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I was wondering what you like to use for boosting your solo to kick it out in front of the rhythm? Stomp box fans? What kind? I've heard a few people give real good kudos to Suhr's Koko Boost box, but I haven't had a chance to dink around with it. Just prodding yur experience and preferences a bit

Thanks!

On a few tunes ( well, really only one now ) I kick on the old Cry Baby for a high pitched screaming lead part. With everything else I either vary the intensity of my attack, tweak the volume pot on my guitar or both.
The Carvin amps I have are both very responsive to my attack mode.
A loose "almost dropping" grip on the pick with a gentle sweep give a much less intense sound that a tightly gripped pick and a steep pick angle.
( but then you already knew that )

God, guitar nerdism is cool.[/b]

Lots of different ways depending on what sound I am looking for:

Blues on the edge- I turn down the vol on the guitar for rhythm and then roll it up for solos.

On the edge rhythm and bold 70s solos- set the amp for my rhythm sound and kick in an OCD pedal for solos or fills.

Creamy Santana style sustaining solos- Kick in Mesa Boogie channel 2

Higher gain EVH style bold tone- Kick in Mesa channel 3

With these four different gain stages and different pickup choices I can find most of the boost and tones I am looking for.

A Mesa man! I've been eyeing a Mesa rig ever since I started playing open mics - the house rig is a mesa, and I *love it*. What kind has 3 channels?

TheJohnny7Band wrote:Lots of different ways depending on what sound I am looking for:

Blues on the edge- I turn down the vol on the guitar for rhythm and then roll it up for solos.

On the edge rhythm and bold 70s solos- set the amp for my rhythm sound and kick in an OCD pedal for solos or fills.

Creamy Santana style sustaining solos- Kick in Mesa Boogie channel 2

Higher gain EVH style bold tone- Kick in Mesa channel 3

With these four different gain stages and different pickup choices I can find most of the boost and tones I am looking for.

Sir Jams Im a mesa man, I bought my first triple rec back in 1990, been using variations of the recitifer every since.

Im currently using one of the newer generation Triple Recs, it has 3 channels. Its a 150 watt tube amp, so channel one I use for clean, Channel 2 I have on what they call the vintage mode, this is my main channel, I can roll the guitar volume up and down from the guitar to increase or decrease the breakup of the amp.

Channel 3 on this amp I set for what they call modern mode. I use it for playing stuff like Metallica, RATM, the more moderny sounding distortions.

Ive alluded to this in other threads, but on this model you can route the signal thru the effects loop. You can use the loop master as an overall master volume, plus it has a solo setting. This is a seperate volume that is activated by switch. It doesnt taint the tone of your sound, it just boosts it as much or as little as you want. I find that when Im playing chunky rythyms, I dont kick it in. But say a song like Sweet Emotion where you are doing a one string riff, I will kick the solo boost in to make it stand out more. I use it for solos also.

For solo tones Im big on the wah wah and using it to key in a frequency that stands out. I also have my Line 6 Delay Modeler, and the way I have it set it acts as a boost, I have it set on very short analog delays, this kinda thickens up the tone, but it overdrives the amp also. With the tap tempo I can lengthen the delays on the fly.

I have an old tube screamer. one of the good ones on my board. I use it mainly to boost my clean channel. Say a sound like Simple Man, I use the clean for most of the song and then kick it in for the chorus and solos, instead of hitting a distortion channel.

I also have this old funky chorus pedal, cant remember the name, but it can give the guitar a boost.

I think the easiest and most effective thing to do is set your amp up way dirtier than you would use for most rythyms, turn the guitar volume pot down and then just turn it up to boost solos. This has always worked good for me, I see so many younger players get on my sh*t and they just try to dime the guitar and amp, they are just creating noise in my opinion, learn to finesse the guitar itself to get a boost.

The way I see it every pedal I have is a booster in some way, I could play the whole night without an effect, but I like to color different parts and solos all night long, just to keep it aurally stimulating to the audience, I mean if you just blast all night long you dont give your audiences ears times to breath. Playing lead should be approached like talking. A good speaker will vary thier volume levels to emphasize what they are saying, So approach your leads like you would a conversation, let it breath and it will come across better, and sometimes instaed of boosting it quiet it down, so people have to dig to hear what you are doing.

