Not another one...! (guitar)

[Rudi]

On 03/01/2017 at 2:03 PM, starise said:

Maybe you can relate to this: That kind of music is better played with less strings. The more minimal you can get and still get the chord or base sound the better IMHO. This is true no matter if you play a Variax into a line 6 product or into an amp with an old school guitar.

 

Variax pros- The models are spot on and modifiable in software.The only noise you hear is the programmed noise of the amp models. The ability to use both variax digital AND standard outputs at the same time ( with line 6 variax)...watch this...it gets tricky though unless you were born with a computer for a twin. On stage when the heat is on to perform, who really wants to be fuddling with a bunch of wires? So I usually keep it simple to just the Variax connection when playing it out. I keep presets close and easy to reach.

 

Cons- Factory tones loaded into the HD series floor units only offered me a few patches I really liked. There are other patches online you can get, but I don't have the time to go through 500 patches. I might try a few of those that look tasty. Not a huge leap from the HD500 to the HD500X. My favorite so far is the tweed setting..has just the right amount of crunch for my music and has a nice adjustment range. Still less expensive and more adaptable than buying a tweed amp. A half dozen nice patches made it worth the money for me. I might tweak more and I might use one or two of those Martian sci fi sounds on a later recording.

 

I don’t use the POD presets. I don’t even use modified ones.

I built my favoured tone patch from the bottom upwards; and if I’m honest, it’s the only one I need.

 

Like you Tim, simplicity is my watchword.

 

I was discussing the merits of 2 or 4 knob guitars on the Gibson forum, and a fellow opined that 2 knobs was ‘worthless’. He later revised that to ‘worthless to himself’, explaining that he could only get the sound he wanted with both pickups set at different volumes. Fair enough.

 

I’ve found the Gibson 4 knob circuit doesn’t work very well IMO. It certainly can’t blend 2 pups smoothly. Also I find it too difficult to avoid knocking switches & knobs when playing out.

 

My tone patch EQ is optimally matched to the neck pickup with the guitar volume & tone control full on.

So I keep the volume & tone full on at all times and only use the neck pickup.

 

This means that:

1/ I don’t need a bridge pickup.

2/ I don’t need any knobs at all.

3/ I don’t even need a pickup selector switch.

 

So my ideal custom guitar would look pretty basic. The POD takes care of the EQ, and its expression pedal gives me far easier volume control.

[starise]

Looks like you've found a good approach. I'm not familiar with the different Gibson switch layouts. I do favor the more minimalist approach and would probably opt for something similar. I have a love/hate relationship with distortion. I love distortion  but I also can hate it depending. It's really hard to describe a sound but I like "focused" distortion. This seems like a misnomer, yet if the distortion is too distorted the sound looses focus and dimension. The very nature of distortion can loose too much detail and add too much mud as I'm sure you're well aware.

 

It doesn't help that old school tube amps had to be driven louder to get the desired effects.This was good in a large space, but it could be bad in a small space with lots of standing waves. Lots of  guitar players bought an amp sim floor pedal , plugged it into an amp and thought it sucked. Many of these sound much better plugged into an audio system with a full range, but these guys were using them like typical effects and they just didn't sound as good. 

 

I think it's far easier to get out of hand with a Gibson than a strat or a tele. I had a hellraiser with the EMG 90/91 setup in it and never could I get it to stay focused. No matter what I plugged it into. No it isn't a Gibson , but the layout is a close approximation to some Gibsons. I seem to prefer using a single coil tele or strat to build my distortion chain.. Mainly because it starts out cleaner, yet still has a nice bite and makes a nice place to start.

 

Shaving off the bottom frequencies helps and one other trick Danni Danzi mentioned, listening to the tone with the source up higher to get a better representation of the sound at your ears. You don't hear an amp on the floor nearly as well.

 

If I were playing out with  HD500/Variax setup and didn't have a decent PA  I would look more at something like the Line 6 L2M instead of the Line 6 DT25. The L2M will give you 100% of the quality from the HD500. The DT25 has a Bogner tube section, so it doesn't really use the tube section from the HD500. It has to be driven like an old school amp to have the distortion. Great for loud bar gigs. Not so much for recording. JMHO YMMV.

 

You didn't reference amplification systems, but I think it all comes into play in the final result.

Edited January 4, 2017 by starise