i searched and couldnt find an answer to my question, so here it goes.

My marshall just needs a tiny bit more grit so therefore i'm looking at boosters and overdrives and whatnot.
But heres the thing, i love my amp's tone, and just want that, plus more grit and sustain so i get some chunkyness to the palm mutes, which right now sound pretty sad and rather clean.

So basically, which one would be better for me: a tube screamer or some sort of dry boost like a microamp. Other suggestions are welcome

thanks a bunch.

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A tubescreamer would be just right for that. Just set it as a clean boost.

What are your settings?

Yeah a tube screamer or any other transparent overdrive pedal will maintain the integrity of your amp's sound. BUT I don't know if all these OD pedals give you more sustain or not. If you want sustainish fat heavy sounds(you're into drone/stoner doom right?) get yourself something like a Bigmuff or a ProCo Rat, or a good ol Boss DS-1 or something like that. That MXR pedal may sound great too. But a dry/OD boost will not color the tone as much as those dist. pedals will.

Some suggestions:

Ibanez TS
Maxon OD808 - probably the most transparent overdrive you'll ever find.
Roccaforte Bastard(Erik Rutan uses this on most of his marshalls apparently)
Seymour Duncan Pickup booster(makes even vintage-y pickups scream without altering the tone, very basic and transparent)
Digitech Bad Monkey(this one has a lot of good feedback, despite being a 40$ pedal).

Some dual OD dist. style pedals:
MXR Doubleshot Distortion.
ProCo Rat Deuce Tone.
and one I've personally played: Visual Audio Jekkyl and Hyde pedal(really brings any mid to low gain tube amp into a grinding machine)

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I dunno if your into this but there are companies out there that do mods on marshalls and i looked some of them up and it can be done for mega cheap. Like 100 bucks. And it adds uberness to the amp. Somebody recently posted something about it and it sounded really awesome. They do crate blue voodoos too but not the 150 or the 300 some i'm sol as far as that goes hah.

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Marshall 6100 head Settings -->
Half power engaged, triode mode engaged, low frequency compensation engaged (tightens bass)
Crunch channel --> set to type C (jcm 900) gain to 75%, trebel dimed, mids 1:00 oclock, bass 11:00 oclock.
Lead Channel --> EQ and gain identical to crunch, gain boost engaged
Presence dimed

i have all the trebel/presence turned up and the bass and mids laid back to compensate for the super dark super warm "i didnt know they stacked shit that high" line6 cabinet.


love the stoner rock, love the doom. But heres the specific tones i want -->

1. super overdriven tubes, electric wizard/stoner style. I am getting a big muff for this, its the only way hahaha.
2. sustained metal, like speed metal, at the gates or dark tranquillity... their palm mutes are sweet. --> i need advice for a pedal to up the distortion sustain here. Rat (II, turbo)? OD808?
3. sustained hard rock... hate to say it, but something like old weezer or system of a down, who both have that grit i want. --> Microamp? OD808?


thanks for the input TM, but i've looked around and nobody will touch a 6100. And i dont really want to change anything in it, the only mod i'd ever consider would be new tubes and a mercury magnetics transformer. This thing is a relic to me, modding it would just kinda take away from it you know?

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I know what you mean. Especially if you can achieve some tones just not all that you want. I'm curious to see how different tubes can affect the sound of an amp i really do. Especially in mine. Although i must say for the kind of music i play my amp is beyond perfect, is just fucking right on. With some reverb/delay my clean channel and my solos would be beyond sick. I'd also like to get a new guitar to replace my charvel. (ideally a usa soloist) so i can bring out the nice qualities in the amp like my les paul does.

The pedal point style of playing is where my amp really takes off. Phew.

But anyway, yeah i can see wanting to preserve the amps original integrity. I didn't know what amp you had, and now that you mention the 6100 i'm not sure if i've seen a site that does mods to em.

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Check out FJA mods if you really want to go to town on the amp. He (Jerry) can add extra gain stages to the amp so you dont need a pedal to get that distortion you want. He can also do countless other things to Marshalls.

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mxr zakk wyldeover drive...works like a charm for me....

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isnt that just a microamp with a tone knob and pre amd post gain knobs instead of just the single knob?

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... and it has the Zakk name on it, which bumps the price up another 50$.

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Isn't that just like a Boss SD-1 with other design and Zakks name on it?

anybody have ideas on the 2 tones i'm looking for? the speed metalll and t3h rockzor? i feel we've gone off topic...

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well yes the mxr zakk wylde overdrive will cost more beucase of zakk's sigture on it but really works nice

it doesnt sound like the boss overdrive pedal...its got more of a metal tone....

for some poeple it works great some not much

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I'm curious why not take your amp to the local shop and try out different pedals in front of it to see what you might like? I mean thats always an option. I've brought my guitars, my heads and what not to guitar center to try shit out.

Why try new shit on shit that isn't your own?

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hmmm... i'll see if they let me... i just find it kidna wierd to lug my head around.

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^I'm really afraid of taking my amp head out too, seeing as I'm such a clumsy bastard. Wrap it up in some towel and carry it under your arm I say, and play through some guitar at the store too to avoid having to carry something else.

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my haed is retardedly unblanced though... the side with the transformer is like 10x as heavy as the side with the tubes... its brutal. It is however, lighter than my line6 spider 2 head, but the spider 2 is at least balanced.

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another question.

of the tube screamers out there (ibanez, maxon... ts808/ts9/ts7 blahblahblah) would it make sense just to build one myself? I have plans to the original design (including chips and whatnot) and the plans include a true bypass switch. So i guess my real question is, whats the real difference between the maxon OD808 and the original ibanez ts808? And what does everybody mean by "midrange hump"?

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Maybe, I don't think OD's have much complex stuff inside, a lot of people build em themselves. Midrange hump means a big boost in the midrange freq?

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...

what was the point of that?

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I posted in wrong thread, that's was whole point