This might run a little long, so bear with me. I have been playing about 5 years. Pretty decent ear I think. I currently use a fender hot rod deluxe along with some boss pedals (tu, ds-1, chorus, dd-6). I have two guitars I use: A mexi strat fitted with some nice custom shop fat 50 pickups and a PRS McCarty (very gibson, boomy, crunch meister). Love em both for different reasons. Gonna play distorted sound (zz top, ac-dc, etc.) the PRS owns the day. Gonna play Van Morrison, Stones, or John Cougar, the strat's twang is better. The action of these guitars is different however and to be honest, if I play the strat a bunch, the PRS thick neck bugs me, I play sloppy until I re-aclimate to it. I don't dislike the neck, I just get used to the strat's thin neck. I play the strat more as I fear my kids damaging the valuable guitar in day to day use.
So we got a new guitar player in my band. The dude is SUPER knowledgeable. His ear seems beyond belief. He listens to me warm up and says: Those strings are old huh? Yep. He says "how old are those tubes? They are sounding a bit spongy. " yep, old tubes. He notices the bass players cord is adding unneccesary noise to his sound. Switch the cord, quiet. Wow, knows his stuff (he is a guitar/amp tech at one of the local shops, just moved here from Vegas by way of Nashville)
Well on friday, after we played our set, we were all sitting around drinking beer when he asks me if I want his opinion on my setup. I say sure. He lays it on me. He says that the PRS doesn't match the Fender amp at all. He says I should just play one guitar. He notices how it affects my play. he also says that the PRS puts out tones that the fender just isn't designed to amplify. He says a closed back marshall (for example) would be a better fit. He mentioned that the fender is meant to amplify a guitar with lower gain, and more high and mid frequencies. The PRS is more a mid, low freq. guitar. Now, I will admit, I played my PRS through a buddies mesa mark II and I will admit, it worked really well. We used to joke that we should trade gear to match. I also played the buddies Tele through my fender amp. Seemed like a match made in heaven.
It seems that there may be some truth to this suggestion. But I would like to hear everyone's input. I am basically looking at replacing an amp and possibly a guitar. Scary proposition but possibly a good idea.
Is he nuts? I do have some personal observations that seems to substantiate his claims. He also has "nailed it" a few times. He tuned my drummers kit and made it sound godly. His knowledge is amazing. I think he may be on to something....
Thanks in advance for your input.
It's all about what YOU think. This guy seems knowledgable, which is all well and good, but different people have different ideas of what sounds good.
For example, I love using reverb but hate using chorus and very, very rarely use it. As well, i love using phase shifters but find flanger to be really annoying to use. Anyways, consider his advice but just remember what you like using and why you like it.
Steve-0
Good point Steve-o. I agree with the new guitar player that "something's" wrong with PART of my sound. I really want my PRS to handle both cleans and distorted sounds with equal quality but for some reason, if I coil-tap the 'buckers into the fender, it just lacks something I need. I usually grab the strat to solve the problem. this guy I am playing with says that will be solved by a better matched amp/cab/speaker choice.
I have just never heard of matching gear up before, although it sounds logical. Hell, I think I have heard "better matches" (ie: Fender guitars love fender amps) but I don't want to change up a bunch of gear to find out matching is bogus.
Yes and no. :D
There are classic match ups like a Fender guitar through a Fender amp and Gibsons through a Marshall, but there are plenty of exceptions. I mean, Hendrix made the Strat through a Marshall amp pretty popular. :D
It all depends on the sound you are after. Fender amps are great for anything clean or getting a classic Blues tone. Marshalls are better for harder Rock tones. It is just the tones these amps have been associated with. But there are always exceptions, heck, I've seen a few Country guitarists using Marshall amps. :roll:
I saw Kenny Chesney on the Good Morning show a month or two ago and his lead guitarist was using a Gibson Faded SG! Now, the Telecaster is the king of Country tones.
I wouldn't let this guy get in your head too much. I mean, he is telling you what is wrong with your sound, but his sound is OK?
The Hot Rod is not really a harder Rock amp, it is a Blues amp (I own one), but you can make it work for anything because it has a good clean channel. There are pedals you can buy like the Marshall Guv'nor Plus 2 that will make it sound just like a Marshall. Actually, my own personal favorite pedal into my Hot Rod Deluxe is a Behringer TO800. You can get everything from Stevie Ray Vaughan to Classic Rock tones like Bad Company with this pedal, and it always sounds great. Adds lots of fullness to the Fender thin tone which the Hot Rod has, especially with Fender guitars.
Pickups make a difference too. My Gibson LP Studio and Faded SG sound much thicker through the HRD than my Fender guitars. Believe it or not, the Faded SG sounds awesome clean or distorted, even better than the LP. It's pickups are hotter than my Fender guitars, but not as hot as the LP. But that is good. The Faded SG may be one of the cheaper Gibsons, but I tell ya, they got the tone right, it is really good.
