In this guide, I will share with you various ways to set up and use your overdrive pedals properly. This guide will cover three main aspects of use.

1. Rhythm Tones
2. Lead Tones
3. Overdrive Pedal Stacking

This guide will help you understand different ways you can use your pedals as well as how to get the best results.  One thing to remember is this is a guide based on my experience and will not reflect all pedals and amplifiers combinations.

Start with Your Amplifier

Turn all of your pedals off and try and find a clean tone that you love.  Adjust the volume of the amplifier up until it’s loud enough for your gig (or at home). Set all of the EQ how you like it irrespective if your pedal has EQ controls.

Getting a great clean tone you love is half of the battle.  If you don’t have a good clean tone, the pedals will not shine.

How to Set up an Overdrive Pedal for Rhythm Tones

Setting a rhythm tone with an overdrive pedal is actually pretty easy. Once you have your amplifier at the correct volume for the room switch the overdrive pedal on.

Once the pedal is on, turn everything to midday which is dead centre/12 O’Clock.

Start adjusting the volume control until you are at the same volume of the amplifier with the pedal off.  setting up the pedal at unity will give you no surprises.  You can, of course, turn the pedal up louder or softer but your best results come from having the amp up louder.

Once the pedal is at the same volume of the amplifier my suggestion is to turn the gain down to 9 O’Clock.  This is only a starting point but you’ll quickly realize if you want more or less depending on your taste.

If you are going for an off-clean tone then adjust it accordingly.  If you are going for more of a rock rhythm sound add more gain.

Please Note:

Adding gain can make your overall volume louder too so be careful of this.  Adjust the volume down if need be but don’t turn it down too far.  Something great happens with a pedal when you keep the volume of it at the unity level of above.

After setting the volume and gain adjust the treble.  I usually aim for a sound that is similar to the amp tone I set up before I switched the pedal is on.  Some pedals like a Tube Screamer may require adding more top end to match the amp sound.

Not all pedals are great for Rhythm Guitar

Some pedals are designed for a lead boost and they don’t sound great as rhythm guitar sounds.  One example of a pedal I would never use for rhythm is a Klon Centaur pedal.  These are amazing lead pedals but not great as a rhythm sound.

Lead Guitar Overdrive Pedal Set Up

Once you have the foundation of the amplifier established as mentioned earlier setting a good lead tone is very similar.

I need to make mention of the variables here because everyone will be playing at different volumes with different amplifiers.

If you are using a Tube amplifier your best bet for great lead tones with an overdrive pedal is to make sure the amp is up loud.  Having the amplifier up at gig volume will give you a vastly different experience to using it quietly.

If you are playing at gig volume on your clean or off-clean amp channels then this will work great.

Crank up the pedal volume but start with the gain down on the pedal.  Using your overdrive pedal like this will allow it to hit the front-end or “preamp” section of the amp and push it over the edge into natural breakup.

This exact thing can be accomplished by using a volume boost pedal as well for those wondering.

Setting an overdrive pedal on a dirty channel amplifier

If your amp is already dirty and you want a bump in volume then crank up the volume pot and keep the gain down.  In this situation, you may require more treble in your sound.  You can achieve this by turning up the tone control.

Playing at this volume isn’t always easy!

I get it. While I am a gigging musician I can’t always be really loud.  In these sort of situations, I would opt for more gain than less.  Getting the sweet overdrive tones out of pedals is what they were designed for so there’s nothing wrong with this approach.

Set the maximum solo volume and gain structure using your ears and also by using more gain then less.  This method allows you to control the gain of the pedal with your guitars volume control.

In some situations where I am using a Fender amplifier. I will set my overdrive pedal up in a way where I can “set and forget it”.  I then use the guitar volume to control my overall volume and how much gain I have at any point.

This set and forget method is popular for blues players in particular and it’s how I’ve got through many gigs and jam nights over the years.

Overdrive Pedal Stacking

For overdrive pedal stacking I still start with the amplifier.  Set up your amplifier up until it sounds good as mentioned earlier.

