Bare Knuckle Pickups Forum
Forum Ringside => Guitars, Amps and Effects => Topic started by: wixomwhat on August 12, 2005, 04:15:52 AM
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okay so my Guitar thread did better then I thought it would- thank you guys- my topics just disapear on the Seymour Duncan board- becuase just about everybody there hates me, lol. You guys are very cool here though \m/
but so now im curious--
How is your sound- tone? Is it very Rich- Harmonically? does it sound huge and over the top or is it fake and tiny sounding?
For me- I sound very fake- I think anyway. Its not bad at all but compared to when I go to guitar center and play through a marshall half stack or something it makes my gear at home sound small.
And i'm using an all Tube peavey head and 4x12 but with a pedal cuz the 2 distortion channels sound like cr@p.
alright how about you guys?
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I'm still on my quest, I like a big harmonically rich lead tone, not too much gain, like a modded Marshall, not too much bass, and it must be tight bass punch. I'm not quite there, I can't get a 412 into my stuio loft....and the 50w Marshalls area touch loose in the bass.
CLean is a lot harder, a nice full clean tone is very hard to get.
I think all guitarists are constantly searching for sonic heaven (or hell) there's allways something outthere that sounds different, for better or worse!
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As you can tell by the number of different pickups and guitars I have, I am always looking to see if I can get the magic tone :D
I like the driven mellow blues tone sometimes, but at others I like to have a brighter sound, it depends on whzt I am playing. I always want to hear harmonic feedback when the note rings. However I don't want to blow out my ears, and where I live I can't turn up too much because of neighbours.
Also I want a crunchy but clear rhythm sound sometimes, then others I want really clean. The only way I can get all these is with different amps! The best compromise for the lead and rhythm is either my Marshall Silver Jubilee combo with Sidewinder speaker or my McIntyre Bluesmaster head with a custom 4x8 cab. For clean, I have 2 Fender Princeton Reverbs, one is a stock blackface but has a mojotone ceramic speaker. The other is heavily modified by John McIntyre into a 'Prince of Wails' (it was an article he wrote for guitar player). This has 5881 power tubes, 2 mid range controls and too many other knobs and switches to play with. It uses a Celestion Vintage 30 speaker. It has an amazing lead tone but is way too loud for me to use. When it is turned down it has a great clean tone. I know why Neil Young uses the motorised knob turner ( :!: ) for his Deluxe. There are a tremendous number of sounds in it - but getting them takes ages.
The closest I ever got was many years ago when I had an old small box Marshall 50 with an 8x10 cab. I was using a junior with it and the whole combo rocked. However I was young at the time, and could only afford to change things if I traded them, so it is long gone.
One problem is always volume. To get a great rhythm sound I think you have to be loud. I was thinking of trying one of the closed box speaker designs. Years ago we used to put think foam over the cabinets, with a small hole cut for the mic. I haven't tried this in a long time, perhaps I should give it a go again.
One thing that has really helped me is meeting Tim and getting Bare Knuckle pickups (this is really not sucking up :wink: ). The openness of the scatter wind has really made me play humbuckers a lot more and has got me very close to where I want - in fact the new Abraxas is probably there. Now all I need to do is play better :lol:
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I'm a believer in the theory that a fair amout of 'tone' comes from your fingers. After that, I like a very simple setup: tube amp head set to where it's just overdriving, OD pedal in front of it driving it to distortion, and a boost pedal in the FX loop.
As far a pickups go, I like a bridge humbucker and single coil neck.
For effects, I play without reverb or delay -- just guitar, OD, and amp. Sometimes I use a BOSS noise supressor to get rid of noise.
Now, as for the actual sound I'm shooting for, I guess I would say it's a cross between the classic 80s LA metal tone with a dash of the powermetal sound invented by one Kai Hanson from Helloween. I prefer a sound that's gainy, but not over-distorted - you should be able to hear the actual guitar around the distortion. Think of Ratt's Out of the Cellar, or Dokken's Tooth And Nail type of sound on steroids.
BKPs have gone a long way in terms of the S I Z E of my guitar sound -- I think it sounds much larger, more focused, and has more resolution.
IMPORTANT NOTE:
One thing you have to realize is when you listen to a commercial recording of a guitar, there's a LOT going on at different stages to make that sound. It's virtually impossible to recreate a studio console's vintage EQ, compression, and other top notch effects used in creating a guitar sound, and that's without considering the microphone's make/model/position.
