YouTube Clips
Stacking dirt pedals, which is basically using one gain pedal to boost or color the sound of another; is a technique that opens up limitless tonal and textural possibilities. The best part about pedal stacking is that there is no right or wrong way, only what works best for you. Interested? If you are, do check out these excellent in-depth video tutorials by
Brian Wampler and
Josh Scott.
As for yours truly, satisfying results have been had running my Robert Cray Strat into a high gain distortion pedal, then into a midrange-heavy overdrive, and finally into the clean channel of an amp.
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| My Beloved Sunburst Robert Cray Strat |
I start off by tweaking the distortion pedal for deep and full power chords, suitable for rhythm work. This constitutes my base dirty tone. Then, for lead lines, I kick in the overdrive. On the overdrive, the drive knob is set low, while the level and tone knobs are adjusted to boost both the midrange and volume.
The first example of dirt pedal stacking is from 2017. I'm running my Strat into an MXR M116 Fullbore Metal Distortion, Ibanez TS9 Tube Screamer and Roland JC-160 Jazz Chorus. Do watch this
YouTube clip to listen to this particular setup.
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| MXR M116 Fullbore Metal Distortion |
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| Ibanez TS9 Tube Screamer |
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| 2017 Pedalboard | MXR Fullbore Metal and Ibanez TS9 |
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| Roland JC-160 Jazz Chorus Amplifier |
The second example is from four days ago [June 22, 2023]. Here, my Strat is plugged into a TC Electronic Fangs Metal Distortion, TC Electronic El Cambo Overdrive and Fender Frontman 212R. Kindly watch this
YouTube clip to find out what this setup sounds like.
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| TC Electronic Fangs Metal Distortion |
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| TC Electronic El Cambo Overdrive |
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| 2023 Pedalboard | TC Electronic Fangs and El Cambo |
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| Fender Frontman 212R Amplifier |