Some people prefer to set the amplifier controls all to 12 O’Clock and then use their pedals to shape the sound.  The problem with this method is not all effects pedals have bass and treble controls.

Either way, I think the pedal EQ controls should be used as a last resort to “fix” an amplifier that doesn’t sound great, to begin with.

In terms of the rhythm guitar pedal, set it with the gain to your liking. Once you have it set up as mentioned at the top of this article you can then start working with your second lead overdrive pedal.

Because you are stacking a pedal into another pedal there are a few things to remember.

• If your lead pedal is before the rhythm pedal it will increase the gain
• When your lead pedal is after the rhythm pedal it will increase the volume

If you want a louder solo with a similar tone that you have for your rhythm guitar put the lead overdrive pedal after the rhythm pedal and turn the gain down and volume up to your liking.

When you want a fatter and more sustaining lead tone, then use the lead pedal in front of the overdrive.  The lead pedal volume output will need to be higher to compensate for the pedal it’s going through which is set to your desired volume.

You will still get a boost in volume but it will not be as prominent as with the lead boost after the overdrive.

Which way is best when stacking an Overdrive pedal?

Only you can answer this question.  See what you like the tone of the best as well.  Using a pedal like a Klon before a Tubescreamer will sound great and give you way more sustain and saturation.

Using a Klon after the rhythm pedal will make a lot louder but it will also drastically change your tone.

How you choose to set up an overdrive pedal comes down to what you like the best.  I have experimented with both of these ways with many overdrive pedals and some work better with others.

What about the EQ Controls

If you have a very uninspiring amplifier then feel free to experiment with the EQ controls.  A good overdrive should sound great irrespective of having EQ controls.

Don’t go too heavy with the bass control either.  This will add too much mud to your sound.  The Mids and Tops are what will cut the mix in a live situation best so aim to train your ear to hear these mid frequencies.

Like anything guitar related. There isn’t a right or wrong way to really to run anything when it comes down to it.  How to set an overdrive pedal up properly is all a matter of taste.  What I have found though is using these methods will be the easiest way to get the tone you have in your head out of the guitar.

What are the best pedals?

There is no best.  You can generally make almost any pedals work to some extent. A rule of Thumb is if you want a rhythm pedal then get one that has a “transparent” sound.  This means it will not add too much in the way of color to the original amplifier tone.  I actually find this a bit boring, but a lot of people love this approach.  There’s nothing to stop you using two Tube Screamers for example with the settings I have mentioned above.

Having a pedal with a mid-bump will actually sound way better in the live mix as it will jump out in a more 3D way.  Check out my guide for Tube Screamers here.  If you’re looking for a great lead boost pedal check out my article on Klon pedals.

There’s a lot of inexperienced people making videos about effects pedals online.  Many of their “tone tips” are not of any value in reality.

I’ve been a gigging musician now for over 20 years and have tested hundreds of pedals over the years.  I’ve found a number of different tone tricks you can use with effects pedals that actually work.

Here are my 9 Effects Pedals Tone Trick that actually works.

1. Running a Boost Pedal AFTER your distortion or overdrive

90% of people run their volume boost pedal before an overdrive.  The reason why most people decide to do this is that they get more gain in the signal.

More gain is not more volume.  Pushing an overdrive or distortion with a clean boost pedal won’t make you much louder at all.

What happens when you run the volume boost after your dirt pedals are, it keeps the tone the same but makes it much louder! This is a great way of getting more volume out of a clean channel amplifier that already has your dirt pedal running.

If you want more gain, turn the dirt up on the overdrive.

2. Set Your Pedal as the Master Volume

If you own a loud amp odds are you’ve struggled to get a great tone at a lower volume.  What a lot of people don’t realize is you can get great guitar tone by using an overdrive pedal as a volume control.

You can, of course, do this with a volume boost pedal if it allows you to drop the volume under unity.  I find it easiest with an overdrive.

Simply get a nice transparent overdrive pedal on the floor set your amp up as you usually would then use the master output on the pedal to bring your volume down as desired.

