We all have our secrets to achieving our best tones. My favorite tones come from a Dimarzio PAF Pro neck pickup into a Timmy or Menatone Blue Collar +- post-overdrive Demeter Compulator into my Marshall DSL401.
BUT, the one thing that is crucial to my recorded tone is my Studio Projects B1 condenser mic (I have the older version before the switches were added). I absolutely love the thing. I drape it from the top of the amp or cabinet, right on the grill, turned a little away from the cone and it always gives me a great clean or distorted sound.
What's your secret?
Probably my amp (2004 bad cat hat cat 30r). I get comments about it all time and it has a unique sound both clean and overdriven. I could never sell it, I just couldn't do it...
Paul
My secret's my amp rig (on bass). 1986 Gallien-Kreuger 400RB into a Hartke 4x10 of about the same vintage. The vintage Hartke cabinet has 60 watt aluminum cone drivers (as opposed to 100 watt drivers in the newer cabs). You get the most incredible midrange snarl.
Fingers. ;)
Diodes ;)
Peterson strobostomp.
Yeah, Jon's got it right, it's fingers. i remember a quote from Jerry Cantrell when they opened for Van Halen in the Carnal Knowledge tour, and he played through Eddie's rig with Eddie's guitars playing Eddie's songs, and he still sounded like.......Jerry Cantrell. The Nuge said something similar when Damn Yankees had the opening slot.
Quote from: junkemail86 on February 02, 2014, 11:19:17 PM
BUT, the one thing that is crucial to my recorded tone is my Studio Projects B1.
Man the old SP B1's are such great, underrated mics. I have two B3's and use them on every recording.
+1 to Jon's comment. However I spent a lot of time looking for the right amp and I settled on a Guytron GT20. This thing has an incredible clean channel and a gorgeous crunch. The Gretsch through this thing just sounds beautiful.
I'd prolly hump it if the jacks were big enough. :)
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Quote from: GermanCdn on February 03, 2014, 02:07:59 AM
Yeah, Jon's got it right, it's fingers. i remember a quote from Jerry Cantrell when they opened for Van Halen in the Carnal Knowledge tour, and he played through Eddie's rig with Eddie's guitars playing Eddie's songs, and he still sounded like.......Jerry Cantrell. The Nuge said something similar when Damn Yankees had the opening slot.
I wasn't being flippant or really talking about sounding like one's self, though. There's stylistic ticks from the left hand of course, but sonically, I sound the way I do because of fingerpicking. It's a particular kind of physical relationship with the strings on the guitar that doesn't exist once you use a plectrum (or even, I'd argue, fingerpicks).
I just don't use enough "stuff" otherwise and the only effect I use consistently is a compressor set to a light setting. A clean amp with a tiny bit of reverb and often a little bit of delay.
a good tube amp that is turned up quite loud. and for any modulated tones. adding a transparent compressor post modulation to tame any harsh frequencies at the top of the sweep. a compressor at moderate compression settings early n the chain as well. not enough to kill dynamics but enough to smooth everything out a bit, particularly on clean tones. i use several pedal comps early, a old mij boss cs1 is what i use at the moment. and a rack comp like a dbx 160a or a tc triple c. at the end of the chain. oh and dimarzio paf pros. and hs single coils
LoveSqueeze Comp with the right amount of bloom dialed in, it's alway On, no matter in what i'm plugged...
Great tube amp. As much as I love building effects, I don't actually use many at all - mostly just very mild reverb and compression - and I'd really be fine without them.
Digital effects and 'special' effects suck all the life and personality out. I think this goes back to the fingers - with a 'nakeder' signal and without gimmicky digital sounds, you really have to play yer guitar. I love working on simple things and really concentrating on the dynamics/attack of each note.
Quote from: jubal81 on February 03, 2014, 05:11:26 AM
Great tube amp. As much as I love building effects, I don't actually use many at all - mostly just very mild reverb and compression - and I'd really be fine without them.
