hey everyone,
so my problem is this: When I play through my amp (Fender blues deluxe) everything sounds real peachy and nice. However, when I stomp on my distortion (either a digitech screamin blues, or digitech hot rod), it seems that the highs come in and make the sound brittle or break up (know what I mean?) It's not a nice fluid sounding distortion. Now, this could be from a number of reasons. Here's my setup:
Guitar (Fender Strat American)
dunlop cry baby
digitech main squeeze(compressor)
Hot Rod (Dist.)
Screamin blues (dist.)
danelectro cool cat (chorus)
Ok, now before anyone says anything like "roll back the highs!" I've tried that... It helps to a point, but it still has a broken brittle sound to it. I've checked reviews on harmony central and it seems some people complain about this with the screamin blues pedal, but most people just love it. One thing I think that may contribute to this is that I've just bought a pack of 6 patch cables on ebay for $10, would these cheap quality cables matter? Anyways, if anyone has this problem, or a solution to the problem feel free to let me know! I would love to solve it. Thanks guys, you're the best.
Thanks Dudes!
Keep on Rockin'
Pat
The patch cable may be the problem. I was recently frustrated with my OD pedal... I'm still not perfectly happy with it, but it's more to do with the pedal now.. anyway, I swapped out the patch between it and the eq and voila! Sounds good.
The other possibility is that you just don't like your distortion pedal.... have you tried either of these pedals on different amps and liked the way it sounds?
Also, I'm not familiar with your distortion pedal, but if it has a tone knob, try rolling it back a bit.
"There won't be any money. But when you die, on your death bed, you will receive total conciousness. So, I got that going for me. Which is nice." - Bill Murray, Caddyshack ~~ Michigan Music Dojo - http://michiganmusicdojo.com ~~
I've tried that, no luck. I'm going to mess around with the cables and see how that works out for me...
Thanks Dudes!
Keep on Rockin'
Pat
Tried running the Cry Baby last?
Ewan McGregor: I said, "Eve, I want you to look after my wedding ring while I'm away," and she started to cry and I said, "Eve. Eve, I can't wear my ring or I won't get laid on the trip!"
if the wah is on when you switch it, that'll do it. otherwise i'd say throw out the cheap junk and get decent pedals. They really aren't that expensive; I recommend the EH fuzzes, the Blood Drive pedal, and you can get a Bad Monkey used for about $30 and those are not bad.
Neither of those are cheap.
Ewan McGregor: I said, "Eve, I want you to look after my wedding ring while I'm away," and she started to cry and I said, "Eve. Eve, I can't wear my ring or I won't get laid on the trip!"
Lots of distortion pedals sound really harsh. Try rolling the gain back some. You will probably get much better tone with a good overdrive pedal.
You could invest in an EQ pedal like the Dano Fish & Chips, it is a very good EQ for 1/3 the price of "name" brands, but sounds just as good IMHO. This will allow you to roll off some of the harsh highs.
If you know something better than Rock and Roll, I'd like to hear it - Jerry Lee Lewis
hehee he said don't tell me to roll back the gain... my friend is a guitar tech on this site, he said also that it could be the patch cable and that you may want to try getting a new cable or at least borrowing a friend's to figure out if that is indeed the problem. Good luck, blackdiamond13
Up The Irons!!
Harsh, sharp clipping of the waveform produces oodles of high order harmonics. If you don't filter them out, they sound like swarming mosquitoes with a hint of dentist's drill in the background. And squeaking nails on a chalkboard.
"A cheerful heart is good medicine."
Thanks for backing me up there Ricochet. :D
hehee he said don't tell me to roll back the gain
Actually, if you go back and read, he said, "roll back the highs!", not gain. :roll:
If you know something better than Rock and Roll, I'd like to hear it - Jerry Lee Lewis
Thanks for backing me up there Ricochet. :D
hehee he said don't tell me to roll back the gain
Actually, if you go back and read, he said, "roll back the highs!", not gain. :roll:
+1 on this and Wes's suggestion to get an EQ. Or get a distortion pedal with a usable tone contour. They exist.
It will be a surprise to many who know something about electronics if a short patch cable is causing all this. Short cables rarely affect tone, esp between active devices (FX pedals). And if truly defective, they are more likely to interrupt the signal completely or reduce highs rather than accentuate them. Similarly, sucking out mids and bass would be a real trick for a couple feet (total) of cable. But that should not discourage you from buying better patch cables -- for reliability. I would not expect a drastic tonal improvement.
-=tension & release=-
Ric said,
Harsh, sharp clipping of the waveform produces oodles of high order harmonics. If you don't filter them out, they sound like swarming mosquitoes with a hint of dentist's drill in the background. And squeaking nails on a chalkboard.
That's the tone I've been searching for that swarming mosquito buzz.
"It's all about stickin it to the man!"
It's a long way to the top if you want to rock n roll!
Your amp is a tube amp right? I don't use distortion pedals with my tube amps for much the same reason, the sound is thin. what I do, is I augment the dirty chanel of the amp by using an overdrive pedal. I have an Ibanez Tube Screamer and I use that to overdrive my preamp tubes. I don't have the thin sound of a distortion pedal but I get lots of sustain and to me it sounds better than a distortion pedal.
"Work hard, rock hard, eat hard, sleep hard,
grow big, wear glasses if you need 'em."
-- The Webb Wilder Credo --
