Help me with my weird amp volume issues

Yes, volume knob on distortion pedal up all the way.

I guess it's a Kustom 150, because this is pretty much exactly what it looks like.

ihttp://www.broadwaymusicco.com/kuskat11.jpg

Not sure why that would help, but there you go.

For the sake of clairy, what kind of distortion pedal are you using? I assume you're tried using another amp with the same distortion pedal and got the same effect... Is this so?

OH nevermind. #5!

Howdy

Back in the day when I had an old one channel amp, I used, and still use, a Boss DS-2 Distortion pedal for my crunchy sounds, and I had much the same problem.

Now I'm no physicist, but valve amps work on the principle of driving the amp louder and louder, until the sound starts to break up, or distort. This is called overdrive, as you are driving the amp over the point where the signal stays clean. Course, we all love it, so its not a problem, and is now a feature of most new amps to have a channel where the gain is set much higher, and the power amp volume lower, like the hi gain and low gain input of your Kustom.

This only really works with valve amps however, and so trans amps, and also distortion pedals, don't work by driving the amp harder, because then they would just be a boost pedal and would probably blow your amp, so they artificially distort the sound, basically just muddy it up, and as such, you lose volume because the pedal is screwing with the sound signal. That's also why valve amps and trans amps/distortion pedals sound different. Now a lot of pedals can overcome this by cranking them up, as they can amplify to an extent. Certainly my DS-2 can, so I can recommend that. But even on the DS-2, I have to have the volume at about 7/10 to match the clean sound. So as stated above, just crank the pedal up.

I'll be honest, the muff and the rat are pedals I have no experience with. That said, I know the rat has a volume switch on it, so try cranking that right up. Alternatively, trade in your gear towards a valve amp. I play a marshall TSL212 combo, and that is the nuts, it'll give you all the sounds you need and more.

If youre not willing to do that, then I'm not sure. I have never used your particular amp, but depending on whether you are looking for bluesy crunch, or metal meltdown, you may be able to get away with just the amp. You said that you had split the signal to two amps? Well assuming you still have your A/B splitter box, try plugging your guitar into that, and then A into the low gain input on your amp, and B into the high. That will give you some degree of extra distortion and volume. If that is still not enough, then put your muff/rat in the B line, and just leave it on permanently. Then channel A will be clean, and channel B will be louder and distorted, and you only have to hit the one button to flick between them.

Can't see why that shouldn't work really!

If you're really stuck, you can buy overdrive pedals that use valves, electro harmonix make the tube zipper and another one. While these are all meant to sound great, and would certainly give you the volume you need, they are so expensive (not to mention a fragile pain in the ass) that you would be better off putting the money into a new amp.

Hope that was of some use.

Will

First of all, thanks for the long, thought-out answer. Though I have little technical amp knowledge, what you're saying makes sense.

I actually tried using a splitter as you suggested, and it did seem to make the distorted sound louder. The weird thing is, it also seemed to affect the "clean" tone, making it sound thinner and more trebley. This was such a bad sound that I gave up on this idea. I know that the channels "interact" if connected because when my girlfriend was using the amp in her old band, she would bridge the channels with a patch cable to make the amp louder. So that's what seems to happen if I used the splitter box.

Obviously, one solution is to buy a new amp, but a) I really like the way the Kustom sounds, and b) I am constantly broke.

I'll look into valve overdrive pedals. The dudes who run my practice space might have one I can borrow for a few minutes to test this theory.

Again, thanks for taking the time to consider this issue, it's really frustrating.

The amp is distorting differently than the pedal.
The end result is they kinda cancel each other out and the result...sucks.

run a few different fuzzes together and you'll get similar results with certain pedals in the right order.

It's not just a valve/SS issue.
it old Kustoms are big sucky fuzz pedals that sound awesome(like...a big sucky fuzz pedal. Awesome).
Run a distortion in front with a low impedence out and... the result is what you hear.

Bummer that putting one into the high gain and one into the lo didnt work, you can get that shit with AB pedals. I used to use both the wet and dry outputs of my Whammy, at the start of my chain, and then plug the wet output into the rest of my pedal board then into an A/B/Y, and the dry output straight into the A/B/Y switcher, therefore effectively giving me a pedal board bypass. Also with the Y function I could use both lines at once so I had one distorted guitar and one with whammy or wah wah, so you could get sounds like Tom Morello on the verse of Wake Up. Unfortunately I had the same kind of problem you did with the tone getting stripped to shit, and anyway the wiring was such a nightmare, it took me ages to set up, so in the end I just gave up!
I think you can get round it the whole issue of one channel affecting the other with wiring and altering the earth and stuff, but I couldn't be bothered and I don't think it's reliable.

How does it sound with the pedals turned up to max? As the last guy stated, if you're using your pedals keep the amp to a really basic clean sound, and rely on the rat or the muff for your dirty sound. I'd be surprised if you can't get pretty decent results just doing this, and if you've got two distortion pedals in your chain, you should be able to get two pretty varied sounds going for verse/chorus or lead work?

the other alternative is something like this:

http://www.musiciansfriend.com/product/Boss-LS2-Line-SelectorPower-Supply?sku=151369

I've never actually used this beastie, but it does have a level dial on it, and you could stack up more than one distortion pedal, or a distortion pedal with a boost pedal perhaps, and have it all on a switchable loop. This has the added advantage of allowing you to screw around with all the settings without everyone hearing you screwing around!

What kind of music are you looking to play?

Let me know how you get on, I'm really curious now...

I have been turning the volume up all the way on the pedals, doesn't really help.

Today at practice I used an Ibanez Tube Screamer that was laying around the space and that seemed to work a little better. It's not as distorted a tone as the Big Muff or the Rat, obviously, but, possibly because of that, it cuts through better. It's still not louder than the "clean" tone but it's about at the same level, so I'm going to work with that for now.

What guitar are you using?
How loud are you playing?

I am using a Vantage semihollowbody guitar, essentially a knockoff of a ES-335.

I don't really know how to answer the other question. We are a rock band, so fairly loud, but not like Motorhead loud.

Where do you set the level and the gain on each of the pedals? Can you not crank the level enough to keep the volume up?

Like Will said upthread, on my OD pedals Boss BD2 and OS2 I am always needing to reduce the level to less than 12 o'clock to keep the volumes balanced. With higher gains I roll off the level proportionately. My amp is solid-state too.

Your amp's already clipping, I'd guess.
Get another amp for mor dirty sounds.
Crate combos ca nbe had for a hundred bucks.