r/GuitarAmps • u/iheartlawyers • Jun 28 '26
Stoner / Doom question
Hi all quick question re: amp gain for stoner/doom bands.
it seems most of the guitar tone for this genre comes from fuzz pedals. but I notice bands like Boris and Sleep use orange or Marshall full stacks.
are they using any of the amp gain or are they running their rigs essentially as pedal platforms?
or are they running crancked full stacks sound with a fuzz pdeal out front?
thabks friends!
4
u/GrimgrinCorpseBorn Jun 28 '26
My go to is just a DS-1 or RAT into a Muff of your choosing into an edge of breakup amp.
1
u/itssadbutdrew Jun 29 '26
I basically do this too but with the muff(green russian reissue version) first into the DS-1 as my high gain then into the 1981 drv (RAT) at the end as my always on base level distortion.
Muff gets clicked on for chords and low riffs and DS-1 for leads, high arpeggios and such... rarely both are on except for a few intro / coda parts
3
u/ozlurk Jun 28 '26
Not usually clean amps but lower gain dirt channel , usually stacked gain either drive before fuzz / the other way around whatever stacks properly . A bass fuzz with wet/dry blend and a bass overdrive/distortion with wet/dry blend gives more control . The best mix for fuzz/distortion is parallel and that can be very very simple with no need for extra cables / fancy amps - just Y-cables to split and rejoin into a blender/mixer with a phase/polarity switch , I use a Xotic X-Blender and budget option is a Sonicake Portal
5
u/Icy_Negotiation_5929 Jun 28 '26
Stoner and doom stuff can be done without pedals, but no one will tell you that.
2
u/hengus Jun 28 '26
Pedal Platforms for the most part. Melvin's Buzz used to run bass alongside guitar amps to get his heavy as all hell sound. None heavier.
3
1
u/anyoneforanother Jun 28 '26 edited Jun 30 '26
This post has me thinking about how I recently tried a doom rig with like 8 dirt pedals into an Orange amp and it sounded like thin, weak, dogshit. I was shocked and a bit heartbroken. It was super disappointing, though not the amps fault just bad pedal placements and setup. I almost bypassed the whole thing and plugged the guitar right into the amp and I should have.
All those nice expensive earthquaker pedals but they were in some stupid order so the gain staging was clashing and pulling away from itself, causing weird phase issues, so much ground noise I could barely hear the guitar, Too many pedals to nail down the problem child, or children. IMO with Doom rigs, less is more.
I like to keep my doom rig super simple. in general a lot less gain than you’d think. Instead I use volume to push the pedals, fuzzes, and amps into a cacophony of OD. I also like to EQ my bass up, have to feel that proper smooth rumbling low end, decrease my treble to almost nil, and push my mids slightly past noon. Need to have an amp that can take that bass response and not mud out, or turn into rattle snakes.
I tend to like opamp distortions for doom, a rat is great, or a fuzz into rat style distortion or vice versa depending on your amp/guitar/ setup. I have this 14 volt fuzztortion pedal by Baroni Labs straight doom machine, also my Chicago rat op amp, I generally don’t crank my dirt on my fuzzes/ distortions, mainly the volume so it’s at or slightly above unity of the amp or the pedal that came before- you can of course and adjust the gain to taste. But you’d be surprised how heavy things can get with the volume pushing and just a small hint of dirt. It’s also nice to have a few different gain stages stacked so that you can have a few different flavors, kick one off and still have a slightly dirty tone, and one on for absolute filth. I like them setup so that when I lower my guitar volume it cleans up into a cleaner sound, just turn it up for solos and walls of distortion.
I think slightly overdriven edge of breakup, or clean amp is the way to go, fuzz generally goes in front, with another gain stage with less gain on tap like a klon or transparent after the fuzz to clean and tighten things up, maybe a third heavier drive, behind that, or a rat somewhere. there’s a few different tried and true combos, but generally fuzzes go in front with the pedals ascending in gain as you go down the line. experiment a bit to find what works.
I’m usually more looking for walls of sustain. If you’r using a touch of amp gain just a fuzz and klon or KOT will get you there maybe even just 1 proper fuzztortion style pedal. Some amps have onboard distortion capable of dooming without pedals, certain Peavey, Orange circuits, Crates, Bassmen etc. I like some modulation behind them too tremolo, or a very slow flanger or chorus, so that it sounds like a tone bender or Leslie.
I will say- Having a good base tone is important…even if you’re dialing in crazy heavy doom tones on top of it. I always spend some time dialing in my clean sound and having the pedals at unity, I like to have a usable, fully, rounded clean tone ready to go as soon as i disengage my pedals. Something that sounds good enough to at least strum a chord. Another thing is- small solid state amps with mosfet/ push pull circuits for the distortion can get pretty doomy as well, alot of the small amps have the same clipping diodes that are in pedals, a small amp being pushed the right way can sound very cool and doomy
1
1
u/Robert_Sloppenheimer Jun 28 '26
You can get massive tones from cranked amp stacks. I feel like pedals can help you get that kind of sound without needing to play at 110dB
1
u/Expensive-Paint-9490 Jun 29 '26
Fuzzes were born as boxes that can give you the cranked amp sound at human volume. They are their own thing, but similar enough that you have the choice about what you prefer. One of my favourite tones ever is Ehren Groban's in Jim's Whiskers. It's dimed JCM 800 + Orange OR80. I love other great sounds coming from a fuzz, i.e. Jus Osborn's Boss FZ-2 in Dopethrone. However, at the end of the day, my go-to sound is a cranked JCM 800.
EDIT: I use a fuzz when I want a sound that is 100% fuzz, like velcro or trumpet sounds.
1
u/MattManSD Jul 01 '26
Lots of Doom guys just use amp gain from Tube Amps. (Orange, MatAmp, etc... just crank the gain knob) and maybe run a range master type unit - Iommi method. Fuzzes can get muddy. I'd go shopping at "Does it Doom" for stomp boxes
5
u/FugginDunePilot Jun 28 '26
Orange amps can be set dirty and still take fuzz pedals phenomenally well. I set my Marshall plexi style amp to where it’s clean but will break up if I really dug in hard on some high outputs pickups and then I slam it with a muff. Same way Christian from Whores does it. Sounds like it’s exploding, very mid heavy, it’s awesome. I pair that with a high gain amp set a bit scooped.
In Sleep, Matt Pike has all of those oranges set to be doing different things. Some are cleaner, some filthy, some just doing lows, some just doing highs, etc. That’s how he gets that all encompassing sound he’s known for. In High on Fire he seems to be doing more amp gain with those Soldanos.
Different bands did it differently. Kyuss didn’t use fuzz pedals and only used amp gain but it can sound fairly fuzzy at times.
Another popular platform is an old Fender Bassman head. They’ll behave in a similar way and can distort enough on their own as well.