Whammy ( Killing in the name solo ) help needed

Guillaume Lortie

Guillaume Lortie

Inspired
Hi guys!

after much much thinking and tweeking, I just can't figure whats wrong with the tone of it.
I set the block to +2 oct. external pedal, try every position in the chain but the tone is not right, Tom Morello use it the loop, thats where it should less like S#!T but it still sound very bright and harsh.

any tips to make it smooth like the record before I buy a really whammy? i honestly dont want to.
 
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Try turning down the High Cut parameter in the Pitch block to take some of the harsh edge off.

Another trick to tame the shrill edge is to put a Filter block after the Pitch block set to Low Pass mode. Assign the frequency parameter to the same expression pedal as the whammy. Set the Min (heel down) to 20 kHz and set the Max (toe down) to around 1 to 2 kHz or so. That will make the low pass shave progressively more high end off the higher the whammy goes. Keeps the un-shifted tone from getting muddy sounding but allows more cut for the high piercing notes.
 
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Haven't seen your preset yet, but coming from the days of using real amps...if a wah or whammy is ear piercing when toe down it was a sign the amp treble/presence was set too high.
 
Couple things:
1) I've got a real Whammy and I can say with near 100% certainty that a real Whammy pedal is not going to correct it for you.

2) Morello uses his Tele neck pickup most of the time and definitely when he does that solo. He also uses WAY less gain than almost everyone that covers that song. Heavy distortion and a bridge pickup (particularly a Tele or Strat) is asking for harshness.
 
I'm in a RATM tribute band in toronto (No Shelter), i've played this song a bajilion times

best advice i can give is:
neck pickup, preferably a single coil type of some sort like a strat or tele. put the whammy out in front before the amp, I've tried putting it in all positions (in front, in between the amp and cab, AFTER the cab before the output as well) and in front still sounds the best. And yes, like others have stated, nearly no gain. It's really a medium gain sound that morello uses, any more gain and it'll just muddy up especially since you're on the neck pickup.

Quick live sound clip from the board feed below:

 
I use a low gain setting for this with a Lace Deathbuckers in single coil sound, it's in bridge position since I only have 1 pickup but still, how do you guys make it sound so smooth in the sweep, mine seem so stiffer, is this a damping thing?
 
Guillaume Lortie said:
I use a low gain setting for this with a Lace Deathbuckers in single coil sound, it's in bridge position since I only have 1 pickup but still, how do you guys make it sound so smooth in the sweep, mine seem so stiffer, is this a damping thing?
Click to expand...

Roll back the tone control on your guitar.
 
nickname009 said:
I'm in a RATM tribute band in toronto (No Shelter), i've played this song a bajilion times

best advice i can give is:
neck pickup, preferably a single coil type of some sort like a strat or tele. put the whammy out in front before the amp, I've tried putting it in all positions (in front, in between the amp and cab, AFTER the cab before the output as well) and in front still sounds the best. And yes, like others have stated, nearly no gain. It's really a medium gain sound that morello uses, any more gain and it'll just muddy up especially since you're on the neck pickup.

Quick live sound clip from the board feed below:

Click to expand...



Kicked ass!!! Thanks for posting.. . There's a RATM tribute band here in VT called Burning Monk, but I haven't seen them yet. You guys sounded great
 
GEQ block at the start to roll off some of the harsher top end? or really aggressive high cut in the whammy block, i'd have to look at some of my whammy patches to confirm, but i think i have highcut at like 4-6k, my old whammy ii rolled off a lot of the top end when activated, it's part of the "charm" ;)
 
Since you guys are talking about the whammy....
I just got my AX8 yesterday. I obviously don't have everything dialed in, but I've got some presets rigged up that I think I can gig with. I play in 2 bands, one sometimes does Lenny Kravitz "Are you gonna go my way". In my other rig, I had a whammy pedal just set (pedal all the way forward) to hear an octave up from the notes I'm playing (to mimic the higher riffing guitar). I can't seem to find the effect to re-create this in the Ax8. I've found the lower octave one.....but not the higher one. Can someone tell me where to look ? I thought I heard a YouTube clip of this effect in here.....
 
there are multiple settings in the whammy. 1 octave down, 1 octave up, 2 octave down, 2 octave up. these are selected in the whammy block.
 
BCM said:
In my other rig, I had a whammy pedal just set (pedal all the way forward) to hear an octave up from the notes I'm playing (to mimic the higher riffing guitar). I can't seem to find the effect to re-create this in the Ax8. I've found the lower octave one.....but not the higher one. Can someone tell me where to look ? I thought I heard a YouTube clip of this effect in here.....
Click to expand...
You could also use the Pitch block tied to an external controller.

With Fractal, there are usually several ways to "skin a cat". Oops, sorry Cliff.
 
I don't have an expression pedal yet. I haven't seen the whammy block. Is it listed as something else ? Or do you have to have a pedal to see the option. I thought surely, an octave up harmony feature would be on here somewhere...
 
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