misterwhizzy
Well-known member
Re: What does modern high-gain mean to you? (NAD related)
Crusty, I laughed at your post, and I'm glad you're reading the thread.
Crusty, I laughed at your post, and I'm glad you're reading the thread.
Compare this to the original and you'll get a good idea of the difference between old and modern high gain. The pinch at 36 sec. is a perfect example of how juicy and fluid modern high gain can sound.
I guess I'll answer a question with a question: does it matter?
With all the modern hi gain amps, does anyone actually play with the gain knob maxed out?
With my Marshall DSL, I like the sound of a boosted red channel (gain at 7) better that with the amp's gain maxed out.
Which is higher gain? Does it matter where the gain stages are (internal, vs. internal + external)?
In the end, my experience is that the aggression and the "percussiveness" of the tone is more in how you play (how hard you hit the strings) rather than how much gain you use.
Compare this to the original and you'll get a good idea of the difference between old and modern high gain. The pinch at 36 sec. is a perfect example of how juicy and fluid modern high gain can sound.
In the end, my experience is that the aggression and the "percussiveness" of the tone is more in how you play (how hard you hit the strings) rather than how much gain you use.
For me it's more about voicing/eq than absolute gain. I tend to think of scooped mids and tight low end.
YOU DAMN KIDS AND YOUR HIGH GAIN AMPS!!!
GET OFF MY LAWN!
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"If it's too loud then you're too old"
In the end, my experience is that the aggression and the "percussiveness" of the tone is more in how you play (how hard you hit the strings) rather than how much gain you use.
I feel as though I've just been quoted...
Van Halen wasn't high gain... it was high overdrive. If you search Youtube there's clips of isolated tracks off some of their songs and his guitar is relatively clean with a fair bit of speaker breakup.
I'd go like this....
Vintage High Gain - High gain as the result of a pedal into an amplifier.... Sabbath, Hendrix, Rhoads.
Classic High Gain - Early Mesa and Hot-Rodded Marshalls.
Modern High Gain - More percussive, more aggressive, more midrange heavy.
I feel as though I've just been quoted...
Solidstate amplifiers. I have a Crate that has so much gain on it, I don't even know why. SS amps generally are probably the best at pushing the gain envelope.