The New Tone Thread

  • Thread starter Thread starter Telegram Sam
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CrowsofFritz said:
I'm at college now so I can't post toans, unfortunately. I can, however, discuss some stuff!


I recently got a Boss DS-1 distortion pedal. I love the tone I get from this simple pedal! It's not abrasive at all.

Since I can't post a clip, the tone that I get is VERY similar to Mr. Frusciante's.
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That was my first ever distortion pedal. I was like 15 or 16. I loved it into all of my junky SS clean amps. It was gnarly and nasty and very teen-angry punk rock sounding. Then I moved on to The Rat, which is also nasty.
 
Greg_L said:
Lol. Damn dude, you're reaching the point, or maybe you're already there, in which too many gadgets, options, and flexibility is getting to you. That's cool that you can finagle all that stuff to work together, but really, finish a song! :D

I get it though, I like fiddling with stuff too.

I've heard good things about those JOYO pedals. Everyone that I know that has them likes them, but they don't gig with them. I'd be wary of their toughness, but in a home studio I bet they're great.
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Yeah I agree ..... it's like tube rolling ..... it can easily get to the point where you're not doing any music ..... just tweaking tones.

An example ...... back in the 70's a houseband gig I did had a bass player with the most amazing bass rig you ever heard. It was tri-amped into 2x18 plus 4x12 plus 4x10. Every freakin' night he'd come up during the break and say something like, "I crossed over the 10's a little higher from 200hz to 240 hz and the lows up 2db .... what do ya' think?"
Or someone would tell him it was too loud and he'd say,"Is it too loud up around 300 hz or is it more like around 50hz?""I dunno Roger ..... it's just too damned loud!!" :D

At some point when you're listening to an amp (or models) in isolation it's meaningless. It's like every amp sounds good on the showroom floor. It's how it sounds in the context of music that matters and you can't really tell that without playing it in a mix.
I've flat out seen people that sat around tweaking tones make no music because they were so obsessed with getting the 'perfect' tone and they never got around to making music. At some point tweaking tones becomes counterproductive because if you're not making music what difference does the tone make?
That's my opinion anyway.

As for the JOYO pedals ...... meh, if they sound good I'd gig 'em. What's the worst that can happen? Maybe I'll have to replace a jack or switch ...... that's no big deal. If they sound good for cheap I love it. The kinda things that break on cheap pedals I can fix.
 
minerman said:
..which clip is my DSL & which is AT3 should be pretty easy for most of you to tell, right????



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They do sound different.
The second clip is the amp, right?
It sounds brighter, harsher and more lively to me.

jonny deep said:
https://soundcloud.com/the-rolling-dingleberries
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Groovy, I think the next clip down (dewdle) has the more isolated representation of your tone for the purpose of this thread.
What is the signal chain that you used (guitar, amp, effects)?
How long have you been playing the guitar?
 
I know guys, I know.....too many buttons to push, too many knobs to turn....:D

Thanks for the listen(s) on the clips though, again the 2nd clip is the DSL...

Gonna fire up the daw & amp to see if I can actually get something done today song-wise, I've got about 10-12 in different stages of being finished, so it's not like I don't have anything to actually work on....

I'll post some tones in a while too, if I can pry myself from the tone chase long enough.....:laughings:
 
Lt. Bob said:
I like it and I have to admit surprise at that ..... I thought you were just gonna throw up some bizarre thing but this is pretty.
I find the guitar tone interesting ..... in a strict way I find it kinda fizzy and solid state sounding but with the sustain it has it kinda sounds like a synth and that's actually pretty cool.

Nice .....
Click to expand...

thank you

i recorded it after listening to some of your stuff

i used a Zoom g3
 
I've got a better understanding of the OCD pedal now. Of the three OD/Distortion pedals in my possession (OCD, TS-9, SD-1), the OCD has way, way more dirt and volume than the Tube Screamer or Boss SD-1. To me, the OCD is almost an amp-in-a-box. The sounds that come from the OCD into a clean amp are way more usable than what comes from the TS or SD-1. The latter two definitely work better IMO as helpers to an already good amp sound. The OCD works better as the sound and doesn't do much IMO to help an already good amp sound. I would think that if someone is a mostly clean player that occasionally kicks into overdriven sounds, the OCD would be absolutely perfect in that scenario. If you're mostly a crunchy, higher gain player as your default sound, like me, then the OCD won't do a whole lot for you but make a mess. These are just my observations so far. None of them sound even close to as good as the amp by itself. Clips to come.....
 
yep .... that's a very good description of the OCD ....... "amp in a box".
 
