| So you're sitting in front of an amp that's cranked | | | | The whole reason you bought that big amp in the |
| to the max for some searing over driven guitar | | | | first place is because of the wonderful tone it |
| sounds and you're stuck trying to make the thing | | | | creates, so why ruin it by making it sound like a |
| sound clean. The worst part is your amp is only a | | | | cheap imitation (which is what pedals do)? This |
| single channel model, so you can't switch between | | | | works as a quick fix, but is hardly the way to |
| clean and dirty. | | | | enjoy your musical investments. Which brings me |
| You've got two options. I'll offer the first one as | | | | to: |
| the "easy" way, then the second as the "best | | | | Option 2: Roll back the volume knob on your |
| sounding" way. | | | | guitar |
| Option 1: Use a Distortion Stomp Box (Effects | | | | It's really as simple as that. By bringing the knob |
| Pedal) | | | | back, you're cutting off the amount of juice that |
| This is pretty straightforward. Set your amp to | | | | flows from the pickups to the amp, which cleans |
| get the clean tone you want, then put a distortion | | | | up the tone very nicely. You might have to |
| pedal in line between the guitar and the amp. Now, | | | | experiment to get the best sound, but the result |
| when you want distortion, hit the pedal with your | | | | is that you'll get the full, rich sound out of your |
| foot. Then hit it again to turn it off and return to | | | | amp the organic way, and without having to |
| the original sound. | | | | resort to cheap pedals to do it. |
| This works pretty well, except it sounds horrible. | | | | |