common mistakes that make your tone suck.

miroslav said:
...or they dial in the tone based on JUST the guitar tone by itself...which then falls apart in the mix.
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Very true. A tone that sounds awesome by itself may be wrong in the mix, or vice versa. You need to be clear about your goals. What are you trying to create? Tones, or tunes? Guitar tone is something guitarists tend to obsess over, too much in my opinion, often to the annoyance of other musicians involved in the project. How many guitar players have we known who insisted on playing too loud, to the detriment of the music because--you know, "gotta get my toooan, dude."

I think you're right about VST presets, presets on modeling amps, and the like. For some reason, the creators seem to like to ratchet up the effects on presets, maybe because it sounds far-out and cool in the music store. Often sounds like garbage in a real mix.
 
Wow. People can get very defensive about their pedal boards. :)

I suppose you could say that I have four overdrive pedals. They're all on the amp, though. :D
 
Agree, Robus, those sim presets are usually gain staged way too hot and they usually put the virtual mic dead center, giving that harsh ice pick tone. Even if you move the virtual mic or use EQ that frequency is still there. It's like the frequency is hard coded or they didn't take enough IR/convolutions because moving the mic around and EQ doesn't change it.

The simulated pedals mostly sound bad, and i found it's better to just add a hardware pedal before the preamp if going DI/sim route and you need an effect.
 
You know, I think people do get lost gucking about with their pedals. I have a few but I only really use the Super Overdrive SD1 as a clean boost (L10, G0), I've got my amp settings and mic placement how I like them and that's all there is to my tone really. The SD1 is just there to kill the flubbiness.

The other pedals are just for decoration and weirdness when I want a bit of it. I have a chorus, phaser, flanger and delay all going into the front of the amp. Goes mental when you stick them all on at once.
 
JDOD said:
You know, I think people do get lost gucking about with their pedals. I have a few but I only really use the Super Overdrive SD1 as a clean boost (L10, G0), I've got my amp settings and mic placement how I like them and that's all there is to my tone really. The SD1 is just there to kill the flubbiness.

The other pedals are just for decoration and weirdness when I want a bit of it. I have a chorus, phaser, flanger and delay all going into the front of the amp. Goes mental when you stick them all on at once.
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A lot of really great, groundbreaking guitarists used loads of effects. The difference between those guitarists and your average pedal collector is the same as between a decent painter and somebody who gets a paint-by-numbers set for Christmas. The worst ones can't even choose the right colours or even paint inside the lines. The entire canvas becomes the kind of brown you get when you mix all the plasticene colours together. :D
 
JDOD said:
I've worked it out... I'll stick the SD1 into the OCD into the DS1 into the Marshall Jackhammer, add a phaser and scoop out the mids.... while wearing a headband.
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That sounds like a recipe for some righteous brootal nu metal tonez!
 
Bubba po said:
A lot of really great, groundbreaking guitarists used loads of effects. The difference between those guitarists and your average pedal collector is the same as between a decent painter and somebody who gets a paint-by-numbers set for Christmas. The worst ones can't even choose the right colours or even paint inside the lines. The entire canvas becomes the kind of brown you get when you mix all the plasticene colours together. :D
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I thought it turned grey?:mad: I must be doing it wrong.:D
 
Isn't the "brown" sound Eddie Van Halens tone? Man, he is a phenomenal player but I never thought his tone was very good.

It's kind if ironic that the "brown" tone sounds like shit isn't it?
 
LOL yeah, I'm not a fan either. I spent way too many years with a red-knob Fender Princeton Chorus to ever want to hear that sound again.
 
Here is another one I hear a lot and in fact it's a mistake I have made.

Having a reverb or echo effect on your guitar and recording it that way....then it doesn't sit right in the mix because of that effect.

This is really more of a recording error than a tone error, but it sucks so I'm including it.
 
I like chorus. I have a simple boss chorus and I often use it when playing clean
 
JDOD said:
I like chorus. I have a simple boss chorus and I often use it when playing clean
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Depends on the genre and placement. Chorus on heavy grind guitars can make shit muddy as hell. It would not work for something like Gregs tone.

I have found Soundtoys Microshift to be way better than a typical chorus placed after a recorded guitar part than a Boss(or any) chorus pedal before. And if you are recording two tracks, forget about having a chorus pedal in the chain. It just makes shit mush IME.

But, if a single guitar track that is recorded with a stereo image with two mics, it can be quite cool.

I remember an old Roland Jazz Chorus amp that had an amazing sound. Not good for much other than cool clean tone tho.
 
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