Strat...strange situation

[ernstinen]

ern
You say "sing" I say "ping"
Yeah its a real time saver.

Feaker

WOW....if you get an amp and a guitar you will of course be walking out with "the" sound............no risks on what it will sound like when you get home.......yeah..........thats gonna be fun.

Does this mean we need to start a great strat amp thread? I love my twin but it does get loud and is heavy.

ps dont forget to take your es335 for the amp check. Would be really interesting to hear how it varied over a range of amps.

Yea, JD, a Strat amp thread would be interesting! And speaking of 335s and Les Pauls (as Mojo did), I WOULD be tempted to try out both of those guitars through my Soldano rather than a Strat with a humbucker. Totally different sounds!

I know a couple guitar players, one great, one not so great. The REALLY GOOD guitarist played some kind of Strat through a bevy of Roland pedals, into a pretty high-powered Music Man amp. Sounded great, UNTIL you were about 20 feet from the stage. The other guitarist, who is more of a jazz player played either Gibson 335s or Jumbos through an old Fender Twin. In back of the room, the Twin just sounded fantastic, whereas the Strat/MusicMan sounded processed and wimpy. And they were both miked through the PA, but it didn't matter.... But Twins are SOOO clean. This guy used Roland overdrives etc, and it STILL sounded clean! But I guess that's what he wanted.

I also heard a band a while ago where a guy played a Les Paul through an old Fender Bassman. Great sound! The other guitarist played a Strat through a Marshall 50w half stack. Another great sound! But at the back of the room, same thing: The stage volume trumped the PA sound, and the Marshall kicked the Fender's ass. --- So the moral of the story, to me: Get a great soundman! Or in the studio, get the sound you like and forgetaboutit!

Ern

[jdhogg]

Best rock/pop sound I heard with a es335 was using a switched signal splitter. One side went to a twin the other a marshall stack.
The twin was set to clean the marshall to distortion.
Various combinations were used.

Im not a fan of using many pedals....go past two and it falls apart a bit.

Have heard em sounding great through hiwatts and ac30s.

I remember townsend saying that he was not a fan of les pauls into fender amps.

[feaker66]

JD

Was that wild to seee the other post come up at the same time.

I am in a buying mood with lots of mad money right now.

I might buy alot of equipment in a couple of weeks.

I don't like pedals either:)

You have just fueled the fire

Paul

[jdhogg]

Hi....idealy I like no pedals.

Sometimes a distortion or a chorus but most of the time none.

Thats going to be a fun trip.

Wishing you a tonetastic trip.

[charlie2]

I'm looking for a les paul with a nice thin SG neck.

[ernstinen]

Hi....idealy I like no pedals.

Sometimes a distortion or a chorus but most of the time none.

Thats going to be a fun trip.

Wishing you a tonetastic trip.

Say, JD, don't you write rock guitar tracks for "X" music library? Are you using amps or plugins? They sound great!

Anyway, I used to use a ProCo Rat, which is a great overdrive with a cleaner amp. Also a Boss Chorus, and sometimes a Boss Flanger, but it's SO noisy! (I blew up my expensive ProCo rackmounted Flanger years ago). Now, all I use is a Vox wah wah, and a Boss Chorus. But those, only occasionally! Almost all tracks I record are either the Strat into a Soldano, or the Strat into a Fender Deluxe Reverb. Once in awhile, if I want dual spring reverb in stereo, I've still got an Ampeg VT-40 head chopped off of an old combo amp. Miking is basically a 57 on the best speaker, with sometimes a condenser pointed at the window or door of my booth for my 2x12 closed-back Ampeg cabinet. I mic the Deluxe with a 57 in front, and a condenser a couple of feet from the back, reversing the phase. Some mix effects may be added, but I've come around to just a guitar, a cable, and a tube amp --- Just like in the old days!

Ern

[davekershaw]

I would have a doZen guitars if I could hide them from my wife:)

Me too, if I could afford them!

I''d stick 'em in a row in my wardrobe. Then when my wife complained,
I'd just say look in YOUR wardrobe!

Took me 35 years to eventually get a Strat.
Would also love a Telecaster (got a copy), Les Paul, a Rickenbacker,
and a Gretsch.

About 140 years I make that!

I love the sound of both the Strat and Tele.
I'm sure you'll be happy with whichever you go for.

Dave.

[jdhogg]

Hi ern

I dont write for libraries. Not something I am focusd on at the moment.
I know I am not in that top % as a player.
Trying to write 25 good songs from which hopefully I can get 3 great ones.
I have a broken bone in my hand at the moment, I am actually seeing a surgeon tomorrow, so playing has been pretty much non existent.

re tone
A great tip for varying tone is
when using more than one mic in different positions.... experiment with a very small delay eg approx 2-10ms (no feedback...just a single delay) on the closest mic. Vary the value around and hear what a difference it makes.
(sometimes this corrects phase sometimes destroys it creatively). As opposed to just flipping a phase switch.
This has resulted in some very sweet full sounds for me that are a lot easier to mix.

A great book on mixing and sound with a great bit on guitar is "mixing in your mind"
It has some different but interesting techniques.

Heres a funny true story.
I have most of my favourite guitars in cases lined up against the wall opposite my bed.
One day my girlfriend (gf) asked
gf- "why cant we get more room in here and move your guitars into the spare room"
jd- "Well I can tell you now thats never gonna happen so forget about it"
gf- "why's that"
jd- "Well, I like waking up and seeing em there all lined up, puts a smile on my face"

......silence.....followed by a scowl from the girlfriend.

Then I realized that I was supposed to say that waking up next to her put a smile on my face.
I laughed...she did not

[jdhogg]

As for pods/simulators e.t.c.
They can sound good depending on the style. But for me I still cant get them to match the real thing. The best one ever for me was the fender amp sim with tascam gigapulse.
If I was writing for a library I would use the real thing so that I would sound different from all the rest.
But I bet there are sims on loads of successfull tracks.

[ernstinen]

As for pods/simulators e.t.c.
They can sound good depending on the style. But for me I still cant get them to match the real thing. The best one ever for me was the fender amp sim with tascam gigapulse.
If I was writing for a library I would use the real thing so that I would sound different from all the rest.
But I bet there are sims on loads of successfull tracks.

jd: Sorry to hear about your hand. That sucks! Best wishes on a speedy recovery.

BTW, the guitarist I'm thinking of @ the library has a similar screen name to yours. It's interesting that you mentioned "the real thing," because the library owner asked him to "re-define" over 20 pieces. I've listened to some of them, and I'm sure they are done digitally, with some kind of plug in. The problem, I believe, is (except for the composition), they DO all sound alike! Real balls-to-the-wall heavy distortion. I realize it's easier and faster to do it that way, but as mentioned a slight movement in mic placement can really change the sound!

To hammer home this point, I played with a real hot-shot guitarist awhile ago doing live showcases for a lead singer friend. This guitarist just graduated from G.I.T., and had an amazing digital pedalboard rig that went direct into the PA. I had my Strat, a cable, and my amp, miked with a 57. (The soundman had the 57 pointed right at the center of one speaker, and I moved it to the side, pointing across the cone). The young guy, after one gig, said "HOW do you get that great sound?" I just pointed to my guitar, with the cable going to the amp. He was like "WOW!" A true revelation.

Ern