General Music Chat

Great guitar tones, John! But I'm sitting here, looking at the videos and looking at your av ... and going ... 'What the f**k happened to your hair, man?!'

Dang JW I can't open your video links. Are they not Mac compatible??? Anyways I have sampled many of your songs and your rig always sounds great.

Here is a decent demo of the amp I have been gigging with lately. For those of us that no longer want to drag around a 1/2 stack, this Mesa F30 has some tonal beef for a small 30w 1x12 combo and it will definitely run with a drum kit. The head/1x12 closed back cab version sounds even tighter.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qjrMud6C ... re=related

Here is some of the best Strat tone I have ever heard, played by the 17 yr old Brit phenom Jess Lewis. She is playing an American Deluxe Strat through a Laney amp... Whew! Incredible sense of guitar tone in this one.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aRTD12fl6Mo

GM, whats the old saying hair today gone tomorrow! LOL!

Johnny I have a little 20 watt Mesa Subway Rocket, most of the cover tunes on my player I used it, it is loud enough to play over drums, but Im just a dinosaur man, cant get all the big amps out of my head!

GM, whats the old saying hair today gone tomorrow! LOL!

Johnny I have a little 20 watt Mesa Subway Rocket, most of the cover tunes on my player I used it, it is loud enough to play over drums, but Im just a dinosaur man, cant get all the big amps out of my head!

There is no doubt that a 4x12 moves a lot more air than a 1x12. That creates a dynamic punch that you can hear and feel. While the tonal characteristics of a 1x12 might be the same, if you play a lot of high octane 80s rock... you probably need that 4x12 punch.

Guitar tone is something we have cussed and discussed quite often JW

Ever since Paul took me to task for utilizing crappy tone via those damn Boss pedals I've been on a quest to find my own sound.

Honestly I feel I have done just that with my Carvin VT 16.

For me the variable of neck & bridge pots as well as the Soak and tone pots on my amp is really all I need.
Admittedly I'll throw in a tad of reverb from my amp or an occasion to add some delay & chorus from the board.

The rest is how does it blend with the other guitar?
That's the new quest as I feel I have my own sound down now.

Tone...Super Reverb cranked to 10...there it is...

Fender Champ cranked to 10 sounds great too, and at a low volume.

Seriously, I usually try to use both channels of the Super onstage, the reverb channel set for a really full tone, and whatever volume level I need to blend in on rhythm parts. Non reverb channel is usually everything maxed, for leads, and if it's a bit loud I just pull the volume pedal up some.

Before I ever plug in a guitar I always play it unplugged, if it doesn't sound good unplugged it never will, I put it back on the rack and never bother to plug it in.

Usually the main effect I use is a Marshall Bluesbreaker Overdrive, otherwise it's mostly clean, the amp usually has some breakup at stage volume for a bit of raunch, and I keep the Arion analog delay pedal on all the time for a light delay. Before long I might be able to get some recordings, I'm expecting to be back in Texas before long and probably back with the band I played with 10 or so years ago. Same guys that recorded the Southern Cross video last year. Going there this week, we might do another recording, don't know what yet but will not have the Super Reverb, I'm taking the Peavey MX so I can leave it there.

Anyway, I go for a really full sound. Loads of bass, I want it to bark like a 10 foot bulldog, and enough treble to cut through too. Kind of a cross between Billy Gibbons and David Gilmour sound...but I always want the bass to really bark on the low notes, otherwise they turn to mud. That also means enough mids and treble to bring them out, without the mud...so yeah, pretty full...

John, I've heard that Mesa right in front of me, great sounding amp. The recordings really don't give it all away...guys...it sounds better than what you hear here...

I've spent years and plenty of cash chasing tone on a budget....there was the problem right there!!! Buying distortion pedals, multifx, modelling amps etc as they were cheaper than buying a valve. Had a nice tone from a PODXT and MG250DFX for a while...until playing in a band live and the audience went beyond one row...."turn it up they'd say", "I have" I'd answer. Nice tone, just died in the mix

Went valve a few years back (after selling my gran for cash). Got a JVM...now there's a story too. It's took around 3yrs for me to nail my rhythm tone...the answer was there all along, gain no more than half, OD 1 orange, don't scoop the mids (if only i'd listened earlier haha).

