Mark, it worked great! I was amazed because I did not really expect much: I felt like I spent a lot of time with the few knobs on this simple amp, and on my Squier strat already, and I did not believe there could be a big improvement in tone.
Here is what I did and liked:
1. I found the distortion "breaking point" following your instructions, when all three strat knobs are in the middle position, amp tone is all the way down, and two strings break up but one doesn't.
2. Then I started trying to see what the tone knobs on the amp can do to the tone. Since the bridge pickup does not have a tone knob, so it is the easiest to explore (and also, up to now, I almost always used bridge), I tried it first. I found that the guitar volume knob indeed works well for adding/removing distortion, as you said, and otherwise the tone for bridge does not change all that much when I turn treble and bass on the amp, in terms of sound character. I mean, the tone does change, as you would expect: becomes a bit brighter with more highs, adds a bit more punch with more bass but all in all it is a reasonably expected and somewhat tinny bright bridge sound. I did not find anything new there.
3. Then I switched to the middle pickup, and quickly realized that the guitar tone knob does a lot for tone variability compared to what I was able to get with bridge. I noticed that I liked the smooth texture and somewhat "tubey" (?) sound of it when I turn the guitar tone all the way down, then compensate on the amp by putting treble to around 6, and bass somewhat down to 3. And the guitar volume all the way. I get a very smooth and pretty full-bodied bluesy sound, as long as I play one string at a time - I think it would work pretty well for blues rock solos.
4. I then basically realized that the same thing works even better on the neck pickup! Or if I turn neck and middle together, with the same setting of putting their tone knobs to zero, and the amp to treble 6, bass 3.
5. I than guessed that something interesting happens when I pull frequencies one way on the guitar and the opposite way on the amp. I tried the other way around to the above: put neck tone to max, and the amp treble close to zero, and bass above the mid point, and the tone is also pretty rich - although I now do not remember very well - I only tried it briefly, will have to experiment more - I was so excited by the #4 above that I went back to it!
So, what do you think? What else I am missing or might want to try?
In other notes, I also have the Flamma FS06 preamp - I see no reason why a similar approach wouldn't work there, I want to give it a go.
Thanks!
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Happy to know that you're getting some good results. The other thing is that sometimes the guitar cord capacitance can resonate with the pickup inductance. IOW, at some settings of the passive guitar tone and volume controls, along with the cable capacitance can give a sort of 'quacky' sound.
I'd love to hear your advice on the timing. I did play cello as a kid, and a little piano, and toyed with acoustic guitar chords in college, and now I am trying to teach myself electric guitar with an assistance from online lessons (did a few months of Justin Guitar).
Only during this last year I realized how important the timing and the right rhythm is. Not that I did not realize before and tried to play in time but I did not realize how important it is as opposed to playing the right notes without character. I also realized that my college acoustic guitar playing and singing gave me some bad habits, I think: I have a couple of very standard strum patterns, which are very "busy" and fill the song when you are the only instrument. I realized that that does not work well when I try to play with other people or record a few layers: it creates a lot of noise, and it sounds very generic. I listened to what is going on in the songs I try to emulate, and the rhythm guitar is usually much "less" - sparse, with more distinct strumming, which varies a lot from song to song even within the same standard 4-part beat.
I am not entirely sure how to go about learning that efficiently. I am just trying to reproduce what I hear on the records.
Is this something to use or to avoid? It sounds like something you can get unintentionally but if you don't, it would be hard to reproduce?
There is a reason why the left hand is used for fretting and the right hand for plucking. The right hand has the harder task.
Actually, what I suggest to people learning to play in time is to first learn how to play shakers, such as egg shakers (this is to build a clock inside your head). First with the right hand, then later with both hands synchronized, then with more hand independence. There is a shaker video on youtube that about half way through explains how to play a simple groove. IOW, it explains the motions to practice. The idea is play with a variety of music styles staying precisely in time, with no flamming. Flamming is playing with a slight time offset, sometimes an effect intentionally used by drummers (but only when intended).
The other thing is to get a metronome and always use it when you practice. Set it to a slow tempo until you can play in time at that pace. Then slowly increase the metronome as you learn how to keep up with it without loosing your timing.
Video is at:
Some low-cost shakers at: https://www.amazon.com/EastRock-Plastic-Musical-Percussion-Instruments/dp/B08F56K29M/ref=sr_1_2_sspa?keywords=egg+shakers&qid=1707521578&sr=8-2-spons&sp_csd=d2lkZ2V0TmFtZT1zcF9hdGY&th=1
A lot of it has to do with how 8th notes are played. A quarter note can be divided equally in time in to two 8th notes, or one 8th note can have a longer time duration than the other, such as in jazz or funk.
EDIT: There is also a good video DVD by Victor Wooten for developing a groove. They don't talk about 8th note timing subtleties, and its bass guitar, but most people seem to find it inspiring. Also there are some good exercises in it. A lot of it may still be available on youtube.
