Good Overdrives for AV65 JMs

[timiscott]

Hi, all... I have some Jazzmasters with AV65 pups in them and I'm looking for a good overdrive to use with them. At the minute, I use a Wampler Tumnus through the AC30 settings on a Strymon Iridium, but find it gets quite tinny when I add much gain. Which other drives might work better?

[AgusAD]

Klones actually remove lows when you push the gain, so... Timmy?

[timiscott]

Yeah, I was thinking about that - what with it being an excellent name n'all - but wondered how much different it would be to the Tumnus.

[beninma]

Timmy
JHS Morning Glory or any of the other bluesbreaker types
DOD Looking Glass

Basically something with a flatter eq.

A DS-1 with the gain all the way down can do it too. Though it’s still pretty dirty for chords.

[marqueemoon]

My general approach is to darken things up at the amp.

The first thing I’d try before buying a new drive is a different speaker model - something that retains the Vox flavor but will roll off that hashy stuff.

If you’re recording with this (and can tolerate the shrillness when tracking) you may be able to notch out the annoying frequencies with eq. Use a parametric eq with a fairly narrow q, set to a BOOST, and sweep around until you find the frequency where it sounds the most obnoxious, then switch to a cut of a dB or two and play around with the width of the q until it sounds smooth and natural.

My only experience with amp-in-a-box is with my Neunaber Iconoclast. I don’t remember what they call it, but there’s an “air” option which allows high frequencies through above what a typical guitar speaker is able to reproduce. There is no situation in which I’ve been able to make this sound good.

I think a lot of ODs are voiced to bring out harmonics that are right in the range of the overtones produced by a JM bridge/strings from bridge to trem. Something flatter may help, but I’d try a few other things before throwing more money at the problem.

[Owl]

Well, after having gone through many reviews, tests or whatever I could go through, I just got the Magnetic Effects Sandäre... It's a great pedal, adds a little sparkle or some medium OD & goes on well with a fuzz.

[Unicorn Warrior]

Get a Rat and set it mildly. Trust me

[stevejamsecono]

Get a Rat and set it mildly. Trust me

Don't have a JM but have a Tele > Ac15 combo and this is absolutely correct.

[tune_link]

I use a Greer Burning Goat and it sounds great. Best overdrive pedal I've ever had. Can do really clean, sparkly and low to medium gain overdrive and my main Jazzmasters both have the AV65 PUPs in them. It sounds very present and full and the tone knob on it has a wide range sweep. I don't think Greer makes them anymore but they're pretty available used still. I think Greer stopped manufacturing them when they came out with the Lightspeed. I haven't played a Lightspeed but I've seen some comparisons and they're similar enough.

[patrick.h]

I have an Earthquaker Westwood and it's the best overdrive I've ever had. And I recently discovered that if I put a RYRA klone in front of it and crank the volume but keep the gain low, it really makes it sound awesome. I initially had the klone after and could not get a good sound out of it until I swapped them around. I personally hate the mid hump of klones/tubescreamers, but placing it in front of the westwood with the gain way down sounds awesome.

[Paco]

I would second the mild RAT situation, that just can't go wrong with a jazzmaster and vox-styled amps. If you keep it tamed, I find RAT's to be great all around, modern OD's. Nowadays I only use my blackface RAT like these, some years ago I would crank the distortion every time I had the chance

Maybe the Crowther Hot Cake?? This exact combination (jazz + hot cake + vox) has been successful many times. Bands like Yuck have basically constructed a sound and kind of a concept around this exact rig. Stephen Malkmus used this combo in the 90's- 00's too.

[timiscott]

Cheers, all - I've got a Rat I don't use much sitting in a box. Sounds like time to dig it out and see.

[Cornelius Plum]

I'm with Paco: I'm a big fan of the venerable Crowther Hotcake when playing through amps in the AC30 family.