Its T-t-t-tone time again!

I agree. getting your tone is a long quest.
if you go to Harmony central forum those dudes have been questing for tone forever. lots of opinionsa and toys.

in my search I have realized hat a good amp is important. it can be solid state or tube. it really depends on your preferance.
a good guitar signal to your pedals or board is essential.
I use the best guitars I can afford. the inexpensive route and rationalization only lasts for awhile.

if you want good tone you invest in it.

play with the knob settings and take notes. so many times I stumbled on something I liked and got carried away jammin on it. then when I was done I packed up. thus forgetting what I had done.
now I write notes that I can understand later....that way I can get carried away with the moment.

my amp is often too big. what's the point of playing an amp on 2 or 3?
the boutique amps are very interesting to me. they are expensive.

in my search I have realized hat a good amp is important. it can be solid state or tube. it really depends on your preferance.
a good guitar signal to your pedals or board is essential.
I use the best guitars I can afford. the inexpensive route and rationalization only lasts for awhile.

if you want good tone you invest in it.

Oh sure, just as been trying to talk myself out of a new Chinese reissue Vox AC30CC. :cry:

huh?

I was killing time loloking at semi expensive amps today, the Vox AC30CC reissue and the Soldano Astroverb. I liked the clean on the Vox and the overdrive on the Soldano. Neither of them in my price range at the moment. :(

The big speaker on the Vox sure makes a difference.

yeah, my eyes are bigger than my stomach sometimes too.

the Vox is a classic sounding valve amp. dont know much about soldano.

good amps are a great way to get tone.

case in point. my Fender Vibrolux begins to sound awesome at 5. trouble is , when up that high at home the neighbors fie blocks away complain.

at 5 and better, my amp doesnt need a single overdrive pedal.
sweet.

Just as a point of reference as to what sorta sound im looking, think something like Eric Johnson - 'Cliffs of Dover'...Only a tad higher in output, but nicely saturated and creamy, not at all harsh.

By the way, has anyone had any experience with the Dytone Smoozy?
...Or the Vox BigBen as I asked b4?

Well, I should hopefully get to another guitar store or two tomorrow. Which amp are you plugging into?

Vox AD50VT (aka Valvetronix)

Also whats meant by true bypass and bandpass?

true bypass= when plugging into pedals you run through its circuit. some say that there is a degrodation of sound quality. and that is weither the effect is on or off.
true bypass does what it means. your signal runs true or unaffected by the pedal when the pedal is off.

true bypass= when plugging into pedals you run through its circuit. some say that there is a degrodation of sound quality. and that is weither the effect is on or off.
true bypass does what it means. your signal runs true or unaffected by the pedal when the pedal is off.

Elaborating a bit: When in "off" postion, the pedal's switch directly connects the pedal's input jack to it's output jack with no intervening circuitry -- except of course the switch itself. Generally this is a good thing to have, though it does limit the functionality of some effects. For example, a delay effect with true bypass will chop off any remaining echoes from the last note processed when one switches over to bypass. Sometimes one would not want that to happen.

Remember too that a lot of the tone you hear from professional perfromers is coming at you in a way that you simply can't get unless you invest in it very heavily.

Eric Johnson, for example, splits his signal and sends it to two amps, he has different settings on each amp head to give slightly different tone out of each. What you hear is the combination of those two amps being mic'ed and routed back to the soundboard.

You just won't get that same feel from a single sound source.

I play regularly with a guy who uses the exact same guitar, amp, mic and pedals as I do. His sound is, however, way better than mine. The reason is simple -- while I am going just to my amp from teh mic, he's also got a transducer on the guitar and he's running that to the second channel on the amp. The result is his sound is way richer than mine. No effect I can buy will compensate for not having that second signal going to the amp.

Getting a good clean tone is what is essential. You can always get distortions and effects with pedals.

I like my HRD because it does have a great clean tone, it is probably one of the very best amps in it's price range.

But if I had extra to spend on a PRO amp, I think I would go with the Fender Twin Reverb. Absolutely famous for it's wonderful clean tone and the best Reverb bar none.

So, that is my goal eventually.

Getting a good clean tone is what is essential. You can always get distortions and effects with pedals.

I like my HRD because it does have a great clean tone, it is probably one of the very best amps in it's price range.

But if I had extra to spend on a PRO amp, I think I would go with the Fender Twin Reverb. Absolutely famous for it's wonderful clean tone and the best Reverb bar none.

So, that is my goal eventually.

Hmm. Thats a very good point which will certainly totally change my perspective whenever I buy my next amp in future! That also assures me more now that an EQ pedal is important...hmmm

Thanks!

Sorry Simon, the store I went to today, didn't have the Big Ben, though I'm sure I've seen them around.
I did try a TS9 tubescreamer. Godin LG mahogany body and two humbuckers through the TS9 into a Blues Jr. Whew! Serious grin factor :D Somewhere in the ballpark of sample on the Vox site, can't really say more than that.
Single coils sounded quite different than the humbuckers. Hot but not as fat, is the best description I can come up with a the moment. A tubescreamer is definately on the list of future acquisitions for me.

since I am a single coil lover, Ive never tried my Tubescreamer on a humbucker.
my best friend has a Tele thinline. his Tubescreamer is his only pal. he sweras by it. it really extends his sustain and those humbukers are nice and fat n crunchy.

my single coils just scream with the TS9. I get excellent overtones and harmonics too.