Some advice for solo tone "cut" in my band please?

[Twinfan]

Hi folks - I'm after a bit of advice from you all if possible?  As I've mentioned on this board before, I'm Angus Young in an AC/DC tribute band and my gear setup is:

'65 Epi SG with Riff Raffs => Laney GH50L => Marshall 2x12 with V30s

or

'65 Epi SG with Riff Raffs => Laney GH50L => Marshall 4x12 with G12T-75s

For rhythm and lead playing I do what Angus does - roll back the volume to 4ish and boost to 10 for solos.  This works great at home and sounds perfect.  However, when I rehearse with the rest of the band my rhythm parts sound great but when I boost for solos it just seems to get lost.  I want my solos to really come through, but it's just not happening.

"Malcolm" uses a Yamaha SG and a Marshall MG50 transistor amp which really cuts though and I think this may be the cause of the problem.  Do I need to get the treble removed from his tone?  Or, unlike Angus, do I need to use a pedal to boost the mids?

Help????

[steve]

I would try a EQ pedal through your effects loop. You may even leave the EQ flat but just boost the output slightly to give that lift.
On my amp i have 2 master volumes which i set one higher than the other, the second is set higher for a solo boost. Using something like the Boss GE7 EQ pedal should have the same effect.

[Twinfan]

Cheers Steve.  I have an EQ pedal I can use, so I'll give that a try.  I'm curious to know how Angus does it without any pedals, but I guess the sound engineer will adjust levels through the PA...

[steve]

Thats right, his sound would be raised through the main speaker and his monitors by his sound engineers. Its alright for some!

[jordan]

I always find in a live environment that the guitar needs to have it's mids pushed. This can sound pretty harsh if you do it in your bedroom, but when playing with drums/bass/another guitar, it helps a lead guitar find it's space in the frequency spetrum. Worth a shot....just pump the mids to 8 or so and take a little off the treble maybe.

[chrisola]

hmm last point is interesting, i find my leads to be harsh sometimes (i play at home only).. must be because i set the mids too high?

Treble usually eased off aswell as the guitars tone control,but i still get a REALLY cutting tone!

[TwilightOdyssey]

The relative volume going from 4 to 10 on your guitar isn't nearly the same as having a solo boost of some sort when in a band situation. At home, you can perceive the volume difference, but with a band, you will get more gain but not necessarily more volume.

As Steve pointed out, you can use an EQ through your FX loop, a clean boost through the FX loop, or use an amp with a seperate solo boost & volume control on it to simplify things. (I use the 3rd choice)

[HTH AMPS]

Just EQ'ing the guitars right should get you sorted - pan the guitars hard left/right on an AC/DC album and listen to how different the tones are.

Angus should always be margainly louder too, thats the AC/DC 'mix'

 :twisted:

[Twinfan]

Cheers guys.  I've had a little play at home tonight and tried a few things:

Clean boost up front
Clean boost in FX loop
EQ up front
EQ in FX loop
Maxon OD-9 up front
Maxon OD-9 in FX loop
Extra gain stage of GH50L

The best results to my ears, are an EQ in the FX loop with the sliders in a "^" shape.  This pushes the mids and really fattens up the sound, plus the overall level pushes the volume up.  I'll give this a try in rehearsal on Monday.  The clean boost didn't really fatten the sound up much to cut through, and the others added too much gain.

Thanks for all your advice!

[TwilightOdyssey]

It's encouraging to see someone putting in the time to get it right, and really experimenting with their gear, instead of just asking for sh!t's sake and never doing anything about it.

I'm also pleased to see that you're going to hash it out at rehearsal instead of bringing it to a gig and ... SUPRISE! May or may not be what you wanted!

A mid-boosty EQ thru the FX loop is a great option, and will probably work great at your next rehearsal!

[Twinfan]

Cheers TO.  I'm lucky in that I have a few bits of gear to try things out, but I wanted to see what the collective knowledge was to give me a bit of a head start.  I think the mid-boost EQ or the clean boost are the way to go, so I'll try the mid boost first.  I've got three rehearsals to get it right before our first paid gig...

[TwilightOdyssey]

our first paid gig...

Paid? What is this 'paid' you speak of?! PDT_008

[Twinfan]

Ha ha!  We've done one freebie and we've got a pub gig for £250 on the 12th August.  Result eh?

[TwilightOdyssey]

Ha ha!  We've done one freebie and we've got a pub gig for £250 on the 12th August.  Result eh?

Wow, and then some!
I'm playing on the 12th for a handful of wooden buttons, if memory serves.

[hunter]

get your distortion from the power amp, that way you can drive the rhythm tone with low gain and then blow it up with a tube screamer.

Also if you use the vol pot, bass will become less, if you dial in full speed, you might have too many low frequencies, which makes it muddy.

Rather reduce bass first  than increase anything, and always try the least posssible gain if a present sound is required.