Cant get good distortion out of tube amp... suggestions?

I own a 2 channel amp.. but only use the clean side.

I have gone through quite a few distortion pedals, and I think I am pretty good at picking out the good ones.... (of the ones that i have experience with)

Boss DS-1 - easy way to get loud, dirty distortion... you get what you pay for... if you don't want it to be as heavy, the boss super overdrive is a lot better.

Boss OD20.. I have read that some people on this forum really like this pedal, but I don't. I thought it was noisy and a pain to use. I couldn't find that balance between the volume of the amp with it off and with it on that I wanted. It just didn't fit me at all. The Boss emulators on it were good, but the others were awful in my opinion.

RAT - this one is ok. It has been many years.. but I remember thinking i like the ds-1 better. That says a lot.

Line6 POD 2.0.. this isn't a pedal, but the distortion sounds that I got out of it were great.

I recently tried out 2 newer pedals before purchasing my favorite (i will say in a minute..)

Line 6 uber metal -- OK distortion.. got a good metal tone.. too noisy compared to :

Digitech Distortion Factory... great pedal.. a lot of settings... good price.. quiet pedal...

My new pedal :

Visual Sound Jekyll and Hyde.
I just got this. I decided on it a long time ago. It is unreal. At first, it is too easy to flop aroud to totally different sounds.. and then you realize that you can get just about any level of distortion/overdrive/metal chunk out of it.
It is a double pedal (2 in one) and sounds great next to the H2O (also a visual sound pedal)
One side models the old tube screamer.. It goes from clean boost to tube screamer.. and I got tube screamer to melt your face off with the other side. If you have a shop that sells this thing.. please try it.

Hope this helps.

I sent my info to Peavey on the amp and they said this IS a hybrid amp. This came out right around the time they started making their tube/transistor amps. This amp was also one of the first to roll out in the 70's. Before they added Master Volume, Tube Preamp, and some other features. They also said they made about a dozen ss preamps/tube power amps.

S.S Preamp
Tube Power Amp

Im guessing he is right since he is one of their techs and i dont know much about tube amps.

Originally Posted by: Letchworth40I sent my info to Peavey on the amp and they said this IS a hybrid amp. This came out right around the time they started making their tube/transistor amps. This amp was also one of the first to roll out in the 70's. Before they added Master Volume, Tube Preamp, and some other features. They also said they made about a dozen ss preamps/tube power amps.

S.S Preamp
Tube Power Amp

Im guessing he is right since he is one of their techs and i dont know much about tube amps.

I have a Peavey Classic VTX 212 that has a solid state preamp and 2 Tube power amp configuration. I cannot comment on the sound as of yet, I just bought it and it needs to visit the Peavey shop for a going over.

I am excited though!! :cool:
Trey

Originally Posted by: damnit.treyI have a Peavey Classic VTX 212 that has a solid state preamp and 2 Tube power amp configuration. I cannot comment on the sound as of yet, I just bought it and it needs to visit the Peavey shop for a going over.

I am excited though!! :cool:
Trey

I've had one of these for 25 years. Bought mine new. It's not a bad amp, the tank reverb is really nice. Be advised that there is no standby switch on it. The power switch in back is a center off type. On mine both sides turn the amp on. Mine came with a phaser, but I don't use it a lot. I don't care for the tone that it makes. Mine is somewhat noisy around flourescent lighting too. One thing that you are going to either love or hate is the automix feature. The automix combines each of the other two channels; You have to be carefull about the preamp levels because they tend to overdrive really easy. This isn't normally a bad thing, but the 'bright" channel on mine doesn't seem very clean.

Originally Posted by: Letchworth40I've got a Peavey Vintage 6x8 110 watt single channel combo. It has one great clean channel. I've tried everything to get a good distortion out of my GT-8 pedal but nothing even comes close to decent. Should i try some analog pedals?

Anyone have any suggestions?

If you really want a good high-gain distortion pedal, try a BOSS metalzone. If that is too much you can look after the Distortion DS-1. they sound pretty good and give you a huge output. you can even change how much and they cost not much. it you look at the Ibanez Tubesreamer's.

If used both pedals, DS-1 and I currently have the Metalzone. my second guitarist has also a DS-1. they good and have enough power in them.

try them, I would say