I thought I had a decent guitar tone until we started mixing and I was able to put all the guitar tracks through a Pultec EQ ... it really helped tranform my sound! If somone wanted to mimic that sound, they would not only need the guitar and amp I used, but the EQ, too.
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:D Yep have to agree there guys the problem allways seems to be getting a great sound in the studio.
you should also remember that most guitarist double/triple track there rythem guitars in order to thicken out the sound.
Me personnaly i come from the KISS school of thought [ Keep It Simple Stupid] guitar, amp, simple array of effects nothing to complex. i`ve recentley receieved my Sheldon TT3 great amp by the way thanks for the recomendation HJM. 8) mind you it`s found out all the flaws in my playing !! :roll:
BKP`s have made a big difference to my sound i can get a greater tone range more real treble tighter mids or bottom depending on what P/U`s you get.
i prefer my P/U`s to give me a more middle sound & the woods of my guitars to give a more warmer/bottom end sound so i can use the P/U`s to boost the midrange without loosing to much bottom from the whole thing overall wether this actually works or not is another matter LOL i`ll let you no/hear when i get my custom build from Feline ! :D
:D 8)
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Big, bassy and thick on overdrive/distortion. Full bodied and bright on clean. My sound is influenced by AC/DC, Metallica and Brian Setzer so it's a mix of the three.
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My tone is apparently getting worse by the day! :lol:
http://rapidshare.de/files/3914116/681_second_solo.mp3.html
Sounded good on my headphones when I was recording it... I just listened to it on some speakers and it sounds constipated :shock:
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I think "perfect" (obviously a subjective term) tone is unattainable. Whenever I get anywhere close to what I am after, it seems that after a while my ears have got used to it and I find it not quite what I want after all and so I go on again. I kind of like that idea. I tend to go for cleanish tones. I used to use nothing but my Strat bridge pickup- then I went for the in between (bridge/mid) but these days I tend to stick to the neck. The shifting sands of tone eh?
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Mine is basically the same as HJM's. Only with single coils.
I like my lead to be soaring and compressed, much like Vai's, and my lead tones to be full and rich, with lots of character, something the Ashdown doesn't give me atm.
Andy!
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I'm still on my quest, I like a big harmonically rich lead tone, not too much gain, like a modded Marshall, not too much bass, and it must be tight bass punch. I'm not quite there, I can't get a 412 into my stuio loft....and the 50w Marshalls area touch loose in the bass.
CLean is a lot harder, a nice full clean tone is very hard to get.
I think all guitarists are constantly searching for sonic heaven (or hell) there's allways something outthere that sounds different, for better or worse!
your tone description sounds alot like what I'm after haha. I want Tims JCM800 if its still for sale, but I dont think I can afford that AND a new guitar hahaha
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I've always preferred a really thick, natural grinding distortion tone as opposed to a processed glossy saturated 'flat' sound (!) such as that of Pantera.
As for clean tones, which I use most of the time, I have to admit I've never had a particular sound in mind. For a while I could never imagine a better clean tone than the one I had until I heard one, the advantage of which being that I was always happy! Nowadays I flirt between full SM neck humbucker and split SM neck humbucker. And split bridge Nailbomb, which really shouldn't sound good but it does to me.
I'd say with my current set up I can get quite a full, airy, warm responsive clean tone and a distortion tone which is pretty close to the ideal I described above. Bought my first ever pedal just yesterday, a Fulltone OCD, which has a much smoother and more rounded distortion tone than my amp's, and an excellent mild overdrive sound. Unfortunately the extra 10ft of cable in the line seems to have resulted in a muddying of my clean humbucking tone, so I'm back to using splits.
There's a great interview with Tom Morello in the latest Guitarist magazine, in which he states that if he'd had the opportunity to buy all the nice gear he'd wanted when RATM started, he would have ended up with a technically 'better' sound.....which was just like everybody elses. I'm all for looking for different guitars and amps which may not sound 'better' but which not many other people have, just to try to sound different, whatever that sounds like.
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Not ecxactly the sort of answer you want, but... It's pretty much whatever I feel like on the day.
Sometimes thick and sludgy, sometimes trebly and biting. and all places between (That is the beauty of having a pod)
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I've got the tone I want in my head, I can't explain it but I can tell when something gets me closer to that tone.
After getting my BKp VHII's (which are awesome guys, thanks so much :D ) I think I've captured 110% of my ideal tone on the pickup side of things, all I need to do now is to finish assembling my custom guitar and start handwiring a vintage marshall to my spec. I'm buying a plexi RI, taking out the board and replacing it with one I've handwired, and I'll be tweaking every little component to capture the tone I'm after.
