The New Tone Thread

Greg_L said:
According to their site, they only have a few retail distributors. They're $1300-ish over here. No thanks.


Good players can make good gear sound bad too. Randy Rhoads.
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That's about the same then isn't it taking into account the exchange rate.

I don't think his tone was that bad, now Dimebag's tone was hanging! He was a great player. It I don't know why he couldn't tell it sounded like a wet fart in a jar.
 
JDOD said:
That's about the same then isn't it taking into account the exchange rate.

I don't think his tone was that bad, now Dimebag's tone was hanging! He was a great player. It I don't know why he couldn't tell it sounded like a wet fart in a jar.
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Dimebag sucked in every sense of the word, in my opinion.

When I tell people that in person, they wanna fight over it. It lets me know that I'm right. :D

I do think Randy Rhoads was pretty awesome, but I'm not a fan of his tone in general and I'm not a fan of cheese metal. He had cool licks though.
 
I didn't like Dimebag's music but he was a good guitarist. Oddly, I don't mind Rhoads, but fuck me, his fans/disciples aren't half annoying.
 
JDOD said:
I didn't like Dimebag's music but he was a good guitarist. Oddly, I don't mind Rhoads, but fuck me, his fans/disciples aren't half annoying.
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I know two dudes that worship Randy Rhoads. One of them is a great lead player and I can hear the influence. The other is a total hack but he has a cream Les Paul Custom and a snakeskin guitar strap.
 

Gents, this is my new little bass played through a SS amp & into an Etone massive single cone box.
I've turned the volume of the non selected PU off for this recording.
The bass is set to rhythm (choice rhythm & solo) then I've selected the bass switch (neck pickup) with that vol up, the second is switched to treble with that vol turned up (& the other down) and for the last part the switch is set to solo with bass & treble switches off.
Oh, the mic (E609) picked up some rattle etc as I was close to it when playing.
I adjusted volumes in the box as there are significant differences.
Questions:
Does it still have a phased sound as suggested by Greg some days back? (I hope to have worked around the possibility of the 2 PUs being unusually out of phase )
Do any of the settings sound usable beyond sketching?
For interest's sake here are the freq charts - strangely with this mic & amp the roll off after 100 is consistent and even - VERY different from the DI versions which had a fair bit of stuff ha[[ening under 100.
Bass PU
bass PU.png
TREBLE PU
Treble PU.png
and SOLO swtich
SOLO switch.png
 
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The second and third still have the phaser sound. I like it, but it may get annoying for everything. I wonder why it does that.
 
Thanks Greg,
It's interesting. I assume it's related to the bridge pick up and wiring if it's not apparent in the 1st/bass part.
I've not come across such a "complex" set of controls on an guitar or bass before. I'm quite simple and need simple stuff.
I did some research and found this...

"The short scale bass is an interesting animal because there are times you have to take certain things into consideration to solve issues with them.
On a bass worked on recently, an inexpensive Squier Vintage Modified Jaguar Special SS (the SS meaning short scale), there was a peculiar issue where fretted notes played on the 4 (E) and 3 (A) strings produced overtones, and not the desirable kind. It sounded as if two notes were being played at once, with one being slightly out-of-tune even with just single notes played...

The poeple did some sussing out...
Bridge was checked
Electronics were checked
neck, body & PU were checked
In some instances parts were replaced but the issue remained.

The last thing they tried seemed to have some success.

"There are times when “weird tone problems” on an electric bass can be cured just by using strings that are engineered to be balanced properly." An expensive set of "balanced" strings - flats - were put on it & all was sweet. Interesting.
 
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I don't know about any of that. Maybe it's strings, I really have no idea. But there is definitely a phasey sound to the tone in that bass, and I can't even begin to imagine why it would be that way. I like it though. It sounds cool, it's just like I said, it might get old being present on everything.
 
That's really strange. I am not sure i have ever heard something like that. I doubt it has anything to do with the strings or Short Scale though. My best guess is in the electronics and stuff. Maybe it is 'supposed' to sound like that? Maybe?
 
To me it sounds like vibration from an unmuted string, or maybe something else on your bass like a loose saddle, a nut slot cut too large, or the tail piece. If so, the sound coming from your amp is probably setting it off. Do you hear it when you record DI? Try wedging a piece of foam under your strings, just forward of the bridge. Does that help? If something on your bass is rattling, should be easy to isolate.

Good tones, totally useful. It's middy, without a lot of low end, like a P bass. I like the first tone best.
 
Tone threaders, with all of your help, I think I am close to finding the tone I am looking for.
A little more tweaking on the amp this evening, minor stuff with the EQ and ISF and I think I have it as good as I can get it - its also at a sensible setting where I can just dial back the gain knob to get a more punky tone that cleans up a little without fucking about with anything else.

Oh, I've also knocked out all but a hint a reverb.

Here it is in a mix. What you think?

View attachment Hi Gain Test Mix.mp3
 
JDOD said:
Tone threaders, with all of your help, I think I am close to finding the tone I am looking for.
A little more tweaking on the amp this evening, minor stuff with the EQ and ISF and I think I have it as good as I can get it - its also at a sensible setting where I can just dial back the gain knob to get a more punky tone that cleans up a little without fucking about with anything else.

Oh, I've also knocked out all but a hint a reverb.

Here it is in a mix. What you think?

View attachment 95658
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That's petty good. My only critique is it's kind of boxy. I hate to tell you this, but it sounds like a small cab. The grind is good, it's not fizzy, but it's boxy in the mids. Try some GENTLE scooping the upper mids and see if it gets some of the nasalness out of it.
 
Right, how on earth do I scoop and upper mid?

Cheers, though - its nice to be finally posting some tones that are a) half decent and b) not simmed. Well, the bass and drums are simmed.
 
So what are the "upper mids"? Approx around 800-1.5k for guitar tone. Play around in that range with a little EQ notch an see if it smooths out without losing clarity.
 
Cool, I take it this is something I'll have to do in Reaper. I'll see what Reaper has available as an EQ
 
Cheers, I suppose I will sound a bit "small cab" it is a small cab, sitting on the carpet. The mic is only about 10 cm off the floor.
 
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