scratchbox0
New member
- Joined
- Apr 18, 2011
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God I hope this isn't a real stupid question. Been playing for many, many years and I'm finally going to ask "how do you go about getting that tone?". My original plan was to always buy the equipment I thought would do it. Marshalls, Mesas, Vintage Fender..had 'em all. My biggest purchase was my step into MTS. It looked like the ticket to get a lot of different tones out of the same rig, so I purchased a RM4 and RT2/50. Three modules to start..KH1, Top Boost and SL+ off recommendations gleaned here.
I can sit in front of my amp and have a grand old time. The tone coming out seems real good. Sometimes it seems there isn't a bad setting except for extreme swings of the knobs. Then I take it to practice. Lifeless. Uninspiring. Lost in the mix. No sustain. So I do the old annoying guitar trick.. turn up the gain. Tweak like a madman and I get it to sound decent enough and not get thrown out. But back at home, what was passing in practice really sounds like crap. The hardest to dial in was the Top Boost. I essentially stopped using it.
So now I find myself doing the same old dance.."yeah, it must be because my modules aren't modded. Jaded Faith or Salvation..that's the ticket." Then it hit me that I am the problem. I have no systematic way to figure out tone. No idea how to dial in a module. I'm a tone tard. Brightness switch on, brightness switch off, not much difference. Couldn't say one setting is good, one setting is bad. Even on the RT2/50, I really don't hear much difference between the EL34's and the 6L6's. Maybe it's all those years standing onstage in front of the crash cymbal. Our other guitarist changed pedal cable lengths because he claimed tone loss, and I can barely detect the difference between tubes. I can feel
So maybe you have it or you don't, and I don't. I know a lot of it is just art, personal opinion. But maybe there is a starting point, a method that will put me on the road instead of just twisting knobs, getting frustrated and buying the next temporary fix. I'm confident the guys on this forum are serious about tone and pretty experienced, so I would appreciate anything that might help get me on track.
I can sit in front of my amp and have a grand old time. The tone coming out seems real good. Sometimes it seems there isn't a bad setting except for extreme swings of the knobs. Then I take it to practice. Lifeless. Uninspiring. Lost in the mix. No sustain. So I do the old annoying guitar trick.. turn up the gain. Tweak like a madman and I get it to sound decent enough and not get thrown out. But back at home, what was passing in practice really sounds like crap. The hardest to dial in was the Top Boost. I essentially stopped using it.
So now I find myself doing the same old dance.."yeah, it must be because my modules aren't modded. Jaded Faith or Salvation..that's the ticket." Then it hit me that I am the problem. I have no systematic way to figure out tone. No idea how to dial in a module. I'm a tone tard. Brightness switch on, brightness switch off, not much difference. Couldn't say one setting is good, one setting is bad. Even on the RT2/50, I really don't hear much difference between the EL34's and the 6L6's. Maybe it's all those years standing onstage in front of the crash cymbal. Our other guitarist changed pedal cable lengths because he claimed tone loss, and I can barely detect the difference between tubes. I can feel
So maybe you have it or you don't, and I don't. I know a lot of it is just art, personal opinion. But maybe there is a starting point, a method that will put me on the road instead of just twisting knobs, getting frustrated and buying the next temporary fix. I'm confident the guys on this forum are serious about tone and pretty experienced, so I would appreciate anything that might help get me on track.