How to get these tones?

skolacki said:
He’s always had great guitar sound. I liked his previous setup better with the Marshalls and other amps. The Fenders sound great though, plus he runs a Dumble mixed in. He cranks them for sure. Has to in order to get that sound out of the Fenders. I have tix to see him in September. Going to be an old rockers party. Lot of white haired people, and I totally fit in haha.
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Haha! That'll be fun. I saw him a few years ago with Black Country Communion and he was great.
He played through simple Marshall DSLs and still sounded like Joe. :)
 
Question for those who had the opportunity to check this: how is BuenaMasa's tone coming directly from his amp compared to the PA tone?

Just wondering how much weight the microphone and its position, and any FOH-EQ, may have on the equation.
 
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la szum said:
Is it as simple as dialing the Tone control back on the guitar??
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Dude, I was thinking the same thing, but with the volume knob too, to give a different kind of high end roll off. I’ve tried and tried with EQs and pedals, but I can never approximate the perfect warmth of dialing back my volume and tone knobs!

la szum said:
Haha! That'll be fun. I saw him a few years ago with Black Country Communion and he was great.
He played through simple Marshall DSLs and still sounded like Joe. :)
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That sounds like heaven. Glenn Hughes’ vocals with Black County Communion are the best thing ever in my book. Whenever I play their first album, my wife will comment that it sounds like he’s choking on really greasy chicken, and when he’s singing really high, he’s just struggling with all his might to get it down, but he loves it.
 
Late to this thread I guess, but one trick I use with my PRS guitars is to back off the volume knob to 8 or so for rhythm playing, then bump it up to 10 for leads. Backing the volume down a little really does take some edge off without killing all the oomph. Adding a touch of gain at the amp might compensate if you feel like you're losing too much gain at the guitar. I believe Tim uses his volume knob quite a bit.
 
A great guitar plugged in to a great tube amp will just sound like that from the off. If you want that digital your going to be needing the best of the best amplification solution and spend a while tweaking . This is a perfect example of the shortcomings of FRFR solutions that are available. Fractal please make your own.
 
fcs101 said:
I'm no master at preset construction, but one thing I've picked up from Leon Todd (and I think Cooper Carter does it too) is to almost always incorporate a high-cut filter. That should go a long way toward arresting those annoying freqs.
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Yep. Correct me if I'm wrong, but you want to block 80hz & 8,000hz with a parametric EQ before an output in your signal chain.
 
Sorenspete said:
Yep. Correct me if I'm wrong, but you want to block 80hz & 8,000hz with a parametric EQ before an output in your signal chain.
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The question is where to cut? This is where having so many options can be a bitch. I cut in the input of the amp and in the cab. If you cut before the output do you not cut elsewhere? I honestly don’t know the best methods. And everyone has their own opinion on it. I still haven’t watched the LT video that was suggested, but it’s a good chance I already have seen it. I watch vids, I read through the forum, and I dial in my presets best I can. My tones are good, best I’ve ever had really. But I can’t stop chasing that magic tone on the horizon.
 
skolacki said:
The question is where to cut? This is where having so many options can be a bitch. I cut in the input of the amp and in the cab. If you cut before the output do you not cut elsewhere? I honestly don’t know the best methods. And everyone has their own opinion on it. I still haven’t watched the LT video that was suggested, but it’s a good chance I already have seen it. I watch vids, I read through the forum, and I dial in my presets best I can. My tones are good, best I’ve ever had really. But I can’t stop chasing that magic tone on the horizon.
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When you cut before the output you're cutting any frequencies which originate in the blocks preceding it. Conversely you can add frequencies to your guitar's signal by using a PEQ block after the input. This is a good way to enhance that satisfyingly articulate pick sound that a lot of players like to dial into their natural tone.
 
skolacki said:
The question is where to cut? This is where having so many options can be a bitch. I cut in the input of the amp and in the cab. If you cut before the output do you not cut elsewhere? I honestly don’t know the best methods. And everyone has their own opinion on it. I still haven’t watched the LT video that was suggested, but it’s a good chance I already have seen it. I watch vids, I read through the forum, and I dial in my presets best I can. My tones are good, best I’ve ever had really. But I can’t stop chasing that magic tone on the horizon.
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It's easy to get carried away and become obsessed with getting the "perfect" tone. Adding a PEQ, IMO, is getting into the realm of trying to attain a 'Mastered' (Recorded) tone. This, again IMO, takes away a lot of the rawness and starts becoming a less believable amp and cab tone- becomes too polished. Sometimes less is more and results in a more 'authentic' tone.

