Help Me Pick A Tone/Tone Question Thread

[dented42ford]

I’ll load that up today.

The Fiore pickups are VERY bright and hifi. I can’t use this preset on any of my other guitars without changing the eq. I’m not surprised it didn’t sound good on vintage style pickups. I’m guessing your preset will sound way bright for me.

I did experiment with turning the MV all the way up and liked what it did, so I’m curious how you have the amp set.
Thanks!

I don't know, I tried to keep it to the same basic level of brightness, and my tele is pretty biting. It doesn't feel bright with my Parker, and that is a very bright guitar. Felt a tad dull with my 335, but mine is pretty dark (Rio Grande pickups).

Try turning back off the bright switch first, or drop the presence back to ~3. The settings are mostly the same, I mostly just changed the cab (the 12L is a bit more upper-mid cut to begin with over the 12-65) and the source of overdrive to the power section. Another thing to try is dropping the high cut in the cab block down to ~5k, I think I had it at around 7 - that would get you closer to Mayer's live tone.

 

[Countryclarke]

I don't know, I tried to keep it to the same basic level of brightness, and my tele is pretty biting. It doesn't feel bright with my Parker, and that is a very bright guitar. Felt a tad dull with my 335, but mine is pretty dark (Rio Grande pickups).

Try turning back off the bright switch first, or drop the presence back to ~3. The settings are mostly the same, I mostly just changed the cab (the 12L is a bit more upper-mid cut to begin with over the 12-65) and the source of overdrive to the power section. Another thing to try is dropping the high cut in the cab block down to ~5k, I think I had it at around 7 - that would get you closer to Mayer's live tone.

Perhaps playing the JM riff was a bit misleading. I am not trying to go for a JM tone, it was just a riff that came to mind. I am more going for a Mark Lettieri type of tone, as I play primarily a pop/funk style.

I made some adjustments on your preset to clean it up a bit.
Gain down to 3.6
Presence down to 0
Level up to compensate

Here is a different (probably more appropriate) riff played between your tweaked preset and my original.

Original


Yours tweaked


MASSIVE difference. The original sounds so congested, in comparison. But I like how full and thick it is. I really like the tweaked version as well but it feels a little thin. I think a middle ground between the two will be perfect, I got some work to do!

Here are both presets if you want to take a look. I copy pasted the compression block and reverb from my original as to make the comparison as fair as possible.
Line Check is my original and OD-100 Bright is yours that I tweaked.

Again, thank you so much for your time. I am really enjoying this process.

EDIT: I suppose I should have copy/pasted the Enhance block onto the tweaked preset, but forgot. That will only really effect the stereo field but worth noting.

 

[dented42ford]

Perhaps playing the JM riff was a bit misleading. I am not trying to go for a JM tone, it was just a riff that came to mind. I am more going for a Mark Lettieri type of tone, as I play primarily a pop/funk style.

I made some adjustments on your preset to clean it up a bit.
Gain down to 3.6
Presence down to 0
Level up to compensate

Here is a different (probably more appropriate) riff played between your tweaked preset and my original.

Original


Yours tweaked


MASSIVE difference. The original sounds so congested, in comparison. But I like how full and thick it is. I really like the tweaked version as well but it feels a little thin. I think a middle ground between the two will be perfect, I got some work to do!

Here are both presets if you want to take a look. I copy pasted the compression block and reverb from my original as to make the comparison as fair as possible.
Line Check is my original and OD-100 Bright is yours that I tweaked.

Again, thank you so much for your time. I am really enjoying this process.

EDIT: I suppose I should have copy/pasted the Enhance block onto the tweaked preset, but forgot. That will only really effect the stereo field but worth noting.

I tried those, and now it has a bit of a hollow feel (that I get through the recording as well). Part of that is the lack of grit - running the gain up a bit higher and rolling off for clean will thicken up the mids, generally speaking, depending on how aggressive your treble bleed is in the guitar.

I tried just turning off the bright switch, that would likely get you 90% of the way there. I'd also run the gain just a bit higher, that sort of dead clean thing simply isn't that pleasing when trying to jam along with a track or others, IMHO, tends to sound dead. I'd also mess around with the condenser placement - taking it a bit further off axis might tame some of the spikiness.

But I'm glad to help - the big difference is the cab, the G12-65 is probably the biggest source of congestion. Those tend to sound better, IME, with a more mid-gain sound, and do sound dull with dead clean sounds. Same with CL80's. Talking about the real speakers, by the way. The EV's just have a bit more life to them, and that is what a lot of those funk-pop guys use anyway.

But I'm just spitballing - my personal taste tends more to voxy "crushed-glass crunch" as a base tone, so I do tend to push that direction.

