MV amp with clean boost

[cob666]

I've noticed that in general non MV amps are much more responsive to a clean boost as a lead volume boost. I have a couple of MV amps that when I activate my clean boost (BBE Boosta Grande) my sound gets super saturated but no real volume boost. However, on my non MV amps the exact same pedal configuration will provide a nice volume increase for leads.

My main amp right now is an Orange OR50 which has a defeatable MV and the MV is between the PI and the power tubes. When it's in non MV mode, db boost is noticeable; when in MV mode, sound only gets more distorted like a cascading gain stage.

I tried this through other amps as well with similar results and it seems that most other guitarists I know use multiple channel amps to get a lead boost.

Does anybody have a technical explanation?

[Steve A.]

Originally Posted by cob666

I've noticed that in general non MV amps are much more responsive to a clean boost as a lead volume boost. I have a couple of MV amps that when I activate my clean boost (BBE Boosta Grande) my sound gets super saturated but no real volume boost. However, on my non MV amps the exact same pedal configuration will provide a nice volume increase for leads.

My main amp right now is an Orange OR50 which has a defeatable MV and the MV is between the PI and the power tubes. When it's in non MV mode, db boost is noticeable; when in MV mode, sound only gets more distorted like a cascading gain stage.

I tried this through other amps as well with similar results and it seems that most other guitarists I know use multiple channel amps to get a lead boost.

Does anybody have a technical explanation?

The MV amps generally have more gain stages so boosting the input signal will often push the preamp into distortion. The MV preamp stages are often biased so that they will distort more while in the more classic non-MV designs they are biased for more clean headroom.

Some of the MV designs also use diode-clipping to add to the distortion; a clean boost might push the signal enough so that the diode clippers are kicking in.

If your MV amp has an FX loop you might try putting your Boosta Grande in the loop (I don't know how the impedances and signal levels will match up).

HTH

Steve Ahola

[cob666]

Thanks for the quick reply.

My main issue is that the OR50 sounds REALLY nice in non MV mode when it gets past 3 or 4 but that's still pretty loud for some venues so I would put the amp in MV mode and I'm just hammering the front end when I kick in the boost. I think I will just use a 30 watt two channel head when I know we're playing at the smaller places as then I don't need the boost I just use the second channel.

Quick Draw McGraw - nice!