I sometimes get razzed about this, being a builder, but I'm very much the same way about effects. When playing for fun, I usually just plug my Tele straight into my Princeton Reverb. The trem and 'verb on those amps are heavenly (and also my favorite effects), so everything else is more or less experimental or for specific applications. I do like using a Klone for a little more tonal body and enjoy a tweed-like OD for some old mushy/saggy drive stuff.
That said, obviously my playing style is a huge influence on my tone, but to me it sounds about like a 50's style Tele through a Blackface style amp. A pretty common combo, really.
WRT what I sound like live, short answer is it depends.
My 'sound' (effects, distortion, technique, general approach to the song) depends strongly on whether I have a rhythm guitarist there, and also whether the song is traditional (eg a song set to the Slane tune), or something modern (like 10,000 Reasons.)
Biggest secret in short is a compressor and a lot of power. I've found on bass, the more power you have the clearer your tone. Doesn't have to be loud, just a lot of watts into a speaker that can handle it.
Beer
Digitech XP-300 space station
or more used these days, a modded xp-100 for all models
My vintage yellow Space station lives in the cupboard now
Heres the overall landscape though
(http://i1178.photobucket.com/albums/x374/LaceSensor1/pedalbored_zps76b2360c.jpg)
Being tone deaf... I always sound good (at least to me)
Well, I could achieve my tone anywhere I go, on solid state and tube amps, but I strongly prefer the latter.
I don't like a lot of bass in my tone, I'd say I am putting the middle knob on half even lower, and I usually go high on treble. Still, no one ever told me that my tone was thin.
I usually stack overdrives and boosters to get some compression, sustain, and obviously gain going on. I officially hate compressor pedals, although I'm gonna build the Bearhug out of respect for Jon. That being said, I love it when let's say Pete Thorn does a video on em, like some Empress stuff, or the Philosophers Tone, but when I play one I am not there with the guitar.
Regarding the stacking I was mentioning, it's always the Sunking + 69 FF with fuzz on zero + SHO [with Zetex bs170 that make a real difference to my ears].
Along with that I use a lot of hybrid picking, so plectrum and fingers, I don't do alternate picking at all. I use chords that utilize open strings A LOT, that's almost my favorite thing about the guitar. That, and the volume and tone knobs on the guitar, I guess a lot of my sound starts from there [and the aforementioned combo of stacked pedals reacts awesome to that].
Humbucking guitars. SG for Gibsons, wide range humbuggies for Fender tones. As to the WDRH I had them custom made to vintage specs, what Fender uses on todays tele deluxe models are just very weak alnico 2 humbuckers [7-8K] similar to the ones you can find on extremely cheap Epiphone made LP copies.
Oh..and I love and use heavily any kind of modulation except for chorus. Chorus is just for sissies. :D
Im still on a endless journey to find my best tone.. :(
A tiny bit of delay is usually always on (I'm using a Catalinbread Belle Epoch at the mo).
Playing with fingers can add something different to playing too (as Jon mentioned).
I think there are benefits to both approaches though. I don't think either is necessarily 'better'.
I just can't stop looking at those Strymons... ::)
Quote from: LaceSensor on February 03, 2014, 09:08:06 AM
Digitech XP-300 space station
or more used these days, a modded xp-100 for all models
My vintage yellow Space station lives in the cupboard now
Heres the overall landscape though
(http://i1178.photobucket.com/albums/x374/LaceSensor1/pedalbored_zps76b2360c.jpg)
You should do a demo of this board...
Little delay and a Quasar built to RC specs. And volume and tone on my guitar. Eq is important, although it always depend on were you're going to play. I have a Mesa Boogie MKIII and is quite hard to dial in the aproppriate eq settings to the room you're playing, therefore the Quasar.
I still have problems to get a pleasing overdrive tone in stage... although my zendrive and a Firefly a recently built sound awesome at home :)
Quote from: Kinki fuzz on February 03, 2014, 08:29:56 AM
Beer
And also, my approach to every piece of gear a use is "What would Tony Iommi do with this?". No joke.
Quote from: Kinki fuzz on February 03, 2014, 12:44:55 PM
Quote from: Kinki fuzz on February 03, 2014, 08:29:56 AM
Beer
And also, my approach to every piece of gear a use is "What would Tony Iommi do with this?". No joke.
