Keeping it Simple

[Mincer]

Re: Keeping it Simple

i think it is great when angus and malcom gets their sound...that is fine for them, but i don't want to sound like them. i certainly don't play like them, but i will enjoy what has been done before.
I was listening to Allan Holdsworth today- an album from '83, I think. He used a rack full of delays to get his chorus sound, and it is gorgeous- and all his. His lead sound is super smooth, and no one, I think, could sound like him if they tried.
If the player is creative, and original, it doesn't matter what they use. It isn't the effects or lack of effects, it is the creativity and vision to do something on their own.

 

[aleclee]

Re: Keeping it Simple

I was listening to Allan Holdsworth today- an album from '83, I think.

Road Games?

That album got this then-adolescent metalhead into more diverse genres.

 

[Mincer]

Re: Keeping it Simple

Yeah, 'Road Games'... I am teaching 'Thress Sheets to the Wind' to one of my students- and trying to re-learn it myself...man, those chords *hurt*.

 

[75lespaul]

Re: Keeping it Simple

I will never forget..... in 1984 I had an ESP guitar processor that I had been using constantly whether it was in rehearsal or just practicing in my room. It was shaped just like and sounded better than a Rockman plus it had all 1/4" ins & outs so you didn't need those stupid y cords. It had distortion, compression, delay and digital reverb all in one little box.

Well one day it broke. I went to rehearsal and had to play straight through a JCM800 and WOW was I sloppy. All those effects had just covered up how sloppy I had become. I also noticed how much better it sounded just guitar, cable and amp. I have since practiced strictly without effects, even no amp. If I feel the music requires it I'll use effects but I try to stay away from them now except for a wah or overdrive/fuzz/distortion.

 

[ErikH]

Re: Keeping it Simple

I'd pose the question whether "pure" tone is necessarily better. For example, I prefer the tone with my 20 year old Proco cables than the heavy duty oxygen-free beasts I got from Lord Valve. Guitar rigs are not hi-fi. We go to a lot of effort to introduce distortion into the signal chain through our pickups, pedals, amps, and speakers.

Anyone out there remember the cables that SRV preferred?

Yup. He liked the gray coil cables from Radio Shack due to their low capacitance. Of course he didn't know that was the reason they sounded better to him, he said others "used too much electricity". He wasn't a techie when it came to gear.

Lots of good views coming out of this. I'm glad I brought it up.

I used to use a rack effects unit in my rig but it's been sitting in the closet for the past 5-6 years. It's a nice Rocktron Intellifex LTD. When I did use it it was in the amp's effects loop and sounded really good. I then started playing without any effects at all and I too discovered how sloppy I got. Some may disagree but certain effects, when used too much or are saturating the signal too much (delay, chorus, reverb) can hide little mistakes that would otherwise stick out like a sore thumb in a dry signal, most noteably in fast shredding.

Now I've trimmed down to a wah, overdrive pedal, phaser and very little chorus. I used to have something like 8 pedals plus my midi controller on the floor. I haven't played out in years but I'm planning on getting things going again within the next year so the more practice the better.