guitar tone I can't find....

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There is a super smooth saturated guitar tone that actually sounds like a power planer (or power saw) with lots of low overtones that I am trying to figure out how to get.
I'm afraid it may a be a mesa on 11 in a big room with the highs cut off. It is a very electrical type sound similar to the sound overhead powerlines make arcingg into trees or that high altitude lightning streaking across the sky. I'm trying to get it at a preamp level.
Sounds awesome when playing a decending scale riff inbetween power chords.

Any Ideas?

Trying to get it with, Emg 81 loaded guitars, Destination overdrive, Tri-ac, VT999 bitmo modded, have not tried compression or chorus yet.
 
There is a DIY project called the DieFET that gets extremely bottom heavy if you want it. Another one to check out is the Freya distortion. You can find these projects on the net easily enough. I have built both and the provide some very good heavy sounds. Roll off the highs as needed.
 
sounds like you're looking for something like jimi hendrix's guitar in the Star Spangled Banner heavily fuzzed with lots of bottom end. i used to get a similar sound by using lots of fuzz into a flanger, and cutting off the sweep in the flanger so i could use it as a comb filter.

my "rule of thumb" is to use waveshapers (fuzz, etc) first, and spectrum shapers (wah, flanger, etc...)second, and envelope shapers (volume pedal, tremolo, compressors. etc...) last.
 
Blending is the key here

Maybe experiment with some reamping but to me it sounds like you want a hybrid analog/valve sound combined with a digital low end.

A couple ways immediately come to mind.

Waves has an undertone exciter for bass to give it that 808 sound. So maybe try to combine that with a distortion of some kind - my instinct is you want a weird digital curved distortion.

Another approach that I think is overlooked. On a lot of hip hop etc.. they will double up a regular bass or a stand up bass with a synth bass at an octave below. Again add distortion as needed.

Also try sending a copy to a tube buffer and just clipping the crap out of it. That is always good for like a sixties type of tone.
 
Finally heard someone else get close. Mesa triple rectifier, full stack, gibson artisan. Pretty close but too loud. Sounded right on single notes but chords were mushier than I personally like.
I may try playing with the SLO Century and a BSS maximizer.
I really want to get this tone at line level not with a true stack.
Has anyone played with the various diy sag circuits?
The octave trick is interesting and I've found it usefull.
 
i think the sound you're looking for is similar to Mahogany Rush (Frank Marino) "reflections on war". you might find an old Guitar Player interview with Frank Marino where they ask him what he uses for effects boxes. i seem to remember reading one back in the mid 70's
 
I'm able to get quite close using a recently aquired trademark 60 amp re equipped with a warrior 12 speaker. It looks like part of the sound is power tube saturation which I don't think can be duplicated very easilly with solid state equipment.
I will run an rta through the insert to sans amp out, then from the insert to the speaker and hang an old balanced mxr eq off the sans amp out to the pa. I will match the eq so the sans amp out will match the speaker correctly.
I've whipped up a couple of powered extension cabs with matching drivers so that should cover the stage well.

I've seen many complaints about ch2 of the trademark. I was in agreement untill I found this combination. Very dark mesaesque tone but with a more marshally smooth distortion.
Kicking in the weep button gets more of a class a type breakup, not my taste.
 
snoop40 said:
I have read a book that has the guitar rigs of most of todays players but as Eddie Van Halen said
"tone starts at the finger tips"

Very true...but it ends at the amp. In many cases it then goes back into the fingers. You either create perfect notes without listening to yourself (or caring), or you create a "moment" and an environment with al your tools interreacting.

There's a guy around here that always has a tinny 4k piercing tone no matter what or whose guitar he plays through or any amp set any way. That backs up Eddie's quote.

On the other side we have an exquisite guitarist around here who always sounds like crap as he is too lazy to bring out a decent rig (He has a few). He plays through one of my ugly prototype rigs at the club and everyone without exception insists he always use it when he's there. He does play much better with it and makes less mistakes, he also gets "lost" sometimes and electrifies the audience. Not with his normal rig however.
 
Trademark 60 update

One last update on the Trademark 60.

I tested with an rta. The warrior 12 reflects the sans amp output quite accurately down to around 50hz. It rolls off a little faster on the top end and the sans amp rolls to zero at 5k.

The punch control on ch1 is a mid at about 740hz and to set it flat
run it at about 10:30.
The bite is a big upper end bell shaped boost at 2.8k

The Growl on ch 2 is a low/high combo boost.

Weep does not affect eq.

The effect return is POST boost, reverb, high and low. So I assume the effect send includes those.

If you rin a tri-ac or other preamp inot the effect return you loose the boost and reverb for the added preamp.
The tri-ac marshall tones sound decent directly into ch1. tweak the punch to taste and you be able to use the boost again.
I smell some DIY upgrades coming..:)
 
screamersusa said:


Very true...but it ends at the amp. In many cases it then goes back into the fingers. You either create perfect notes without listening to yourself (or caring), or you create a "moment" and an environment with al your tools interreacting.

There's a guy around here that always has a tinny 4k piercing tone no matter what or whose guitar he plays through or any amp set any way. That backs up Eddie's quote.

On the other side we have an exquisite guitarist around here who always sounds like crap as he is too lazy to bring out a decent rig (He has a few). He plays through one of my ugly prototype rigs at the club and everyone without exception insists he always use it when he's there. He does play much better with it and makes less mistakes, he also gets "lost" sometimes and electrifies the audience. Not with his normal rig however.


i do the same thing (or used to, i haven't had a guitar for quite a while). when playing throug an amp with a mediocre sound, i play mediocre. when i get the right sound, i get lost, and close my eyes and play without knowing how much time has passed, and draw a crowd..... i've played "semi-pro" a long time ago, and i'm primarily a bass player, but getting the right sound just does something amazing to me with a guitar in my hands.....
 
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