Joined: 01 Oct 2008 United States Licks: 1 Karma: 18
Eh. I'm not much for distortion pedals. I'd rather just take it through the amp. If I get one, I want it just for that really heavy, saturated sound. Really though, I think you can get a really tight, heavy sound out of any amp with a good noise gate pedal ni the chain. I'm looking into getting one of those to get a more Cantrell-esque tone.
Joined: 26 Feb 2009 United States Lessons: 2 Licks: 6 Karma: 24
I prefer dist/OD pedals to boost for solos and such, since well, I need to get louder somehow! lol
honestly I've never liked to rely on just a pedal for my distortion, it just feels cold to me now, though if I need a different kind of sound I have a BMP Deluxe, which is kind of a late 60's fuzzy sound(of course it's a fuzz pedal!)
Joined: 10 Feb 2008 United States Lessons: 1 Licks: 1 Karma: 31
im not talking about piling up so much gain you cant hear the note. i think kids, and im not talking about anyone specificlly...
well first of all kids are very impressionable, me being one. and with the new amps and new music coming they will want to play it/use it. i knew someone who swore by line 6...until he heard a marshall...anyway i think one big problem is that music now or just guitar playing now has gotten way over- everything. like the distortion levels are just insane. now if your playing death metal then w/e, but if your playing 80s stuff or grunge, you dont need it, and with all that distortion your losing tone and signal and kids dont understand it. never has this much distortion been used. for stuff that kids now play, they dont need all that distortion, hopeully and most do learn as they mature what sounds good and what doesnt.
those "heavy saturated sounds" are robbing the amp of tone, and signal, its just a "block" in the signal. and for a lot of players that much gain is pointless. so why have it? cant people tell that pedals like lovepedal and etc... are better then a mxr hardcore death metal machine that puts out so much gain you cant make out notes?
i think a lot has to do with kids like to walk before they run. theyre gona play fast before they have a good vibrato (generally) which i think is why a lot dont stick with guitar, eventually when they play for people, the audience will eventually say u suck. anyway what the gain does is cover up mistakes and bad playing, and as a guitar player matures the less gain they will use and the less gain they will need.
ust a rant there, and not saying it doesnt apply to me to cause it does. i went through a stage where all the gain is not enough, im in remission :)
ozzfan, just curiously and not picking on you, why do you like heavy distorted tones, you dont play music that uses that much...do you? im curious.
Joined: 01 Oct 2008 United States Licks: 1 Karma: 18
** you **! Thats my sister!! lmao. jk man. But yeah, I know what you mean. When I said saturated, I basically meant Jerry Cantrell, Dimebag tone. Dime's being the tighter of the two. I like Jerry's more though. Has more mid-range growl. I'm surprised by the Fender amp though. I've been able to nail some nice tones on it. But yeah, most kids see Batio or someone, and automatically think he's god. Personally I can't stand that. It's impressive, but just not very soulful. It's sad too. Eh. We all have each other though. And theres enough people on forums like this **ing about those kids, so I guess theres still a good amount of purists lol. Reeeeaaally PISSED off purists haha.
Joined: 26 Feb 2009 United States Lessons: 2 Licks: 6 Karma: 24
my take on your rant there EMB, you are correct :D I think that most small beginner amps(15 watters lets say) are geared to have thicker more muddy distortion to help compensate for the lack of experience most players will have when using them. I remember that I used to have my gain on 10 all the time no matter what, and then I started noticing how much i just didn't like the sound of it. I'm not a fan of buzzsaw tones for my style of playing, since, well, the 80's seemed to be the glorious days of Marshall stacks ;)
which I really like the sound of (RR, EVH, Jake E Lee, Dave Mustaine, etc.)
Joined: 10 Feb 2008 United States Lessons: 1 Licks: 1 Karma: 31
well that video was from years ago but still u get the example...
and yeah, when i started 10 wasnt enough! then i got educated and progressed...
look at the tone of trey anastio from phish (dont call me a hippy :) he doesnt have a lot of ditrotion at all and plays really clean and fast and smooth. you dont need a lot to get the job done. just a pinch. enough for sustain which can be achieved through mild distortion, compression and eq.
I never realised that Digitech FX gear was considered :- "unplayable middleschool garbage"! I've had a GNX 3 for several years now and had no cause for complaint at all.
Having said that, thanks to 40 years of listening to Deep Purple at vol 11 I'm now about three quarters deaf in both ears so I might not be the best person to judge!
Joined: 10 Feb 2008 United States Lessons: 1 Licks: 1 Karma: 31
im never been a fan of multi effects prosesors, that looks like a higher qulity one although id never buy one. i ment their pedals too. just low quality for the most part.
Everything is subjective, you can't say a tone, a pedal or even a brand is not good enough just because it doesn't resemble a vintage natural tube amp,everything can have different aplications for different purposes and for multiple likings.
