD
channel on the amp with the MZ to maybe get a
little more out of it or should I get some sort of
pedal to help me out?

bassist_25 · Post by **bassist_25** » Thursday Sep 01, 2011

Well, it shouldn't hurt the front-end of the amp if you want to try it. However, sometimes adding gobs of gain actually has the opposite effect and makes an amp sound smaller. For an example, check out some live clips of Stone Temple Pilots, especially clips of them playing some stuff off of their first album. It sounds like there's a lot of gain on that first album, but when playing live, their guitarist has very minimal gain; but it still sounds huge.

Additionally, if you hit the front-end with too much gain, you may end up with a lot nasty harmonic overtones that sounds sloppy rather than tight (since you don't get the nice sounding even-order harmonics with tubes when transistors clip). But really, it just comes down to trying it and seeing if you dig it and if it works for what you're doing.

Chuxema · Post by **Chuxema** » Thursday Sep 01, 2011

I think I'm going to try it. I'll let you know
how it goes. Thanx for the input.

Chuxema · Post by **Chuxema** » Monday Sep 12, 2011

I decided to run my bass overdrive in front of my metalzone and I think it did the trick. Gave the clean a nice boost with a slight punch. I'll let you know how it works out once I mess with it a little more.