3. Run 2 Delay Pedals

Wait, what?  That’s right.  This is a trick of the pros.  If you’ve ever heard guys like Matt Schofield play, you have heard this in use.  Having a short slap-delay before your main delay makes the tone really sing! It adds a really 3D dimension to the sound that you might not otherwise have just by using one delay.

My suggestion is to try this with whatever you have before you go buy another pedal.  This will work with both Analog and Digital delay pedals.  The Digital delays will give you the shortest repeat times in general.

4. Change the order of your effects

Changing where the effects are in the chain will drastically change your sound.  I used to think you can’t put a certain effect here or there.  This simply is not true.

For years I thought I had to run my modulation effects after my dirt pedals.  I preached this for a long time because this is what I had heard from others.  One day, I thought to myself I am going rogue and mixing up the order.

The Modulation before my dirt pedals made them clearer and fuller sounding especially when I had the dirt pedals enabled. There is no right or wrong, just give it a shot and see which way works best for you.

5. The master volume makes your current pedals better

This is especially true if you are running distortion and overdrive pedals.  Many guitarists run either their amplifier volume or pedal volume way too low.  Turning up the volume control on the pedal opens up the dynamics more and allows you to get more sustain in the process.

If you’re a high gain player, then this will still work.  The further up the master volume is the better most pedals sound.

Experiment with the amplifier and volume control on your pedals and see which combination sounds best. This is one of the best tone tricks to making your tone better quickly.

6. Run an amplifier simulation pedal in the effects loop

If you have a good clean channel amplifier like a Fender, for example, an amplifier simulation pedal is a great addition.  There’s a lot of affordable amplifier simulation pedals that can turn your beloved fender into a Marshall, Mesa Boogie or VOX. Tech 21 Make some awesome pedals that will transform your amplifier.

7. Try pedals that might not be “ideal” for your genre

Finding your unique sound and voice is not buying what everyone else has.  Be brave enough to pave your own way when it comes to effects.  Just because your hero used a particular pedal doesn’t mean if you buy it, you’ll sound like him or her.

8. Use 2 Overdrive Pedals on the clean channel for a 2 channel amp setup

If the drive channel sucks on your amplifier grab two of your favorite overdrive pedals and use them like a 2 channel amp.  You can do this by setting up on overdrive as an off clean tone and then using the second one before or after the rhythm pedal.

SRV used to use two overdrive pedals in this manner and it works.  It works so well it’s also how I look at a dual dirt pedal setup. One pedal gives me the off-clean tone I love and the second one is my lead tone.

The reason you can order your lead pedal before or after is if you want more gain and not so much volume you can run it before the rhythm pedal.  If you need more volume on your solo and not so much gain run second overdrive after your rhythm tone.

When you run it in this second configuration, make sure you have the gain down and the volume up to make the second pedal run like a clean boost.

9. Run your Effects Pedals on 18v when possible

While this might be obvious to some people many people don’t realize some effects can handle up to 18v.  Now, before you go plugging any 9v pedals into an 18v power supply make sure 18v is listed on the pedal.  If you plug a pedal that can only handle 9v into an 18v power supply you will fry it.

All 18v capable pedals usually make mention of it on the back or beneath the pedal. If it doesn’t say it, do not plug it in.

Now with the warning out of the way what does 18v do over 9v? While most pedals won’t be drastically different running on higher power some will really come alive.  A lot of people say it’s a “headroom” thing.  I am not sure that’s really the case but it can open up the dynamics of the pedals a little bit more.  Any audible changes in the tone might be appealing if it’s an improvement.  If some of your pedals are 18v capable check out this great power supply that can be used with various voltages.

Remember

I hope this has been helpful.  In the end, great tone comes from great playing.  The answer to getting great tone isn’t always in buying something new.  It comes from practice and experimentation with what you already have.  What I have found over the years is my tone is very similar even when I have the chance to try a new pedal in my lineup.

The biggest difference with pedals is how well they stack together more so than “making you sound way better”.  Keep your fingers on the fretboard and experiment with what you have and odds are you can breathe new life into your tone.