Hopefully this should all be done by october/november :lol:
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I'm still messing with the EQs on my amp. But i can get some great sounds with the MM/TS Bkps. I do like that woody organic sound as well and really cool clean sounds like you hear on all that early 1970's NYC Funk. Ben as a New Yorker how do you get that wah wah clean on Shaft?
I found some new tones from my amp on Saturday. If I switch to Triode (Half Power) which as around 60 W and use maximum power soak on the loadbox, which takes it to 1% of 60w and crank the volume on the clean pre-amp it's like the 60's sound! A natural cooking overdrive! Back on Penthode (Full Power) still with 1% power soak you get the head room back and if you need it louder with no break up simply reduce the amount of power soak or attenuation :o to use its correct term :D
I like full on distortion sounds as well as milder woody and organic sounding ones. I do like them bass heavy too. My taste in music kind of turns me on to different tones. I like so many different styles. That was my main concern when I bought my new amp. I.E can I cover all the styles I like. Well, with the different BKP's I'd say yes, with a maybe a tasty overdrive pedal or two just to make sure! I've never had multi effects until this year, when I bought a Yamaha Magicstomp. I went silly with it really and it effects the way you play with too much going on IMHO
Do those Hotplates that a lot you guys are getting have recording outputs?
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I've got the tone I want in my head, I can't explain it but I can tell when something gets me closer to that tone.
After getting my BKp VHII's (which are awesome guys, thanks so much :D ) I think I've captured 110% of my ideal tone on the pickup side of things, all I need to do now is to finish assembling my custom guitar and start handwiring a vintage marshall to my spec. I'm buying a plexi RI, taking out the board and replacing it with one I've handwired, and I'll be tweaking every little component to capture the tone I'm after.
Hopefully this should all be done by october/november :lol:
That sounds like a cool project!! Let us all know how it turns out!
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Ben as a New Yorker how do you get that wah wah clean on Shaft?
You use an evelope filter instead of a wah. PDT_009
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One problem is always volume. To get a great rhythm sound I think you have to be loud. I was thinking of trying one of the closed box speaker designs. Years ago we used to put think foam over the cabinets, with a small hole cut for the mic. I haven't tried this in a long time, perhaps I should give it a go again.
Those Koch 4x12 are closed backed with Jenson, Koch branded speakers. Or there's those Basson ones in the States.
http://www.bassonsound.com/b412.htm
http://www.koch-amps.com/products/index.cfm?fa=mainframe&product_id=&product_cat=&CFID=916676&CFTOKEN=32097091
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I've got the tone I want in my head, I can't explain it but I can tell when something gets me closer to that tone.
After getting my BKp VHII's (which are awesome guys, thanks so much :D ) I think I've captured 110% of my ideal tone on the pickup side of things, all I need to do now is to finish assembling my custom guitar and start handwiring a vintage marshall to my spec. I'm buying a plexi RI, taking out the board and replacing it with one I've handwired, and I'll be tweaking every little component to capture the tone I'm after.
Hopefully this should all be done by october/november :lol:
That sounds like a cool project!! Let us all know how it turns out!
will do - heres some pics so far of my project:
http://www.shredaholic.com/bainzyguitar.html
http://www.shredaholic.com/phase90.html
in addition to the phase 90 ive built an incredible vintage sounding delay that can self oscillate from buildyourownclone.com
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Ben as a New Yorker how do you get that wah wah clean on Shaft?
You use an evelope filter instead of a wah. PDT_009
Ahhh! Like those Electro Harmonix things! :lol:
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I've got the tone I want in my head, I can't explain it but I can tell when something gets me closer to that tone.
After getting my BKp VHII's (which are awesome guys, thanks so much :D ) I think I've captured 110% of my ideal tone on the pickup side of things, all I need to do now is to finish assembling my custom guitar and start handwiring a vintage marshall to my spec. I'm buying a plexi RI, taking out the board and replacing it with one I've handwired, and I'll be tweaking every little component to capture the tone I'm after.
