[Guncho]

Back in the day this is how I set up my gigging electric rig. It seems backwards from a lot of people.

I would set the clean channel on my tube amp with full volume pedal to my rhythm crunch sound. Think Angus Young rhythm sound. Back in Black, etc.
To clean that up I would back off on the volume pedal.
My overdrive channel was heavily saturated and was just used for solos.
My MXR Microamp Pedal was used for more sustain when soloing if needed.

Was that a weird setup?

Most people seem to set their clean sound and then add to it. I kind of did the opposite.

 

[dcole]

I thought thats what a lot of the old rockers did, the whole drive it a bit and back off with the guitar volume to get clean.

 

[Granny Gremlin]

Nope; rather typical. Maybe an extra layer with the micro amp AND volume pedal, but nothing unheard of.

 

[Guncho]

These days a lot of people seem to start with a clean sound and then use overdrive pedals for crunch, leads, etc.

 

[Granny Gremlin]

That's the other standard way (more common when there is no volume pedal). Some go left, some go right.

Then there's the hybrid (where the OD pedal is used as either a cleanish or outright dirty boost).

Frankly, if you did have a strange setup (that works well for you) I would keep it under my hat if I were you; there ain't much new under the sun and if you found something that is, it is your strategic advantage and possibly unique tone; hold on to it.

 

[grumpyoldman]

I think it depends on the material you are playing. In the current band, we do covers, and I play clean for 85% of the show. So, being as it is my most-used setting, I start with my clean sound. In my situation, it would be odd to start with the distortion setting when I only use it 15% of the night.

John
thegrumpyoldman

 

[High/Deaf]

My thought is: if it works for you, it is absolutely right. There is no wrong way, unless you aren't getting where you want to go.

My preference is for my clean channel to be clean but bit louder than I would want for rhythm. So I roll the guitar volume back a bit for normal rhythm playing and can boost with the guitar volume for solos or accent parts. And then add pedals if I want to get that channel into light or heavy breakup. I usually have a compressor and two o/d pedals for color. And often a second channel with a different type of overdriven tone. That's what works for me and anyone who says it's wrong can go $^#@ themselves. LOL

Sometimes I'll go with two channels and no pedals or one channel and those pedals or maybe an extra pedal on top of those. I like variety, and accept for gigs where I want exactly the same thing for predictability, I like to try something different every now and then. Occasionally, I find a truffle under all those pedals.

 

[Roryfan]

Not odd at all, esp. if you were playing non-MV tube amps. IME the clean tones are much fatter when you crank the amp & roll back the guitar volume vs. lowering the amp & keeping your guitar on 10.

 

[EchoWD40]

Weird is subjective you know.
It's like when I tell my gear buds that they are orangutan's for running their fuzz's before their wah's.