Ha ha. Iommi's tone on the early Black Sabbath albums is awe inspiring IMO.
Toadworks meat jnr, always on effect, second in chain after tuner and sonic stomp last in line . I bought the meat jnr years ago on a whim, has never been off the board since, have never even opened it up, just in case the magic gets out. ;)
Quote from: jimilee on February 03, 2014, 05:47:27 AM
Biggest secret in short is a compressor and a lot of power. I've found on bass, the more power you have the clearer your tone. Doesn't have to be loud, just a lot of watts into a speaker that can handle it.
I agree with the compressor. I don't really consider a compressor to be an effect as much as a necessity on bass (I never turn mine off).
Finding a good compressor has been tricky. I'm using Mictester from FSB's Really Cheap Bass Compressor. It's perfect for slap, but the attack envelope is all wrong for fast fingerstyle stuff. I used to use a BYOC 2-knob comp, which was too noisy and seemed to suck lows and highs out.
Quote from: Smugtronix on February 03, 2014, 02:23:35 PM
Quote from: jimilee on February 03, 2014, 05:47:27 AM
Biggest secret in short is a compressor and a lot of power. I've found on bass, the more power you have the clearer your tone. Doesn't have to be loud, just a lot of watts into a speaker that can handle it.
I agree with the compressor. I don't really consider a compressor to be an effect as much as a necessity on bass (I never turn mine off).
Finding a good compressor has been tricky. I'm using Mictester from FSB's Really Cheap Bass Compressor. It's perfect for slap, but the attack envelope is all wrong for fast fingerstyle stuff. I used to use a BYOC 2-knob comp, which was too noisy and seemed to suck lows and highs out.
Right now I'm using a souls preacher from EHX wither the release knob set to fast. I have about 10 different compressors because it has been a search for sure. I really like this one though.
Stratocaster position 4 (mid and neck) and position 5 (neck)
Generally, it's probably the mutt guitars with aftermarket Dimarzios and Duncans.
Specifically these days it's the Blackstar HT-Dual pedal and the Hulk Snot.
(https://m.ak.fbcdn.net/sphotos-a.ak/hphotos-ak-ash3/t1/222640_161262380603107_6233233_n.jpg)
QuoteDigital effects and 'special' effects suck all the life and personality out
I tend to agree with this statement.
For a long while I used just my guitar and wah into a Marshall VS102r (yeah, tube/ss hybrid thing), and when I chucked a DS-1 in front of that and used just the DS-1 for dirt..... it just felt flat, lifeless, and relatively lo-fi. Maybe that was the DS-1, but further experience leads me to feel that multis/ampsims/COSM/ect just make everything a bit too cookie cutter and what comes out of the box is all you'll get out of the box regardless of wood, pickups, or gauge. I think they're probably well suited to recording - you'll get a great usable sound no matter what.
I'm not purveyor of tube vs ss or anything like that, but I think the simpler the signal chain, the more nuance or differences between guitars can come out. Again, bury it in dirt and it'll sound much like anything else anyway. Interesting article from a local builder here:
https://www.facebook.com/notes/searls-guitars/tonewood-myth-and-magic-or-complete-bullcrap/582133191868519
For me, it's literally everything, from guitar to fingers to fx to amp. If one thing is not there, it's just not 'my' sound. Both a plus and a minus from this is that my sound is always evolving, especially since I started building pedals. It's also the reason some pedals I really, really like are not on my board permanently. Lately I've been not to happy with how the whole deal sounds, but a lot of that comes from me putting off re-tubing the Ol' Marshall.... ::)
Paul
Willy what guitar is that? I usually dislike that sort of thing but this one is strangely appealing! :-)
sent from my mobile device
This guy right here.