Just taken my PODXT out of the chain also. This was serving as tuner, MIDI controller and delay in the loop. Had some pedals but kept forgetting to buy batteries and couldn't be bothered hooking 'em all up everytime. Now solved with the purchase of a pedalboard, powersupply and tuner. Possibly the most boring purchase I have ever made heh heh...but fundamental to this setup methinks. I think the POD was colouring my lead tone a bit too so tonight, fingers crossed is the trial run!! After a low volume test at the weekend it all sounds promising

Here's the chain for the interested:

Diago Showman pedalboard + T Rex Fuel Supply Jr + JVM footswitch

epiphone SG with Seymour Duncan JB's - Morley Tremonti Wah - Korg Pitchblack Tuner - Boss NS2 - amp

Marshall Echohead in the loop - 75% wet - light delay to thicken the lead and clean.

The only thing I would desire to do now (if this all works out) would be to install Seymour Duncan Mayhem Distortions in my Ibanez SZ-520 for a slightly tighter tone in more palm-mutey tracks and use the Epi for looser sounding songs.

Then maybe I'll buy a new guitar..........cough, ahem....

Phil

After reading your post I had to listen to your stuff - actually pretty nice tunes. Tone works for me!

Talbot

Thanks for listening and the kind comment Talbot, glad you enjoyed

I tried me pedalboard setup last night, works a treat!! No squealing, full JVM tone, awesome!!!!!!

As far as I'm concerned, this setup will work fine for me...for now.
The guys all commented on the lead tone being much better and full sounding enough without a second guitarist in the mix, so I can rip 'em out a bit more live now. At one point it was looking like I'd have to drop solos without a 2nd guitarist as the songs just sounded thin at those points. It also helps that the bassist now has a bit of OD in his tone and doesn't just stick to root notes.

I designed my own amplifiers for years. I get everything I want out of them. When it comes to my guitars, I like the sound of wood bleeding through the pickups. To get that I avoid the heavy polyurethane coatings most guitars have on them and wipe a ultra thin coating on the wood with a cloth soaked in polyurethane or tung oil, just enough to protect the wood. When you do a side by side comparison of a guitar with a factory urethane finish on it and a guitar without the vibration deadening urethane on it there is a world of difference in the subtle harmonics. Even playing unplugged, the light finish has that woody sound and the heavy finish sounds "caged". I do like a "factory finished guitar" for some songs as they are harder sounding and they have more bite in the mid and upper range. However I find myself playing the Strats with the light finish 90% of the time.

Regardless, once I found the sound that I was looking for I stopped looking. I'm probably one of the most satisfied musicians around. New gear never tempts me. I am as happy as can be with what reaches my ears.. excluding the picking... that always needs work.

I'd love a strat with a "heavy" tone

They are the amongst the nicest guitars to play, just haven't found one that suits tonally yet as they all seem to be single coils in the shops I've visited....my missus has a cheap squire strat, plays awesome, sound's like sh!t.

I have tried it all, in the end I found that tone comes from your hands. I typically plug straight into My firefly amp with nothing but Volume and gain control. The rest of my gear collects dust.

Whenever I plug into my pedal board, or one of my rack fx, I get bored quickly and wind up turning it all off.

Once I realized this I stopped buying fx and started buying guitars instead. I have a few amps but that 1 watt firefly has the purest tone ever.

Phil

I had a similar problem with strats - for me it was the rosewood fretboards. Just didn't work.

However - I found a used US Stratocaster Lonestar model with the HSS config - the bridge pickup is a seymour duncan humbucker which really puts it out, and a maple neck which really works for me.

Talbot

Obey I alway thought a Tele had a certain sound til I saw that John 5 guy on the Metal Show one night, man he has a very heavy sound.

When I started the thread I didnt mean just a heavy tone, I guess my tone would be considered heavy to some, what I was talking about was getting tone that inspires you to just play your guitar, be it soft or heavy doesnt matter. Just being able to quickly get the tone you want and want to play your guitar. I dont think there is any one tone that fits everyone, we all have a different perspective on what is good tone, its embedded in our heads, as a guitarist its my quest to pull that tone out of my head and make it happen.

I played strats for years, still have one, I out a mini humbucker in the bridge slot, its heavy but it still aint no LP! LOL!