I've settled on using the Cut parameters in the Cab block preamp page (Low Cut @100 Hz, High Cut @10kHz) I found cutting more anywhere else tends to cause presets to sound more sterile, no 'breathiness' or character to them. If the highs still need to be tweaked, in either direction, I'll turn to the Amp block High Treble, Treble and Bright Switch/Cap values. My goal is to remove any harshness but still allow the resonance, harmonics or transients outside of the normal guitar range to come through.

A practical application, even though I have the low cut @100 Hz, I use the Proximity (Cab block) with the Frequency set @60 Hz with the Level @4.00. There is a noticeable difference in the bottom end with vs without the Proximity. Doesn't make much sense to me having the low cut higher, but it's something I've discovered by experimenting with the different parameters.
 
JoKeR III said:
It's easy to get carried away and become obsessed with getting the "perfect" tone. Adding a PEQ, IMO, is getting into the realm of trying to attain a 'Mastered' (Recorded) tone. This, again IMO, takes away a lot of the rawness and starts becoming a less believable amp and cab tone- becomes too polished. Sometimes less is more and results in a more 'authentic' tone.

I've settled on using the Cut parameters in the Cab block preamp page (Low Cut @100 Hz, High Cut @10kHz) I found cutting more anywhere else tends to cause presets to sound more sterile, no 'breathiness' or character to them. If the highs still need to be tweaked, in either direction, I'll turn to the Amp block High Treble, Treble and Bright Switch/Cap values. My goal is to remove any harshness but still allow the resonance, harmonics or transients outside of the normal guitar range to come through.

A practical application, even though I have the low cut @100 Hz, I use the Proximity (Cab block) with the Frequency set @60 Hz with the Level @4.00. There is a noticeable difference in the bottom end with vs without the Proximity. Doesn't make much sense to me having the low cut higher, but it's something I've discovered by experimenting with the different parameters.
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I use the proximity as a master low end control post amp block. It’s a great tool. I haven’t seen where you can adjust freq on that but maybe it’s there. I’m on the FM3. I’ll look later. Bright switches are a mixed bag. I don’t like them on the Marshalls too much but it depends on where the gain is at. My homebrew 1987 Jumped has a pot in series with the cap so I can tailor it for whatever gain level I want. Thanks for all the ideas folks!
 
skolacki said:
I use the proximity as a master low end control post amp block. It’s a great tool. I haven’t seen where you can adjust freq on that but maybe it’s there. I’m on the FM3. I’ll look later. Bright switches are a mixed bag. I don’t like them on the Marshalls too much but it depends on where the gain is at. My homebrew 1987 Jumped has a pot in series with the cap so I can tailor it for whatever gain level I want. Thanks for all the ideas folks!
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The Proximity Frequency is in the Room/Air page of the Cab block in the FM3. As far as the Bright Switch, if the amp is too dark with the Bright Switch off, turn it back on and play around with the lower Cap values until it sounds right. I look at the deeper parameters as ways to perform mods on amps as well as getting the tone and feel of preamp tube swaps.

I don't remember leaving any amp dead stock, always at least swapped out preamp tubes to get the tone in my head for a particular amp. Cool thing about FAS models is it's very easy performing mods, like swapping out bright cap values or clipping the cap on Marshalls.

These are the things I typically adjust on most amps I use:

Turn on the Fat Switch
Lower the Bright Cap value or turn off.
Adjust High Treble to add some top end if the Bright Switch is off
Speaker Impedance to @1.200
Grid Bias to 0.800 or reduce Cathode Resistance to 40% - Depends upon how the amp bias is controlled.
Definition set 2.50-3.50
2.50-3.00 dB bump @500 Hz in the Input EQ
Out Compression @1.50 using the Feedback type.
 
JoKeR III said:
The AC-20 EF86 Treble with the 1X12 AC-20 DLX MIX (Legacy #119) was the amp and cab I used after discovering too much high end was the issue. I started from scratch and created a new preset, leaving everything in the amp and cab block at default values. After getting used to the tone, I ended up making some minor tweaks and now use this preset as a reference 'tone'.

While I have used it as a base for other presets, it's more of an EQ reference than anything else. I use it to compare with other presets when it seems like the high end is getting out of hand again.
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I loaded this up. It's pretty dark compared to how I've been running. But I played it for awhile and it started sounding good. So I dialed the highs down even more on my main preset. Boosting with the Heartpedal 11 and the AC20 with the Fat on and more proximity as suggested in the thread, it was really good. I just got done blazing away for a couple hours. I'm not a metal guy too much but I still love the old metal, and this is a great sound for that. Great at all levels of drive.

I asked how to get that sound, and now I have it. Thanks to all. Best tone yet.
 
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