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Clean sounds louder than with distortion

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(@fmedeiros)
New Member
Joined: 15 years ago
Posts: 2
Topic starter  

Hi guys, maybe someone could hep me. Me and my friend have the same gear, our distortion pedal is a TS-9 from ibanez and my volume, in order to be louder than my clean, has to be at 3/4. He puts his at 1/4 and it's louder than his clean. I plugged my guitar in his gear and the clean is still louder than the distortion.

Is it possible that my guitar is the problem and if so why??

thanks really appreciated.


   
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(@moonrider)
Noble Member
Joined: 20 years ago
Posts: 1305
 

Hi guys, maybe someone could hep me. Me and my friend have the same gear, our distortion pedal is a TS-9 from ibanez and my volume, in order to be louder than my clean, has to be at 3/4. He puts his at 1/4 and it's louder than his clean. I plugged my guitar in his gear and the clean is still louder than the distortion.

Is it possible that my guitar is the problem and if so why??

thanks really appreciated.

You didn't say what types of guitar were involved, and I really wouldn't consider it a serious problem. It's quite likely this is a result of one or more of the following:

Your pickups have lower output than your friends.
Your pickups have the same output, but are farther from the strings than your friends
Your'e using a longer or poorer quality or damaged cord between the guitar and the pedal.

Playing guitar and never playing for others is like studying medicine and never working in a clinic.

Moondawgs on Reverbnation


   
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(@fmedeiros)
New Member
Joined: 15 years ago
Posts: 2
Topic starter  

My guitar is a custom made. I use emg pickups with an expander instead of the tone knob (like david gilmour does). He has a cheap guitar from the 70'S, can't remember the name but he likes the sound of it. The cable can't be the problem since i tried his gear with his cables. Why would my distortion sounds louder than my clean (clean being the ts9 pedal turned off and not on another channel) with the pickups closer to the strings???

thanks for the help


   
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(@wes-inman)
Illustrious Member
Joined: 20 years ago
Posts: 5582
 

The problem might be your pickups are too high gain. Sounds great by yourself or in the bedroom, but as soon as you play with other instruments you suddenly cannot hear yourself. Too much gain sounds like white noise, it sounds like paper tearing, or air leaking out of a tire.

Couple of things you can do. Try bringing Drive down on the pedal, maybe 12- 1 o'clock position at most. Keep Tone about 12 o'clock, this is your Mids. It is Mids that people hear.

You might also turn down your guitar's volume. The pedal will receive a cleaner signal and you might actually get a volume boost.

Check out this video on EQ settings.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TQanVdQPAMg

If you know something better than Rock and Roll, I'd like to hear it - Jerry Lee Lewis


   
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(@moonrider)
Noble Member
Joined: 20 years ago
Posts: 1305
 

My guitar is a custom made. I use emg pickups with an expander instead of the tone knob (like david gilmour does). He has a cheap guitar from the 70'S, can't remember the name but he likes the sound of it. The cable can't be the problem since i tried his gear with his cables. Why would my distortion sounds louder than my clean (clean being the ts9 pedal turned off and not on another channel) with the pickups closer to the strings???

thanks for the help

If those emg's are active, then I'd check the battery for the pickups.

Is there anything else in the chains besides the ts-9?

Does your guitar sound louder plugged straight in to the amp?

Does his effects chain do the same thing plugged in to your amp?

The level knob is in exactly the same position on both pedals?

Playing guitar and never playing for others is like studying medicine and never working in a clinic.

Moondawgs on Reverbnation


   
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(@stratman_el84)
Estimable Member
Joined: 16 years ago
Posts: 141
 

Without knowing all the details it's hard to tell for sure, but I suspect that what you're experiencing is an impedance difference plus a difference between an inductive load (normal pickups) and a more-pure-resistive load (EMGs with SS circuitry in the guitar) between the two instruments.

Many solid-state preamplifier/compressor circuit designs, especially very simple ones like many onboard-types, present a relatively-low-impedance output load with nearly-zero inductance. Your pedals & your amp are designed for a normal higher-impedance, higher-inductance input load presented by normal straight magnetic pickups. This can lead to strange signal-level effects when switching effects in and out and switching channels in an amplifier.

Strat


   
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