Musician Gear & Tech Discussion

I was looking at another post on Pedal boards when I say a comment that says most guitarists use about 4 tones in a night. This made me think. I'm in a cover band with a pretty wide range of material. I know in our set list I use about 20 presets on the Line 6 (plus boosts as some points) to get the sounds right. I also know that in a pinch I can do the whole set with just my PRS SE (cheating with coilcuts) and the amp and it's not really that noticeable. How many tones do most players use?

Cannot speak for most, only for myself.
This would be hard to quantify. I play a Gibson LP Goddess through a Carvin Legacy Nomad. Depending upon the "feel" of the song (%99 original material) I make minor adjustment via tone & volume pots.
Really only use two setting with the amp. A base tone via volume, soak, and the three levels of EQ. And a foot-switch to kick in the spring reverb for soloing.

I stopped using effects about 4 years ago and use a dry signal. For overdrive, I use the amp distortion. So you can say I only have 2 tones (Clean/Overdrive). The reason is that I wanted to focus more on developing my dynamics, accuracy and tone with my fingers. I maybe going back to effects soon when I reach my goal.

4 sounds about right..

1 amp, 3 pedals and that's it.

(axis fuzz face, rocket octavia and a sweet sounds mojo vibe)

(4 pedals if you want to count a wah, which I do not always use.)

(4 pedals if you want to count a wah, which I do not always use.)

I know what you mean about the Wah Capt. I used to use it all the time for solos, then I realized I was using it to mask all my mistakes.

Hey jsantos !

You still using a Carvin amp ?
Which model ?

It depends on the band.

In my originals band, I use about 6.


1) Clean
2) Clean with delay
3) Heavy Crunch
4) Boosted Lead without Effects
5) Boosted Lead with Dual Delay
6) Acoustic via Piezo Bridge


For my cover band, it's a lot more. I have separate presets just for specific songs. Like when we cover Live's "Lightning Crashes", I have two presets just for that song - one slightly more crunchy, but both with a flange type effect to mimic the album version. When we do Stone Temple Pilots, I have a very chorus-rich distortion that I use just for their stuff. When we do Alter Bridge's "Rise Today" I have a separate clean/flange tone just for the intro...


I have a Triaxis and a G-Major so it's easy to set this stuff up. Doing covers, I like to get closer to the sound the original artist used. Because they recorded it that way for a reason, ya know? I mean, the distortion that Mark Tremoniti uses on the Alter Bridge albums is just completely different from the one that Dave Grohl uses on the Foo Fighters albums. Tremonti really uses a lot of bass with this signal... The Foo Fighters have a much dryer tone that is a big rougher around the edges... And those tones are important for the songs, IMO.

Hey jsantos !

You still using a Carvin amp ?
Which model ?

Sans !!

Yeah I use the MTS 3200 half stack for performance. I just purchased a peavey Valveking 212 combo for practice. I'm liking it so far.

Been hearing good stuff about the Valveking.
Let us know how it works out.
Thanks for the response.

I have 3 settings in my Mesa Rec series amps to start with.

Clean, Vintage Distortion and Modern Distortion

my amp has a solo boost for each of these channels

I use a wah-wah like Santos said to mask all my mistakes. I have a tube screamer in there also and use it to boost my clean channel, I have a chorus pedal that I may use 2-3 times during a 4 hour gig, I have a whammy pedal in my board, I put it in primarily for the one song Killing In The Name RATM, but I use it for whammy drops since i use fixed bridges, I use the whammy to harmonize lead lines, then the last effect I have is a Line 6 Delay Modeler, I have a tape based delay with very short repeats in its first setting, this actually thickens the guitar tone up some, but a trick Ive learned is to use the tap button to lengthen the delay repeats, put that with the 2 octave up setting on the whammy pedal and you can get some really spacey sounds going. I also have a backwards solo effect in this pedal that I use a couple of times a night, plus what I call my U2 setting that I use occasionally. So in my case I use a bunch of combinations and sounds on a typical night.

But I have done gigs wiht my little Mesa Subway Rocket, 2 channels clen and dirty and wah wah pedal, useing the guitar controls for variations in tone.

I can get away with very little, but if I bring out the full rig Im gonna use it. I know lots of guys that either underuse or way over use their pedals. I think there is a balance that as a guitarist we should all strive for, and that is coloring our tones so the sound of our bands dont get static and boring. I mean I cant stand listening to a band and the guitarist uses the same tone all night long. I just find it boring to my ears, but then again dont over do it. Weve all heard the guitar player that just leaves his distortion pedal on all night and between songs its just screaming, they do have an off switch, LOL!

Interesting thread, thanks!

I play a pretty wide variety of stuff, so I use a pretty wide assortment of sounds.

Clean, overdrive, distortion, phase shifter and a volume pedal to keep it balanced with the band.

Then...

Bridge pickup, middle, neck pickup, (single coil strat); bridge, both or neck single coil tele, ditto for dual humbuckers. And and all of those through whatever pedal I need for the song, but I never touch the volume and tone controls. That's why they put in different pickups and the volume pedal makes volume adjustments a breeze on the fly...

So, I guess I generally use around a dozen or more sounds, depending on what feels right for the song.

I guess if you consider the slide bar, harmonics and feedback, more like close to 20 since I also use the slide bar with distortion and on different pickups, again depending on the song. Add the variable of 7 guitars, each with its own sound, including acoustic...

OK I use a lot of different sounds I'm not going to try and add it all up...it can get pretty diverse considering all the options..

Just the pedals is not the only consideration. Each guitar sounds slightly different, pick versus fingerpicking is different, playing hard and soft are different, both channels ofd the Super Reverb can be set differently and used with an A/B switch, slide, feedback, harmonics, pickup selection all make a difference. I've been known to use a coin for a pick, a comb, slap the strings, anything I can think of, each introduces yet another sound.

And sometimes all it takes is just a guitar, an amp and a wire...

one.

Spoken like a true bass player!

im with jsantos. I use almost nothing these days and I am in a cover band that plays a wide verity of material. I am really focusing on my raw sound for awhile then plan on getting a high end effects unit whrn im comfortable i have reached my goal with my raw sound. I do however use 3 tones. marshall avt150h stock digi fx. clean w/chours, overdrive2,
overdrive2 w/heavy delay.