Actually, what I suggest to people learning to play in time is to first learn how to play shakers, such as egg shakers (this is to build a clock inside your head). First with the right hand, then later with both hands synchronized, then with more hand independence. There is a shaker video on youtube that about half way through explains how to play a simple groove. IOW, it explains the motions to practice. The idea is play with a variety of music styles staying precisely in time, with no flamming. Flamming is playing with a slight time offset, sometimes an effect intentionally used by drummers (but only when intended).
The other thing is to get a metronome and always use it when you practice. Set it to a slow tempo until you can play in time at that pace. Then slowly increase the metronome as you learn how to keep up with it without loosing your timing.
Video is at:
Some low-cost shakers at: https://www.amazon.com/EastRock-Plastic-Musical-Percussion-Instruments/dp/B08F56K29M/ref=sr_1_2_sspa?keywords=egg+shakers&qid=1707521578&sr=8-2-spons&sp_csd=d2lkZ2V0TmFtZT1zcF9hdGY&th=1
A lot of it has to do with how 8th notes are played. A quarter note can be divided equally in time in to two 8th notes, or one 8th note can have a longer time duration than the other, such as in jazz or funk.
EDIT: There is also a good video DVD by Victor Wooten for developing a groove. They don't talk about 8th note timing subtleties, and its bass guitar, but most people seem to find it inspiring. Also there are some good exercises in it. A lot of it may still be available on youtube.
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No need to avoid if you like the sound. It isn't harmful.
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One thing I didn't mention when talking about timing is practicing syncopation. Its when you accent a note that would not normally be accented. This gets us a little bit in music theory and what is meant by accenting. In the shaker video you can see that some notes are played longer than others and some notes are played louder than others.
Normally there are maybe three different standard meters, 2/4, 3/4, and 4/4. The last one is special, but all meters with more than 4 beats per measure are considered compound. It means they are broken up into patterns of 2 or 3 beats. 6/8 as used in Jazz tends to be played in two groups of three. Yet some European folk music divides up a measure of 6 beats into 3 groups of 2. In theory the first beat of a measure is the most accented. Also, the first beat of a group is accented, but not as much as the first beat of a measure.
Like most rules in music they may be broken at will, but it may help you to know that this theory exits so you can listen for it in various types of music, including Viennese Waltzes, jazz, rock, funk, etc. You can also listen to the violations of the rule which is what syncopation is. Usually it means to play the in time as you normally world, but to accent the volume and or tone of the instrument on that beat. It can be hard to accent without messing up your timing. That's also part of what the shaker exercise is to demonstrate. It takes some practice and there area some standard patterns in Latin America music you can learn to gain some skill. Also, you may notice in orchestral music that, say, maybe string players are bowing in groups of two in order to give to bit of accenting to music.
The other topic I haven't talked about yet either is musical ornamentation. There are various ways to do that on guitar, such as vibrato, trills, bends, palm muting, glissandos, tapping, etc. They are skills that can be used to enhance your soloing and composition skills. A possibly interesting article on the subject: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ornament_(music) As always, its important to practice performing such techniques exactly in time, maybe playing along with a recording that challenges you ability to stay in time. For example, Some Steely Dan tunes may take some practice to groove along with them in time.
Normally there are maybe three different standard meters, 2/4, 3/4, and 4/4. The last one is special, but all meters with more than 4 beats per measure are considered compound. It means they are broken up into patterns of 2 or 3 beats. 6/8 as used in Jazz tends to be played in two groups of three. Yet some European folk music divides up a measure of 6 beats into 3 groups of 2. In theory the first beat of a measure is the most accented. Also, the first beat of a group is accented, but not as much as the first beat of a measure.
Like most rules in music they may be broken at will, but it may help you to know that this theory exits so you can listen for it in various types of music, including Viennese Waltzes, jazz, rock, funk, etc. You can also listen to the violations of the rule which is what syncopation is. Usually it means to play the in time as you normally world, but to accent the volume and or tone of the instrument on that beat. It can be hard to accent without messing up your timing. That's also part of what the shaker exercise is to demonstrate. It takes some practice and there area some standard patterns in Latin America music you can learn to gain some skill. Also, you may notice in orchestral music that, say, maybe string players are bowing in groups of two in order to give to bit of accenting to music.
The other topic I haven't talked about yet either is musical ornamentation. There are various ways to do that on guitar, such as vibrato, trills, bends, palm muting, glissandos, tapping, etc. They are skills that can be used to enhance your soloing and composition skills. A possibly interesting article on the subject: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ornament_(music) As always, its important to practice performing such techniques exactly in time, maybe playing along with a recording that challenges you ability to stay in time. For example, Some Steely Dan tunes may take some practice to groove along with them in time.
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