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!

The quarantine preset reorganization

Well, after i spent time with my new British full lead tone and finding that i really digit in, i needed a sweet spot in the memory of the mustang.

Long story short tell, after last renaming and sorting, after adding a pedalboard and sticking will a lower number of preset, i decided for a reorganization.

Reason are 2:

1) i like the naming i was using but it is not much evocative in the long term
2) actual system was not functional, and you need to be conmfortable, to enjoy your playng experience.

I did a lot of thinking on it i like the result so far:

Some of the main preset retain its old slot, basically:

ORANGE is near or less Dream Theater presets
GREEN is an all of classics
RED is for Metal

the basic idea is that the extarnal triplets (ABC and FG#) are in the same family, sorta of complete sets. DE are used for leftovers.

RED ABC is my allround core. 2K METAL is my trash roaring tone that can do everything, coupled with the clean compressed chorused and the new lead tone. It can cover a lot of terrain.

RED DE is my guns and roses set, i need an external wah to complete.

RED FG# is my set of Megadeth (alternative to the 2K METAL) with a random clean tone.

GREEN ABC is Satriani set, in fact i could do without the B when i have the external wah in the chain but i like having the 2K WAH around. Was a good peset!

The rest of the bank is raising from clean (#) in to blues (G) in to hard rock (F) in to a pushed britsh tone (E) in to a modern high gain cutting thin (D) that is the Mustang replica of my pre-mustang tone.

But i my kick off the BRIT 2K LEAD since i dont use it. The JCM FULL LEAD would have sit nicelyu also here.

ORANGE ABC is a Dream theater set and G# is another.

ORANGE DEF is a work in progress, i think the now renamed MB LEAD FULL (originally my "liquid" tone) will be retaired since the JCM FULL LEAD has that spot now. MB CRUNCH X i really do not remember what is for!

I will keep updated!

Marshall Britsh Lead Tone

Recently i've seen this Tom Quayle video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-BRU7Hd_3dI

and some more in the past months. It uses a Solo tone that is sorta of a British High Gain Lead Mid pushed solo.

Many other instrumental guitar player uses similar tones. Marco Sfogli comes to mind.

So i decided to make my try with my trusty Fender Mustang I.

This is my take:

First thing first i maxed out both the Gain in the Amp and the Fender Overdrive Stomp. All tones on the amp are up but the trebles that are 9 out of 10 and also the presence is backed up to 3. I wanted to be rounded and not to aggressive in the high frequencies.

The result is a good tone for solo and hard rock. In the video Tom control the gain with the volume knob of the guitar. I think i used to much gain here so you wont do that!

FX are my standard settings, all packed for a classic solo ambience.

Enjoy!