Having dedicated clean and overdrive amps

rgjmce wrote: »

Okay this is something I am considering for the future. To have an amp for clean and another for overdrive and then switch between them with an a/b box. The set up I was thinking was a marshall jcm tsl for the cleans....jk lol, have that for the overdrive of course with a marshall 1936 cabinet and then have something like an orange tiny terror for cleans, either have a seperate cabinet or run both through same cab and different speakers. I wouldn't be doing it purely for tone though, mainly so I could have say effects on the clean and with a switch of a button flick over to overdrive without effects. What do people think about this idea? It wouldn't neccessarily be cheap but if it would work it would be worth it.

I think so. Most amps do one thing well, the ultimate tone could be achieved by letting each do it's thang. Many pro set up are like this. It let's you use dedicated speakers/cabs for each tone. It's also lets you select the power amp for the tone you want, I like 6L6 type cleans but prefer EL34 type OD.

Two things I would suggest you take time to consider.

1. You'll need a decent quality AB pedal. Many cheaper ones does not isolate or buffer your signal. This leads to tone sucking and noise. I've been thinking of doing the same kind of thing and this is not something to be skimped on if you're going to that effort. Make sure whatever you opt for performs both isolation and buffering.

2. A tiny terror is not going to cut it for cleans. For gigging cleans I'd suggest that you opt for at least a 30 Watt amp. You can set the amp to clean all you want but a 15 Watt power amp is going to distort before before you get past drummer volume.

The new gigging rig I'm planning will have my Vox AC50 or JMP50 through an open back 2 X 12 for dirty cleans and my own amp build for glassy cleans and OD through a closed back 2 X 12.
Wish I had some gigs though, apparently good vocalists don't exist.