Greg_L said:
I've got a better understanding of the OCD pedal now. Of the three OD/Distortion pedals in my possession (OCD, TS-9, SD-1), the OCD has way, way more dirt and volume than the Tube Screamer or Boss SD-1. To me, the OCD is almost an amp-in-a-box. The sounds that come from the OCD into a clean amp are way more usable than what comes from the TS or SD-1. The latter two definitely work better IMO as helpers to an already good amp sound. The OCD works better as the sound and doesn't do much IMO to help an already good amp sound. I would think that if someone is a mostly clean player that occasionally kicks into overdriven sounds, the OCD would be absolutely perfect in that scenario. If you're mostly a crunchy, higher gain player as your default sound, like me, then the OCD won't do a whole lot for you but make a mess. These are just my observations so far. None of them sound even close to as good as the amp by itself. Clips to come.....
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Nice Greg, looking forward to your clips......I had a feeling you might like the OCD pedal better than the other dirt pedals you have, running it into an amp that's set for a clean sound....A lot of guys swear by the OCD, using it this exact way....You're fuckin' killing me though dude, I've got half-stack GAS, & now you're giving me stompbox GAS....:D

I was gonna order the JOYO Plexi-clone pedal this week, but I'm gonna have to wait a few days, probably another week. I know it's only $50, but that $50 is probably gonna be the difference between me getting back/forth to work for a week, vs. getting into what $$$ I've got saved up toward the half-stack, so gas money wins this time....I've got a pretty good start on the half-stack $$$, & I know if I get into it, I'll end up blowing it on shit like the JOYO pedal.....yes, I'm a cheap fucker, but I have to be anymore, hell, the $50 I was talking about will get me back/forth for maybe 3 days, maybe....It's unreal how much shit cost nowdays, & I'm afraid it's only gonna get worse....I might start selling drugs, drawing a goverment check, food stamps, & live really good like a lot of people I know around here that have never worked a day in their lives, & pretty much have anything they want....Sorry for the rant, but it's true, I could tell you guys about a dude I went to high school with & how he lives, but I think you already get the point......sorry again, but that shit pisses me off to no end:mad:....

Here's a shitty clip I did a couple days ago, just haven't had a chance to post it, when I say shitty, I mean shitty too, I'm almost ashamed to post this one, the sounds are ok, but the playing's beyond terrible...

This is the Ibanez (w/Duncan Custom Custom bridge p'up) > POD X3 Live (Crybaby emulation) > DSL-1 H > Greenback > '57 > stereo delay (added in the daw) > 'verb (one of the IR's you sent me Greg, I actually used 3 different IR's: room, plate, & hall, & sent all the tracks to all 3).....



Again, looking forward to your clips...

Bob: Did you ever get your PicoValve?????
 
Shit I thought that sounded pretty good for a 4 minute wankfest. Lol. Where's the gain coming from? The DSL or the POD thing? If that's all DSL, you're doing very good and you don't need a halfstack.....unless you just want one. I still say just get a bigger cab.

As for the OCD, I think it sounds good and I totally see why people like it, but I'm not that crazy about it. By itself into a clean channel it's way better than the TS or SD-1. I like the way the TS and SD-1 "help" the amp more though. Like I said before, I'm not a clean + pedal guy. I'm a get it from the amp guy, and I like what I get from the amp alone better than what any pedal gives me. After mucking around with the pedals on the JVM clean channel, I switched over to OD1 Green mode and dialed in a gainy tone that compared with my favorite setting on the OCD, and the amp alone mercilessly killed the pedal to death. I was like, oh yeah, that's where it's at. I don't know how to describe it. The amp's natural overdriven voice was so much more thick, lively, and harmonically rich than the more 2D sound of the pedal. To my ears, there's just no comparison. The JVM is a baaaaaaad mofo....just to add a little GAS to your fire. :D
 
minerman said:
Bob: Did you ever get your PicoValve?????
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got it this afternoon .... hooked it up .
For some sounds like a good crunch and distorted lead, it's killer actually.
And the 2 watt setting is actually pretty quiet so it'd be handy for someone who's wife wakes up if he uses a bigger amp.

