Want to THICKEN my guitar tone?!

[TwilightOdyssey]

Re: Want to THICKEN my guitar tone?!

The two routes I've had the best luck with are...In an FX loop, use a good 31 band graphic EQ, running mainly flat but with certain frequencies dialed up. When you make a guitar pop out of the mix on tape, you're just basically boosting the frequencies that cut through the mix the best. Do it with your live rig, too.

Some of the new boutique OD companies are making very linear clean boost pedals like the Klon, Banzai Coldfusion, Fulltone OCD etc. I've made a halfstack sound monsterous, just by leaving one of those on with a slight boost. Then use channel switchers or other OD units as your lead tones. Both those ideas are within a $200 solution to your question.

Lots of good advice there, GJ, thanx.
I'm already using a Fulltone Full-Drive 2 and a Fat Boost. And, YES, I want it to be fatter! LOL
I already have a great live tone ... my goal is to see if I can't get it a bit closer to the sound on the album, since that will become the sonic reference once it's released. It would kill me to play a gig only to have someone say they liked the guitar tone better on the album than live!! :evil:

 

[TwilightOdyssey]

Re: Want to THICKEN my guitar tone?!

Two amps stereo?

I can run in stereo if I use my rack. I have two 4x12 cabs and a Marshall EL34 100/100 power amp, which is dual mono. Any processing in particular you would recommend?

 

[some_dude]

Re: Want to THICKEN my guitar tone?!

hey twilight when i saw LYNCH the last time that is what he was using . how about an older rackmounted analog delay set for doubling almost no delay eary 80's type thing roland/ibanez/korg or something or how about a chandler tube delay they are rack mount kinda hard to find but great tone

I've done this using a Boss DD-20. I ran one channel dry and one channel with between 1ms and 20ms of delay (one repeat). It sounded great for some single note stuff, and even some chording, but I didn't like the overall effect so I stopped it.

 

[some_dude]

Re: Want to THICKEN my guitar tone?!

What I'm refering to is the beefiness that it took on once we ran it through the Pultec EQ: that's what I'm trying to capture a bit more of.

You could mess around with various buffers to see if any do something similar.

The one I hear the most about is the Axess-Electronics BS-2. I hang out on a rack-heads page trying to absorb some knowledge, and that's the one many of them seem to swear by.

 

[Curly]

Re: Want to THICKEN my guitar tone?!

Sonny Landreth gets a very fat tone with his strat on his new live album. He runs his amps in stereo, and uses a Demeter Mid Boost/Fat Control on the album (someone asked about that here the other day). One of the few things they did on the album was to pan the amps left and right for some added separation

this is likely along the lines of the EQ idea

 

[Brow]

Re: Want to THICKEN my guitar tone?!

Why I oughta .... :evil:
I'm gonna have Brow come round your house and give you a kick in the teeth for me!

Sorry mate, but Nuntius hooked me up with Gordon Smith Guitars so I'm afraid I can't be your enforcer this time around

Surely you can find a Parametric EQ you like for less than $4,000? I've heard good stuff about the Furman PQ-3's too, but have never used 1 myself so I don't know through experience.

Craig

 

[BornToShred]

Re: Want to THICKEN my guitar tone?!

Block your floyd, and raise the wuss action you have on that JEM :fing25:

Amen! :laugh2:

 

[nuntius]

Re: Want to THICKEN my guitar tone?!

Seeing as Brow won't do it, i'll be glad to for the price of a pint.

Besides, it seems nuntius was dating one of my ex-girlfriends when she was still with me... he was the 'sick relative in manchester'. So i owe him anyway.







:laugh2:

Bring it, you sheep sh@ggin welsh boy!































Oh wait, isn't mattt the martial ar... :wall:

 

[Rich_T]

Re: Want to THICKEN my guitar tone?!

Im staying well out of this civil war.

I think the tiny delay thing should work, thats what i do, with a visual sound H2O pedal set to minimum delay time and repeats, with the level at about haf way. Thats on all the time with distorted sounds, running in stereo, less gain and mids, more bass on the delayed sound. Thickens it out nicley.

 

[TwilightOdyssey]

Re: Want to THICKEN my guitar tone?!

Sorry mate, but Nuntius hooked me up with Gordon Smith Guitars so I'm afraid I can't be your enforcer this time around

Surely you can find a Parametric EQ you like for less than $4,000? I've heard good stuff about the Furman PQ-3's too, but have never used 1 myself so I don't know through experience.

