I’m the exact opposite. I can solo pretty well, but my rhythm playing sucks. Not because I don’t know the chords, it’s just that I’ve been playing by myself for so long, with no looper, not playing along with other music, etc that when practicing, I get bored quickly with riffing and just break out the soloing.
Sounds like I need a looper! Anyway, came into an MXR-234 analog chorus pedal recently, so I’ve been tinkering with that. I was never really a chorus guy, but this pedal is quite awesome in it’s sounds and versatility. Anyone else play with that pedal?
Anyone on here work with any of the software guitar amplifiers? Back when I attempted learning guitar I would try some of them out and as an experiment I used some of the bass guitar amp models and cabs and I thought they sounded neat. I was wondering if anybody with a bass guitar tried out the guitar amps, and if so what the result was. Did the bass sound “blown out” especially with some of the potentially more high gain amp models? I was under the impression that bass guitar into a regular guitar amplifier would equal to blowing out your speakers. So I was curious about the end result with a digital version of that with no actual speakers to break.
I’ve only used the software amp/cab models in GarageBand a decade ago. But! the only real difference between the two types of amps in real life are the watts that are needed to project bass, and the points the EQ are set to adjust. Until the early 70’s, there’s no difference in them other than the speakers, and sometimes not even that.
The speakers in modern bass cabs are generally able to take more absolute power, and are constructed to be able to reproduce lower frequencies. Guitar cabs sound OK in a studio setting when you don’t have to push them to drum set volumes. I’ve recorded more than a few tracks through a Marshall 1960A guitar cab at low volumes and using close mic’ing. The tone is adequate, if not ideal. I’ve played more than one guitar head through a bass cabinet while competing with a drum set, and other than the anemic power handling*, I’ve always been able to get an overdriven tone I love. A guitar amp rated at 100W may struggle to keep up with a drum set in ways that a bass amp rated at 100W won’t, but it sounds good trying.
In short: if you can select any cab you want, put a bass cab under a guitar head. Even if you can’t do that, you can keep the volume low and EQ enough bass in there after the cabinet model to have it sound good.
These days, if I can’t stick a mic in front of a cab or use the direct out already in one of my heads, I don’t mess with cabinet modelers. I use a fuzz pedal or a distortion set mildly for a preamp, and a tube preamp to add some softness after that, then into the board. With some tweaking of the EQ on the preamp and the board, it sounds as good as the software models of 10+ years ago.
*And a watt isn’t necessarily a watt. It depends on a lot of things, for example: the THD the mfr. measures the rating at, whether it’s the peak or sustained output, it’s a crapshoot really.
I’ve been disappointed plugging my bass into guitar amps. It works, but the sound is so muddy and it’s hard hearing the lowest notes.
There’s several budget conscience practice amps for bass.
Fenders Rumble series starts with a 15W with 8 in speaker for $80. Rumble 25 is $99 and Rumble 40 has a 10" speaker for $199. Fender has pro Rumble models to, like the Rumble 200 with 15" speaker.
I researched an ultimately bought a GK MB115 with 15" speaker. 200 Watts. They offer the option of a amplified bass cabinet. Nearly doubling the power. I haven’t needed it yet. That’s needed for gigging.
I love the crisp bass my GK delivers at low volumes. You don’t need to crank it up to hear the low notes.
“The filings will allow the Company’s Musical Instruments and Professional Audio businesses to continue to design, build, sell, and manufacture legendary Gibson and Epiphone guitars, as well as KRK and Cerwin Vega studio monitors and loud speakers, without interruption.”
The short version is that they have financing to operate those four brands without interruption, and they’re going to dump the other brands.
I’ve always wondered how they can maintain sales volume at the high prices they charge for their instruments. I’d love to own a Gibson, but can’t justify the cash outlay. I did own Cerwin Vega speakers many years ago, however.
Jesus’ balls. Aside from the ‘saved’ brands, Gibson was/is Kramer, Maestro, Steinberger, Tobias (who?) “with ownership of brands such as Kalamazoo, Dobro, Slingerland, Valley Arts (who?), and Baldwin (Chickering, Hamilton, Wurlitzer [etc])”.
Fuck me, I thought Gibson was a guitar company. Maybe they will be again.
You really can’t go wrong with The Plank! What kind did you get, what kind of amp / effects will you combine it with, and what type of music will you mostly be playing? Whatever you do, remember to twiddle the knobs!! Ya gotta *operate *a Tele, but once you get into that, you’ll wonder why you hadn’t been doing it all along.
It’s a knock-off brand called Fazley. Dirt cheap (80 EUR), but good bang for little bucks, plays nice though I need to set it up. It’s made of ash, cherry sunburst (:D), no name pups and simply gorgeous. Right now I’ll play it through whatever I have right now, I’ll contemplate getting something nicer when I move back to Norway. Effects… Whatever I need! I have a memory man with hazarai, I’m getting a new looper eventually, a DS-1 and an OS-2, some home made stuff (tomatrilex) and a wah. I’m getting into some heavy stuff, death metal/industro/grind stuff, I’m gonna start up a black metal fusion band this summer, and a gabber-joik metal band. Maybe I’ll dust off a little on my country/southern-punk stuff too!