 

[Countryclarke]

I tried those, and now it has a bit of a hollow feel (that I get through the recording as well). Part of that is the lack of grit - running the gain up a bit higher and rolling off for clean will thicken up the mids, generally speaking, depending on how aggressive your treble bleed is in the guitar.

I tried just turning off the bright switch, that would likely get you 90% of the way there. I'd also run the gain just a bit higher, that sort of dead clean thing simply isn't that pleasing when trying to jam along with a track or others, IMHO, tends to sound dead. I'd also mess around with the condenser placement - taking it a bit further off axis might tame some of the spikiness.

But I'm glad to help - the big difference is the cab, the G12-65 is probably the biggest source of congestion. Those tend to sound better, IME, with a more mid-gain sound, and do sound dull with dead clean sounds. Same with CL80's. Talking about the real speakers, by the way. The EV's just have a bit more life to them, and that is what a lot of those funk-pop guys use anyway.

But I'm just spitballing - my personal taste tends more to voxy "crushed-glass crunch" as a base tone, so I do tend to push that direction.

I think Im getting really close! The tone I have right now is sooooo inspiring. Much more so than that "dead" tone I was getting.
Changes made:
Bright switch - OFF
Presence - 10
Gain - 4.50

Adjusted mic placement slightly closer to the edge on both mics and as close to the grill as possible, using the EV12L DynaCab.
Condenser position - 6.53 / Distance - 0
Ribbon position - 5 / Distance - 0

New Bright


Original

 

[dented42ford]

I think Im getting really close! The tone I have right now is sooooo inspiring. Much more so than that "dead" tone I was getting.
Changes made:
Bright switch - OFF
Presence - 10
Gain - 4.50

Adjusted mic placement slightly closer to the edge on both mics and as close to the grill as possible, using the EV12L DynaCab.
Condenser position - 6.53 / Distance - 0
Ribbon position - 5 / Distance - 0

New Bright


Original

Much better - sounds very much like the sounds you are trying for!

Last step might be to add a Klon drive block before, with just a little gain and level boost and cut the treble a tad. It'd thicken up the low-mids a bit without sounding out-and-out overdriven.

 

[Countryclarke]

I think the advanced parameter tweaks I made to the amp block were also adding to the congestion. Ive been tweaking the same amp block preset for a long time and honestly forgot how much I had changed over time.
Things like Cathode Follower compression and the output "gain enhancer" compression AND my compressor block after the cab....Wtf was I thinking?
With this new preset im tweaking, all the advanced parameters are straight default. And it sounds much more open.
I love all these advanced parameters, and tweaking them is really fun. But when you tweak those slowly over time, you really lose track of what sounds good. Going back to basics just proved that to me.

 

[Countryclarke]

Much better - sounds very much like the sounds you are trying for!

Last step might be to add a Klon drive block before, with just a little gain and level boost and cut the treble a tad. It'd thicken up the low-mids a bit without sounding out-and-out overdriven.

Funny you say that, Ive ALWAYS had a Klon always on with zero gain to add that low mid thickness, even with my real amp/pedalboard, but over the last month or so I decided to try and get my amp to do that for me. Mostly to save CPU and free up a drive block. And because now I have access to a freaking Dumble!

 

[Countryclarke]

Much better - sounds very much like the sounds you are trying for!

Last step might be to add a Klon drive block before, with just a little gain and level boost and cut the treble a tad. It'd thicken up the low-mids a bit without sounding out-and-out overdriven.

Ok last thing before I stop bothering you.

Here is with and without the Klon. Which do you personally prefer?

No Klon


With Klon

 

[dented42ford]

Ok last thing before I stop bothering you.

Here is with and without the Klon. Which do you personally prefer?

No Klon


With Klon

Not sure, to be honest - on that fast funky line, I prefer the one without, but on something a bit more melodic I'd probably prefer with.

If you don't want to lose the drive block, you could mess with the Input Boosts in the Preamp section. That might do the trick, too.

 

[Countryclarke]

Not sure, to be honest - on that fast funky line, I prefer the one without, but on something a bit more melodic I'd probably prefer with.

If you don't want to lose the drive block, you could mess with the Input Boosts in the Preamp section. That might do the trick, too.

Thanks, after playing a bit more, I think overall I like it without a bit more. This is such a huge improvement on my tone. I can't thank you enough for your help!

 

[dented42ford]

Thanks, after playing a bit more, I think overall I like it without a bit more. This is such a huge improvement on my tone. I can't thank you enough for your help!

Glad to help!

I just made some tweaks myself, and I like your version a bit more. Especially with my Strandberg, which is my main stage guitar anyway. I have a couple of funky songs in my new band's set, this set of settings might find their way in there...