Hopefully this should all be done by october/november :lol:
That sounds like a cool project!! Let us all know how it turns out!
will do - heres some pics so far of my project:
http://www.shredaholic.com/bainzyguitar.html
http://www.shredaholic.com/phase90.html
in addition to the phase 90 ive built an incredible vintage sounding delay that can self oscillate from buildyourownclone.com
Nice socks :lol: :lol:
That looks like a shred machine if I ever saw one! Looks llike it's coming along nicely :)
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I found a discussion about custom speaker cabs (a few years ago now) on a Yahoo forum. The one thing everybody (well a lot of people) agreed on was mixing the speakers in the cab to extend the range and fill in gaps in the tonal range of the cab. You don't need to be too careful about which speakers you use in fully enclosed or open back cabs apparentley but when it comes to ported cabs you have to start worrying about Thiele numbers and other techy stuff. I built a 2 x 12 with a Celestion G12-75T and a Vintage 30, it sounds amazing. Extended top from the G12 and nice rich mids from the vintage 30. It's worth thinking about
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BJ, in broad strokes I agree with what you stated about drivers in cabinets.
:)
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I've got the tone I want in my head, I can't explain it but I can tell when something gets me closer to that tone.
After getting my BKp VHII's (which are awesome guys, thanks so much :D ) I think I've captured 110% of my ideal tone on the pickup side of things, all I need to do now is to finish assembling my custom guitar and start handwiring a vintage marshall to my spec. I'm buying a plexi RI, taking out the board and replacing it with one I've handwired, and I'll be tweaking every little component to capture the tone I'm after.
Hopefully this should all be done by october/november :lol:
That sounds like a cool project!! Let us all know how it turns out!
will do - heres some pics so far of my project:
http://www.shredaholic.com/bainzyguitar.html
http://www.shredaholic.com/phase90.html
in addition to the phase 90 ive built an incredible vintage sounding delay that can self oscillate from buildyourownclone.com
Nice socks :lol: :lol:
That looks like a shred machine if I ever saw one! Looks llike it's coming along nicely :)
cheers :D
the socks you can see in the picture are my mate Gurb's feet, he's wearing industrial issue grey striped socks :lol:
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Do those Hotplates that a lot you guys are getting have recording outputs?
Hi Johnny, the hot plate has a line out jack with a separate volume control. It's handy in a way because you can effectively turn off the speaker (the hot plate provides the load for the amp). The down side of this is that the speaker and cabinet contribute to the overall tone even at low volumes.
In response to the original thread I go for a fairly vintage sound - you can probably tell from my gear: Strat/ Apaches/ Fender valve amp. It's great for clean or O/D rhythm sounds and the hot plate's helped tremendously but I'm still working on a good lead sound. I'm currently using the 'more drive' option on my amp but I'm also experimenting with a Keeley Java Boost. If that doesn't do the job I might try a Keeley Fuzz Head for something smooth and sustaining.
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I do not think that the perfect tone exists. Once you find what you thought was the perfect tone, you realize there is more to look for or when you reach this point, your idea of the perfect tone changes, and you have to start all over again. :)
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On the other hand. Angus Young does not use effects, only the natural distortion of a Marshall amp. That tone is way up there, simple yet complete. :)
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On the other hand. Angus Young does not use effects, only the natural distortion of a Marshall amp. That tone is way up there, simple yet complete. :)
+1
I couldn't agree more. It's one of the best tones out there. Get an SG, put some Riff Raffs in and hook it up to one of those Rockaforte amps that Ben informed us about and you'll be in tone heaven.
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I couldn't agree more. It's one of the best tones out there. Get an SG, put some Riff Raffs in and hook it up to one of those Rockaforte amps that Ben informed us about and you'll be in tone heaven.
LOL, or a Rivera Knucklehead if you can find any in your area.
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BJ, in broad strokes I agree with what you stated about drivers in cabinets.
:)
Thanks Twighlight. I guess what I meant but didn't actually say was that whatever you do to get your desired tone it's a whole tougher to achieve if the speakers can't reproduce it.
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currently playing a Dean Vendetta 2.0
through a SD-1(or a Wah, since I've misplaced the short cable to run'em both) and into a Laney RBW100 bass-amp.
The neck pickup is stock
but the bridge is a BL L500L and it screams :D
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No matter how happy you are with you're present "sound", you will still be on the lookout for the "Holy Grail" of guitar tone.
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Do those Hotplates that a lot you guys are getting have recording outputs?
yes they do. apparently the sound isn't as good as the sound coming from the speakers, but its the price of convenience.
I've got the Marshall that Tom Morello uses. He uses a Peavey cabinet with it. The sound of my DS1/Pro going into it at full volume is amazing. I'm planning on buying a POD for practice use with my pc as my soundcard is really good and has proper size jack plugs.
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I like my lead tone to have harmonic overtones when i bend on a string, it sounds f*cking sweet but it also has to have a certain punch to it too, like it's jumping out of the amp. I like my rhythm sound to have a tight punch that would kick you in the balls hard if it was a real person. It also shouldn't sound fizzy. I hate fizzy sounds so i don't have as much gain as many people do. It also HAS to have clarity.
