Ah, the world of “boutique” pedals and “boutique” guitar amps and “boutique” custom-made guitars and “boutique” clothing and everything else… Turns out, that in order to be a real guitar player, you need to splurge out way past the $10,000 mark. In fact, $10,000 covers about half of your pedalboard these days, especially if you want that ONE pedal that shall not be named.
Do you want us to be fully honest with you? There’s absolutely no need for that unless you’re among the top .1% pro guitar players who actually make a great living as session musicians for big names. And even then, you’d have a chance at some endorsements and whatnot. Fortunately, you can build a full rig these days for a couple of grand and it could get you covered for both studio and live settings. After all, a great blues guitar player like Laurence Jones is more than satisfied with a super-cheap overdrive pedal. And – controversy incoming – it’s as good as a vintage Tube Screamer if you know how to use it.
In a new video shared by Music Radar, Laurence details his entire signal chain, including his pedalboard. Although a more or less simple setup, it gets the job done. He explains (transcript via Killer Guitar Rigs):
“[The pedalboard] is running through PRS SE Silver Sky straight into the Marshall Origin 50 head. In order of signal chain, it’s going straight into the PolyTune right here.”
He adds:
“The next in the chain is a CryBaby [Mini] wah pedal. This took a getting used to to begin with because it’s a lot smaller than the other one. But I think it actually sounds a lot better than the bigger one.”
Getting to the main point, he offered this about his overdrive:
“So distortion-wise, I’ve got the Mooer Green Mile pedal. That’s also a mini pedal. It has a lot of sustain but it’s quite clean and responsive to the guitar here. I’ve got two overdrives on at the moment but this is my main overdrive that I just add on for solos.”
“It’s got that old-school sort of feeling to it which works really well with the amp.”
You can check out his entire demo at this location.
The pedal in question is the Green Mile overdrive, manufactured by Mooer. Looking through Amazon or other online retailers, you can find this one for about $70. It’s a mini-sized overdrive device that’s, obviously, inspired by the classic Ibanez Tube Screamer. It’s not a super-complicated one as it has three basic control knobs and an additional switch. The switch toggles between “hot” and “warm” modes. In essence, this pedal and the “hot/warm” feature can help you get a different response from your tube amp. In this particular case, Marshall Origin 50 can clip and distort differently, causing its EL34 tubes to roar.
Photo: Music Radar
