Strat guys, best pedal for violin like sustain?

disturb

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Those of you with true strat single coils, what's the best way to get that fat singing sustain? Fuzzface, Big Muff?
 
Re: Strat guys, best pedal for violin like sustain?

i would say big muff and a delay pedal. i also get some really nice fat sustain with a cranked ts9 and my analog man bicomp. It really depends on what kind of fat sustain you are looking for. both the combos ive described above are fat singing sustain in my book but they are very different.

it might not be what you are looking for, but you could also check out an ebow
 
Re: Strat guys, best pedal for violin like sustain?

Big Muff will give you a really fat, scooped, Muff-like sustain.

Fuzz Face will give you a more midrangy sustain.... and provided you go easy on the Strat's volume knob, you can dial it to the spot where it sings before the raging fuzz.

Another popular option is a pair of Tubescreamers (or any stacked OD's really). Sustain for days, just ask Santana and Stevie Ray Vaughn.

Myself? I use a Retro-Sonic Compressor (script MXR Dyna-Comp clone) into an already angry amplifier. I like it because it doesn't impart as much flavour as most OD's I've used, nor does it thin out or exagerate the bottom end like other OD's.
 
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Re: Strat guys, best pedal for violin like sustain?

srv got most of his tone and sustain from the amp, the ts was more of a filter and boost. lots of good options out there but the pair of tube screamers works nicely. keep the gain down a little so it wont get too noisy. even trey from phish used the same two screamer setup. it works really well.
 
Re: Strat guys, best pedal for violin like sustain?

a couple of cranked ts9's with a good delay and a pinch of chorus adds a bit
a nice silky-ness. Set the 9's in series at a little different gain settings, the first about half , the second around 2/3 full. Just watch the volume knob on the strat. As said previously ,

" provided you go easy on the Strat's volume knob, you can dial it to the spot where it sings before the raging fuzz."
 
Re: Strat guys, best pedal for violin like sustain?

for 60's like strat fuzz i use a simple full sized Danoelectro Fab Tone pedal.... it can get real noisey but thats part of it!
 
Re: Strat guys, best pedal for violin like sustain?

nah itll still sing
 
Re: Strat guys, best pedal for violin like sustain?

i would set one for a mild overdrive and balanced tone, use that one last then set the one before it so it gives you what you want. depending on individual pups, guitar etc... you may need more or less gain and volume.

when i do this i set the 2nd one for a good rhythm sound then adjust the first so it gives up the goods when used with the 2nd. once thats dialed in i see if the first one sounds good by itself and if not i try and tweek it so i can use either one by itself and both for the violin stuff.

in actuality i very seldom use one let alone two dirt boxes but there are three of them plus a clean boost on my pedal board.
 
Re: Strat guys, best pedal for violin like sustain?

Two John Spina TS9s ... hmmm .... interesting thought, not like I've never thought of it before, I just of thought of it as more of a raunchy kinda thing, but if you guys say that TS9s stocks in pair do the violin stuff, the thought of two Spina TS's sounds really intriguing.
 
Re: Strat guys, best pedal for violin like sustain?

you can do it with almost any two overdrives
 
Re: Strat guys, best pedal for violin like sustain?

Two John Spina TS9s ... hmmm .... interesting thought, not like I've never thought of it before, I just of thought of it as more of a raunchy kinda thing, but if you guys say that TS9s stocks in pair do the violin stuff, the thought of two Spina TS's sounds really intriguing.

try using the bridge pup with tone set full
 
Re: Strat guys, best pedal for violin like sustain?

Problem with stacked ODs for me is all the NOISE it adds

I agree the Big Muff is scooped and bassy and almost too much. then the Fuzz Face can be too buzzy and trebly at lower volumes.

Recently I have had a LOT of luck with the RAT pedal, but I am looking for other options. How does DAVID GILMOUR get such great, perfectly EQ'd tones? WOW!
 
Re: Strat guys, best pedal for violin like sustain?

How does DAVID GILMOUR get such great, perfectly EQ'd tones? WOW!

That's easy to answer: He's David Gilmour, and his pedalboard is designed by Pete Cornish. Plus, no doubt David and Pete -- as well as at least a dozen top-shelf techs -- have gone through every square inch of circuitry between his pick and the grill in front of the PA speakers.

- Keith
 
Re: Strat guys, best pedal for violin like sustain?

That's easy to answer: He's David Gilmour, and his pedalboard is designed by Pete Cornish. Plus, no doubt David and Pete -- as well as at least a dozen top-shelf techs -- have gone through every square inch of circuitry between his pick and the grill in front of the PA speakers.

- Keith

+1 on that .. and.........he got the bucks to get it done whatever it takes...
 
Re: Strat guys, best pedal for violin like sustain?

T Rex Mudhoney.

I can pluck a note, have a drink, come back, and the note is still sustaining.

It's a hard pedal to categorize because it covers OD, Dist, and Fuzz. It's basically a device that creates the sound of an amp ready to explode.
 
Re: Strat guys, best pedal for violin like sustain?

T Rex Mudhoney.

I can pluck a note, have a drink, come back, and the note is still sustaining.

It's a hard pedal to categorize because it covers OD, Dist, and Fuzz. It's basically a device that creates the sound of an amp ready to explode.

+1. A great pedal, love mine, covers most of my needs.
 
Re: Strat guys, best pedal for violin like sustain?

A cooking amp, OD, and serious compression. I've used the EH nano soul preacher comp and it'll push a TS-9 into AC-15 deep into violin-land. I know David Gilmour has had three compressors on his board and been known to use all three at once. I like compression with strats because it adds attack and sustain without fuzziness. Some good hard compression will make any distortion seem much more saturated without going into chainsaw territory. And really, that's the anatomy of the violin sound: take a nice edgy crunch and push it into sweet, endless sustain by adding a compressor and/or winding up the power tubes. What also really helps is a tape or analog type echo after the OD but before the input of a semi-distorted tube amp. Because of the amp distortion it really glues into the sound. You really can't tell it's a delay, it just seems like the guitar rings on forever.

Oh, yeah and for pedals I'd look at the Diamond fireburst.
 
Re: Strat guys, best pedal for violin like sustain?

Stand in front of your Marshall set to full volume. Your strat will sustain for days.

That's kinda old skool, but I think Eric Johnson still relies on that approach.
 
Re: Strat guys, best pedal for violin like sustain?

Stand in front of your Marshall set to full volume. Your strat will sustain for days.

That's kinda old skool, but I think Eric Johnson still relies on that approach.

Dang it Kosh, you beat me to the Eric Johnson reference by one post.
Yeah, he's the master of the singing violin sustain tone, which is different then the Carlos Santana big Muff style sustain tone, but both are heavily compressed.
Eric Johnson was reyling on the Tube works tube drive I believe, but the expensive one, not the cheap ones.
Both Santana and Johnson use a bunch of real natural sounding speakers like celestions and tone tubbys and straigt forward gain amps to try and keep it real smooth and get some life back into the compresed tone.
 
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