Care to try your hand at the impossible?

[Loquenau]

Here are the tones I look to and am working with:


This is the piano tone I've been wanting since '95. Full, all the way through the range, and just enough chime*. Bold, yet discreet, the pitches simultaneously mingle and ring independently around each other. It pushes and soars, breathes. (* I wouldn't mind less chime, but this is a dedicated piano VST, and I haven't messed with post-effects VSTs in a host and all...)






This is my top Taboo preamp tone. To my ear, it's similar in its way to the piano tone. It pushes (but does not 'pull'....), it soars. Palm-muting is like pushing down a damper pedal. Lighter picking makes it 'quieter'. It's a slight nasally, though. And still not smooth enough.


[soundcloud] https://soundcloud.com/jenklin/150309-9-dc-in-2111 [/soundcloud]




Here's my current Axe patch. Of everything I've tried, this amp/cab combo is tops. I kept the light V-cut at 6k (post peq), but brought the cab high cuts up to about 9k. It's not bad, but a little crackerjack-y/chattery.







I'm wanting something that chimes and is 'clean' like the piano, but that sustains and that I can palm mute like in the above. Suggestions of 'less gain' will be ignored. Show me, and we'll see. Attached is the Axe patch, for those who want to see/try it out.

 

[Loquenau]

Influenced (as in encouraged) by luke's mention of using the D112, Scott Peterson's use of MBC (mentioned at TGP), Emanuel's recent metal patch, and long-standing suggestions of using the 57, I figured some things out last night. I see now how you all like that brilliant, curdly high end in gain, and I'm betting ya all wil like this one.






I prefer to remove that frilly stuff, and this one I think is a 'mixable' tone.






Note I switched to the Uber V30.

 

[Fabio KTG]

I prefer to remove that frilly stuff, and this one I think is a 'mixable' tone.

Believe me when I say that that is NOT a mixable tone. Too scooped (Unless you're aiming for 80's thrash metal)

I think you've made progress today, in the respect that providing a reference source for us to listen to, for us to give you advice so that you can achieve the desired tone.

I think inherently, guitar and piano, albeit they are "stringed" instruments, are too different beasts entirely. Guitars and pianos have different harmonic overtones and timbres for a start, not to mention that electric guitars are amplified. There are waaaay more variables to consider with guitar too.

I honestly believe that there will be a significant compromise for you, when you get the tone that you're looking for and compare it against a recording of a piano. FWIW, I appreciate the subtle nuances that you are seeking, I just think that it will be incredibly difficult, considering the harmonic resonances of each instrument are like chalk and mountain goats.

Gain distorts those harmonic overtones that you aspire to achieve, thus people advising "use less gain". I would use a clean amp and put a drive pedal in front of it, to have greater control of the gain structure. Maybe put a pedal in parallel with the amp?

 

[Loquenau]

Both those tones are the same in the mids (at least five in the amp, and no cuts in the post peq block), use only the Uber V30, and each have a D112 with the same settings. The difference in the latter is there's no 57.

Not that either are really the direction I want to go, I think. And I won't compromise. I might keep spinning my wheels, as I have no economic agenda to fill with/via this.

 

[Loquenau]

So I made some progress yesterday. On my Taboo. I went back to scratch, starting with a really mid-scooped tone like in the old days, and worked up from there. I ended up with tight cut at 500hz of 6db, and a high and tight (no pun intended, Trev) peak at 3k. Mic placement is -10, reactance at 4. This is currently my favorite tone. Full, (relatively) defined especially in chords, but overall just a little, smoothly, smeared.






Because of the remarkably different behavior of the Taboo eq scheme, as well as the speaker simulation, I can't get close to this with the Axe. It could be IR, more likely a strange mix of IRs, that could do it, let alone better it, but I have no idea where to start.

 

[Loquenau]

Some more progress.


This is a little bass-heavy, but has the greatest clarity, and is kindest to my ear, of anything I've created:







And this is my latest Axe effort. A strange combination of four UR IRs in two cab blocks. It's not bad.