with clean tones, too much bass will make them real boomy..
and even playing softly won't stop the boomy notes standing out..
with your low end there is always a contest between bass and low mid's
you have have plenty of one or the other, but rarely can both be strong simultaneously..
a rich clean sounds to me like it'll benefit from reasonably strong lo mids rather than strong bass...
but of course we'll goof with both combinations..
chmiey tells me you want sparkly highs..
this is beyond treble, up in the 5k+ area..
sometimes eq cannot provide the whole solution here..
so you can excite the highs with other fx
ok.. so first think what the chorus is there for..
we can use it to create that typical chorusing effect..
but surely that is the sort of thing we'd want control over..
either switch it in / out via an XS or scene
or fade it in / out via an XP
but to create that general sparkle and stereo spread, I like to head for the pitch shifter because it's less intrussive..
solution... have both...
the shifter is always on.. gently in the backgroud adding it's thing..
the chorus will be under control to punch in and out as our performance needs demand
Thoughtful and pensive, but bold. .
ok.. I guess this means that we'll be trying to find that fine line between strength and ambience
a strong thick tone, not overly glassy / polished
but just enough ambience to make it moody...
this tells me that the chorus and reverb should be under the control of the XP
then during performance you can choose to drift away from strength and towards ambience at will..
now you can have your cake and get to eat it
Chorusy, maybe, but not ambient. .
as above..
but maybe this defines our default / starting point tone
so let the shifter handle the 'chorusy' for the default tone
and let the XP suck out some power and push in the 'exotics'
as we have what is deemed a clean tone..
let's keep it on the clean side for our regular playing strengths
but we allow it to start getting a touch of hair when we dig in
this is another expressive feature added to our performance arsenal
and how about if when the XP draws the tone toward the ambient, it drains just enough power to tame the hair..
we can get quite subtle with this
Something you might use to start a ballad; said ballad might develop an attitude later in the song.
there's a few ways to develop the attitude...
an nice easy one would be to assign the amp: boost to a modifier
you hit the switch and your tone throws down..
ok.. first job is to find a good amp / cab combination..
needs to be an amp that's good on the clean side of things cos that's the main job..
but check also how it sounds with higher gain settings and with the boost on..
we need to find that amp that can cut it with all of our wants and needs..
we want the cleans to be thick / full-bodied
we want the dirtier side of things to work too..
some clean amps don't play nice when you heat them up..
maybe we could explore the drive block for this..
personally..
my first port of call will be:
5153 Green
Herbert ch2
