The Tone Thread

[JD01]

haha, that's excellent - he's actually made a great crack at the Kill 'em All tone too. It all sounds like some weird Hi-Gain version of Queen when played Major.

I've seen another one of these somewhere where a guy does cheesey TV themes and things in Minor keys. Most of them sound better!

[Greg_L]

Ok here's that Fat Boost with a humbucker. Same settings as the last clip, only this time with a Les Paul/Burstbucker 3.

Humfucker clip

[JD01]

Ok here's that Fat Boost with a humbucker. Same settings as the last clip, only this time with a Les Paul/Burstbucker 3.

Humfucker clip

This sounds much better! I think its just partly nice to hear you playing like Greg!

I like the boosted sound, when you add the extra fur on top it starts to get a bit fizzy, they all sound alright though. I just thought the sound when you had the pedal engaged was better when you were playing the lead fills, probably something to do with the way it compresses.

[JD01]

OK, so here's some tones from the PRS with my Custom as a benchmark. Its sounds alright. These pickups are barky fuckers!

They're different to my Custom, they have quite an aggressive top end, bit much on its own but I think the two guitars together sound good.

Custom.mp3

PRS.mp3

Custom and PRS.mp3

In A Mix.mp3

This is just a 57 in front of my Blackstar at moderately anti-social volume but nothing too drastic.

[WhiskeyJack]

Fat Pig for the win to my ears. I like it's big ol barky snap like bite. but my ears like that sort of thing. I could give or take the boosted portion of the fat pig clip. I think it could work. it may not be translating that well recorded. I am sure it makes a big difference in the room or on stage i'll bet. But with that style and that pick up in particular i sort of liked the first and second part.

I didn't care for the boost on the humbucker clips all that much. they just sounded pedally. BUT TO BE FAIR, i only say that when comparing to the first part that was a raw, no pedal added tone. once it was engaged i didn't like it. The use of the pedal translates way more noticeably on the humbuckers than the fat pig. If perhaps i didn't hear the raw part first i might like it a bit more. but, fed to me in an Option A, B,C format, i' like A best. B and C not so much.

[ocnor]

Ok here's that Fat Boost with a humbucker. Same settings as the last clip, only this time with a Les Paul/Burstbucker 3.

Humfucker clip

Way better.

[ocnor]

OK, so here's some tones from the PRS with my Custom as a benchmark. Its sounds alright. These pickups are barky fuckers!

They're different to my Custom, they have quite an aggressive top end, bit much on its own but I think the two guitars together sound good.
Custom.mp3
PRS.mp3
Custom and PRS.mp3
In A Mix.mp3

This is just a 57 in front of my Blackstar at moderately anti-social volume but nothing too drastic.

Sounds good.

[Greg_L]

This sounds much better! I think its just partly nice to hear you playing like Greg!

I like the boosted sound, when you add the extra fur on top it starts to get a bit fizzy, they all sound alright though. I just thought the sound when you had the pedal engaged was better when you were playing the lead fills, probably something to do with the way it compresses.

I thought the clean boost portion is okay, but the added hair part is poo to me. It does seem to make lead bits pop a little more.

Fat Pig for the win to my ears. I like it's big ol barky snap like bite. but my ears like that sort of thing. I could give or take the boosted portion of the fat pig clip. I think it could work. it may not be translating that well recorded. I am sure it makes a big difference in the room or on stage i'll bet. But with that style and that pick up in particular i sort of liked the first and second part.

I didn't care for the boost on the humbucker clips all that much. they just sounded pedally. BUT TO BE FAIR, i only say that when comparing to the first part that was a raw, no pedal added tone. once it was engaged i didn't like it. The use of the pedal translates way more noticeably on the humbuckers than the fat pig. If perhaps i didn't hear the raw part first i might like it a bit more. but, fed to me in an Option A, B,C format, i' like A best. B and C not so much.