Craig

Hmmm ... I see what's going on here ...
Anyway, YES, there is an EQ cheaper than the $4K Avalon ... it's the $2k Focusrite!

 

[TwilightOdyssey]

Re: Want to THICKEN my guitar tone?!

Sonny Landreth gets a very fat tone with his strat on his new live album. He runs his amps in stereo, and uses a Demeter Mid Boost/Fat Control on the album (someone asked about that here the other day). One of the few things they did on the album was to pan the amps left and right for some added separation

this is likely along the lines of the EQ idea

Thanx for the heads up, Curly ... I think that is probably what I'm looking for, but in a rackmount. Anyone know of something similar?! It sounds to me like a parametric EQ or the Avalon U5 are the obvious choices here.

 

[Duke of Metal]

Re: Want to THICKEN my guitar tone?!

Hey TwilightOdyssey,
Long time no see online bro..

regarding your posting. what tubes are you currently using in your ENGL preamp and in your Marshall poweramp?

Regarding EQs, I'd suggest either a graphic or Parametric EQ. If your not looking to spend alot of cash, look into the Rane parametric EQs. They made some good EQs. There is the 5 and 7 channel EQs. if you want more options, go with the 7 band.


Duke

 

[TwilightOdyssey]

Re: Want to THICKEN my guitar tone?!

Well, I just did a direct comparison from my Engl/Marshall combo to my Rivera to my JCM 800, using my M1 Tiger on all three ... there's no doubt about it. The Engl/Marshall will always be a great secondary rig, but it will never, never beat the tone of the Rivera. The Knucklehead wasn't even warmed up, and it totally laughed at the rack gear!!

Soooo ... now I know I need to use something thru the FX loop of the K100. I'm really leaning towards the Avalon Design U5. Does anyone have any experience with this unit?

My current chain goes like this:
Gtr --> Fulltone Full-Drive 2 --> Fulltone Fat Boost --> Rivera Knucklehead

HAS ANYONE TRIED USING THEIR FAT BOOST THRU THE FX LOOP? WOULD THIS WORK?

 

[Quencho092]

Re: Want to THICKEN my guitar tone?!

Spina TS9 with da tone rolled off....oh yea mid-fi blues tone all the way.....

 

[FireBros.]

Re: Want to THICKEN my guitar tone?!

Check out one of these Langevin Pultec EQP-1a, They have a real Pultec circuit, and sound amazing. I've never used one in a loop before, but they should work as good as any other highend rack gear, if not better. If you really want to spend more money, the Manley version is also very cool.
BTW anything from Avalon sound great, but the U5 would not normally be used in an effects loop.

 

[induktor]

Re: Want to THICKEN my guitar tone?!

Thanks TwilightOdyssey and greetings to you and everyone in the forum. Yeah, the eq would probably be the best and cleanest solution. That's all I use with my Mesa. I wouln't mind having a nice focusrite parametric for this purpose. I have heard that some people have had great results using the MXR doubler/flanger for that pseudo double tracked effect though.

 

[TwilightOdyssey]

Re: Want to THICKEN my guitar tone?!

Check out one of these Langevin Pultec EQP-1a, They have a real Pultec circuit, and sound amazing. I've never used one in a loop before, but they should work as good as any other highend rack gear, if not better. If you really want to spend more money, the Manley version is also very cool.
BTW anything from Avalon sound great, but the U5 would not normally be used in an effects loop.

Ah, very good info. Thanx! I was, in fact, looking at Langevin, Manley, Avalon, Focusrite, API, etc.
I will look into that EQ as well!!

 

[Brow]

Re: Want to THICKEN my guitar tone?!

I think you'd really like the Focusrite mate.

The studio I sometimes work in has a Focusrite Pre-amp and a Compressor and they're really nice pieces of kit.

I raised the action on my Gordon Smith today and it improved things for me no end, so maybe Nuntius' idea of raising the action slightly wasn't so bad an idea?

Craig

 

[TwilightOdyssey]

Re: Want to THICKEN my guitar tone?!

The Langevin certainly looks like the Pultec .. same simplified, 4-knob layout.
I'll check it ou!

 

[Marinblues]

Re: Want to THICKEN my guitar tone?!

have you tried one of these?