# Tone Discussion



## WayneCustom7 (Jan 13, 2006)

OK since my little incident with the band, I've become rather insecure with my tone, but that's cool, cause perhaps I was going about it the wrong way anyway. So if you guys don't mind, list your variable tone settings...now depending on gear and stuff, things will not necessarily be relative here, but atleast I can get a feel for what people use, like for a rythm tone, lead and clean tones. Now I'm guessing there will be a splitting of groups here, those who play in a band and those who don't, so let us know which group you're in...thanks!


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## Jerich (Jan 14, 2006)

wow this is really opening yourself up here wayne! I wish i could help but i do not have your ears or fingers Nor' do i want them but...start off simple try a tube amp with maybe an overdrive pedal and work on dis tones...ask locals... to see what they use to achieve tones similar to what you want..In this ever changing tone world...it is all up to the ears and hands who own it! I will tell you some equipment/gear sound great at Low Volumes some sound better at high Volume very few sound best at both volumes. Line 6 stuff sound great Low...Marshalls sound great LOUD!!! and whatever you do  DO NOT SCOOP THE MIDS!!!


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## Shannon (Jan 14, 2006)

Jerich said:


> and whatever you do  DO NOT SCOOP THE MIDS!!!



+1  
The "Bass:10/Mids:0/Highs:10" EQ setting can sound great at bedroom volumes, but in a band, it's ass on a stick! Bump those Mids into the 3-5 range when playing in a loud band situation.


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## WayneCustom7 (Jan 14, 2006)

Thanks guys and your right about different levels. I now know about the mids so I'm keeping all of the settings relatively similar to start, then I will shape accordingly (I'll probably wait till practise). As far as equipment goes, I am not changing, I guess my question was more geared towards what effects people use to color their tones. Like for rythm, do you add something, reverb, chorus?
And what about leads, delay? What...thanks!


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## Vince (Jan 14, 2006)

My Chameleon thread:
http://www.sevenstring.org/forum/showthread.php?t=1596

Keith's Mesa Nomad thread:
http://www.sevenstring.org/forum/showthread.php?t=863


Those would be a great start. Paolo, forgive my ignorance, but what amp are you using? What cab as well?


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## that guy (Jan 14, 2006)

boss metal zone pwns most pedals lol depends on the sound the metal zone has a kick anus solo tone like on the high notes but for me it lacks on the rythm which is why i switch between a metal zone and the hughs and kettner warp factor


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## Dylan7620 (Jan 14, 2006)

Jerich said:


> DO NOT SCOOP THE MIDS!!!





Shannon said:


> +1
> The "Bass:10/Mids:0/Highs:10" EQ setting can sound great at bedroom volumes, but in a band, it's ass on a stick! Bump those Mids into the 3-5 range when playing in a loud band situation.



you can scoop the mids if you want. just try not to use the GC settings of 10-0-10. and depending what amp you have you may need to do so to "set into" the mix and not have it sounding obnoxious. my nomad has waaay more mids then i need so i turn them down quite a bit but there is still enough to cut through. then again i run my bass at about 9 o clock and treble at 1 o clock.


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## WayneCustom7 (Jan 14, 2006)

desertdweller said:


> My Chameleon thread:
> http://www.sevenstring.org/forum/showthread.php?t=1596
> 
> Keith's Mesa Nomad thread:
> ...


Vox ToneLab SE->Behringer Ultrafex(think BBE Sonic)->Peavey 60/60 Classic Tube Power Amp->Behringer 412S cab...thanks desert dweller, I will check those posts. 
Last night I created roughly six different rythm and lead banks. One based on the Mesa, one on the Soldano, two or 3 based on the different Marshalls and one on the Orange Boutique (I think that's what it is)...this way I can try different tones out with the band...I have a feeling the Mesa won't be one they'll like...man it's friggin DARK


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## nitelightboy (Jan 18, 2006)

I use just a touch of chorus 'verb and delay for most of my cleans. My rhythm is just straight amp distortion(90% of the time). Leads depend on the setting I'm in. In a club or small room, I add a little delay, and in larger rooms, I don't.

Now as far as EQ goes. In my room, I tend to gor for a B:7 M:3 H:8. In higher volume settings, I roll off the bass and add mids. So a club setting would be more like B:5 M:4-5 H:7-8. This gives me a pretty nice fat, crunchy palm mute and some good cut through the band.


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## WayneCustom7 (Jan 18, 2006)

Thanks nitelightboy, that was the kind of info I was looking for...initially I believe my rythm had just too much excess (bass, effect etc).