(http://i.imgur.com/NVU8uyJl.jpg) (http://imgur.com/NVU8uyJ)
Naw in all seriousness - it's mostly in the hands. All the gear in the world won't make a lick of difference if you don't know how to play. Compare Jon's rig and mine, now get out your wallet and I'll bet $20 you Jon sounds just like Jon if he played mine. Equipment is a factor, but not the only one. It does make a difference though, between my pedal board and that Jet City - I do sound a lot better than I ever did with the Line6 150HD, and that sounds loads better than the Acoustic G20 that sets on my bench.
(http://i.imgur.com/qur9sozl.jpg) (http://imgur.com/qur9soz)
edit reason: Incomplete thought
wife says i dont sound like me without these
Quote from: Willybomb on February 03, 2014, 03:34:47 PM
Generally, it's probably the mutt guitars with aftermarket Dimarzios and Duncans.
Specifically these days it's the Blackstar HT-Dual pedal and the Hulk Snot.
(https://m.ak.fbcdn.net/sphotos-a.ak/hphotos-ak-ash3/t1/222640_161262380603107_6233233_n.jpg)
QuoteDigital effects and 'special' effects suck all the life and personality out
I tend to agree with this statement.
For a long while I used just my guitar and wah into a Marshall VS102r (yeah, tube/ss hybrid thing), and when I chucked a DS-1 in front of that and used just the DS-1 for dirt..... it just felt flat, lifeless, and relatively lo-fi. Maybe that was the DS-1, but further experience leads me to feel that multis/ampsims/COSM/ect just make everything a bit too cookie cutter and what comes out of the box is all you'll get out of the box regardless of wood, pickups, or gauge. I think they're probably well suited to recording - you'll get a great usable sound no matter what.
I'm not purveyor of tube vs ss or anything like that, but I think the simpler the signal chain, the more nuance or differences between guitars can come out. Again, bury it in dirt and it'll sound much like anything else anyway. Interesting article from a local builder here:
https://www.facebook.com/notes/searls-guitars/tonewood-myth-and-magic-or-complete-bullcrap/582133191868519
Very cool guitar mate. I'd swap out the black hardware though. did you build that one?
I suppose the most distinct thing about my tone is my '73 Sears and Roebuck 40xl amp.
There isn't one thing that contributes to my tone... Lots of little things:
1. Clean boost/tube screamer/etc
2. Medium output pickups. They give you awesome clarity and note definition.
3. Longer scale length 26.5 or 28" with thinner strings. Gives you that awesome snappy sound.
4. More of a maxim: reduce the gain by 15-20% from where you think it sounds good for recording and double track.
Quote from: zilla on February 04, 2014, 06:05:24 AM
4. More of a maxim: reduce the gain by 15-20% from where you think it sounds good for recording and double track.
Amen!
QuoteVery cool guitar mate. I'd swap out the black hardware though. did you build that one?
QuoteWilly what guitar is that? I usually dislike that sort of thing but this one is strangely appealing! :-)
Lol, now you guys have started me off:
It's a custom Agile that I had built when Rondomusic were doing full customs every now and again. The custom orders they do now are nothing like what it was when I got this thing. In a nutshell:
- mahogany body with 3/4inch quilted maple top.
- black binding (I took this off the final order but it came with it anyway)
- 24 fret maple set neck, with their "uniform" profile, ~23mm at the nut and heel. I specified that I wanted the 24th fret to be where the fretboard meets the body, and that's what I got.
- The green is a color swatch I emailed through.
- I chose the 59/JB combo in the quote but adjusted it to alnico5 pickups to bring the cost down to avoid AU import tax (GST), but it arrived with the Duncans, which I didn't realise until I went to swap the pickups out. I put a tonezone in the bridge instead anyway. So now I have a chrome covered PU in the neck, and a bare black one in the bridge.
- The body is Agile's AD shape, with their Hawker headstock shape.
It was a fair gamble given that it was ordered from AU, built in Korea (or Taiwan), shipped to the US, sent to AU, and I've never played an Agile before. But, given the price, inc shipping and case..... I was happy to take the risk. Took about 6 months to arrive. Needed a fret dress after a couple of months, and the pickup selector switch is a bit dicky when trying to select the neck PU, but overall ;D ;D ;D ;D
The combo of HT-Dual and this guitar just sustains forever, like strum a chord, it goes "AAHHHHH", you go away and have a bite, come back and it's still going "AAAAHHHH".
