Anybody running an RC Booster with Express?

[rooster]

Hey, curious if any here have tried this besides me. It seems a natural somehow, a boost instead of an OD, and I think this pedal does a pretty good job. The Express is my biggest concern because it is more sensitive at the input and here it seems to work pretty well.

If any of you are using 'clean' boost pedals, what brands are you using? Thanks for sharing. I also run a modified, TB TS9 - which is a lot of fun sometimes - but I typically keep the distortion setting below 12 o'clock, gain, too. Its working, but only at low volumes on the amp I think. Here the RC works much better. Honestly, I don't know why I didn't think of this move before now, and maybe some of you already have?

[M Fowler]

I have in my pedal rack my home built EH/LPB-2, linear booster pedal that I have used as clean boost during a lead run which puts it just above the mix for more presentation.

I also use my Hermida Zendrive Overdrive pedal configured more as in boosting stage but has that little more edge that I use on the Rocket and Dr Z Stangray. But not with my Express or Liverpool those I only use my Boss Reverb pedal or Boss Digital Delay.

Mark

[rooster]

OK, so no boost or OD on the Express, I get this. I'm afraid I am setting the volume on my Express at maybe 10 o'clock tops for anything indoors so I need the little bit of added grind. But yeah, recording it, it just sounds better straight in, amp turned up. Something about real amp distortion of course.

Anybody else? BTW, I have a funny story to tell you about the LPB-1 unit sometime, Mark. It will make you laugh, and yes, they can take care of business.

[M Fowler]

I started using the LBP-1 back in the lates 1960s the ones built in a small rectangle box with 1/4 plug coming out of it and a slide switch on top. My little amp was so under powered so I used to have to use two of those to get my volume up. I bought a larger amp after that.

This was also the era I was converting old tube chassis into guitar amps as I was just a kid, no music stores around living on a farm so made due with what we had at the local dump. Speakers were crap until I discovered the radio shack guitar speakers, then I was happy. The other guitar player had a Standel Stack I had to fight to get heard.

Mark

[bluegate]

I use a Xotic BB pedal in front of my Express Clone.
My Volume on the express is at 10:30 which gives me crunch chords with my guitar volume on 10.
For solos with more gain I switch on the BB.

Trainwreck Express clone into Weber Mass, speaker impulse 4x12" Greenbacks SM57:
Guitar volume slightly rolled down.
http://www.bluegate.nl/Images/Only.mp3

Same as above but with BB and guitar volume on 10.
http://www.bluegate.nl/Images/Party.mp3

[sliberty]

I also play my Express at about 10 oclock on the dial.

I have two clean boosts on my board. A ZVEX SHO (actually, the boost stage of a BOR - sam thing though), and an AMZ MOSFET Booster. I use the MOSFET Booster the most though as it adds a little sparkle due to its very high input impedance.

[rooster]

Cool, thank you, all of you for sharing. I will listen to the soundbites tomorrow, sorry, its late at nite here..

Any, my story about the LPB-1 kinda echos your story, ultimately experiencing two of them - one into the other.

OK, so I had this Gibson Amp, maybe an Explorer or something, can't remember the name but it was rather large with a 15" speaker, reverb and tremelo. In pristine condition, too, the year was 1973. I had even put an SRO in there to help increase the volume, but no soap. It was like a Cadillac that could only hit 35 miles an hour somehow. A tank, in other words. I became very disappointed with it eventually and found a buyer for it, $150 I think. The buyer totally understood that the amp had no balls, so to speak, but he didn't seem to mind too much. So a week or two goes by and the guy calls me up and says I have to hear the amp, he is loving it. He then plays a pretty good version of Missippi Queen for me over the phone. I said, like, yeah I'm sure that's the Gibson amp I sold you. But he says it is and I have to come over there to check it out. So I drive over there and find he has two of the LPB-1s plugged into the front end of the amp, sticking out about 7 inches. ...........And then with a 61 SG Les Paul Jr equipped with a single soapbar he proceeds to duplicate the Leslie West lick that he played on the phone! (Not the whole solo note for note but the basic signature lick and some added bits. It sounds huge, fat, distorted, and just amazing really. Ha, it would feedback and was noisy when he stopped playing, but man, as long as he kept it going it was very cool. It really did sound just like the record because I remember we sat around later and played along to the record, taking turns with his rig.

