I was priviledged enough to see this guy whale on a guitar at the Yale Pub in Vancouver (to a packed house) before it closed down. Carson Downey can play a lick or two…
I love the blues…when I see a guy play like this I know he’s feeeeelin it.
It is and sorry for missing this. Ive played years and cannot reproduce what these guys do; but nor do I want to. It is a very subjective thing, but I suppose Metal and its derivatives place the guitar at the very centre of the mix, and this is what you get. Its why the vocalists have to adopt the style they do, to be able to sing through the mid-rich tone of the guitar. I prefer abrasive and clangy so lend to a guitar EQ with less mids, more treble and sometimes even no bass, but then I have to balance the harshness of the treble and will lift the bass/mids to allow the tone some body.
It would be interesting for us to reveal the current EQ settings on our amps. Mine are: -
Roland Jazz Chorus - B2 M4 T5 - and for this Im going after REM - Talking Heads types sounds
Orange AD30r - B2 M4.5 T7 - which I am using for more crunch and distorted lead tones.
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I have:
Crate GFX-60 - B10 M2 T10 - high gain crunch with reverb and a bit of delay thrown in, great clarity especially on neck pickups for solos. Just what sounds pleasing to my ears, I suppose an amalgamation of the sonic signatures of Pantera, Exodus, and Testament.
Positive Grid Spark (using my own creation signal chain with delay, reverb, chorus effects, with an ENGL Fireball amp head simulation) -
B8 M3 T7 - Again, a variation of the above, a metal tone that sounds great to me.
Used to have a Peavey 6505 head but sold it as it wasn’t versatile enough for my taste.
I play mostly instrumental prog metal/rock and metal of all flavours. And I do heavily prefer the technical stuff, just what I like really.
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I forgot about the infamous metal scoop. I suppose the Crate is a mid emphasis amplifier?
Think @Noo_Noo uses the same Spark amp?
I have a Peavey Ultra in the shed, the forerunner to the 5150 when Eddie was using it. I only ever run it clean where it is most similar to a Fender Deluxe, the 2 extra gain stages knock the windows out, but very high 60hz hum.
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It’s an excellent bedroom/practice amp which is IMO one of the best solid state amps I’ve ever heard (before amp sims became a thing). I got it when I used to live in the US as Megadeth used to use Crate and I was heavily into them. It’s actually quite versatile, has an superb clean tone, sparkling really.
Yeah the scoop thing is classic Metallica-influenced.
I also have a Vox mini which is a great travel amp (has a built in drum machine) with useful tonal options.
My dream amp head would be a Diezel but that’s way too much power to handle, would always need a power soak. Plus it’s prohibitively expensive!
Ohhh that thing must be sweet!
It really is but has cost me, and they are rare but inexpensive, but has an intermittent fault on the reverb which I cannot rid of. It goes but comes back, it kind of sticks and becomes an awful squeal. At first I thought it was my playing 
This is an issue Ive wanted to raise a while. Its impossible to recreate the tones that inspired us to begin ti play, especially at home. Which is why these practice amps are ideal. Of my two proper amps, the volumes, which I never mentioned are at 2 and 3!! They just dont perform at these levels, and a few posts up, @Noo_Noo and I discussed the overlooked impact of raw volume on a guitar tone.
Not many good solid states around but I have a few too, a Demon mini made by pro-amplifiers, and the Jazz Chorus (but its very fucking loud).
Yep some of the metal amp clean are tones are gold. Im just glad you dont use a crazy high gain end Marshall, its such a real overused sound.
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6DYC61HzmtM
This has been a massive inspiration for me for many years, Stevie Winwood, rocks the house on a Strat Plus. Its very much worth a watch and close analysis of how fluid he is in these two guitar parts, probably the most underrated of underrated players.
Marshalls just didn’t do it for me. Having said that, the Exodus boys tinkered around with their Marshalls (JCM-something, out of production by now) and came up with some different circuit path (not just switching out tubes) that gave them their amazing tone.
There’s a bloke on YouTube whose videos are about reproducing signature rock and metal sounds using currently available hardware (can’t remember the name).
Yeah, gain just for gain’s sake is useless, same with volume. I’m a guitarist and my ears are my most valuable assets, closely followed by my hands. Have to protect them.
Oh well JCM 800 easily one of the greatest amps ever made. Nearly bought one of those once in my Pixies phase. Marshall circuit path is rumoured to only be Fender Black Face with an upper mid hump.
There is a lot of tone hacking going on in the digital age; Billy Corgan just used a stack of rack processors now. Some lads I know have sworn by the Axe-Fx but have gone back to tubes. There is also this Kemper vibe going on but Ive not checked one out yet. Because I suspect Tube will sound better, just like vinyl does (but only ever so slightly) although there are a lot of digital studio tricks, completely wasted on this generation of copyists.
It ultimately comes to price, what you are using it for, and how many women are in the house.
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As far as sound hacking goes, I’d love to find out the exact setup that Mike Kerr of Royal Blood has for his bass guitar. He sounds monstrous live!!
It really does, but is it a baritone guitar? Sounds like fuzz to me but distortion tends to go to fuzz in the low frequency.
It’s a standard bass, he runs it through a bass amp and a guitar amp parallelly
Does my head in. The missus has misophonia which means headphones only and 2 of my favourite guitarists, Gary Moore and Gilmour are obviously renowned for nice sustained notes. Getting that without tweaking the drive control is hard and frustrating. As a result I’m always hunting and never satisfied with my tone. Not even close.
I do wonder how YouTubers do it to be honest.
The Spark is great for linking to songs and the in built lessons etc.
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Totally agree, some of my best hours have been spent in an empty house with my amp pushed; it starts to react differently, and variably I think, where slight glances seem impressive.
Im guessing the Youtubers are all digital and use studio power brakes?
You both would be very unimpressed, I can hardly play anything for parties. I decided early on if I learned songs I loved I would end up sounding like that, so Ive been practicing scales chords and styles, which is no doubt why Im bored!!! Also really out of practice since my rig went into storage when my relationship broke up in 2019 and not got my mojo back yet?! Had a little hump when i got that Jazzmaster, but then this summer I changed PUPs in my tele to Vintage 64s and oh man, but that still wasnt enough. Im at that stage where I need to play with other musicians; so I need to get that moving.
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what you’re discussing, I’ve noted a few times that some equipment simply cannot be replicated
when Radiohead’s tour came to an abrupt end in Toronto due to a set rigging failure that killed a set hand, it was noted in the background of the story that a significant chunk of the band’s gear was crushed in the collapse and they didn’t have replacements available for the antique gear that some of the members used. (likely, Jonny Greenwood)…
one of the guys I grew up with is a pedal fiend. I think a bit of an obsession, he’s got boxes of them. Runs Bully Studios and is a major push for independent live music in the city. that quest for sound you’re talking about, he’s all over it.
just learned the vocalist of his band died a few weeks back, I should reach out…
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@Semmy its dead right, some amps, guitars, pedals - as in individual versions of them, sound right on, next to others that dont. I think my AD30r is one and my Jazzmaster. Also spaces, some auditoriums are noted for lending to great sound, and others shite. Had my first gig at Liverpool Olympia in Oct and it was one of the best ever!
Radiohead tho, and Johnny Greenwood, he is one of the best musicians ever, and to think he came at the end, when there was less room. Some of his synth work and piano is often missed, but I love his stuff, I must get some of his film scores?
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