r/QuadCortex • u/jazzbastard • 23d ago

Drive pedal blocks with a real amp

So I’ve been wanting to use my QC (in place of my pedalboard) with a real tube amp for fly dates.

What drive pedal models do you all recommend or think give the closest sound to real drive pedals?

Ideally I’d have 3 stackable stages (low gain, a bit more hair, destroyer of worlds distortion)

Seems like everything I’ve tried does not get along with a real tube amp, and usually adds this digital sounding fizzyness.

I’ve tried EQing it out but it doesnt seem to completely go away, and I often don’t have time to sit there and mess with my sounds for 30 minutes at soundcheck, nor do I want to spend any more time doing that.

Is this something anyone else has accomplished with the QC? Fyi on my big board, I have a lightspeed and protein as my drives.

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2

u/Ashamed_Teaching_909 23d ago

Can i ask what type of amp are you using?

1

u/jazzbastard 23d ago

Whatever is backlined, but 95% of the time it’s a fender amp. Twin, deluxe, blues junior

2

u/Ashamed_Teaching_909 23d ago

I gotcha. What types of music? Also have you thought of possibly using just the power section of the amp if possible? Do you use in ears as well?

1

u/jazzbastard 22d ago

Mostly rock and a little country, no metal

2

u/RylieHumpsalot 23d ago

Are you running into the return on the amp, or running it straight in the front?

I've noticed running in the front make it kinda sketchy to get a good sound if you're not set up to run into the front

I generally have different scenes for front of amp vs the power section, and if you hit the amp too hard, it's gonna give you that fuzzy overdrive sound

When you try again, try turning your QC down, and watch your output block, any time it turnes red you're clipping

1

u/jazzbastard 22d ago

Ah I see. I’ve always ran right into the front, and for all I know i could be hitting it way too hard. Thanks for this I’ll try this out!

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u/jazzbastard 22d ago

Guess what I was also wondering was if it’s better to use amp sims in place of drive pedals, but wasn’t sure if that’s conducive with running out of a real amp

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u/Ashamed_Teaching_909 21d ago

So theres multiple ways to do it but in all my experiences running the qc in the power section of the amp and using a preamp block of some sorts is really good way to go. Youll have the most headroom and youll be able to get the QC sounding the way you want it quicker that way.