Cant choose between these two pedals....!

[SeattlePhil]

Hey guys ,new to the forum.  I should have probably joined 20 years ago but now I need wiser minds than mine because this is driving me insane.  Its not important, its just that I really need to get down to 5 pedals please let me explain. 

 

For years I was one of these guys with 30 pedals, then 20, then 15, then I was gonna stick to my best 10 pedals the rest of my life but as you get older you begin to appreciate simple/clean/tone. To me, now at 50, just an old guitar/amp and clean tone playing with volume is so incredible, something I avoided ever diving into playing shows as most of my songs were the same format of delay/clean and then rat distortion through a 82 Marshall Plexi.   So that was my story until 2018 when I was hanging out backstage and watched Eric Gales setting up 4 pedals. FOUR.  Later that night, he blew me away when his set hit, especially with how well he used his volume/tone of his guitar and how he milked his four pedals.  Since then, I have been concentrated on trying to get the sweetest and warmest clean tone ever AND getting down to the bare essentials, so I chucked all my new pedals and pulled out my old school 80's shit and a 64 twin. 

 

I have been blessed with killer equipment but my main two guitars are a 1960 custom purple tele with a humbucker and a 1960 Les Paul Custom. I shelved my Marshall and am actually playing an amp that was owned by a Seattle guitar god that I managed to get ownership of (wont name him sorry!) which is a 1964 blackface twin reverb. Just by themselves my main go too pair is the tele/fender twin reverb and it sounds sooooo warm and killer.

 

My pedals are as follows:

 

1979 Tube Screamer with chip/logo which sounds FANTASTIC

1960 Vox WAH with Queens emblem

Tuner

Digital Delay

Analog man King of Tone

 

 

 

So my question is this. I have been using the Analog man as a "boost" for pre leads and then hitting the second switch for lead, then hitting my screamer for over the top lead....too much. Its too much but that was my methodology. Here is the problem, the Analog Man has epic tone and it can get real dirty, but so does the screamer. I have to get rid of one of them, and I cant decide OMG this is killing me and I know it's stupid but this is the crap 50 year old's worry about. 

 

 

[ezbass]

If it were me, which of course it isn’t, I’d stick with the KoT as that offers 2 separate boosts/drives over the TS’s on or off. Full disclosure, my best pedalboard contained a Fulldrive2, a Line6 DL4 and an Ernie Ball volume pedal, so I’m biased towards that kind of OD pedal and don’t use over the top dirt.

[Crusoe]

I'm afraid I can't help, but I did notice that Tube Screamers of that vintage sell for quite a lot of money.

[randythoades]

21 hours ago, ezbass said:

If it were me, which of course it isn’t, I’d stick with the KoT as that offers 2 separate boosts/drives over the TS’s on or off. Full disclosure, my best pedalboard contained a Fulldrive2, a Line6 DL4 and an Ernie Ball volume pedal, so I’m biased towards that kind of OD pedal and don’t use over the top dirt.

I agree with @ezbass. I would keep the King of Tone if that were my choice. Never been a massive fan of the tubescreamer, but vintage ones are very sought after. The versatility of the KoT would clinch it for me.

To be fair though, at home I don't use any overdrive, I use the natural drive of the amp and ride the volume control and I use a TC electronic spark boost for the solo lift. Live, I have gone the FRFR route and just plug my multi effects into PA, much easier set up and not even my band mates can really tell the difference.

[EdwardMarlowe]

I've gone the same way with pedals - wanted all of them, an all-singing, all dancing amp.... eventually realised I'm happiest with a decent amp that does the mostly clean thing well, then pedals for OD/boost, tremolo, reverb (if not built in to the amp), echo. Also learned along the way I don't like heavy distortion, just a good crunch - and that most of the really great sounds on record are a lot less distorted than you assume when you start.... 

In terms of these two, I'd be inclined to keep whichever was less replaceable. Ultimately, there are eleventy million good and inexpensive TS-808 clones out there these days if you wanted that sound again, and it sounds like that's the one you're really finding less use for. 

Equally, though, a pedal takes up very, very little storage space, so if you don't need to sell it for the money, it's not the end of the world to have it in a box....  I've kept all my old pedals, even though a lot of them I'm unlikely to really use much/ at all. Boss BF-3, DOD Phasor, JD Crybaby.... The one I'm told could pull in a surprising amount of money is my Sovtek-Electro Harmonix Big MUff Pi. Bought that new back in the early 90s - mint condition, still got the wooden box. I decided to keep my pedals around, though, because even they're not part of my core sound now, I might want to play around with them someday. I don't have a lot of use for the phaser now, but I love the subtle way Steve Jones used his MXR 90 on Never Mind the Bollocks; I might pull that out sometime if I'm feeling uninspired, and...  Just a thought!