But I go for clean headroom and my initial reaction is that it'll do what I want at least as well as the Epi Valve Jr but maybe not a lot better because the main thing I wanted was tone controls and the tone controls seem to suck ass. The treble control dramatically affects how the mid and bass controls work. Overall it's kinda a murky sounding amp.
For 99 bucks it's killer and if you want a low volume recording amp it's killer.
I'm not at all sure I'd be happy at 300 bucks.

There's a mod where you add a 1M resistor to one of the tube pins to ground that supposedly cleans it up and I'll surely do that ...... eventually ....... one of these days ............ in my spare time ........... maybe next year! :D

However .... it may have damaged tubes because it's clearly taken a significant impact in shipping ..... two of the trannys are tilted a fairly good bit from the impact bending their mounting wings so an impact like that could have damaged the tubes. I'll try a couple of new ones tonight and see. If that helps then great ..... if not then I'll try a 6550 in there.
 
Bob: Sorry to hear your new amp took an ass-kicking during shipping, maybe MF will send you a replacement if it doesn't pan out???? I almost bought that little amp, & probably would've if I'd had a cab to run it through....Keep us posted on what happens with the issues dude, again, sorry to hear, but I'm sure you could get 'em to send you another one...I was pretty stoked to hear what it sounded like to be honest....

Greg: Wank-fest indeed!!!! I told you it was shitty, that was just me screwing around a couple days ago, trying out different sounds...I plan on eventually turning that into a song too (like a bunch of others I haven't gotten off my ass & finished up...)...

The lead/wah tone was:
Ibanez (Duncan Custom Custom bridge p'up)
POD X3Live wah (Crybaby model/emulation)
POD X3 Live TS-9 emulation (set as a clean boost to tighten it up a little) Gain: 0 Tone: 100 Vol: 75
DSL Red/Ultra Gain channel:
Vol: 10
Gain: 3-4
Bass: 10
Mid:4-5
Treble: 7-8
Deep Switch on
Mid Shift off

I ran the POD into the amp like a stompbox, instead of the 4 cable method in the fx loop, just plug-n-play. The vol on the od/dirt was only 3/4 of the way up, so, yeah, most of the gain is from my amp. It's still got a lot more too, I didn't even have it halfway, more like 3 instead of 4. I like using a stomp because the low end gets a little flubby with higher gain settings on the Red/Ultra Gain channel....I do have to say, for a toy, it's a kick-ass little amp, I'd love to hear it through a 4x12 with good speakers, as to be honest, I think my ISO box/cab is killing the chunk/low end I've been after lately....

I might put the V30 in the Randall cab in a day or two, that cab is a little bigger than the Orange, & it might give me a little more bottom/chunk this way....Only thing is, for a 1w amp, it's loud man, it'll surprise you how loud it is when it's dimed. I have no idea how you record with a 100w head & 4x12 cab at home dude, either you pick/choose the time you do it, or you've got a very understanding wife.....My 'ol lady would flip fuckin' out if I did that here on a regular basis....Once in a while, she'd be cool, but I like to play/record everyday (if I get the chance), so the ISO/ampsim thing is really out of respect for her...But again, you must have a really cool & understanding wife dude....

Honestly, I don't know if I need a half-stack or not. I mean, I really don't plan on any gigs, & the tones I get with my 'lil gear is pretty decent, I'm thinking the issue with the low end/chunk really is that shitty ISO cab I built. For what it is, it works great (killing the noise), but I'm really thinking it's not letting the amp interact with the cab/speaker like it should....Maybe I'll just get a bigger cab first & see how it goes from there, might save me a bunch of $$$.....Then, if I decide to, I can always get the full size head that's supposed to be on the 4x12, instead of the lunchbox things (which I really like to be honest...both of 'em are great IMHO, but especially the 'lil Marshall....)...



