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08-23-2008, 09:57 AM
| | Registered User | | Join Date: Aug 2008 Location: Swindon, England | | | HARDCORE GUITARIST TONE ISSUES!!!!
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Hey TB
Has anyone here taken a cheesegrater to their ears recently?
My generic school rock/alt band has 2 guitarists - one with a lovely PRS/Marshall tone and the other with the most horrible tone i have ever heard.
He uses a Fender american strat and some Behringer twin amp, and has a Boss GT-8 which he has great difficulty working. He bought a Boss DS-1 one to try and make the distortion a little sweeter, but it still sounds both tinny and sludgey.
This is leading to problems in the band, because the two tones really dont work together, and drives us mad in practices with the hum.
Has anyone else had similar problems with guitards?
Thanks,
Chris
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08-23-2008, 12:07 PM
| | | | Hey
yeh had that a few times (more often than not actually) with most of the bands i grew up playing with. I doubt it's the guys gear cos it sounds like fairly decent stuff. More likely its just he's going way too overboard with eq settings and the overdrive.
Really cant stand these peaople who think they need the distortion cranked right up so much that you cant hear what their playing and it just sounds like tinny sludge sticking out from the rest of the band.
Try getting him to turn the overdrive down a bit and playing with amp settings/ fx settings till he's got a sound that fits with the band a bit better. |
08-23-2008, 12:26 PM
| | Registered User
Endorsing Artist: Barker Basses | | Join Date: Apr 2007 Location: Buffalo NY | | Quote:
Originally Posted by ChrisCharleston  Hey TB
Has anyone here taken a cheesegrater to their ears recently?
My generic school rock/alt band has 2 guitarists - one with a lovely PRS/Marshall tone and the other with the most horrible tone i have ever heard.
He uses a Fender american strat and some Behringer twin amp, and has a Boss GT-8 which he has great difficulty working. He bought a Boss DS-1 one to try and make the distortion a little sweeter, but it still sounds both tinny and sludgey.
| Or what I like to refer to as the "radioactive elephant running through a field of tinfoil" sound 
JKT |
08-23-2008, 12:34 PM
| | Registered User | | Join Date: Jan 2007 Location: somewhere in middle America | | | I'm not the kind of guy who says everything needs to sound vintage, but "modern" guitar tone these days is lacking. Usually it's only grating like that in metal. In rock, usually the tone is bad if there are weak links in their gear line. With good gear, the bad tone is often from not knowing how to work the EQ properly. |
08-23-2008, 12:41 PM
| | Registered User | | Join Date: Aug 2008 Location: Swindon, England | | Thanks guys for the quick replys 
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08-23-2008, 12:47 PM
| | Registered User | | Join Date: Apr 2008 Location: San Diego, CA. | | | This may sound narrowminded, but shouldn't the hardcore dude be using a gibson type (shorter scale, humbuckers, mahogany) instrument instead of a strat? |
08-23-2008, 01:00 PM
|  | Registered User | | Join Date: May 2008 Location: Vancouver, B.C. | | | I don't know what it is about some guitar players that seem to think that they "Need" distortion.
Its an effect, not a religion.
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08-23-2008, 01:09 PM
| | Registered User | | Join Date: Jun 2006 Location: the Netherlands, Amsterdam | | Quote:
Originally Posted by ChrisCharleston Has anyone here taken a cheesegrater to their ears recently? | Ha, well actually, funny story...  |
08-23-2008, 01:17 PM
| | Registered User | | Join Date: Feb 2005 Location: Las Vegas | | | When I was in high school I always managed to get a good sound out of old & beat up equipment. There is no reason why this guitar dude has to sound this bad. With a little time tinkering, the Boss GT-8 would sound great plugged into the alarm clock 'speaker' on a coffee maker.
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08-23-2008, 01:58 PM
| | Registered User | | Join Date: Mar 2005 Location: Old Hickory Lake, Nashville | | Is the bad tone dude open to giving the other guy a shot at his rig to sweeten it up? 
