Let's Talk Lead Tones.

[Gearjoneser]

I see a lot of threads about amps, pedals, and pickups, but very little about how we put them all together to arrive at our favorite lead tones.

Of course, there's more than one type of lead tone, but what formulas have you guys come up with, in order to acheive a great lead guitar sound?

Do you favor a guitar straight into a highgain amp?

Guitar into OD pedal into midgain or highgain amp?

Fuzz or Distortion into a clean amp? Midgain amp?

What are your favorite formulas? Be specific about models of guitars, FX, and amps.

[Marinblues]

Re: Let's Talk Lead Tones.

"Guitar into OD pedal into midgain or highgain amp"

and

"guitar straight into a highgain amp"

[Hot _Grits]

Re: Let's Talk Lead Tones.

Nothing works better for presence than straight into the amp, cranked, but my G2D classic comes very close.

[That90'sGuy]

Re: Let's Talk Lead Tones.

For lead, there is no substitute... straight into the amp. No pedals, no nothing... just pure tone

[InstituteOfNoise]

Re: Let's Talk Lead Tones.

Guitar, Cord, Amp!

[Vasshu the humanoid typhoon]

Re: Let's Talk Lead Tones.

What ever works...have no regular formula.
Sometimes tubes are annoyingly inconsistant, sometimes pedals sounds too small.

[Guitarist]

Re: Let's Talk Lead Tones.

Les Paul into a dirty Boogie with a light touch of overdrive on bridge pup - shred!!!

Strat into a lightly distorted Marshall on the neck pup or some combo, but keep it warm!!

Fun!

PS: Delay's always fun in appropriate measures.

[Nightburst]

Re: Let's Talk Lead Tones.

Lead tone sounds best to my ears with pure amp distortion, no stompbox.

[Wattage]

Re: Let's Talk Lead Tones.

There are times I make some changes but rarely will I record a real part anyway other than straight into the amp.

[Gearjoneser]

Re: Let's Talk Lead Tones.

For smooth singing highgain, the best tones I've ever gotten were Les Pauls or McCarties into either Bogner Ecstasy red ch w/Klon Centaur OD OR a Banzai Coldfusion in front of the Marshall 50W Jubilee for a toothier highgain sound. Neither of those amps really NEED an overdrive in front of them, but it's sometimes fun to see how defined you can make a singing, sustaining lead tone.

For a more 'fusiony' type tone, a Les Paul/Seth neck into Klon into Matchless Chieftain.

For a 'texas Gibbons' type sound I like going straight into the Bogner's Plexi mode with the gain up high.

The best fuzz tones I've heard were a stratneck into a H.B.E. Mudhoney fuzz
into a Bogner Shiva set on a midgain tone. Also, a Fulltone 69 into a Plexi.

For that big, tubey, hollow strat neck Stevie Ray tone, the best thing I've heard is
my strat's Fat 50 neck pickup stereo into an old Super Reverb and Chieftain.
One pedal I'll always regret selling was a Blues Pearl Blue Screamer, which really did a great job of nailing the best strat/blues tones. One of those new Ibanez TS 808 Reissues would probably do just as well.

I'm not much of an expert on Tele tones quite yet, but I've been messing around with the Tele into the Matchless Chieftain, a lot. That tone is so pure, I almost avoid using OD pedals for those tones. I kind of like to run the amps wide open, then use the guitar's controls to control the gain.

Of course, the 'go to' tones will always be ones that fit your music, but it is fun to see how many ways you can make a great lead tone. Sometimes, it's hard to tell by playing and listening. The tell tale tones, are when you can step back and hear it recorded, or hear it with another person playing your guitar. Then again, that changes the tone, as well. It's all fun and games till someone goes deaf! LOL

[Pandemonium]

Re: Let's Talk Lead Tones.

Volume between 7 and 10, Duncan Custom bridge into a DOD 250 OD with the drive at about 10 o'clock and the volume set for a pretty good boost into the low gain side of a cranked 2204. I'll add an MXR flanger at long delays sometimes, I like that sound for certain songs, gives the solo a nasty growl. I'll also use the pitch shifter in my TC Electronics chorus during some solos set to give a choppy "stuttering" sound. I seldom use chorus during solos, when I do it's usually set for a fairly fast vibrato effect. As often as not I'll just dime the volume on the guitar and stay off the pedals. I tend to use the neck pup ['59] and neck/bridge combination more for clean work and distorted solos on songs where I'm playing the rhythm parts clean. I also play a '74 335 with stock pups and use it about the same way. The 335 is my first choice on the "pretty" stuff though.

[Fatty]

Re: Let's Talk Lead Tones.

I put my guitar right into my amp with the gain set at 6 and the drive set at 7. I also have a compressor in the FX loop set to give the signal a small boost.

[BluesNRock87]

Re: Let's Talk Lead Tones.

guitar-chord-amp

usually bridge (sometimes neck) pup, volume about 8-10, rarely 5-7, tone wherever i want it, and the amps gain around 7, with the volume appropraite for the level, though i prefer to cook up the tubes and get some nice clean channel od....

[BS123]

Re: Let's Talk Lead Tones.

Personally, I favor either my Tele or my Variax (with the T-Model bridge pickup setting) though my Peavey Classic 50/212. I run a Marshall ED-1 all the time and I have a Danelectro Surf-n-Turf compressor I kick in for solos. I have a bit of reverb and slap echo too. The tone isn't Fender Twin clean. It's more 58 Bassman gritty but still clean enough to do banjo rolls.

Settings are:
Presence-6
Master Volume-12
Treble-7
Middle-5
Bass-8
Lead Volume-6
Lead Gain-6
Volume-3

[BluesNRock87]

Re: Let's Talk Lead Tones.

o yea, occasionaly a pedal up front, though i am still searching, ultimately i think it will be either a nice midgain amp and fuzz pedal, maybe a boost, and something else, to color it a bit, but who knows, lead tones constantly evolve!