drive block

phil36uk

phil36uk

Inspired
Alright guys. I primarily use a friedman hbe amp with the basketweave tv ir. I love the sound overall but would like to get a high gain long sustaining kinda sound ala neal schon but don't think there is enough gain on the amp to mimic that kind of tone but once I add a drive block to the equation the preset just sqeals uncontrollably. I'm on fw 15.02 and didn't really have the problem as bad as before so just wondering if there are any tips for a more high gain sound without squealing feedback?

cheers in advance.
 
My thoughts exactly. I guess I'm weird, but every time I try someone else's presets there's always about 50% too much gain on it. People always drown their tone in distortion. A lot of the factory presets have way too much gain to me too. For me, a powerful punchy tone does NOT come from a lot of gain. I use medium output passive humbuckers and regular old single coils too.
 
First of all I never use headphones to create my patches. I play through a real cab also some decent studio monitors. Live to foh my axe goes into a presonus 16.4.2 digi desk and through an rcf tt+ rig which is around the best active pa money can buy yet listening back the tone sounds quite thin and not singing and certainly lacks sustain.

even at low volumes as soon as I add a drive block it squeals. The gain on the friedman block is set only around 1 o'clock. Didn't seem to do it on earlier firmwares.
 
you are still being sort of vague...what drive block are you adding, what are it's settings. there is plenty of room for more gain on the amp itself. what does the rest of your chain look like? the more details you provide the better we can try and help.

would be most helpful if you could post the patch you are using.
 
I use the zen drive. Drive set at around 5.00. Friedman is set quite low gain. I will post preset in the morning.

thanks all.
 
Preset is quite simple with some reverb and delay running parallel. No compression added to lead sound also.
 
The drive block is the one that has given me the most trouble so far. In front of a clean amp, it usually sounds great. However, in front of a dirty amp, most of the drive modes sound pretty nasty. I get this weird flubby buzzy thing that's often very hard to dial out. I know some amps just don't respond well to pedals out front, so it's hard to say if it's the pedal or the amp that is the problem. Fortunately with so many amp models available, plus boost and saturation options to tweak, I usually don't need any drive blocks. Sometimes an EQ in front works better for certain things too. You can get a clean boost that you can shape to change the character of the amps breakup. I read somewhere that EVH used to use a MXR EQ pedal out front with a frown curve to hit the amp with more mids and then another EQ after the amp with a smile curve to flatten the response back out. No idea how acurate that is, but it makes sense to me. I think Cliff had a sticky up about pre-eq.
 
How is the mid set? Mid is the most important, then volume. Of course, if you take out all highs there will be less singing too.
 
Drive settings were quite illusive for me until I well understood the following (at least I think I understand - others please advise if I'm missing anything):

- With a drive block placed just before the amp, the drive level control will boost or cut the input of the amp depending on the drive level value and regardless of what the drive gain or drive mix is set to. So - if your drive block has a lowish level setting, your amp might seem to be less gainy than it should be even if your drive mix and drive gain settings are highish.

- As drive mix approaches 0%, drive gain settings diminish in the signal, HOWEVER, the effect of drive tone settings do not diminish. So, even with a drive mix set to 0, drive tone settings will still impact the drive output signal.

- When using a drive block with some level of drive gain, you are mixing drive distortion with amp distortion - many combinations can get somewhat ugly. Experimentation is needed to find the best drive block to go with a given amp usage scenario.

Given these behaviours one can sometimes unexpectedly reduce amp gain.

This may be obvious for many but foe me, it took a while to get my head around it so I could make good use of drive blocks.
 
I used that HBE block for ages, but recently changed to the Brit Silver. I do use it for leads but only on occasion, it's mainly for rhythm stuff. Both are just awesome without a drive block. I've yet to mess with the new comp. parameter in the amp block though.
 
Tried a few things with the drive block, didn't really work how I wanted it to. I have engaged the boost on the Friedman amp and seems to give me that bit more without the squealing for now. Will have to see what it's like at gig volume next.
 
Here is the preset if anyone would care to have a look. Lead setting is scene 4.
 

Attachments

  • Journey Preset.syx
    6.3 KB · Views: 6
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom