some_dude
Raging BB Gunologist
Me, the guy who loves amp distortion, preferred to plug strait in and has hated anything to do with getting buzz out of a box, is now using a fuzzbox as the main source of my dirt.
It's been coming for awhile now. It started more or less exactly the moment the Electric Amp arrived, but it's been a slow and painful learning experience. The hardest thing was getting past certain hangups I have... such as knowing that a 30 foot cable sounds best for me, that a certain EQ shape works best for me, and (perhaps most importantly) that the amp's natural sound is better than that of any pedal.
So, once I simply forgot everything I thought I knew about tone, it all sorta fell together.
The amp is running at about quarter gain, which is just below where the preamp fully saturates and won't increase in volume. The master volume is as high as I can stand it, and the treble is set way higher than I would've ever thought I'd ever put it (yet surprisingly there's no icepick). Two 10 foot cables, plus the stuff on the board. My guitar volumes are typically between 2 and 8, and tone is 10 (neck) and just bit over 7 (bridge).
The hardest effect to dial in was the Soul-Bender. I pretty much hated that pedal from the moment I first plugged it in... it sounded buzzy with the gain up, dead with the gain down, and had a honky/boxy midrange that I hated. I honestly thought the thing sounded like sh*t and couldn't figure out what people liked about it. I still don't honestly know how I sorted it out, but as of today that pedal sounds great. I'm using it for my 'generic' distortion tones (although by generic, I mean strait out of the 70s rock and roll), and the '70's fuzz for a more chaotic/wild distortion tone. Thanks to the EQ change and running shorter cables I finally struck a balance across the strings, so the high strings aren't being buried by the low strings anymore.
The best part about this whole thing is the cleans. They're f*cking fantastic. So fat and warm I could play using just them for hours (and have, probably to the irritation of everyone living in a half mile radius). They sound so good that I feel somewhat guilty kicking a fuzz box on; however, sometimes you just some loud ass dirt to get your point across.
As a bit of a side effect to all this my tone has become much more raw sounding than it's been in years. My guitar is sounding much more punk than metal, and honestly it's a nice change. I like metal and all, but punk is my roots and the tone just feels right.
Anyway, to sum up... I'm really happy. Now lets hope it holds out.
It's been coming for awhile now. It started more or less exactly the moment the Electric Amp arrived, but it's been a slow and painful learning experience. The hardest thing was getting past certain hangups I have... such as knowing that a 30 foot cable sounds best for me, that a certain EQ shape works best for me, and (perhaps most importantly) that the amp's natural sound is better than that of any pedal.
So, once I simply forgot everything I thought I knew about tone, it all sorta fell together.
The amp is running at about quarter gain, which is just below where the preamp fully saturates and won't increase in volume. The master volume is as high as I can stand it, and the treble is set way higher than I would've ever thought I'd ever put it (yet surprisingly there's no icepick). Two 10 foot cables, plus the stuff on the board. My guitar volumes are typically between 2 and 8, and tone is 10 (neck) and just bit over 7 (bridge).
The hardest effect to dial in was the Soul-Bender. I pretty much hated that pedal from the moment I first plugged it in... it sounded buzzy with the gain up, dead with the gain down, and had a honky/boxy midrange that I hated. I honestly thought the thing sounded like sh*t and couldn't figure out what people liked about it. I still don't honestly know how I sorted it out, but as of today that pedal sounds great. I'm using it for my 'generic' distortion tones (although by generic, I mean strait out of the 70s rock and roll), and the '70's fuzz for a more chaotic/wild distortion tone. Thanks to the EQ change and running shorter cables I finally struck a balance across the strings, so the high strings aren't being buried by the low strings anymore.
The best part about this whole thing is the cleans. They're f*cking fantastic. So fat and warm I could play using just them for hours (and have, probably to the irritation of everyone living in a half mile radius). They sound so good that I feel somewhat guilty kicking a fuzz box on; however, sometimes you just some loud ass dirt to get your point across.
As a bit of a side effect to all this my tone has become much more raw sounding than it's been in years. My guitar is sounding much more punk than metal, and honestly it's a nice change. I like metal and all, but punk is my roots and the tone just feels right.
Anyway, to sum up... I'm really happy. Now lets hope it holds out.
