Whitehouse
New Member
I was so damn excited when I realized this that I had to post! This may be "old hat" to some of you folks that are after the Brad Paisley or Brent Mason country-grind tone.
Well, I have been up literally for the last 5 days trying to get my AC30 grind tone to sit in the mix! I've listened back and forth to Paisley's stuff and AB'd my tone with his. I'm not trying to copy his tone so much, but instead, get the grind he does and make it sit in the mix like his does.
For the longest time I was really happy with my AC30 tones coming out of the AXE for live stuff, but, could never get it to translate well to a country recording. Until tonight!
My issue was this - Every time I got a "grindy" AC30 tone up and running to where it felt good, it was way too bassy and/or honky, and at the same time, I was having trouble taming the high end sparkle. I would always end up taking the Sag and turning it all the way down to get rid of that annoying breakup that happens when you really pop the strings on the single coil tele! (BTW Im using a Tom Anderson Hollow T Drop Top with Vintage Lollar Pups) So of course, when taking the Sag out, it lost all of its luster that the AC30 is known for.
So, while nearly at the threshold of totally losing my mind, a light bulb went of in my head!........
The first thing in your signal chain is usually a stomp box or the amp, right. Well try this! Put a Peaking filter first in the chain. My filter is set at 3912 Hz at -12db and a Q of 5.30. Roffs is set to .6 to roll off the highs a little. By doing this, it took all the garbage away that came with using the Sag control to its fullest potential! No more nasty breakup and the highs have completely been tamed while still keeping the "glassy" sparkle. Now that the highs are in check, the low end doesn't need to be so hot and everything literally fits in the pocket on a record! The only other tweak that I did was add a graphic EQ between the amp and Cab just to drop off some of the mids. I know, not conventional, but oh well!
Please keep in mind that this is only done on my dirty, grindy AC30 sound. Works great....try it!
I will post a preset file after I get a couple hours of sleep and tweak it a little! I was so excited, I had to share my thoughts!
All the best,
Marty
Well, I have been up literally for the last 5 days trying to get my AC30 grind tone to sit in the mix! I've listened back and forth to Paisley's stuff and AB'd my tone with his. I'm not trying to copy his tone so much, but instead, get the grind he does and make it sit in the mix like his does.
For the longest time I was really happy with my AC30 tones coming out of the AXE for live stuff, but, could never get it to translate well to a country recording. Until tonight!
My issue was this - Every time I got a "grindy" AC30 tone up and running to where it felt good, it was way too bassy and/or honky, and at the same time, I was having trouble taming the high end sparkle. I would always end up taking the Sag and turning it all the way down to get rid of that annoying breakup that happens when you really pop the strings on the single coil tele! (BTW Im using a Tom Anderson Hollow T Drop Top with Vintage Lollar Pups) So of course, when taking the Sag out, it lost all of its luster that the AC30 is known for.
So, while nearly at the threshold of totally losing my mind, a light bulb went of in my head!........
The first thing in your signal chain is usually a stomp box or the amp, right. Well try this! Put a Peaking filter first in the chain. My filter is set at 3912 Hz at -12db and a Q of 5.30. Roffs is set to .6 to roll off the highs a little. By doing this, it took all the garbage away that came with using the Sag control to its fullest potential! No more nasty breakup and the highs have completely been tamed while still keeping the "glassy" sparkle. Now that the highs are in check, the low end doesn't need to be so hot and everything literally fits in the pocket on a record! The only other tweak that I did was add a graphic EQ between the amp and Cab just to drop off some of the mids. I know, not conventional, but oh well!
Please keep in mind that this is only done on my dirty, grindy AC30 sound. Works great....try it!
I will post a preset file after I get a couple hours of sleep and tweak it a little! I was so excited, I had to share my thoughts!
All the best,
Marty
