If you look at the entire product line of Wampler Pedals you will see a plethora of overdrives that often emulate famous amps. Some gear heads out there call these (A.I.A.B.) or for the non-initiated – Amp In A Box.  So what is an “amp in a box” type of pedal good for and how is it used? While there is no right or wrong way to use an A.I.A.B. pedal – I want to tell you about the two ways I personally use them.

Tone Shaper

 My personal favorite way to use an amp in a box type of pedal is – as a tone shaper. For example, lets say that I am using a Vox style of amp and some other pedals for a gig. That’s a great a tone. But being guitar players – after 4 hours of hearing the same tone at a gig – you might want something different – or in my case, you just get bored. This is where I introduce tone-shaping pedals to my pedal board. With something like the Black 65 or the Tweed 57 I can effectively help shape the tone of my current amp to help emulate those tones. This is a cool way, for me at least, to help create different tonal options for songs that might be very different from one another.

When using an A.I.A.B. type pedal as a tone shaper you can create more in-depth layers of tone by stacking different boosts and gains with it. You can stack dirt pedals either before or after it to make your rhythm tones a little chunkier or to add just something extra to your leads/ solos.

Gain Stage

The second way to use an amp in the box type of pedal is to use it as a gain stage. An A.I.A.B. can help you create some monster lead tones when you crank it up after your boosts or gain/dirt pedals. Essentially, this method would be very similar to running your favorite dirt pedal into an amp that has been cranked up!

You can also stack multiple A.I.A.B.s together to help create some interesting tones. Again, there is no right or wrong way to use amp in a box type of pedals,  these are just two ways that we personally like to use  here at Wampler HQ. So get out there and experiment!

– Max (Wampler Pedals)