Solid state amp. More gain?

Getting a tube screamer helps tube amps, sure, but they aren't strictly for tube amps. It's just a name and the main reason they were developed. However, they are just overdrives and are very good over drive pedals. They are similar to clean boosts, but will add in a little more gain to your signal, which you can take that gain out by leaving the gain knob at 0... essentially turning it into a clean boost pedal.

What you want is to use your amps distortion and just tighten it up a little bit. You can achieve this with a clean boost or tube screamer and combining it with a quality EQ, like the MXR 10 band EQ.

This has been the biggest Biotch of all SS amp users forever, The distortion/gain/overdrive on the lead channel leaves much to be desired but the clean channel is screaming can be found in just about every review of every SS amp ever built, Simply because there's no valves to over saturate in a SS amp. which is what creates that overdriven sound in a tube amp. But you obviously already know this, So to answer your question, Sure there's plenty of options, and plenty of good peddles, So how much do you want to spend? The Boss GT 100 can be dialed in to do just about anything you want with a SS amp, it just aint cheap, Tube screamer peddles and such do the job, but are limited to doing only that one thing, and a good one still isn't cheap, I hopped on the Kustom bandwagon years ago before they were all made in China, today I use mostly my little Quad 100 DFX with a Roland GR 55 which is Bosses parent company, Quite a bit more expensive than the GT 100 but the GT has many of the same features for shaping your tone, Roland/boss uses there COSM system which is pretty impressive, as it can emulate a lot of different guitars and amps pretty convincingly, Although I cant seem to find a setting for the Kustom Doublecross with Doublecross coupe 4x12 Celestion cab, They must have left that on the corner of Yougottabefuckinkidding and Okthatsenoughoverdrivealready, but that's OK, if need be I can still get that sound from the real thing,

I understand what you are saying about liking the tone of the amp, and if you're after one very specific tone then you could try a clean boost with your amps gain setting to get you there. Personally I need 2 or 3 different levels of gain. So what I do is find the sweet spot on the amp for gain. If it does high gain really well then I'll use a couple pedals to get the low and mid gain tones. If it does mid gain well then I'll use my pedals for low and high gain, etc. I don't try to make the amp's gain channel do what it does not do best if that makes any sense.

I play Mesa amps and even though they are known for high gain, I tend to use them as my mid gain (crunch) setting. I then use a Fulltone OCD for my lower gain and a Wampler SLOstortion for my high gain.

Those Randall SS amps are killer. The other guitarist in our band actually quit playing his Marshall JCM 800 and started playing an 80's Randall solid state amp. Sounds badass.

Hello there,

I think the clean boost pedal is the best way to go. The TC Electronics Spark Booster pedal would be a good choice. Also the Seymour Duncan Pickup Booster pedal is pretty good.

Later,

Norm

Good to see these kinds of questions around here.

Breaks the monotony, but understandable, levels of interests this website is so (has been over the years) been created for.

We all need to be challenged once in a while to keep our own interest going as well. As some days I ask myself 'why' I even bother.

But then again, it takes one from the list of regulars to bring it about.

I am a user of T.C. Electronics (M 300 and others) products myself.

you can get a tubescreamer it actually gives more bottom end to solid state amps and it sounds very warm and natural, tubescreamers arent only for tube amps.