so this guy......

  • Thread starter Thread starter gbondo9
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gbondo9

gbondo9

p3n
So this guy has asked me to help his guitarist with his "Tone".

I agreed without knowing anything about his setup or style, figuring myself a decent tone guy.

So I get there and he's got a 100 watt Sovtek (Mig?), Boss Death Metal stomp box, and a BC Rich Warlock (humbuckers). He wants to achieve: (early) Metallica/ Nu metal (ala Def Tone, God Smack, Chevell) sound.

So I'm kinda stumped. Im more used to working with clean "tone" and "crunch" sounds as opposed to "death". Right now this guys sounds like a high pitched chainsaw with no clarity on his specific notes/chords (unless he's soloing). most of his stuff is in drop D.

Right off the bat, Im thinking roll way back on the distortion and take the treble and presence off of 10, but Ive never worked with this kind of sound before.

So I turn to you, my fellow rec'ers, for help.
any and all is appreciated,
Thanks
Todd
 
I'll check my notes (I left them at work) and get back to you this evening.
 
Try taking out the mids. Loose the pedal, IMHO if you can't get the overdrive you want out of the amp...sell it and buy a Boogie (you should be able to get it with that head, though). Dial in the presence till you hear the "mud" clean up out of it. What kind of Warlock is it? NJ? Custom shop? Platinum? An active EMG will always help. Add a compressor. A BBE. An outboard EQ (unless he gets the Boogie).

Theres really no way to talk anyone thru something like this. You're going to get alot of opinions from people that can't hear what you are doing. Should make for a interesting thread, though.
 
I've gotta think that with dropped d, he's got to be gettin some boominess from that e string. May be the source of some of the mud.


bd
 
Okay, maybe this will give you a place to start. Set the Death Metal level at about 50%, lows at 50% mids at 15% highs at 50%. Next try adding a little chorus. Set the level at 50% speed at about 20% depth at 75% and if it has and EQ at 50%. These settings should ge you pretty close to the lead sound on the song "One." Oh, and you'll need a guitar with a bridge humbucker pickup.
 
thanks for the replies.
Im heading over there tonight so Ill let you know how it goes. It should be fun. Ive got a Mesa V-Twin pedal and a MXR Compressor, so I think if I cant get a decent sound outta the Boss pedal, I might experiment with a different signal chain and see what he thinks.

Its funny because this guys a really talented guitarist with alot of great ideas and songs, but he's never been in a band before. You can tell by his licks that he's spent coutless hours practicing. But a band is a totally different animal. The guy who asked me to come help with his tone is the drummer, and a good friend. He really wants this band to work out, but he just cant ever tell what the guitarist is doing unless no one else is playing.

We'll see.....

Later,
Todd
 
It's a little known fact that EVH doesn't know a good sound from bad. I know a couple people that work on his rig. Ted Templeton developed his tone for him. He might have "grown" into knowing what he is doing (can't tell by the last couple albums, though), but did not have a clue when he got "discovered". Guy can play, though, huh?
 
I think that a lot of players get caught up in learning how to play and never give much thought to how they sound. I hear bad tone coming from local bands all the time. A few are even painful to listen to.
 
Well. We got it sounding as good as it can (I think). The distortion on the Death Metal pedal was on 10, as were the the treble on the pedal, the treble on the amp and the presence on the amp. The mids on both were down to 0.

I gave the amp and the pedal some mids and brought the distortion down to about 4. Brought the presence down to about 8 and added more bass. I also moved the amp to the other side of the room so it was facing the guitarist. (I find this alot...guitarists turning their guitars up cause they cant hear them selves...and they're standing right next to..but above.. the amp).

All in all it was a good day. He's actually looking at getting some new pickups for his guitar and I told him to check out EMG's.

Thanks guys,
Todd
 
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