Peavey 6505+ and Maxon OD808

[Metal Guitarist]

I just purchased a Maxon OD808 at Guitar Center today and I'm out of town so I can't play it on my 6505+ yet. So when I get home, how should I set it up? Include both the amp settings and Maxon settings please. Btw, I play metal.

 

[axxessdenied]

Twist some knobs and see what happens.

 

[TRENCHLORD]

Amp knobs at 12:00-1:00 to start with (gain and volume to taste).
808 with level max, gain at 0, tone near noon.

 

[VBCheeseGrater]

^^^^ this basically sums it up. Keep the level high and gain low, 808 in front of amp.

I like to lower the level on my ods sometimes to get a bit less compression or saturation, but 10 is a good place to start.

 

[Moltar]

I see the point of using it just as a volume boost and a tone sculpter, as for years I have been boosting the input of my amp with a clean booster, but I also LOVE the sound I get with a 'rock' distortion on my amp, and then using my Maxon OD9 pro+ with the gain maxed. Totally crushing metal tone. Kind of messing around now though with a combination of the maxon distortion boost and a boost caused by extra level feeding the input.

Just don't write off the opportunity of using the distortion on the pedal. Maxon stuff sounds amazing, and especially their OD's have a total crunch to them thats not going to end up sounding like some typical fizzy distortion box that we all strive to NOT sound like. Lots of people on here say Gain 0 Level 10 but then you see videos of metal bands and their rigs and its about half of them using them as volume boosts, and the other half are actually using the gain knob to some extent as well.

 

[TheWarAgainstTime]

Set everything to noon and amp volume to taste and adjust from there. Depending on the sound you want, you may want a little less gain (since you have the boost) as well as more bass/resonance and mids. Be careful not to use too much treble or presence since the amp can get pretty shrill and ice-picky depending on your cab.

 

[whosdealin]

Amp knobs at 12:00-1:00 to start with (gain and volume to taste).
808 with level max, gain at 0, tone near noon.

Exactly..... Thats how you do it..Go to the lead channel on your 6505+ and do not set the gain higher than noon on the amp, then boost it with the maxon level almost all the way, gain at ZERO ! The maxon will suck a little bass so I run the bass on my 6505+ pretty high, in general that amp doesnt have a lot of bass.. My eq settings on the amp are Bass-3oclock, Mids 9oclock, Treble 11oclock

 

[sear]

I set my OD at max level, around 0-1 gain, and tone right around 5/center (sometimes change it a bit if I want more or less treble). I like to EQ the amp at about 4-5 mid, 6-7 bass, and 4-5 treble this way, but you can get some really nasty, grindy sounds out of it if you bump the treble up to 7 and drop the mid to 3 or so. As far as amp gain goes, 2 to 3.5 or so - 2 works well for thrash and more traditional stuff while 3.5 is good for death metal as you don't lose too much clarity but still get that nice saggy punch (feeds back like a bitch though). For lead I like 4-5 with some reverb or delay.

 

[Metal Guitarist]

Well I went to a different Guitar Center today and got an ISP Decimator to keep the feedback down.

 

[grogarage]

what Moltar said...I experimented with less gain on the amp and more on the OD with good results, gives you a wider range of tone flavor, i even tried the ''low gain'' input and got other shades of tones...Your ears will tell you when it's right, what most suggest as a base setting is a good place to start. And be able to handle small tweeks needed to addapt to differents rooms and venues to keep your tone consistent.

 

[Scattered Messiah]

as has already been covered:
traditionally, you'd want to redial your signal - while having the OD engaged.
Good starting point is full out boost [all at "neutral", except the level maxxed]
then adjust amp gain,
next amp volume [master vs channel, although this does not apply to the 6505 - this does affect tone quite drastically on other amps]
then the amp's eq [starting with bass&depth, then mids and then treble&pres]

generally you can do what you want:
the harder you hit the front end / the louder you have the OD set, the more does the OD compress, the more does the amp compress and the more saturation you get - however the gain might not sound as nice/as round.
the gain in the od works well, when you want to add some crush to your palmmutes - as long as it's not overdone [it tends to mud things up, if the tone of the pedal is not adjusted]
the tone knob itself works as additional, controllable shaping [how much low end you want to cut] ...

a cool trick is to dial the tone a bit higher, and then adding back the bass in the amps controls [you obtain a nicely clean, non blocking heavyness]

another nice trick is to dial some gain in, on the OD, and then scoop the mids on the amp [heavily thick distorted mids, you take them back to regain a faster attack]

generally, you will probably find yourself having lower treble settings with the OD

-> OD in front gives you a lot of options, just use your imagination and intuition, there's a lot to be done with this type of setup