Im just curious if with my current setup getting a heavier sound is possible. A few months ago I bought a aerodyne fender strat SSH & roland microcube, mostly as 90% of my playing is using headphones in my appartment & practicing. This was fine until now, but the only setting on the amp I think sounds decent is the R-fier setting and within the other adjustments there is not much that can be done. The sound I mainly like is much heavier/bassier and more distorted (children of bodom,arch enemy,rammstein) so at this point if i wanted to upgrade attain that level in those areas, is it a matter of upgrading the amp only or would guitar/pickups also would almost be a nessessity? I think most of the guitar sounds i like are using active pickups, but not sure. Any reccomendations on whats the best coarse of action to upgrade? Could I get away with perhaps upgrading the humbucker in the bridge and replacing the amp? Unfortunatly most of my playing is still restricted headphones in appt for awile so I dont need a powerfull amp more than just the capability to reach the darker/harder base sound. Thanks.
You're not going to get floor-shaking bass with headphones, nor with the little speaker in the Microcube. But you should still be able to get closer to the tone you want.
As I recall, the Microcube has only one tone control, rather than separate controls for bass, midtones and treble. If that's right, the first thing you might buy then is an equalizer pedal, like the inexpensive Danelectro Fish & Chips. Use a deep V-shape (called a "scoop") to bring up the bass and treble while cutting the mids. That will give a classic metal sound. Also use only the humbucker (bridge) on your guitar, and darken the tone with the guitar's tone controls.
You can also try adding a distortion pedal, but give the EQ a shot first. I think you'll be surprised at the difference.
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Thats a good suggestion. How much alteration of the sound can then be done through a secondary effect kit? Im looking at a bunch of multi-effect pedals online so would it be better to look into those for more sound options? As i assume they would also be able to alter the eq and distortion and much more in one unit, but not sure to what degree(quality). I would be very happy if this problem could be solved this way rather than having to upgrade the guitar and amp themselves. Any reccomendations maybe around 200$ for something to darken & play with a variety of equalizations. Mostly online was looking at zoom products (as im in japan, seems a more common brand to find) but trouble finding reviews or anything.
For reveiws on anything related to guitar go here: http://www.harmony-central.com/Guitar/ or specifically here for pedals: http://reviews.harmony-central.com/reviews/Effects
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You can get that EQ pedal Slej was speaking of and get a relatively cheap Digitech multi-effects (about $30 and $50 - $100, respectively). That would leave maybe $70 - $120 for a seperate distortion/overdrive pedal, if you can't find something you like in the Digitech multi-unit.
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