QuoteMore of a maxim: reduce the gain by 15-20% from where you think it sounds good for recording and double track.
QFT. I drop the gain even more than that sometimes.
Love the spinal tap reference!
I'd say there's no one secret. There's lots of things that add up to good sounds coming out of my amp. Fingers, pick, strings, pickups, pedals, and amp all create a very unique formula. I can say that when something's off, it's not fun to find out what's wrong.
Jacob
Quote from: blackedition on February 04, 2014, 03:22:37 PM
Love the spinal tap reference!
The sustain, listen to it.
Willy - I do love rondo - They made my 7 the way I wanted it. They don't offer mine in a 25 1/4" scale very often and when they do it's usually with a stop tailpiece. I HAD to have a floyd rose - but didn't want the 27" scale - They got me one. And I blocked the floyd 3 months later. (http://i151.photobucket.com/albums/s150/ruffages/smileys/headdesk_zps901cd9fe.gif)
Quote from: junkemail86 on February 02, 2014, 11:19:17 PM
BUT, the one thing that is crucial to my recorded tone is my Studio Projects B1 condenser mic (I have the older version before the switches were added).
I have one too! Except I might have dropped it once (on carpet) and it has a low hissing sound.. Don't know if the two things are related...
i love this topic!
my quick answer, after a couple of brews, is fingers ... and a little bit of soul :)
the truth is though, it takes HARD WORK!!!!!! I've known players that were naturally gifted, and players who worked extremely hard, and the fact is it takes a little bit of both. I've even heard some people say they believe the DESIRE to get better, in itself, is a gift.
I think the "fingers" is a valid point. I'll never forget when I was living in England we took a train to spend the day in London and ended up at Piccadilly Circus. There was this old black guy busking on the street. His guitar and amplifier were pieces of junk, you probably wouldn't give a second look at in a garage sale. But he made those things sing! Just a wonderful player.
I watched in amazement and remember feeling very humbled. I had thousands of dollars of equipment back at home and could only dream of making it sound as musical as what I was hearing that day. I imagine this man could pick up anything and it would sound great. So, fingers and a ton of soul is a killer combination.
Quote from: neve1272 on February 03, 2014, 06:59:21 PM
wife says i dont sound like me without these
Man I am so jealous of that Sunn.. I want one so bad.
yeah great for rhythm guitar people have described it as "slow" that used it in the studio
i have used is for bass in the past with good success
I tryed a lot of amps ac30, 5150m2 ,mesa stiletto ,orange rockerverb,
i liked all of them to some extent the 5150 was great on my wifes songs for sure and it is easier to play leads (if i flub up a little the sun turns to a ball of goo)
even after she bought me the ac30cc for our anniversary after like a year she was like..... you dont sound like you. weird huh
Ok OK my secret!.....A fresh set of latex nails on my right index ,middle, and ring fingers......Finally, got that out in the open ;D
I agree that "your" sound comes from your hands. Its the way you ring with your instrument. The way you touch it. The consistency of your sound, however, comes from the consistency with which you actually play. That only comes with time and practice.
I used to think my sound was a bridge humbucker guitar into a marshall tube head. Over time, I figured out that as long as I had a quality guitar, into a quality amp, I could get "my" sound on just about anything. I played a PRS into a marshall half stack for years, then I started playing a HSS strat, which I vastly prefer now, into a Vox AC50 combo. Both rigs sound like me, though.
Yeah, I'd totally agree with the 'always sound like me' thing. I've played a few different amps and many different guitars over various sets of years now, having played for more than 15 years. I can say for certain that even playing with different guitars, I still sound like me. I did it last night jamming with a friend, with him playing my strat and I playing his - I still sound like me.
By the way, the POD HD500X is a cool piece of gear, even if it is digital. It's pretty flexible if you like the multi effect units. I personally wouldn't own one because I have all that gear in analog or individual pedals, but still - cool stuff.
Jacob
Steve Howe of Yes uses one live. That alone is enough of a recommendation for me.