How to evolve your guitar tone

How do you master the tone of our guitar?

How do we find our how sound?

How do we make a step forward in the path of guitar voicing?

Here's my perspective.

We all are in love for the tone of some artist. And most of us have a phase where we try to emulate someone else tone. We read, we search, we experiment, we copy we clone.

It is ok. It is good. It teach us something.

But... most of us want that same exact thing, in the good and in the bad.

But there is more about it. Just listent. Find that part of the tone you love that really strikes your heart. Focus on that. Give you the ability to really understand how that part work. Make it your. And then try to change the rest. Make it different, make better. Take out what you feel wrong, impefect, unneeded. Put in something else.Pick that something from different recipes and make your own recipe.

Petrucci Allround preset AKA Ultimate dual channel solution

As you may know i am struggling finding a solution to for the limited stomp preset chaning offered by my beloved mustang I v1.

My comfort zone would be the ability to have the classic 3 channel solution at my feets:

1) clean

2) crunch rythm

3) lead

But i can have only 2 of the 3 and this has alway got me mad...

I recently found a solution that consists in using a pedal platform oriented clean (i discovered that my sparkilng cleans preset are really bad as platform!) that can handle a decent MB emulation from the Zoom Multistomp to use for the crunch rythm and the other state of the footswith is set to the lead tone.

It is a compromise: the crunch is only decent, as i state, and the clean is not the wonder.

So today inspiration leads me to something different:

Introducing MB CRUNCH 1 DC MORE aka PETRUCCI ALLROUND PRESET.

After i found a very good tone to perform Damage Control (see the DC in the name) i decided to try to find a sweet spot between the gain i need for the rythm and the gain i need for the sole (that is obvously MORE!!!). Again is a compromise: it is a bit less tight and clear and  a bit less headroom in the rythm and a bit less gainy for the solo. But just a bit. And has no 450ms delay when you are soloing. I could use the classic trick of the pitch shifter for the shot delay and the proper delay for the longer one but i would have ruined the tightness of the preset and render it unuseful for the rythm section. It is a compromise, but is a really comfortable compromise. And, oddly, it works on an LT25 or LT50.

(oh! and i recentrly discovered that all my preset are also available to download in the fender library for the new GT and GTX models! So plenty of compatibility!)

And it only works very well on my JP70, but i guess that with some tweaks it will work better also on the SZ, but not in the same patch!

I most admit that i am pretty excited about this preset!

John Petrucci Lead tone: a small guide

First of all a small introduction on the basics amp tones of John.

Petrucci uses like 6 different channels, just like a standard clean/cruch/lead but everything is doubled.

2 cleans

2 crunches

2 leads

with small differences

the 2 cleans are in a separated setup (different head and differnet cabs) for 2 reasons:

1) smoother switching between channels

2) i likes better 2x12 for the cleans and 4x12 for the leads

other than this he uses glassy fenderish clean with no brackup, adding compression, chorus and delay where is needed.

Reverb settings: JP does not use any reverb, BUT you may want since it is added in production on the records. Usually a small amount of plate is the default, an hall will also do. Nothing that "color" your tone like a '63. This goes for both cleans, chuches and leads.

Addendum on reverb: JP uses, at least on leads, a dual stereo delay setting. One delay has 602 and the other has 460ms, both 3 repeats. The texture of repeats of this settings offer both clear repaets to sustain the fast notes runs and reverb like ambience. If you dont have 2 delays (and the Original Fender Mustang hasnt) i may want to try to set your delay at 460 (like me) or 602, 3 repeats, around 30% level and add the missing ambience with a trusty reverb. 

Pickup configuration: most of you will agree: Petrucci Di Marzio are amazing, but this is not the whole point. I think that part of the pickup evolution is just an adjustment do different woods. Indeed you can see the the old pickup still get mounted on certain guitars and i think it mainly depends of woods and weight of the guitar. The main target is tonal consistence across the various guitars without changing amp settings. And the other point is the balance between neck and bridge pickup. If you tweak your amp for the neck liquid tone you may not have that cutting and tight tone on the bridge. And that is foundmental. John Petrucci uses specific pickup based on the position on the fretboard: neck for the higher frets, most times, and bridge for the lower frets, and the same solo. If your pickup arent balanced the same way it will be a problem for you. My main guitar has an hotter bridge PU and a cleaner neck pickup, more clean oriented than solo oriented. I've found a setting that is a good middleground and get me close but not that close.

Riff vs lead tone: a small guide

Since my view of this has grow a lot recently (especially in the lead departement!), i want to share a small sum of my finding here with you.

Yes you can use a single tone of both, many do, but what if you want to spacialize and get the most of both worlds? And whay if you want to know what are the difference?

