Concert Lead Distortion!

[Eppilogue]

Hey everyone!

I just bought myself a Sunn Concert Lead, the red knob version. I've been jamming it out in my practice space, first trying it out for bass (holy shit!), then trying it out for guitar. I've come to the conclusion that the amp is beyond loud, and I couldn't be happier with my purchase. The only thing is that I've realized is that I should get a good distortion pedal to help boost the distortion and beef it up a bit. My first idea is to AB the amp together with my Marshall JCM 800, but I've read some things about pushing one amp through another, that might be an option if I for some reason only have one cab available.

As of now I would only need the Concert Lead for a pretty fast hardcore punk band, so I'm not that dependent on getting those super heavy tones, but I'd like to get that at some point down the road. So, does anyone have any recommendations for a good pedal to use in conjunction with the Sunn Concert Lead?

Any and all input would be greatly appreciated! 

[Ryanx]

espen!  glad to see you made it over here.  i'd personally suggest something like a tubescreamer to you

[grimniggzy]

This right here...

is the answer if you like the tone the amp gives already this is pretty transparent but boosts you and reacts a little to your playing dynamics, its kinda like a tubescreamer, DS-1 but there is not a bad tone in there.
more here...
http://www.fulltone.com/stpframe.html

These...
http://www.tech21nyc.com/products/sansamp/characterseries.html
are the answer if you want to transform your amp into a new beast alltogether, even if only sometimes.
I would suggest running them into the back "power amp in" section and rock out.
You can also use them as overdrives in a normal chain that runs in the front, but they just don't do the same thing there. Hope this helps.

[chev]

OCD is an excellent choice. I might have to try my friend'S OCD soon...

but I'm sold to Catalinbread for now!!! 

the SFT:

http://www.catalinbread.com/SFT.html

18v too so you get lot of headroom and dynamics to your pick attack.

it sounds like adding a drive stage in my clean amp, sounds pretty close to the amp drive you get when crank at 8-9...! but I get it at 2.

and the Supercharged OD:

http://www.catalinbread.com/SuperChargedOD.html

if you like a more edgy drive with absolutely no mellow drive, blends perfectly with the SFT and both sounds amazing on my clean Sunns.

[grimniggzy]

The OCD sounds godly @ 18 volts as well. It turns into a fire-breathing dragon when everythings cranked past 9 and a slightly gravelly but still booming with low end blues monster at less intense settings. You can do crazy things with slides and I realized upon changing my picking attack even to ways that are notoriously wrong it reacts like no other pedal I have ever heard, while not becoming too unpredictable. Just a great, great pedal.
Keep in mind though I have the 3rd version which is notoriously bassier than all others.
The newer ones have the circles around the knobs.

[grimniggzy]

also, can't go wrong with one of these guys...


but remember its probably worthless if it doesn't have the LM308 chip

[Eppilogue]

Weird. There were no replies to this thread, so I just ordered a Fulltone OCD, I come back to the thread and there's lots of praise for that pedal. Not bad!

So now I guess I have the final piece of the puzzle in place (once I get it, that is). I tried the Concert Lead AB'd with my JCM800 for a good hour today, sounds amazing. I was a bit surprised to hear that the two amps sound so much alike, even though the Sunn has more bite, while the JCM is slightly chunkier. Got super huge full tones out of the thing with very little tweaking. Can't wait to get that pedal to push the whole setup over the edge, and play it live. It's gonna be great!

grimniggzy: Would you run the OCD into the power amp as well? This'll be my first setup that's more complicated than guitar -> tuner -> amp, so I'm sorta clueless..

[grimniggzy]

I'd say experiment and use it both ways.
You should see at least a slight difference and like it better for something one way or the other.

[HolyMountain]

I use a concert lead + a bad monkey for a fast hc punkband. Sounds great

[grimniggzy]

I use a concert lead + a bad monkey for a fast hc punkband. Sounds great

Very good pedal for the price. I can't think of any overdrive in its price point that can compare.

[Walt-Dogg]

In all honesty, using any worn in RAT 2 (with a serial number lower than 300000, mine's is 250093) and running it into the Concert Lead without distortion really does the job for just about anything fast, agressive or riffy or even a combination of all three. Straight sevens on the amps EQ, normal input, brite off, distortion off, boost off, as much reverb as you see fit and then rolling the distortion and volume on the RAT to about 3 o'clock and adjusting the filter somewhere in the 11 o'clock range and you'll get an amazing tone and distortion.

[Eppilogue]

Walt-Dogg, thanks. I'm gonna borrow a Rat and give that a try. What band are you in, by the way?

[Walt-Dogg]

I'm currently in Zero Progress (fastcore from San Francisco/Danville) and was in Melting Eye (scum rock from Orange County/LA). Let me know how that works out for you.

[measurestaken]

also, can't go wrong with one of these guys...


but remember its probably worthless if it doesn't have the LM308 chip

I gotta second this. One of these in front of my Concert Lead and I'm in Ginn heaven.