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## nitelightboy (Jan 18, 2006)

Not a problem, but remember that you do have to change your settings for most different rooms and volume levels. I have log books of all of my settings and what they're good for...it just keeps me organized so I don't have to fiddle with knobs for an hour everytime I set up


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## WayneCustom7 (Jan 18, 2006)

Great advice, I'm going to create a note book on different settings, thanks. I'll set my 'live' rythm setting without any effects whatsover, with just gain, and the bass rolled back. I've already started, but I believe I have a hint of 'Flanger' in there, so I'll drop that...


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## Naren (Jan 18, 2006)

As for the scooped mids, I used to play in a band with a setting of Lows: 6 Mids: 0 Highs: 8. I thought it sounded pretty cool. Had a cool punch. Right now my setup is more like Lows: 4 Mids: 3 Highs: 8, which sounds pretty good with the bridge Blaze Custom in my RG1527 through rectified high gain.


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## Roland777 (Jan 18, 2006)

My Roland Cube 30 sure roars on the Rectifier-model (For what I need, and for what I am: bedroom rocker! ) - I usually go Bass: 7.5 Mid: 7.5, Treble: 9 or Bass: 9, Mid: 4.5, Treble: 9.


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## angryman (Jan 27, 2006)

Tone is a really personal thing you have to find what works best for you cos it's down to what you wanna hear at the end of the day,


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## bracky (Jan 27, 2006)

Buy a Peavey all tube amp and turn all the knobs to 7. Toss all your effects. Then you'll be getting somewhere.


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## angryman (Jan 28, 2006)

yeah Baby thats the ticket to METALVILLE


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## telecaster90 (Feb 18, 2006)

I actually like some chorus in my leads. It gives it this cool Zakk Wylde-ish tone.


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## bostjan (Feb 18, 2006)

When I bought my Mesa, the first thing I did was set all of the knobs, except the volume, to twelve o'clock. I slowly turned up the volume and adjusted the eq and gain until i was happy.

Right now I've got Volume: 11 o'clock, Gain: 2 o'clock, Highs: 1 o'clock, Mid's: 11 o'clock, Lows: 10 o'clock, Presence: 3 o'clock.

I use delay and crybaby. Sometimes a boss metal zone, tremolo, BF-2 or DS-2, depending on what I need.

NLB has a great point. I used to do the same thing when I ran PA in my old band. Every room sounds different, but usually settings only change a little. If I'm playing on hard wood floors, I gotta roll the presence way down heh.


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## joeydego (Mar 1, 2006)

best tone i ever had was the simplest. Dual redto top and bottom, ibz UV GMC, speaker cable, guitar cable. used the red channel set to the vintage sound cause it was warmer. this works best in a live situation, but would never record that way. 2 different worlds. Live= simple. Recorded = whatever works, and most importantly, USE YOUR EARS!


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## zultone (Mar 7, 2006)

Lows- 5 or so (my amp is REALLY bassy so they're on 0) mids - 10, highs - 8
Distortion 8 or 9. I use a pedal though, highs and bass at 12 o' clock, mids at 3/4ths or so.


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## 7 Dying Trees (Mar 10, 2006)

OK, like has been said before:

MIDS MIDS MIDS MIDS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! If you didn't need them then why are they on an amp? Basically I crank these to provide muyself with cut, I also don't have that much bass as that's taken care of the bass.

Best way to look at it is that the bass lives in the heavy low end and will eat up those frequencies, as will kick drums. The high end gets eaten up my cymbals et all. So hence using the "angry flatulant wasp in a jam jar" settings will make you inaudible.

Never put any delay or reverb on rythm. Keep rythm tight, and lower the gain. in fact having the gain all out will just make it flap around. I tend to go for a sound that has a little more gain than crunch, keeping it tight. You may actually find tyhat you hate what you hear as sounds like that really show up playing inconistencies, but stick with it and it'll make you a better player.

This and the best tones often just come from guitar straight into an amp. FX are just dress up really 

Lead wise all you really need to do is take that rythm tone and boost it in volume slightly and maybe add some gain if you want to keep it simple. But again. mids.

You have no idea how many bands i've seen play where you could just hear the drums, vocals and bass because the guitarists had all decided to go for a scooped sound and hence were getting lost in the mix no matter what the sound guy tried...