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I have a decent 80's metal tone (or atleast that's what I'm after)
My rig as follows:
Peavey Rockmaster (Tung-Sol 12ax7)
Korg DL8000R
VHT 2/90/2 (stock KT-88 )
Bogner Uberschall 412
My guitar is equipped with Dimarzio Megadrive on bridge and Humbucker from Hell in the neck. I like the HFH a lot, wonderful cleans so that's a keeper, the Megadrive has a slight scoop sound so I'm going to replace that in near future (when is the Painkiller available?!).
I have a somewhat articulate lead sound but harmonics are quite weak due the pickup's lack of mids. Rhythm tone is very nice and crunchy. My rig is capable of various sounds but since I basically use one sound (ultra channel, gain on tap :D) I'm on a quest to perfect that tone.
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I have to try and cut through a bassist who uses two amps, one for fat, bassy clean and the other for a sharp trebly fuzz.
I don't know how to describe my sound, bright when clean, disgusting when distorted, not really into "nice" sounding overdrive, so I tend to like using my Zvex Fuzz Probe for alot of my distorted parts, somehow it sounds good, and different.
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i can´t COmment on my sound.. since right now i´m SWAPPING gear
from ss to all tube.
AND ALSO i´ll trade pickups and maybe one guitar
New year, new gear. The same unholy sound, but with a tad less distortion, More articulation and more tonal qualities. Ok.. maybe no LESS DISTORTION. ahahahah but not more than i´m already using too. ahahahaha
$%&#ing hails.
J.P
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i love my sound. it sounds very crunchy, but smooth, and bright, and clear, and articulate, and bloody gorgeous. could do with some extra gain on tap tho.
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theres many perfect guitar tones... i still didn't find one of them though ;) thanks to bareknuckle and this forum, i'm getting closer.
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I got BOSS ME-50 multi effects pedal for Christmas, which is basically the same circitry as a load of boss pedals, intending to use it only for the wah, chorus etc, but upon experimenting with the distortion pedals I found that they kicked the cr@p out of my solid state marshalls distortion. The DS1 sounds more like a marshall stack than any other amp I've played (bar a stack of course).
It even compensates for my Epiphones muddy pickups, since using this mode I've found the neck pickup is no longer a soupy piece of shite and is actually usable and cutting, even for rhythm. Hits Slash's tone easy, with a bit more bite.
Yay for Boss and their awesome pedal technology.
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The DS1 is supposed to be a Marshall stack in pedal form
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The DS1 is supposed to be a Marshall stack in pedal form
Hmmmm, in my experience its NOT. but then again the marshall stack isn't easy to emulate with a pedal. the Marshall Guv'nor ain't too bad for that...
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My clean tone has always been geared more towards the traditional US sound for clean (warm yet crystal clear at the same time) but overdrive wise my feet are firmly in the UK camp. In band situations I tend to use less gain on the amp - preffering to let the volume and the tubes do the work. The soloing I engage a Fulltone Fulldrive II to smooth out the sound a take the gain levels nearer to the edge of feedback (that's the David Gilmour influence!).
Pickup wise, it almost all Bareknuckles these days - the ones I am by the far the happiest with are the VHII and Irish Tour combinations in my Black Strat.
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Hmmmm, in my experience its NOT. but then again the marshall stack isn't easy to emulate with a pedal. the Marshall Guv'nor ain't too bad for that...
My Analogman SD1 is a Marshall in a box. I wouldn't buy a stock Boss pedal unless it was one of the old Japanese pedals. The Keeley SD1's are not the same sort of sound even though they are both modified versions - Keeleys have more gain (without the buzz), where as Analogman's pedals have the nasty buzzy sound removed without adding anything. Both are different, both are good.
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The DS1 is supposed to be a Marshall stack in pedal form
I used to have one, I can assure you, it sounds nothing like my Marshall (Which is an old Super Bass), the DS-1 does sound good though, but I sold mine because I found that it lacked in output and a little thin sounding.
You can get loads of pedals that have similar qualities to JCM series amps though, but they've usually been a bit too thin sounding for my liking.
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I used to have one, I can assure you, it sounds nothing like my Marshall
my SD1 isn't stock. it's had the cr@ppy components removed and does sound like a marshall. I'm not sure what the Keeley pedals are like, but obviously they must be good else Mr Vai wouldn't have used one.