Musician Forum - Band Discussion Board - BandMix

Does your selection of music when your gigging consist of heavy distortion or do you play a fair mix through a clean channel.Do you rely more on amp distortion or the clean sounds that highlights the guitar.I gotta tell you I sometimes like hearing a good feed back run.I prefer a good clean sound with a good sustain balance and the guitar just breaths.

Joewillplay wrote:Does your selection of music when your gigging consist of heavy distortion or do you play a fair mix through a clean channel.Do you rely more on amp distortion or the clean sounds that highlights the guitar.I gotta tell you I sometimes like hearing a good feed back run.I prefer a good clean sound with a good sustain balance and the guitar just breaths.

For what its worth, I try to go with waht a song calls for... Some need extra teeth, some don't...

99% of what I play is squeaky clean. I always miss the little nuances that distortion removes from a note. I have been using a little reverb lately. Finger picking rock a billy I used slap back echo and rvb, but now I have been using just a slight amount of stereo reverb.

But that doesn't mean I don't like distortion, just don't use it.

I've never been a fan of reverb. I prefer dry, punchy sound. Many rooms naturally give you reverb anyway. The early recordings of AC/DC are a prime example of great sound with little or no reverb.

Slacker G wrote:99% of what I play is squeaky clean. I always miss the little nuances that distortion removes from a note. I have been using a little reverb lately. Finger picking rock a billy I used slap back echo and rvb, but now I have been using just a slight amount of stereo reverb.

But that doesn't mean I don't like distortion, just don't use it.

I hear ya,love that slap back Eddie Cochran,Brian Setzer did and does so well.

I play cover music for the most part. As Grant said I use what the song calls for. That goes for the covers as well as original.

J-HALEY wrote:I play cover music for the most part. As Grant said I use what the song calls for. That goes for the covers as well as original.

Well that was interesting I gotta tell you all that kinda put more of a musical personality to your profile pic.For example Slacker I wouldn't have taken you for a rockabilly type of person.Thanks to all of you for the response.Hey J-Haley you still got that steer.

I run my amp @ 11 . . . amount of distortion / tone is controlled with the guitar's pick up selector, tone, and volume potentiometers.
We actually play a fairly wide variety of music.
My guitar's control can handle it all.

totally depends on the tune and what's "appropriate" for it.

these days my main gtr gig is playing in a jazz trio, so i'm (mostly) using one of my archtops and playing w a little bit of compression into a '65 FENDER Deluxe Reverb Reissue. i say "mostly" (playing archtops) but i will sometimes use my thinline tele w flats or '81 LP "The Paul" to make sure they don't get testy cos they're stuck in the house and aren't getting invited to the dance.

yeah, distortion is fun and the sustain allows you to play things you can't do clean....but to me, playing clean where you can actually hear the GTR's tone and not just it's PICKUP's tone is where it's at.

Wow You guys have a wealth of diversity in your playing.I love this feedback,thanks

I was listening to your music, Joe.

Pretty decent, I must say.
I wish I had your repertoire.

I especially liked the second one, "Just look at this place".

Sounds a little like T-Rex and Tom Petty but where I come from, that's all good.

Starfish Scott wrote:I was listening to your music, Joe.

Pretty decent, I must say.
I wish I had your repertoire.

I especially liked the second one, "Just look at this place".

Sounds a little like T-Rex and Tom Petty but where I come from, that's all good.

Well thank you Starfish.Those are fun songs for me and the whole family,sisters daughters and grandchildren,song for H.A.T>So man,again thanks for the visit.

fisherman bob wrote:I've never been a fan of reverb. I prefer dry, punchy sound. Many rooms naturally give you reverb anyway. The early recordings of AC/DC are a prime example of great sound with little or no reverb.

Definitely agree.. especially live. I think clarity is disappearing from live shows quite a bit, obviously rock shows the most. Everything live as far as rock/metal is just starting to sound like some overly-loud echo chamber.

I want the music to HIT me, not swim past me.. if that makes any sense.

Live or studio, I love a raw, crisp distorted guitar. It just gives the track some serious irritability that is lost when the reverb is put on.

Joe thats a pretty good question.

I run a three channel amp, clean, vintage distortion and modern distortion for my live band.

I spend 80% of my time in the vintage distortion channel, I use the volume on my guitar to vary how much distortion Im getting, I also have a Tube Screamer that I run most of the time, then I have another boost distortion pedal for really nasty stuff.

I generally run my rythyms dry no reverb of delay, for leads I mainly used whats called a ducting delay. Basically if you are picking the delay isnt there, but it has a threshold where when I back off picking the delay comes thru. I can play a really fast phrase and the delay doesnt run over the notes, but when I hold a note I have a nice delay behind it.

Live and Recording are two different worlds for me, I use a lot cleaner tones for recording than I do live.

I'm usually playing in the red, but I use all three channels on my amp. I only use enough gain to get an extra push, so I keep the clarity. Took a lot of tweaking over time to get it how I wanted it(my amp). Also, I'm not using any effects these days, just the footswitch with my guitar plugged directly in. Nothing to cover up here.