Agreed across the board. To me, it does sound "pedally" and I'm not a fan of that. On both the Fat Pig and humbuker clips, to my ears, the pedal used solely as a clean boost is the way to go.

Way better.

Ha, different strokes I guess.

[Greg_L]

OK, so here's some tones from the PRS with my Custom as a benchmark. Its sounds alright. These pickups are barky fuckers!

They're different to my Custom, they have quite an aggressive top end, bit much on its own but I think the two guitars together sound good.
Custom.mp3
PRS.mp3
Custom and PRS.mp3
In A Mix.mp3

This is just a 57 in front of my Blackstar at moderately anti-social volume but nothing too drastic.

I think I actually prefer the PRS. It shouldn't drive your amp anywhere near as hard as that dumb JB does, but it's not lacking gain. Weird. The PRS-90 has tighter more defined low end. Both clips seem a little stiff and scratchy to me though. I think you should go back to square one with that amp. I don't know what you've got going on with pedals and EQs and shit, but it sounds a little neutered to me.

[JD01]

Yeah, it's something to do with the setup here using the Toneport here in bristol and the way it's set up. You can't direct monitor with it without having Line6's Gearbox sim open. It supposed to be set to bypass but it's not quite true. I can't run my mics how I normally would it does a weird blend.

I think the P90 is lacking in low end a bit. I find it a bit too harsh. Not bad, just quite in your face. I do like the sound of the two guitars together

[ocnor]

I don't know what you've got going on with pedals and EQs and shit, but it sounds a little neutered to me.

It's because the whole bottom end is gone. That is a valid tone for certain types of metal music. If it were my amp I'd bag the EQ pedal and get some better preamp tubes like Tungsol.

[Minerman]

Trying to catch up here guys, went all the way back to Greg's "eq" tracks...

Greg: I like the blended clip the best dude, & I downloaded 'em to have a play in the daw, I can probably use 'em as reference tracks to get mine in phase if I ever decide to go that route...

I preferred the 2nd Fulltone pedal clip, quite a bit over the first...The 1st one wasn't terrible, but the 2nd one mopped the floor with it to me...

Jdude: Nothing wrong with your acoustic track dude, sounds really good to me, I kept waiting on Robert Plant's vocals to kick in...

I like the PRS better than the Custom clip...I can still hear the Blackstar thing, but you've came a long, long way man...IMHO, if you invested in a 4x12, you'd be where you wanna be...Both guitars sound ok in the mix clip, but it's still got the same character you've always been dealing with, I honestly think if you got a 4x12 to use, it'd help you a lot...I understand about noise/space & all that though, so you've gotta do what you've gotta do man...I think you've came a long, long way since you became one of us Tonetards...

[JD01]

Trying to catch up here guys, went all the way back to Greg's "eq" tracks...


Jdude: Nothing wrong with your acoustic track dude, sounds really good to me, I kept waiting on Robert Plant's vocals to kick in...

I like the PRS better than the Custom clip...I can still hear the Blackstar thing, but you've came a long, long way man...IMHO, if you invested in a 4x12, you'd be where you wanna be...Both guitars sound ok in the mix clip, but it's still got the same character you've always been dealing with, I honestly think if you got a 4x12 to use, it'd help you a lot...I understand about noise/space & all that though, so you've gotta do what you've gotta do man...I think you've came a long, long way since you became one of us Tonetards...

Cheers, Miner - I'm pretty pleased with the acoustic tracks too - I was showing them to the girl that I bought the guitar off last night (trying to get her to sell me her Custom too, but she's not having it) and she was really impressed with how they cam out.

I might be able to stretch to a 2x12 later this year, but I'll never have the space for a 4x12. Been listening to a lot of cab and amp comparisons recently though and the cab really does seem to make more difference to the tone to the amp. I've even seen a comparison with the same amp through different cabs that sound much more different than different amps through the same cab.