I guess you can see that in some ways Im obssessed with the guitar, and your right.

Touch. I dig in during the ride, I pick lightly during the vocals.

Slacker makes a huge point, treat your guitar like a woman, tickle her a little bit and then really bear down if you want to hear her roar!

I like that analogy, works for me.

Slacker and JW are right on. Now thats playing!

jw123 wrote:The way I see it every pedal I have is a booster in some way, I could play the whole night without an effect, but I like to color different parts and solos all night long, just to keep it aurally stimulating to the audience, I mean if you just blast all night long you don't give your audiences ears times to breath. Playing lead should be approached like talking. A good speaker will vary their volume levels to emphasize what they are saying, So approach your leads like you would a conversation, let it breath and it will come across better, and sometimes instead of boosting it quiet it down, so people have to dig to hear what you are doing.

That's a 64K$ answer there, JW.

This is something people only get via EXPERIENCE.
(Shh don't give away all the best secrets) lol

LOL, Capt its onlu taken me about 30 years to figure this stuff out. I figure I can save someone else all the trouble.

Speaking of which I came from an era when most guitar players would keep secrets from each other, I mean we used to slow down records and all sorts of stuff to learn solos, I would ask someone to show me a lick and they would turn away like they owned it or something. Todays guitar player has it made with the internet, I mean I use ti from time to time to cheat and learn something the easy way. LOL

jw123 wrote:LOL, Capt its onlu taken me about 30 years to figure this stuff out. I figure I can save someone else all the trouble.

Speaking of which I came from an era when most guitar players would keep secrets from each other, I mean we used to slow down records and all sorts of stuff to learn solos, I would ask someone to show me a lick and they would turn away like they owned it or something. Today's guitar player has it made with the internet, I mean I use ti from time to time to cheat and learn something the easy way. LOL

JW, you mean people are nice in TN?

It's exactly as you stated, here in the Tri-State area of desolation.

I have heard of it before referred to as "the Gatekeeper mentality".
They keep that gate closed, so as not to help anyone or let out any secrets.

I am impressed that you help others.
(I only help the ones that make music I like.)

Man the older I get the dumber I get and the faster I used to be.

On here i just try to share what Ive learned or done, if it helps someone then great if it doesnt then great, Ive got my share of Spinal Tap moments, I wish I could afford to do one of those Behind The Music deals of my group, when we start talking about things we remember, its so rich, LOL, hell they remember things that I cant even remember, so it would be interesting, but it would make us look like complete dumbass's, so on second thought mystery is better, kinda like Zep used to do. LOL

I have a Mesa Triaxis so my situation is a lot different from everyone else's.

I setup separate channels for my leads. My standard channels for rhythm work I keep the volume setting programmed at 4.0. For leads I boost up to somewhere around 8.0 and I adjust the effects on those channels.

I have one lead channel that I bring a BB Preamp into the loop (courtesy of a Rocktron Patchmate - best invention ever) and that gives me loads of sustain. I couple that with a dual digital delay off the TC Electronics with delays set to 400 and 800 ms. It's a great liquid lead tone for when you want to hang lots of notes (works well for Scorpion's Hurricane as well).

Another lead channel I take the BB Preamp out and have the delays set to 200 and 400.

I learned the delay trick from Petrucci. Instead of using a chorus for leads (which can make a lead channel sound mechanical and artificial) I use the dual delay instead. It sounds 100x better live.

But for boosting, it's just a matter of programming the lead channels with a much higher "Master" setting. Around 8.0 or 9.0.

If I didn't have a Triaxix (I can't imagine life without it really, but if I were forced) then I'd probably have to get some kind of booster pedal.

I guess I'm just pedantic. I just set my Paul on low volume on rhythm and open pots on lead. With a decent amp that gives me some pretty hefty rhythm sounds and screaming solos.

Yeah, but live,,,, I never have to do the pedal stomp dance. I TOTALLY AGREE with JW, live, no cords,cables, wireless,,, Then you can put on a show. Comes back to basic playing and being able to concentrate on reaching out to that pretty girl in the crowd. But thats if you just want to get laid. If you don't,,,, then buy a bunch of pedals and start dancing.