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## WayneCustom7 (Mar 10, 2006)

Wow I can't believe this thread is still alive..well I believe we have a jam scheduled for Sunday night, and I can't wait to try out my new settings, I think my tone is getting close to what most have you have commented on, and I agree that in the past my tone was only good for playing on my own, at bedroom levels...I will keep you all posted


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## darren (Mar 10, 2006)

I tried turning off the cabinet emulation on my GT-6 patches, and it did make everything brighter and "harder" sounding. There was a lot more presence and 'cut' to my sounds, but a lot of the higher-gain patches were quite noisy. I didn't really like the sound... i would have had to tweak the EQ considerably to get it back to a pleasing sound.

I think the way Roland has implemented cabinet emulation in the GT-6 is a subtle combination of EQ, compression and noise gating, which seems to give a very natural sound. So to my ears, it just sounds better to leave it turned on. Things are smoother, warmer and more natural.

However, one feature the GT-6 (and GT-8) has is an "output select" setting that lets you tailor the tonal response of the output for different situations. There are settings for going direct to PA/mixing board, combo amps, stack amps (and effects returns for a combo or stack), headphones, and i believe there's also (in typical Roland fashion) a JC-120 setting. This is one feature of the GT series that i really like, which i believe is missing from the POD series. Driving my power amp with the "Stack Return" setting seems to work best for me, but if i'm playing through headphones or recording direct, i can just change the output select setting and get fairly consistent tone.


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## 7 Dying Trees (Mar 10, 2006)

WayneCustom7 said:


> Wow I can't believe this thread is still alive..well I believe we have a jam scheduled for Sunday night, and I can't wait to try out my new settings, I think my tone is getting close to what most have you have commented on, and I agree that in the past my tone was only good for playing on my own, at bedroom levels...I will keep you all posted



Excellent  just experiment, and play about, for rythm really try and get the tone as clinical and tight as possible. Think the rythm and malcolm young from AC/DC. You may not like them, but he is a phenominal rythm player and the sound he has is low gain and tighter than a babies ---CENSORED--- Also, rythm sounds like this really do make you work harder playing wise as there's less room for error.

Anyway, have a good jam, and keep it fun! It'll all come together and it'll all click at some point! And once it has, you'll never go back to having a bedroom sound again 
!



that guy said:


> boss metal zone pwns most pedals



Apart from "Slaughter of the Soul" by At The Gates and a few other albums where it was used well, i have always hated metal zones with a passion. Most of the time they end up fuzzying the sound, turning any chance of tight rythm into mud and general sounding like a very angry wasp. I hate them hate them hate them....


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## WayneCustom7 (Mar 10, 2006)

7 Dying Trees said:


> Excellent  just experiment, and play about, for rythm really try and get the tone as clinical and tight as possible. Think the rythm and malcolm young from AC/DC. You may not like them, but he is a phenominal rythm player and the sound he has is low gain and tighter than a babies ---CENSORED--- Also, rythm sounds like this really do make you work harder playing wise as there's less room for error.
> 
> Anyway, have a good jam, and keep it fun! It'll all come together and it'll all click at some point! And once it has, you'll never go back to having a bedroom sound again
> !
> ...



Ha that's funny you mention Malcom, we always joke about how Malcom would be the best brother to have, I mean come on, a rythm guitarist as a brother...I guess the only thing better would be a sister on bass and drums 
No but seriously I hear ya, I've got a nice crunchy tone rythm where, if I play a chord, each note can be heard, so instead of a chord sounding like it came out of a blender, now it sounds like it got toasted in an oven 
Even after I took off the cab emulation, I still dropped the bass and raised the mids...the only effect I have on (and I belive I have another preset with no effect whatsover) is a sprinkling of chorus....and that's only because we play prog and along with chords, I play alot of single note melodies, and I think it sounds a little more forgiving with chorus...but again time with the band will dictate that!


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## 7 Dying Trees (Mar 10, 2006)

It's true though, I think Malcolm youngs playing has got to be one of the tightest out there! One of the key things for making rythm sound good is to not be light with the pick. It just sounds way more powerfull when you dig in (hence the thick strings i have) and let the guitar resonate and really sound full. 

I'd get rid of the chorus as well to be honest, if it doesn't sound good without chorus then make it sound good, twiddle amp or even adjust your playing. I always said that buying a triaxis was the best thing i ever did, as for my rythm playing i suddenly had nowhere to hide behind and every error came out. And it sounded shit. However, it made me practice that more and get it so that a dry rythm low gain amp sound sounded good. Takes a while, but is well well worth it!


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## WayneCustom7 (Mar 13, 2006)

Just to update, last night's jam went great. I said nothing about my tone, meaning I never asked what they thought, but they told me they really loved both the rythm and lead tones I had going, plus the clean tone. So I was pretty happy...


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