GAIN:

You dont want too much gain on your rythm but you may want more gain on your solo. Way? Rythms need to be tight and "clear" and solo may need sustain. You want the feel the attack and the stom while you strum, one side and want you note to last as long as it can to the other.

DELAY:

Same goes for the delay, Riff want no delay or a very short slap to "double" your guitar. On the opposite when doyng a solo you want athmosphere you want your fast notes melting and messing with the repeats

EQ:

Again your riff need to be thight, with a good amount of highs (but always keep away that arsh taste), while avoid the honk of a exagerated mid and you want to tame your basses so it is not too boomy or undefined.. Thats the recipe, you know. And the solo: the solo needs to stand out, so you need some more mid to cut through the mid, and your highs need more basses and more mids to get full and rounded. Check with your neck PU if you have too much basses listening to the tone of the A string between 10 and 15 frets. Yuo need that notes to be usables. Many uses the neck pickup for the higer frets but i think that you may want to tame your highs and to keep the brighe pickup usable in that zone for the sweet armonics that it makes when you it more than one string and bend!

Fender Mustang new superclean tones

I've worked on my clean recently.

I've noodled with all my preset and decided that the 65 Twin Reverb.

I like that glassy superclean tone, and i like it to be clean with my humbacker.

So, i set the gain all the way down, and bass and middle really close to that. treble at 5 (because trebles give you the definition, the attack of the note!). Cranked the volume at 9 and added a compressor post gain to raise the volume (set attack and threshold way down, ratio at 3, release at mid).

I loveit! And so responsive to the change of pickup, very acustic!

I called this "65 TW PURE"

BUT

Yes there is a but!

All that trebles! So bad as a pedal platform! I mean drive pedals act very bed with all that trebles. Sound so sterile.

So i decided to make room for an alternative.

I made a new preset: the "65 TW BALANCED".

TREBLE=4,MID=3,BASS=2.5

Not as wonderful as before, a more humbled tone i will say. But this is good enough as a pedal platform. Drives are warm now.

So the idea is: When i play a 2 tones song, i can use the PURE setting, when i need a 3rd tone, i can relay on pedals in front of the BALANCED wrkorse!

random thoughts on guitar effect and tones

As you may have read, during the quarantine i've reorganized my presets. And then i've reorganized again and then i've changed presets. And i've startedfrom scratch my pedalboard.

I'm trying to find my way, and may be i'm fighting my own nature in the disperate grow as a guitar player.

When i was young and was playing in a band i had a clean (a la Jazz Chorus) and a high gain (a la 5150) sound. And most of the time the clean had no use. So most of the time i did not even need a footswitch.

After years, with my actual configuration (no matter what it is) the footwork is still a pain. So i'm leaning toward getting information on people using less sounds. Minimalists. And built from there. A clean, a drive, possibile with versatility. At least inside a song.

Whatching Satriani's pedalboard did not help. I realized that i dont have the mind to figure out how to use all thoose stuffs. I've learned how to use multiple delays but maybe it is just not my cup of thea.

But Joe said something interesting. When he's working the songs from the album to the tour, he play the full setlist with just one sound, to see where it works and where not. I'm giving a try to this mindset to see where it leads. And  maybe not worring if the tone i'm using for a song is the perfect one will make a better experience. Because maybe there is no perfect tone.

So i will try all the combinations, also. What if i play my "set" with just one tone (so no cleans), then just 2 and the up to 3, my actual limit?

I will let you know where i land!

Plexion (crunchbox) vs guvnor (zoom governor)

Some week ago i decided to reboot the pedalboard with the goal to simplify things up.

Obviously i keep the amp footswitch and decided for the zoom multistomp as a jack of all trades.

First thing missing was a wah, i actually am using the touch wah on the zoom, and working on a stand alone solution. Since i find the touch wah in the Zoom better than the one in the Mooer Mod Factory i gave up on the last one. I will get rid of that at some point!

But this is not point here. The next thing i noticed is that when i play Fade to black from Metallica, i am ok with the cleans and ok with the rythm, but i need a 3rd tone. A sweeth and cream britsh low gain tone.

I hunted a bit on the Multistomp options and i settled on the governor. Gain at 62, Tone at 18 and level at 78 (unity gain obviously). Tone at 18? Yes i am putting this in front to a very clean and very trebly Fender Tweed model.

Well, we all know where this is gonna lead us. Since i reboot the board i've felt like the first slot was to be filled with the plexion. Still my preferred stomp. Buy.. can we make a plexion(crunchbox)  sound like Marshall Guv'nor. Turns out that we can. Normal mode obviously. Half the gain (around 30 instead of 62 or 10-11 o'clock), tone just before half way and level just after.

What i've learn today? Since a crunchbox  is a son of the govnor, the low gain in the crunchbox sounds pretty close to the midgain in the govnor. And i am way happy about it!