Trying To Get A Good Tone

[09 BB King]

Re: Trying To Get A Good Tone

I will try to find an amp tech in my area and talk to him. Thanks

If my wife would let me get more guitars I would get an Explorer, a Firebird, a Jaguar, a P Bass, a LP Standard, an ES-175, an L-4, an L-5, a Flying V, an EB-3, a ES-335, a sweet PRS and the Gretsch that Malcom Young and Brian Setzer play.

[Diego]

Re: Trying To Get A Good Tone

Simplify. Plug straight into your favorite amp with your favorite guitar. Just those two and nothing else.

Stay for a week or two like that, and try to squeeze the most out of that.
You'll find new sounds in your hands, and not from this or that box.
Try different cabs maybe, but keep the signal as pure as possible.

It will take a while. But it's worth it, you'll find a foundation, a tonal ground-zero.
That's what you're missing.
I don't despise pedals, but we can get a bit lost on them sometimes,
and I do believe that if you can't get a good base tone from your amp,
then it's no good for you and it should make way for something better.

Hope this helps.

[KBliss]

Re: Trying To Get A Good Tone

Im surprised with the gear you have- I use an overdrive with a real 12ax7 tube, (JJ swapped in) that i find satisfying, especially w/ the "Blues driver on 10". but it's ture, i dont find dirty channels on combos very satisfying.

What happens if you use the Bd-2 & Mxr:- into a Fender clean channel, preamp for room db, say 1or 3, master on 7,--- the Mxr distortion pdl: vol.way Up!, distortion on like 2or
3, and maybe the bd2 for tight attack? Cuz ive driven fender hot rods, blues jrs, peavey classic 30s , voxs etc this way & get THE tone everytime, at almost any volume, BUT it's
true as said above- the sweet spot is always just a little too loud at home.


Anyways, i think if you tweak slowly,with lots of pedal output vol, youll get what u want want w out deafening. Else, you need a hot
Plate/ variac,
but i Doubt it!! PlanZ, if all else fails, look into pedals w/ preamp tubes (Sey Dunc!, Blackstar, Radial Tonebone. I love my Jj in an Ibanez tubeking but i dont ultra recommend it for its shortcomings)

[KBliss]

Re: Trying To Get A Good Tone

Btw, BBKing sez," i just turn the amp's master volume up to ten and use my pot for volume!"

You can def goose the signal juice to drive the tubes into that RAWK w out the neighbors hearing it, nor see your tongue sticking out if yr doin it right. (*but not nec. with compressor on)

[FuseG4]

Re: Trying To Get A Good Tone

play the normal channel on between 8 and 10 (or between 9 and 12, I forget if that one goes to 12) depending on pickups, with no pedals. Run the presence below half and then set all the EQ knobs to zero. Dial up the mids until it gets the body you want, then dial up the bass until it starts to make less and less of a change (might be as low as 3 or 4), and then dial up the treble to taste, an then knock the treble back a notch. Then readjust your presence to suit.

Tell me that sound doesn't kick butt for blues and classic rock. If you don't like the sound after doing that, you should switch amps.

[misterwhizzy]

Re: Trying To Get A Good Tone

Maybe those atrocious JJ preamp tubes are the problem. Especially if they're the short plate ECC83's. I couldn't get any life out of those whatsoever. I'd recommend you get a Tung-Sol, a Mullard Reissue and a Ruby 12AX7AC5 HG+. Play around with those in V1 and see what you think. Once that gets you closer to the sound you want, mess with V2. I believe in that amp, those are the only tone-generating stages, so V3 just needs a low-noise tube suitable for a PI. (Note that I could be way off on matching the V slots to the functions, but that's pretty common for the layout.)

Here's why I picked those three tubes. First of all, I think the Tung-Sol is the best of the current production tubes, and I've tried a lot of them. They're bright, clear, have plenty of gain, and are pretty low noise. The Mullard is unlike anything else out there, in my opinion. It's got a ton of drive, but it's extremely smooth. If you like it, then I think it's the only one that'll do the things it does. The Chinese is just a big sounding tube. The highs aren't as crisp as the Tung-Sol, but it made a big difference in the mids and lowend in my amp. I think each of these brands represent the best of what they do, and they each do something different.

