Quick Listen is where I capture and share guitar tones that I’ve dialled in. No exploration; little discussion – just a quick audio demo or two along with a documented signal chain.
Today, I’ve grabbed my Ritual Devices Grey Overdrive, to find out how well it can rock out when I’m playing single-coil bridge pickups.
The Quick Listen
Here’s the Ritual Devices Grey Overdrive with my Telecaster’s bridge pickup.
And here’s the Ritual Devices Grey overdrive with my Silver Sky’s bridge pickup.
The Signal Chain
Today, I’m playing:
- both guitars on the bridge pickup
- into my Axe-FX 3 (for the tuner)
- out to my pedalboard
- back into the Axe-FX 3 (for amp, cab, delay and reverb)
- out to my audio interface
- and into my DAW.
All the delays and reverbs came from my Axe-FX 3. No post-processing was applied, but I do level-match all of my audio demos before uploading.
The Guitars
The Telecaster is a Fender CS 52 Reissue Telecaster (named Jessie). It’s all-stock. This model doesn’t have a tone pot. The second control allows you to blend in the neck pickup when you’re on the bridge pickup.
I was playing on the bridge pickup, with the volume rolled back a little, and a little bit of neck pickup blended in.
The Silver Sky is a PRS Silver Sky from 2022. It’s all-stock. PRS changed the stock pickups at some point during 2021.
I was playing on the bridge pickup, with the volume rolled back to 9.
The Pedal
All the dirt is coming from a Ritual Devices Grey Overdrive. (You can read my First Impressions of this pedal here. Fair to say, I’m a big fan of it.)
I was in the Asymmetric clipping mode, with the Drive up past 1 o’clock, and the Level set just above unity.
The Amp & Cab
The amp and cab is a Deluxe Reverb amp model paired with official Celestion V30 1×12 open-backed cab impulse responses. This combo chases the way that Fender’s iconic amp is used by many Nashville session players.
I was playing through Scene 2 of my 65 Nashville preset in the Axe-FX 3. This scene emulates the Deluxe Reverb’s vibrato channel with the popular ‘no bright cap’ mod.
Disclosure
I actually know Wub from Ritual Devices a little bit, through my local guitar shop.
It doesn’t change my opinion of this pedal. And I believe that the audio demos speak for themselves either way.
Final Thoughts
To my ears, it’s delivering a classic cranked-amp rock tone. It’s such a big tone too.
Honestly, I’d be very happy with a tone that big from humbuckers. And here, I’m getting that from single-coil bridge pickups?!?
I’m very happy with that.