Gain Fatigue - anyone have/notice this?

Aceman

Aceman

I am your doctor of love!
No matter how much gain (dirt-fuzz-hair-dust) that you use, you eventually decide that you need more.

Example:

You start with a TS-9. You LOVE it. But then, after a while….
A TS-9 Turbo, or whatever "more Gain" box. And that extra gain is awesome! But after a while…
You step up to a wide range distortion, maybe the new Duncan Dirty Secret. You run it in the middle. Just enough more than the Turbo green box. But then…
You start creeping the gain up towards "10." After a while, you need more.
Then, and this is my situation, You start asking yourself


Didn't my Metal Muff have more gain than that when I first got it?


So i ask - is there Gain Fatigue, and have you ever had it.
 
Re: Gain Fatigue - anyone have/notice this?

Nope.


I never use any gain on my TS clone. When I want more, I turn it up on the preamp. That's a rare phenomena, too.
 
Re: Gain Fatigue - anyone have/notice this?

I know what you're saying, and I suspect it's worse for bedroom players. Too much gain and you destroy clarity in a band situation, which usually keeps the reins on most players. *Notice the qualifying statements*
 
Re: Gain Fatigue - anyone have/notice this?

Oh I absolutely go into a less is more mode.

especially in band/group mode.
 
Re: Gain Fatigue - anyone have/notice this?

Aceman said:
No matter how much gain (dirt-fuzz-hair-dust) that you use, you eventually decide that you need more.

Example:

You start with a TS-9. You LOVE it. But then, after a while….
A TS-9 Turbo, or whatever "more Gain" box. And that extra gain is awesome! But after a while…
You step up to a wide range distortion, maybe the new Duncan Dirty Secret. You run it in the middle. Just enough more than the Turbo green box. But then…
You start creeping the gain up towards "10." After a while, you need more.
Then, and this is my situation, You start asking yourself


Didn't my Metal Muff have more gain than that when I first got it?


So i ask - is there Gain Fatigue, and have you ever had it.
Click to expand...

I'm quite the opposite..The better I become as a player,the less gain I find I use(To a point)..I Like crunch,but I also like to retain note articulation..These days I use less effects also..Just some reverb for the clean stuff and delay on some lead work..Too much gain and or effects,washes out the overall mix within our band.
 
Re: Gain Fatigue - anyone have/notice this?

Again, in m y old age, I find I ore often use less and less. But I have been on a gain bing lately. Metal Muff + Marshall + Blackout….

And my ear is getting used to it and wanting "more"

But complete tonal agreement. Less gain is way better in almost every situation.
 
Re: Gain Fatigue - anyone have/notice this?

Aceman said:
Again, in m y old age, I find I ore often use less and less. But I have been on a gain bing lately. Metal Muff + Marshall + Blackout….

And my ear is getting used to it and wanting "more"

But complete tonal agreement. Less gain is way better in almost every situation.
Click to expand...

So subjective pal..Depends on the music styles..I Like all kinds of music and it also depends on the player and the tone they get.I'm basically an early Plexi Marshall/Blackfaced Fender clean guy..And some pedals..
 
Re: Gain Fatigue - anyone have/notice this?

I'm an adherent to the HM2, therefore I have hit the ceiling of functional wikked gainz and I know it. The only step after is to smash the signal with modulation.
 
Re: Gain Fatigue - anyone have/notice this?

I know where you are coming from, does part of it come from the compression of the extra gain? (All of a sudden a little slop is hidden, hammer-ons and pull-offs speak easier and partially fretted "duffs" sound at nearly the same volume as a well fretted note) It certainly makes playing some styles easier.

I've been playing with a very reduced gain level lately. As in both amps have remained on the clean channel and I have a KoT on all the time for some boost and "hair". Volume knob to clean up and maybe step on a Blues Pro or the other channel of the KoT if I really decide I need more. But keeping gain at this level has reacquainted me with using pick, fingers and fretting pressure to really shape the notes and tone. Digging in for "more" and backing off for "less". (Plus I've been on a serious classic rock binge, and other than fuzzes those tones are much cleaner than the Splawn/Mesa allow you to dial in)
 
Re: Gain Fatigue - anyone have/notice this?

Mmmm....I would say sometimes. For my rhythm tones I typically use gain in a hot jcm 800 range and my lead sound would a similar tone with more mids, less treble and a bit more gain. My gain levels for leads really depend on how I am playing. If I am not feeling it for some reason, I will typically dial in a little extra pre-amp juice to bail me out a bit.
 
Re: Gain Fatigue - anyone have/notice this?

Depends, for rock and crunch situations I've noticed over the years I've been playing with less gain. Better note clarity and better playability with picking dynamics.

For high gain, I ****in crank that ****. Obviously not to a point of mud, but hitting the front of a high gain tube amp with a tube screamer is just brilliant.

Well, hitting any tube amp is..
 
Re: Gain Fatigue - anyone have/notice this?

Interesting, aceman. I've never experienced gain creep/fatigue. Even though I play thrash metal stuff quite often, I find myself turning the gain knob DOWN more often than up, as I find the note definition is better, as others have said above.
 
Re: Gain Fatigue - anyone have/notice this?

Inder_Cine_Mann said:
Depends, for rock and crunch situations I've noticed over the years I've been playing with less gain. Better note clarity and better playability with picking dynamics.

For high gain, I ****in crank that ****. Obviously not to a point of mud, but hitting the front of a high gain tube amp with a tube screamer is just brilliant.

Well, hitting any tube amp is..
Click to expand...

Absolutely agree about your first sentence,but not the TS part..LOL
 
Re: Gain Fatigue - anyone have/notice this?

I think it depends on what amp you are playing on. I find myself doing that with Marshall style amps. When I got my 6505 I found myself constantly turning the gain down.
 
Re: Gain Fatigue - anyone have/notice this?

It could depend on what we perceive as a lot of gain. Aceman thinks KISS is metal while Kingswebe thinks Slayer is. So the initial tone we dial in is more to what we're used to hearing. Aceman is turning the gain up to Van Halen levels while Kingswebe is turning his down to Megadeth levels. It's all relative. There is a point where too much gain is complete mush and loses all clarity. I don't think Ace is there and Kingswebe is slowly moving away from the brink of destruction.
 
Re: Gain Fatigue - anyone have/notice this?

I've had this affliction since the end of the 1980s. And not caused by me, but by most of the rest of the guitar world. Fortunately i don't use amps with 'gain' or 'master' written anywhere on the control panel, but it seems that almost everybody else does and have flogged that horse into the ground. If i want industrial-grade noise, i'll use my angle-grinder on some scrap steel ... but i'd never want to make ugly sounds like that with a guitar.
 
Re: Gain Fatigue - anyone have/notice this?

I had it when I started out. Just got me the most extreme stompboxes that where out there at the time and slammed that in an overdriven amp. Voila, cured.
Just did it backwards, looking for more definition actually.
 
Re: Gain Fatigue - anyone have/notice this?

very very interesting this topic is. I'll say yes.

what's really weird to me is, it seldom seems enough when I'm playing live in the room, but when I hear my guitar recorded, I want to hear the same riffs with lower gain without fail. it's just harder to play like that for some reason. I'm trying to train myself to hear how I'd like it recorded, not how my inner angst ridden youth wants to hear the gain.

case in point - this sounded super low gain when I recorded it, but when I hear it back it's just about right, if not almost too much:

 
Last edited:
Re: Gain Fatigue - anyone have/notice this?

play your acoustic exclusively for a month or so. No choruses, delays of exciters either. Just pick up your guitar and play. You'll get your touch back.
 
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