cellardweller said:
Amps-nothing I'm proud to mention. I have an ampeg VT120, and a crate 2x12 combo. Both are pretty crappy. Instead of buying a new amp this last time around, I bought a new guitar because all of those I owned were crappy too...
Did someone say something?
So you have crappy gear ?
Okay, well to get a better idea of the tones you are after you need to tell what is missing from your amps. Lack of bottom end? Not enough highs or................? Or better: "What kind of tones do you like in general, and do you feel you cannot make with the gear you are using?"
The whole tonequest starts with knowing what you like, knowing the gear you have, and seeing options of how to combine certain pieces of gear to come up with new tones.
I am going go give you an example or a certain set-up and the kind of tones you can get with that. I am sure that your amps are far better that this little guy here:
The Marshall MS-4, it is the microstack.
Now this amp will work on batteries, but it will work far better with a powersupply.
On its own, that is without anything plugged into the amp apart from the guitar, this amp sounds so so............................
Now hang on here is the setup:
Gtr.---->TubeScreamer--->EQ---->Sans GT2---->Amp.
Okay the Eq after the Tubescreamer is to tune the tones of the Tubescreamer, and the Sans is to funetune the whole patch. The results are fabulous, easy to create good midrange Marshall tones, Darktones? No problem! Perfer more midrange? Well that too can be arranged, more Bright Sir? Okay there it is.
Now this is just one option with a very little amp, and all these tones. I am sure you can do far better that that with the amps you have.
Start with a clean tone on your amp, just a general tone, not too much mid, highs and bass, as you will add all of that with the Sans. Then set up the distortion pedal how you like it, after that you tune it with the EQ, then you start working with the Sans, but just keep it clean.
You need to remember that with the above set-up there are 4 volume controls: one of the Tubescreamer, one of the EQ box, one of the Sans and finally your amp. All of them need to correspond to each other and not override each other. Heh it is not all that difficult man, just listen and tweak a little!
So am I suggestion you should get seperate distortion pedals, eq pedals etc.? Well no, that is all up to you. My guess is you have some pedals lying around anyway as most of us guitarist do. If you do not have any seperate pedals you may be able to borrow some of your friends, just to experiment before you decide for yourself what to get. Easy eh? I am sure you have some friends eh?
When you use an all-round overdrive pedal [ something like the boss one or of similar ilk] you can always make them sound more extreme by using an eq pedal, so really you have the best of both worlds. Also the Sans's drive knob will give your enough bottomend to make your overdrive[or distortion]pedal sound more extreme.
Oh and yes I plug this whole patch in the line-input eh? Nothing like plugging into the effects-loop or something of that kind. If you would go for that than you may as well plug the whole patch into the effectloop of your recorder and record the whole setup direct. Now that is also possible of course, but you will get very different tonal results. I believe your already do this anyway and are more interested in hearing about different applications eh?
Now you get experimenting Sir, and tell us what you have discovered. I just cannot believe that you cannot get any good tones with what you have there.
Pick-ups of the guitar? I use humbucks, single coils would ask a bit more volume, but would give pleasing results as well.
String gauges? Very important issue, but personal as well. I tend to use and o11 set, and for the last two bottom strings I use an 0.46 and an 0.56, as this will help you a lot with heavy riffs on the low E and A string. I tend not to tune down that much, but if you wish so you can and it will not muddy things up that much, you can even tune down as far as C or B and it will still work, may need to moderate a bit your attack but it is possible.
Pickingstyle? I tend to play hard, at moderate volumes, I like to feel the attack, but the volume does not need to be that loud as the sound comes from your fingers and hands.
Okay now that should do it Ryan, let us know how you are getting on with things and remember ...............all of this will come with TIME and EXPERIMENTION, not necesarrily more gear.
Eddie