BTW, is this site acting bat-shit crazy for any of you guys???? It takes forever for the page to load here, & actually froze up a couple times this evening...
 
minerman said:
Bob: Sorry to hear your new amp took an ass-kicking during shipping, maybe MF will send you a replacement if it doesn't pan out???? I almost bought that little amp, & probably would've if I'd had a cab to run it through....Keep us posted on what happens with the issues dude, again, sorry to hear, but I'm sure you could get 'em to send you another one...I was pretty stoked to hear what it sounded like to be honest....
...
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thanks for your concern .... that's nice of you.
But I genuinely don't care even the least little bit.
I've already opened it up ..... repaired the damage and changed the tubes. The 6L6 was actually cracked from the impact so that sure didn't help the sound! :D
Really, it's a 100 dollar amp ..... it's meant for tearing up.

So's anyway ..... while I was in there .... it really looks very solidly built with nice parts .... heavy duty leads. A seriously solid casework.
Some of the solder joints do look like they'll probably need redoing later ....... I almost did it right then but then my lack of caring kicked in!!

I went to my tube shelf and grabbed a couple of ECC83's and a Groove tune 6l6 and an EL34.
I didn't like the EL34 so I went with the 6L6.

It sounds aight.
Pretty good distortion for recording ..... I rely on pedals for a single channel amp on gigs so all I need is a little clean and that's what it has .... a little clean! :D

The tone controls are funky ..... the bass doesn't do a lot nor does the mid and the treble seems to remove bass when you turn it up. Kinda weird. There's some mods for it on the net and I'll prolly do some of them at some point.

All in all I'm gonna say it's a good deal at 99 bucks ...... if I'd paid 300 I'd send it back.
But it's gonna replace an Epi Valve Jr head which isn't exactly a boutique amp either. I just need cheap and small and durable and this is all those things.
 
minerman said:
Greg: Wank-fest indeed!!!! I told you it was shitty, that was just me screwing around a couple days ago, trying out different sounds...I plan on eventually turning that into a song too (like a bunch of others I haven't gotten off my ass & finished up...)...

The lead/wah tone was:
Ibanez (Duncan Custom Custom bridge p'up)
POD X3Live wah (Crybaby model/emulation)
POD X3 Live TS-9 emulation (set as a clean boost to tighten it up a little) Gain: 0 Tone: 100 Vol: 75
DSL Red/Ultra Gain channel:
Vol: 10
Gain: 3-4
Bass: 10
Mid:4-5
Treble: 7-8
Deep Switch on
Mid Shift off

I ran the POD into the amp like a stompbox, instead of the 4 cable method in the fx loop, just plug-n-play. The vol on the od/dirt was only 3/4 of the way up, so, yeah, most of the gain is from my amp. It's still got a lot more too, I didn't even have it halfway, more like 3 instead of 4. I like using a stomp because the low end gets a little flubby with higher gain settings on the Red/Ultra Gain channel....I do have to say, for a toy, it's a kick-ass little amp, I'd love to hear it through a 4x12 with good speakers, as to be honest, I think my ISO box/cab is killing the chunk/low end I've been after lately....

I might put the V30 in the Randall cab in a day or two, that cab is a little bigger than the Orange, & it might give me a little more bottom/chunk this way....Only thing is, for a 1w amp, it's loud man, it'll surprise you how loud it is when it's dimed. I have no idea how you record with a 100w head & 4x12 cab at home dude, either you pick/choose the time you do it, or you've got a very understanding wife.....My 'ol lady would flip fuckin' out if I did that here on a regular basis....Once in a while, she'd be cool, but I like to play/record everyday (if I get the chance), so the ISO/ampsim thing is really out of respect for her...But again, you must have a really cool & understanding wife dude....