But all in all, tone is a personal thing. Get a tone you like regardless of what this other guy thinks. May sound a little mean, but there are types that like to jerk you around a bit like this. No matter what you do, it isn't as good as what they do. :wink:
If you know something better than Rock and Roll, I'd like to hear it - Jerry Lee Lewis
+1 to that last paragraph.
This guy may know a lot about guitars and amps, but his preconceived definition of tonal propriety isn't the last word. Far from it.
"A cheerful heart is good medicine."
Just a little more... :D
There are things you can do with your existing equipment. You probably have your amp set up well for the Strat, but as you say it doesn't match well with the PRS. Well, you've got a lower gain single coil pickups on the Strat with higher gain humbuckers on the PRS. The PRS is probably overpowering your amp's settings. Maybe it sounds muddy or the bass "farts". Sorry, but that is the term that is used.
But anyway, try lowering the pickups on your PRS and see if it cleans up some. On your HRD, try lower Bass settings when using the PRS. Also, try going up on Presence. It will sound cruncier, more Marshall like, although I can tell you right now you will never get a Marshall tone out of the HRD alone.
Even try using the Drive channel with Drive turned very low instead of your clean channel. I have done this. I turn Drive down to about 1. It will have a thicker tone than the clean channel, and just a tiny bit of breakup. It is a pretty good Rock type tone. Then adjust Master to get the volume you need.
And going back to tone, you use a different tone when playing in a band than you do at home. At home you play alone, you crank Bass a lot and it sounds great. But in the mix of a band this tone will get covered up and lost. You want a little higher tone that doesn't get covered up by the bass and drums. You want to find your own little niche where you can be heard. I can tell you now that you need to go up on your Mids, this is the heart of guitar tone.
The tone you use live actually sounds not so good alone. But you have to find those frequencies where you can be heard. Here is a good video where the player explains this. I agree with this fellow, he speaks from experience.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TQanVdQPAMg
This guy gives some great advice.
Here is a similar video.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ySS96k7rXyo&feature=related
I love the 70s Rock tone this guy gets (3:25 in the video), my favorite tone. :twisted:
If you know something better than Rock and Roll, I'd like to hear it - Jerry Lee Lewis
"And going back to tone, you use a different tone when playing in a band than you do at home. At home you play alone, you crank Bass a lot and it sounds great. But in the mix of a band this tone will get covered up and lost. You want a little higher tone that doesn't get covered up by the bass and drums. You want to find your own little niche where you can be heard. I can tell you now that you need to go up on your Mids, this is the heart of guitar tone."
Yep, agree 100%. Good point! I brought the bass down a bunch and it helped.
For me, it's not getting the Marshall sound that's the problem (McCarty with a DS-1 is plenty), it's getting that light/super clean/glassy tone that I struggle with. The tone the fender does soooo well.
But your post might have fixed it. I had the bass on my amp turned pretty high (from before I bought the PRS). THe high setting worked great for the strat, but it muddied the PRS. That, I think, is what the new guy was talking about. He was suggesting a closed back to tighted up the lows but since the PRS is a low frequency monster, I may have just been doubling up the lows. I had the EQ of the amp set flat, in fact, I set almost every EQ flat except one. I guess I have learned that is matters WHICH one I choose to adjust....
Thanks Wes, you rock, as usual.
For me, it's not getting the Marshall sound that's the problem (McCarty with a DS-1 is plenty), it's getting that light/super clean/glassy tone that I struggle with. The tone the fender does soooo well.
Getting that tone can be tough with a humbucker guitar. A Tele would be perfect.
You know, I've used my HRD for gigging about 6 years now and played with a few groups, all had a different sound. I played with a group that had the down-tuned, heavy grunge stuff, Classic Rock tones, and now lighter Classic Rock and dance music tones. So, I've had to really tweak my amp numerous times. And the guitar makes a difference too. When I was in the heavier groups my Strat and Tele just didn't cut it, they sounded too thin, so I used the LP and SG. But now that I am in a group that is playing not so heavy a tone, I have gone back to my Telecaster and it sounds great. I still like to thicken the tone up a bit with the TO800 which is just a Tubescreamer clone. I pretty much leave this pedal on all the time now and adjust how much breakup I want with the guitar's volume. I've tried lots of pedals, but I keep going back to this one, it just plain sounds better than all the others.
You should just stay with the Strat or look into a Tele. Like you said, the Tele and the HRD are a perfect match, they do sound excellent together. :D
If you know something better than Rock and Roll, I'd like to hear it - Jerry Lee Lewis
