Members Katana Posted January 22, 2008 Members Posted January 22, 2008 I'm still quite the newb and my EQing skillz are practically non-existant. I was wondering if anyone good give me some EQing guidelines for acheiving a good distorted lead tone. Something a little bit more on the metal side would be good. Is there some kind of formula I should be following?
Members 1001gear Posted January 22, 2008 Members Posted January 22, 2008 This is a tuffy since a good deal of metal tone is in the circuitry 'voicing' and where you set all the gain stages. You can try scooping the mids out and boosting the bass and treble. This may yield a good hollow Metal chunk. It may not. I have 40 watts of Boogie which will do metal but it is sooo loud I prefer overdrives and in some cases multiple overdrives, zoned for specific tones.
Members Li Shenron Posted January 23, 2008 Members Posted January 23, 2008 It's very debatable and depends on what other instruments in the band and the music genre/style, and also on what kind of guitar, amp and effects you're using.For example, you might not want to have too many instruments cramped on top of each other on the same frequencies. Of course, frequencies have most to do with the pitch of the notes you're playing, and I'm not suggesting here to necessarily move to another octave just to step out of the keyboards' range... Rather, I'm suggesting to consider boosting the middle range (the bass range being bass guitar's territory, and the trebles range being drums' territory) if for example you have noticed that when you play alone your current sound seems great, and then it doesn't sound so good anymore when the rest of the band plays with you.Then as soon as you move from the rehearsal place to the gig, you will have to do everything again
Members Knottyhed Posted January 23, 2008 Members Posted January 23, 2008 I'm still quite the newb and my EQing skillz are practically non-existant.I was wondering if anyone good give me some EQing guidelines for acheiving a good distorted lead tone. Something a little bit more on the metal side would be good.Is there some kind of formula I should be following? It's very debatable and subjective. As said above scooping the mids will give you that really heavy sound associated with metal - that's great for rythmn, but for lead you will find that you have to turn up really, really loud to cut through. If you scoop all the mids and try to play lead you'll get drowned out in my experience. Don't bother spending a fortune on a posh pedal either - things that sound great in a shop or your bedroom will usually not cut it when playing in a loud band that swallow up half your frequencies between the drummer's cymbals/high hats and the bassist's... um, bass. I'd suggest the following - DS-1 distortion pedal -> EQ -> valve amp. Boost the mids slightly in the EQ and boost the level - that'll give you more distortion from the amp's power tubes and obviously make you louder, and the mids will help cut through. A simple distortion pedal like a DS-1 will throw some extra dirt in there. Use the bridge pickup.
Members Jasco Posted January 23, 2008 Members Posted January 23, 2008 Tone is subjective. There are no formulas for tone. If you try to find one you are wasting your time. If you think you've found one you have been mislead. The key is to use your ears. Listen as objectively as you can, and ask yourself questions, about what you like, why you like it. Note your actions and what effect they have one your tone. Tone is subject to musical situation. Both stylistically and via instrumentation. Good tone for one style may not be at all good tone for another style. Good solo tone may not work for ensemble playing. Look, or rather listen I should say, for tone solutions first in your playing technique, not your gear or gear settings. Experiment a lot and have fun.
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