Greg, I'm not surprised you prefer the PRS, your tones always have a real brightness to them - I'm normally chasing brightness with my amp but I find the PRS a little too bright! Sounds cool though and I'm definitely pleased I got it. The clip is with the SD1 (L10, G0) as a clean boost (Hey, that's probably why the PRS isn't lacking much gain in comparison) and with the EQ in the loop. The EQ isn't going a great deal now just a slight scoop at 400hz to take the worst of the boxiness out of the amp, with very slight boosts higher up to try and give it a bit more sparkle. Like Ocnor told me before, I've brought loads more bass and mid in on the amp EQ now and its improved a lot.

I listened to a few tracks that I recorded on the weekend from using the same/similar settings on the amp/EQ and, while they don't sound that different, the ones recorded on the the old Line6 do seem to have a weird scratchy spikiness to them. Its pretty subtle, but its there. Must be something to do with sending the signal through GearBox.

[Greg_L]

Greg, I'm not surprised you prefer the PRS, your tones always have a real brightness to them - I'm normally chasing brightness with my amp but I find the PRS a little too bright!

It's not really about brightness for me. I like bright, but I like balance and clarity more. Low end, mids, top end, all in balance. You probably will not be able to just switch back and forth between a JB powered guitar and a P90 powered guitar into the same amp settings. I can easily see amp settings that work for a JB being way way too bright for a P90.

[JD01]

Greg, I'm not surprised you prefer the PRS, your tones always have a real brightness to them - I'm normally chasing brightness with my amp but I find the PRS a little too bright!

It's not really about brightness for me. I like bright, but I like balance and clarity more. Low end, mids, top end, all in balance. You probably will not be able to just switch back and forth between a JB powered guitar and a P90 powered guitar into the same amp settings. I can easily see amp settings that work for a JB being way way too bright for a P90.

One thing I really liked about the P90s was that when I swtiched between the pickups I could still play in my usual style, lots of muting and strumming quiet hard with a decent amount of gain and it just sounded like a slightly darker done on the neck pickup or both pickups. On all my other humbucker guitars I never use the neck pickup for rhythm playing with anything other than a very slight crunch.

You're right though, they're noisy bastards.

[Greg_L]

One thing I really liked about the P90s was that when I swtiched between the pickups I could still play in my usual style, lots of muting and strumming quiet hard with a decent amount of gain and it just sounded like a slightly darker done on the neck pickup or both pickups. On all my other humbucker guitars I never use the neck pickup for rhythm playing with anything other than a very slight crunch.

You're right though, they're noisy bastards.

I'm thinking you might wanna try more gain. You said you liked that mental-level gain clip I did, so try it yourself. Go spastic with gain. Come out of the closet. Lol. You know you want to. Maybe, just maybe, it might smooth out some of the weirdness. Doesn't hurt to try.

[JD01]

One thing I really liked about the P90s was that when I swtiched between the pickups I could still play in my usual style, lots of muting and strumming quiet hard with a decent amount of gain and it just sounded like a slightly darker done on the neck pickup or both pickups. On all my other humbucker guitars I never use the neck pickup for rhythm playing with anything other than a very slight crunch.

You're right though, they're noisy bastards.

I'm thinking you might wanna try more gain. You said you liked that mental-level gain clip I did, so try it yourself. Go spastic with gain. Come out of the closet. Lol. You know you want to. Maybe, just maybe, it might smooth out some of the weirdness. Doesn't hurt to try.

haha, I might next weekend. I'm not gonna bother trying to get anything other than a scratch tracks recorded in Bristol - it just doesn't seem to work. I think the TonePort is a little bit fucked anyway. Its probably 10 years old now, which is ancient for an interface.

[JD01]

This isn't pretty. This seems to be how the Dutch like their instruments

20170318_135333.jpg

[Greg_L]

They like them Sideways?

[Bill L]

Theft protection? Or just a lot of really bad players that they don't want to subject themselves to hearing them play?