First impressions: Fucking awesome! Always wanted a tele!
Sounds like you are all set! When you play heavy stuff, how do you set the on-board Volume and Tone? I know you’ll have pedals and such all delivering the grind. Do you run the controls at 10? I would think backing off the Treble would be a good thing, to eliminate some ice-picky highs when you are pumping up distortion. But I have no clue about setting up a death metal rig.
Today I’ve had it up all the way, only using the bridge pup, when playing heavy stuff. Sounds pretty good. No additional effects, only gain. Those highs can be useful, shock the eardrums a bit. Had it midway down, both pups when playing muted, more poppy jazzy stuff. Turned down all the bass on the amp, tone at ten using only the bridge, when trying and failing to play black metally stuff.
I’m not all set, yet. In a couple of months I’ll probably have better answers! I’m not playing guitar in my current bands, I just needed something to noodle on instead of wasting time on the internet while procrastinating.
I’m not an especially gifted player technically. I need some mud, twang and slop to my sound, so I sometimes down-tune (or play out of tune). I’m contemplating just running it through a pre-amp, eventual effects (if necessary), then straight into my mixer(s), for more tone control. I’ve had some pretty fun results controlling guitar with internal feedback mixer setups, so I might try that out at some point. Some of my home made stuff works by running audio through fruit, set up as a patch-matrix, for various distortion effects – I’m working on an auxiliary effect for guitar/bass/vocals building on that idea.
Black Metal: Hollow, waspy, trebly and gnarly sound.
Death/Grind/Industro: Heavy, bassy, muddy sound.
Countryish stuff: Twang, twang, twang!
I’ll get back to you with more details when I’ve fiddled some more!
I have no idea what “I’ve had some pretty fun results controlling guitar with internal feedback mixer setups” means, but if it is working for you, yay!
Did you listen to my posted samples around post #5180 in this thread? You know how my single-coil sounds thicker and warmer in those? That’s all about the Tone control.
Hmm - looking at your needs:
Black Metal: Hollow, waspy, trebly and gnarly sound.
Death/Grind/Industro: Heavy, bassy, muddy sound.
Countryish stuff: Twang, twang, twang!
Black Metal, as you describe it here, sounds like scooped mids, big highs, and a lot of compression.
Death: It sounds like my tone with a much more aggressive distortion stompbox (or two in succession), but the Tone rolled off to 4 or so. I would also try backing off the volume to maybe 8 to get a bit more articulation.
Country: lots of Highs, and a lot of compression. I’d search Youtube for how Tele chickin pickers set up their rigs.
Question: what are the pots in that Tele? Many Teles have pots - 1m I think? - which bring out a lot more highs. I have 250K pots in mine which are less bright, and what Fender used with old Teles. You might check that out as part of your living with it and getting a feel. Luck!!
I use a lot of no-input mixers/internal feedback in my music. I did vocals and harsh-noise in a grindnoise band, and we figured we should try running the guitarist both out of his own amp and into my setup of mixers feeding into themselves and each other. The result was pretty chaotic.
Yeah, I did. Pretty awesome sound!
Black Metal: Yeah, pretty much what I was thinking. I think a tomato-distortion might work out pretty well also. Gives a sound similar to old mayday emergency calls.
Death: Thanks, I’ll give it a go!
Country: Yeah! I used to twang in a band, describes it to a tee.
I think I have to open it to find out. I’ll do that at some point anyway. I like to tinker. In fact, when I’ve moved I’ll start thinking about how I wanna mod my old Ibanez. It’s kinda fucked up already, so no harm franking it up a bit.
Last observation - what is the body made of? Likely modular pieces at that price, but it will still be some type. If you think the wood is more like a hardwood like Ash, vs. say more Mahogany like you might try different pickups. I just love my Seymour Duncan Jerry Donahue Sig Tele bridge pickup. It does great cleans - not that I really ever use them - but gains up so damn well. I find it is better suited to ash bodied guitars, so if yours is kinda like that, it might be worth a try as you tinker down the road.
Ah, so not a standard Tele construction which is two-piece Ash or Alder. Sounds like this is basswood with an ash top - which is good and common on superstrats, like those built by John Suhr.
Feels great to noodle again! It’s been years. I got carpal tunnel from bass playing about ten years ago, so I kinda quit playing conventional instruments regularly.
I have a memory man with hazarai, I’m getting a new looper eventually, a DS-1 and an OS-2, some home made stuff (tomatrilex) and a wah. I’m getting into some heavy stuff, death metal/industro/grind stuff, I’m gonna start up a black metal fusion band this summer, and a gabber-joik metal band. Maybe I’ll dust off a little on my country/southern-punk stuff too!
In a couple of months I’ll probably have better answers! I’m not playing guitar in my current bands, I just needed something to noodle on instead of wasting time on the internet while procrastinating.
I use a lot of no-input mixers/internal feedback in my music. I did vocals and harsh-noise in a grindnoise band, and we figured we should try running the guitarist both out of his own amp and into my setup of mixers feeding into themselves and each other. The result was pretty chaotic.