I really dislike JJs in V1. Their power tubes are great, in my experience, but you may be handicapping your sound when you did something you thought would improve it. At the very least, it's got to be worth at least fifteen bucks to find out. For what it's worth, I've had excellent dealings with Doug's Tubes, and they have a promotion on right now for their tenth anniversary.

[Chickenwings]

Re: Trying To Get A Good Tone

i reckon start at the start:
1. play only unplugged for a month. See what tones you can get using your fingers. Pick lightly for more sustain. Change where you pick the string for different timbres. Change the angle of your pick also for different timbres. Work on making the string sustain using vibrato. Use the heaviest pick you can find and you will develop sensetivity. You can always go back to thinner afterwards if you want.
2. Play using only the clean tone on your amp for a month. no pedals. No gain. No cutting corners.
3. Dial in some gain on your amp but only to the point where is distorts if you really dig in at full volume so when you pick light it goes back to clean.
In 3 months you will have killer tone...what you do with pedals and gain etc after that is just icing on the cake.
You have awesome gear, but dont rely on it for your sound....when all is said and done, it just amplifys what is happening at your end. After working on this for a few months, you can plug into any amp/guitar/pedal combo and pull beautiful tones with minimal tweaking.

[lareplus]

Re: Trying To Get A Good Tone

Aqua Puss for slapback, OD-3 for overdrive.

[Empty Pockets]

Re: Trying To Get A Good Tone

i mean

how can i explain this

it's like you've got all these fine exotic wines (that extensive and well-rounded collection of guitars and pedals)

and you only eat Big Macs. (the Hot Rod Deluxe.)

The HRD is a good amp. In fact it's better than a Big Mac. It could be a Double Steakburger. Either way it's something you can grab in a drive-thru pretty much anywhere in America and get a pretty much predictable, passable flavor.

You don't need more wattage, you need less. And yeah, you need to focus on practicing more. That's not an insult, it's a fact...everybody needs to practice more. You can hand the nicest guitar on earth plugged into nothing but hound-wired pedals and amps to an amateur and it's gona sound like ****. A good player that knows the instrument doesn't need good gear.

[everdrone]

Re: Trying To Get A Good Tone

Tone is in the hands.

yes!


also consider the 1/4 watt amps or modelers! 5 watts is WAY TOO MUCH to get a cranked sound, I know cause I own the epiphone valve junior combo, way too loud

[SteveAlysis]

Re: Trying To Get A Good Tone

If you're a bedroom player id go with a really low watt amp. The deluxes are way too loud for bedroom use. They sound very good whenn cranked, and on the verge of break up, but at that point you're at band playing levels.

New amp time!!!

[USAPatriot]

Re: Trying To Get A Good Tone

When you're making changes, don't make them too fast, nor make too many. Your brain can't keep up with your ears and soon enough fatigue sets in and everything sounds like hell...even the good stuff that you play regularly. So part of the trick to finding good tone is not to hurry the process. If things seem to be going south, go back to one of your good patches. It probably sounds muddy. If so, take a few hours off and go back to work. Better to record a half dozen different one right after another and then play them back at your leisure and when your ears are fresh. -Rod-

[ken361]

Re: Trying To Get A Good Tone

get a good amp with with a great gain channel first, my mesa mini has great clean and crunch and high gain, vox are good also depends what you looking for. Forget a bunch of pedals ya never get a true amp sound like that and your using a bunch of pedals and there prb not true bypass. Got to have all quality cables in there also or your going to get tone suckage!

[ken361]

Re: Trying To Get A Good Tone

Go with TC electronics pedals, high quality! dump the boss pedals. You have some sweet guitars in collection!

[09 BB King]

Re: Trying To Get A Good Tone

Thanks for all the suggestions. Like I said if I was going to buy and amp now I would get the Mesa 15 watt Transatlantic or the Egnater 15 watt Tweeker. It just so happened I got the HRDlx for a really great price. 40 watts is damn loud.