Soon after I did pickup one of those LPB-1s but it never really gelled with me. Besides, I think I had my little MXR Distortion + pedal by then and it was more my speed.. Still, I will always remember that day and that frickin' sound! Man, did that guy make me regret selling that amp!!!

[mumford]

I have had no luck with any pedals into mine--hiss city.

[geetarpicker]

I guess a boost pedal has the obvious advantage of being foot switch controllable, and I see a downside of it with these amps and it's also perhaps missing out on the amp's nicest trait. That is controling it all from the guitar. The issue I've found is most solid state boost circuits are naturally noiser than the normal tube gain circuit of a wreck. I guess an ultra low noise boost would be workable, but they are few and far between. Seems if you have more rotation left in the volume knob of the amp, you can get more gain and have less noise issues by simply cranking the amp more. The beauty of these amps is the amp will (or should) still clean up no matter if the amp is on 1/2 or even fully dimed, IF you have nice pots on the guitar and turn it down enough. The trick sometimes is the guitar pots and they must have a smooth enough taper to really dial the clean tones in easily and predictably. At the Nashville Amp Expo I did some playing that day with an original Express or Liverpool amp totally on 10, and I was STILL able to get sweet cleans by simply working the guitar knobs. With the amp on 10 it's silly gain, but the beauty is it would still clean up. OK, all that said it's going to take an ultra quiet boost pedal to work very well with a Wreck without getting way too noisy.

[bluegate]

You are right about that.
The amps natural distortion is the best.

But, it comes at a volume that I simply can't use in a band setting.
I have a Weber Mass attenuator, but I prefer to use that for recording with speaker impulses.
The PPIMV helps, but then you loose the breakup of the powertubes.
I'm also running 6V6GT tubes to bring down the wattage.

[sliberty]

If your primary goal is lower volume, consider a VVR.

[bluegate]

I could, but I like the sounds I get with my current setup.
For playing live and rehersals its good enough for me.

I also use a MXR Phase 90 script logo and a MXR Carbon Copy in front of the amp.

[geetarpicker]

I get 115 db out of my Express when it only set on "1" and just starting to break up! Turning it way down and using a boost really isn't going to reduce the volume, unless you pushed the 1st gain stage so hard it clips but that's not really getting the amp to do it thing which happens in all the stages at once including the output tubes. In your situation lower efficiency speakers may be the trick, plus maybe an attenuator. Lot's of folks like power scaling. On a speaker note a single Scumback m75 (65 watt rating) would bring the volume down alot over say an efficient 2x12 or 4x12. Recently I've been playing gigs with my clone using two G12M type speakers (one original/one scumback) in two separate cabs. With one placed next the bassist as a monitor and one near me I only need 4db of attenuation sometimes none. No one has complained about the volume and I'm able to get the guitar in the PA for room coverage. Both cabs are sealed, which reduce efficiency also especially in a small 1x12. GK

[rooster]

Glen - Hey, I see you are responding here. I am paying attention.

On a slightly different note, I know that you built two clones and that you used Pacific iron. I think this is the case, anyway. Yes? My question to you is whether you have played out of a clone built with the Heyboer tranny sets? I know you are constantly dealing with the midrange of this amp and I wonder if you could comment on the difference in midrange content of either brand tranny? Given the same tube set and same speaker cab, etc., I find myself thinking that the original Heyboer presents more midrange than the Pacific - and yes, I have played both. (I realize that Tonesluts has now offered up a new version OT with the same steel as the Pacific OT, as well, but I have yet to hear it.) Eh, just wondering if you ran into other Express's with different iron and had an opinion or noticed anything different sonically.

The RC booster is working out OK for me, going back to this subject. I consider it a very quiet pedal so don't avoid it because of potential niose. *** It is a bit gritty, that would be my only complaint. The Rocket works best with it, or any pedal I think, but the Express can be good with pedals. Clearly, as far as pedals go, the midrange of the Express is the real issue that might cause a pedal not to work. Here I mean that throwing a TS9 in front of the Express is somewhat counter productive, boosting the mids so much that signal clarity is kind of lost. Eh, but I am sure this is not news to you.

***(Added note regarding the 'grittiness' factor of the pedal: the grittiness seems to be going away with pedal use. ?? Yeah, I understand this would be a first for any pedal I have owned but it seems to be the case. If anybody else wants to confirm their experience, please join in.)