Ideas for super clean chimey tones?

bikertrash

Inspired
Hey all. You know those super thin clean, chimey 80's and 90's tones hopefully? I've been listening to the first 3 Dream Theater albums this morning and especially on Awake, JP had some of those clean tones. I've never really been able to nail that sound. It seems like there is something there besides just gutting the bass and playing a Strat on the bridge pickup. Is there a preset I've overlooked that has that already?

Thanks
 
You could try the green channel of the TriAxis preamp. I know it's not a preset, I just tend to start my build with an amp & cab block and go from there. I end up teeaking the presets a bunch and takes longer for me doing that.

Good luck
 
Check this one out. I'm not the original author of the preset and don't remember where it came from - major props to whomever put it together. I use this one for a lot of ambient stuff but if you disable the verbs and chorus it puts you right into that 8o's/90's thin, chimey clean tone - think Robert Plant's Ship Of Fools single coil kinda thing. Works really well with single coil pups, either the 2 or 4 position. Adjust gain as needed for your guitar.
 

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Check this one out. I'm not the original author of the preset and don't remember where it came from - major props to whomever put it together. I use this one for a lot of ambient stuff but if you disable the verbs and chorus it puts you right into that 8o's/90's thin, chimey clean tone - think Robert Plant's Ship Of Fools single coil kinda thing. Works really well with single coil pups, either the 2 or 4 position. Adjust gain as needed for your guitar.

Thanks WW and @Jason Scott for the clip. That sounds really good. I'll have to give that a shot.
 
The "Dual Clean" preset works pretty well for me, I turn off most of the effects and tweak the mids/highs to taste. Gets pretty chimey with my 6-string.
 
Don't neglect two things:

1. Clean chimey Strat-Position-2-like tones often involve turning down the volume very low and sending the guitar into a Germanium Fuzz with no buffering in-between (and then from the Fuzz into a clean amp).

2. Petrucci in particular likes to double-track a clean electric with an acoustic (or, live, to mix the piezo output sound with the clean magnetic sound).
 
Any tips for reproducing the chimey glassy single coil tones by using a germanium fuzz? I tried making a preset with the Face Fuzz as the first device, and tried a few amp models behind it (HiWatt, low gain Marshall, Fender). I used a coil-tapped guitar with the volume turned down. Also played with the input impedance setting, but mainly kept it on automatic. I couldn't get in the ballpark of that kind of tone. Any tips?
 
Any tips for reproducing the chimey glassy single coil tones by using a germanium fuzz? I tried making a preset with the Face Fuzz as the first device, and tried a few amp models behind it (HiWatt, low gain Marshall, Fender). I used a coil-tapped guitar with the volume turned down. Also played with the input impedance setting, but mainly kept it on automatic. I couldn't get in the ballpark of that kind of tone. Any tips?

I would take the square wave generator aka the “fuzz” out… If you need any more gain try the FET with no clipping.
 
I would take the square wave generator aka the “fuzz” out… If you need any more gain try the FET with no clipping.
That's the thing - the fuzz is actually what does that, at least in analog. The combination of low input impedance and the DC blocking input cap makes it trim a fair amount of lows, so when you reduce input level via the guitar volume, it cleans up to a crisp, bright, almost treble-boost sort of tone. The AxeFX one doesn't seem to quite nail that.
 
A lot of recorded super clean tones are straight in to the desk so the obvious thing to try is no amp block.
 
why you would use the bridge pickup of a strat and carve out all the bass, i have no idea. that's not going to get you a "chimey" clean tone. that's why you can't dial it in.

try this preset. it's from the bundle i posted for download at the end of last year. use position 2 or 4 on your strat.
 

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