Honestly, I don't know if I need a half-stack or not. I mean, I really don't plan on any gigs, & the tones I get with my 'lil gear is pretty decent, I'm thinking the issue with the low end/chunk really is that shitty ISO cab I built. For what it is, it works great (killing the noise), but I'm really thinking it's not letting the amp interact with the cab/speaker like it should....Maybe I'll just get a bigger cab first & see how it goes from there, might save me a bunch of $$$.....Then, if I decide to, I can always get the full size head that's supposed to be on the 4x12, instead of the lunchbox things (which I really like to be honest...both of 'em are great IMHO, but especially the 'lil Marshall....)...



BTW, is this site acting bat-shit crazy for any of you guys???? It takes forever for the page to load here, & actually froze up a couple times this evening...
Click to expand...


Yeah the site is jacked.

For me, my wife is at work all day and I'm just a bum, so it all works out. :D Trust me, when the woman is home, one note out of this stuff results in "hey turn it down!" Lol. She supports my musical nonsense as long as I'm not blowing her out of the house. I don't drum when she's home either. My main reason for getting all this stuff is semi mid-life crisis related. One one hand it's practical as I've been recording with other people's stuff all these years and eventually I needed my own. I got tired of lugging a laptop and mics to the practice space. I like big loud raw guitar sounds, and the best way to get it is with a big loud rig. No muss, no fuss, no frills, mostly just turn it up and go. I wanted and tried a little head and cab at first, but it just didn't pan out for me. I didn't like it. Lt Bob sort of coached me through it, and he kept telling me "dude just get a Marshall, you know you're gonna end up with one" Lol. At the time all these one watter Marshalls didn't exist. I don't know if I would have went for one anyway. There's really only one way to get the sound I want....But mainly, I just wanted this stuff. I've never had good guitar equipment before, and after playing for 25 years, I feel like I'm overdue. I might not be any better than I was at 15, but at least I sound better. :D And....being primarily a drummer for the past 2 decades, getting this guitar stuff got my juices flowing to play guitar live again. So I joined this dumb little punk band, and like most punk bands, it's a trainwreck. But I get to blast my shit, so it's fun for that. I got two bands now. One drumming, one guitar.

Anyway, the bigger cab without the iso box might help you. The only thing that I ever think is missing from your tones is bass, chunk, punch, cab shake, dimension, depth, whatever you wanna call it. I've got two 2x12s over here - one is my Avatar with Vintage 30s, and the other is my buddies Lopoline 2x12 with WGS Veteran 30s. My Avatar is considerably bigger than the Lopoline, and it sounds that way. This Avatar 2x12 is almost as big as my 4x12 Marshall cab, and it's an air mover. The Lopoline is just barely big enough to fit two speakers, and it sounds pretty boxy. The difference in sound is significant. So yeah, try the bigger cab. You might like it. Try both speakers in there.
 
Lt. Bob said:
thanks for your concern .... that's nice of you.
But I genuinely don't care even the least little bit.
I've already opened it up ..... repaired the damage and changed the tubes. The 6L6 was actually cracked from the impact so that sure didn't help the sound! :D
Really, it's a 100 dollar amp ..... it's meant for tearing up.

So's anyway ..... while I was in there .... it really looks very solidly built with nice parts .... heavy duty leads. A seriously solid casework.
Some of the solder joints do look like they'll probably need redoing later ....... I almost did it right then but then my lack of caring kicked in!!

I went to my tube shelf and grabbed a couple of ECC83's and a Groove tune 6l6 and an EL34.
I didn't like the EL34 so I went with the 6L6.

It sounds aight.
Pretty good distortion for recording ..... I rely on pedals for a single channel amp on gigs so all I need is a little clean and that's what it has .... a little clean! :D

The tone controls are funky ..... the bass doesn't do a lot nor does the mid and the treble seems to remove bass when you turn it up. Kinda weird. There's some mods for it on the net and I'll prolly do some of them at some point.

All in all I'm gonna say it's a good deal at 99 bucks ...... if I'd paid 300 I'd send it back.
But it's gonna replace an Epi Valve Jr head which isn't exactly a boutique amp either. I just need cheap and small and durable and this is all those things.
Click to expand...

You mentioned it sounds kind of murky or whatever. I've noticed that with a lot of lower end small tube amps. Most of the less expensive small amps I've tried have like this cloud over them. Why is that?
 
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