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08-23-2008, 02:04 PM
| | Son, I am disappoint. | | Join Date: Sep 2006 Location: Gig Harbor, Washington | | Quote:
Originally Posted by troyus This may sound narrowminded, but shouldn't the hardcore dude be using a gibson type (shorter scale, humbuckers, mahogany) instrument instead of a strat? | I agree, I have never seen a harcore band using a Strat when we played with them, they all had humbuckers.
Also I think the problem could be the amp, its all solidstate right? Some SS guitar amps sound terrible and tinny. If you want him to get a warm tone make him get a tube amp. When I played guitar I never plugged into a SS because I saw my guitarist buddy play a Spider III with ear bursting results, it was terrible.
Im probably just a purist, however has he tried different settings and such?
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08-23-2008, 02:09 PM
| | Registered User | | Join Date: Mar 2008 Location: Northwest Indiana | | Quote:
Originally Posted by BananaKing I don't know what it is about some guitar players that seem to think that they "Need" distortion.
Its an effect, not a religion. | Yeah, but some genres, such as hardcore, punk, metal etc... you do need distortion. I'm not saying always, but most of the time.
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08-23-2008, 02:27 PM
| | Banned | | Join Date: Jan 2008 Location: Barrie, Ontario | | | My brother is a guitarist, and is part of the whole full-distortion-plus more distortion from effects thing - sounds like ****. |
08-23-2008, 02:43 PM
| | Registered User | | Join Date: May 2007 Location: San Diego, CA | | | It sounds like your guitarist has more gear than his intelligence allows his to manipulate...
that and I agree with what's been said. It's hard to get that down low hardcore tone out of a Stratocaster. It can be done, there's more than a few acts out there doing it with Telecasters, but it takes a discerning ear, and it doesn't sound like your guitarist has that.
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08-23-2008, 02:51 PM
| | Registered User | | Join Date: Feb 2003 Location: Charleston Atlanta | | Quote:
Originally Posted by Ampeg SVT I agree, I have never seen a harcore band using a Strat when we played with them, they all had humbuckers.
Also I think the problem could be the amp, its all solidstate right? Some SS guitar amps sound terrible and tinny. If you want him to get a warm tone make him get a tube amp. When I played guitar I never plugged into a SS because I saw my guitarist buddy play a Spider III with ear bursting results, it was terrible.
Im probably just a purist, however has he tried different settings and such? | Fat Strat = Humbuckers
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08-23-2008, 02:54 PM
| | Son, I am disappoint. | | Join Date: Sep 2006 Location: Gig Harbor, Washington | | Quote:
Originally Posted by StoutXXX Fat Strat = Humbuckers | Oh I forgot, like that and Super strats like Jacksons, and Ibanez RG's, honestly when I played them I kept them on the humbucker setting, I know of one of buddie's brother had a 60's strat reissue and bought a fully loaded EMG pickguard with EMG humbuckers, it sounded like a different guitar,
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08-23-2008, 02:57 PM
| | Registered User | | Join Date: Aug 2008 Location: Swindon, England | | Thanks for the sea of replies
but btw we arnt a hardcore band :P
i just used the word hardcore to intensify the grateyness of the tone
but thanks everyone
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08-23-2008, 03:02 PM
| | Son, I am disappoint. | | Join Date: Sep 2006 Location: Gig Harbor, Washington | | | Oh god I just realized you are an alt rock band, alright a strat might work, you might want a humbucker at the bridge position.
I suggest getting a cheap tube amp, not sure what exactly, I played a VOX not too long ago with a Eclipse, I think it was a two channel amp with one channel sounding like a Marshall, Good crunch and good volume, its about a grand though.
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08-23-2008, 03:15 PM
| | Registered User | | Join Date: Aug 2008 Location: Swindon, England | | i might buy him one of these for xmas http://www.irongear.co.uk/irongear_003.htm
that'll learn him :P
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08-23-2008, 04:32 PM
| | Registered User | | Join Date: May 2007 Location: San Diego, CA | | | The guitar he has is probably fine for the music you're playing. He probably just needs how to learn how to properly EQ an amp and use the gear that he has.
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The Acoustic Club #21
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