How Do You Set The Tone Knobs On Distortion/od Pedals

[Talenless]

to have the least amount of tone alteration as possible?

 

is there a method to use? specific setting for specific pedals?

[scheater5]

I'm not sure what you mean by "least amount of tone alteration as possible" in a distortion pedal.  That's kinda the point of dirt pedals.  

 

But I'll take a swing.  1) there are some industry standard settings, but 2) You should feel free to fiddle around with any setting on and pedal/amp.

In terms of standard things, the ones I'm most familiar with are a tube screamer and a fuzz face.  

 

Tube screamers are often set as a true "overdrive" - that is, they don't provide much distortion themselves, but instead cause the amp to "overdrive."  This setting is with the distortion all the way down, the level all the way up and the tone to taste (12 o'clock is neutral).  It's basically functioning as a boost pedal, but tube screamers have a distinctive EQ bump in the midrange that many players find desirable - and even at zero drive, it's putting a little hair on the notes that many amps respond favorably too.  

 

The famous fuzz face sound is with everything turned up to 11.  Roll the knobs all the way clockwise.  If you're going for a Jimi or 60's Clapton tone, then break them off, that's the only setting you'll need.  

 

That being said, most pedals have interesting things in lots of settings.  I'm not a huge fan of the way the Pod handles gain staging (running one distortion thing - say, a pedal - into another - say, an amp), so I use a real Tube Screamer either in front or in the FX loop of my Pod HD. 

[Talenless]

thanks for the response

i was thinking about the bass, mid, and treble tone knobs on the pedal, and how to go about setting them so that there is the least amount of change between the regular amp sound, and the OD > AMP sound

[scheater5]

Ah, that depends on the pedal.  For most, "noon" is neutral.  In fact, I can't think of any on the Pod for which that isn't true.  Since I only use a few ODs on the Pod, perhaps someone else can confirm that this is the case with all of them.

 

Sometimes you run into effects with passive tone controls, in which case "full out" is neutral.  Setting any gain settings to zero and A/Bing each effect in turn should make this pretty obvious.  

 

Set "gain" or "distortion" to zero

Pick a parameter - let's use Treble for now

Set treble to noon

Turn the pedal on - listen to your top end

Turn the pedal off - listen to your top end

If the effect has active eq, there should be little difference

If the effect has passive eq, there should be much less top end with the pedal on

 

If you're still not sure:

Set treble to full out

repeat above steps

If the effect has active eq, there should be a much more pronounced top end

If the effect has passive eq, there should be little difference

 

Keep in mind that most pedals alter the eq anyway, like when I mentioned that a Tube Screamer has a midrange bump.  So even the most neutral setting will probably change your tone.