Members MDLMUSIC Posted August 17, 2003 Members Share Posted August 17, 2003 I played a one-hour pick-up gig for an outdoor festival yesterday. One hour under a tarp, 95 degrees, and about 2000 people. The band consisted of bass, drums, guitar, and lead singer. All classic rock and oldies (my favorites). After our set, the soundman came up and told me how much he liked my tone. I had heard what a rough time he had had mixing the guitarist in the previous band who was using a vintage strat,some kind of massive pedal board, and a Fender Deluxe Reverb amp from the 60's. No matter how much the soundguy cranked the volume, the leads were still buried in the mix. He asked me what kind of gear I was using and his jaw nearly hit the floor when I told him it was just a $150 Epiphone Demon through a Zoom 505MKII and a Danelectro Dan-O-Wah into a Peavey KB-60 keyboard amp. The reason my leads stood out and made it easy for him to balance the mix was that I kept the sound pretty clean and only used slight crunch for my leads. Question for the pros--How do you get the guitarist to "clean up his act" when it comes to distortion? Reason I ask is that I have played in bands with other guitarists who seem to think more distortion=better tone. Have any tips? Michael D. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members tony k Posted August 17, 2003 Members Share Posted August 17, 2003 It came with age and experience for me. I doesn't hurt to have him use a wireless and get let him listen to the FOH either. To me that whole combination of no mids along with heaps of gain just makes for a mushy, poor sounding mix. I don't know a single guitar player that doesn't want to be heard. Just keep leading the horse to the water. Eventually he'll drink. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Zeromus-X Posted August 18, 2003 Members Share Posted August 18, 2003 The "let's scoop our mids until we're not actually playing guitar anymore" mentality has struck my guitarists really bad. I mean *really* bad. I have a feeling I could simply replace them with two bassists and a white noise generator and no one in the audience (or the rest of the band) would know the difference. Spend $2500 bucks on an amp and another several hundred on a guitar, and still sound like it's a Rogue through a Gorilla with a Metal Zone. But, I digress. They really wow'ed me with it today, when we were recording a practice session. When we were done, we ran it back through my bass setup with everything bypassed except my preamp, which was just used as an EQ set at unity and tweaked a bit. Neither one of them was happy with the sound until I took the mid and dropped it as far down as it'd go, with the bass and treble still set at unity (+0). They were both like "man, that sounds way better!" I told them you couldn't hear the guitars at all, and one goes "Yeah, but it sounds better this way!" Maybe that should tell them something... ...! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members agedhorse Posted August 18, 2003 Members Share Posted August 18, 2003 Maybe the guy took a double-dose of Prozac? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members MoosBros Posted August 18, 2003 Members Share Posted August 18, 2003 I get compliments like that when I play live...no matter what kind of instrument or equipment I'm using... THAT makes me a firm believer that the real (good) tone is actually in your fingers... I hear what your are saying about the gain...I use a small tube amp, plug straight in, and almost NEVER use the distortion channel....the amp cranked a bit is usually enough overdrive to sound right.. the distortion I only use for a special effect occasionally..and NEVER in a blues context.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members J the D Posted August 18, 2003 Members Share Posted August 18, 2003 I'm fortunate to play with two Strat players that each use a 40 watt tube amps on stage. One uses two effects boards with all kinds of toys and the other plays through the Roland VG synth. Both sound awesome and can dial it up an effect or sound as loud or as quietly as you might want. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Scodiddly Posted August 18, 2003 Members Share Posted August 18, 2003 A lot of clarity can be gained by using LESS distortion - that's a common place where guitarists screw up. Another big area is in "articulation" or what I refer to as "damping", basically playing such that you are putting little tiny pauses in between notes. This works for both guitar and bass players. Damp the end of each note before starting the next, and the notes will sort of pop out of the mix. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Marcel Posted August 19, 2003 Members Share Posted August 19, 2003 Originally posted by MDLMUSIC Question for the pros--How do you get the guitarist to "clean up his act" when it comes to distortion? Reason I ask is that I have played in bands with other guitarists who seem to think more distortion=better tone. Have any tips? Michael D. I know this problem very well. The other guitarist in my band sets his gain and bass (and the other) knobs at 3 'o clock (on the lead channel of a dual recto halfstack). Sometimes i think we neither need a bass player nor a second guitar player (that's me).How can I tell him to set his knobs for a good band sound not for a "i play alone" sound (why are guitarist always such egoists). sorry for my bad english Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members reaching Posted August 20, 2003 Members Share Posted August 20, 2003 Well speaking from a guitarist's standpoint The less distortion/overdrive thing is usually something gained from experience. You can tell someone something till your blue in the face, but sometimes it just doesn't sink in until they figure it out for themselves. What sounds good playing by ones self probably does not sound best with the band. The only thing I have a hard time getting in the mix is my analog delay. I generally play a strat/tele through a '65 Fender Vibrolux. Just my two cents! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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