Building New Guitar Tones/Patches

[redir]

Originally Posted by Paleolith54

I've never had luck modding the standard patches either, so I always also started with amp and cab models then went from there when I was trying modelers a few years back. Honestly, though, I've never really understood the whole "signature sound" business for the average player. Even for most well-known pros, it seems the "signature" part comes more from their fingers than their gear. Tom Morello (Rage Against The Machine) as I recall got so sick of fiddling with the amp that he picked one sound, marked the knob positions with Sharpies, said "this is my sound," and dove in. You could do the same with the modeler, and it seems you've started in the right direction: simpler is better, at least at first.

Yeah it's in the mind and the fingers of the player. I'm reminded of the time two very different musicians got together on stage. Jerry Garcia is one of those players who achieved the very coveted 'signature sound.' You could flip on the radio in the middle of a song and hear one guitar note and know that it's Jerry Garcia instantly. Apparently Elvis Costello was a Dead fan and at one of his shows invited Garcia up on stage. He grabbed a Jazzmaster and plugged it into what ever amp it was and sure enough it sounded exactly like Jerry Garcia.

[hatamoto]

I built a pedalboard for myself. I'm really into the Lo-fi sound. Think 50's radio, mid heavy, with a slight warm saturated breakup and a bit of warble.

For effects, the the traditional, "correct" order would be

Guitar>>Compressor>>Drives>>Modulation>>Delay>>Rev erb

I would start there to build your virtual pedalboard. I look at it in two parts. Modulations and drives are what shapes your sound. The wet effects are just afterthoughts so they're not necessary. So in your case, I would start twiddling with your overdrives and play around with stacking them. Then add modulation like choruses, and vibratos after.


Since I was looking for that Lofi tape warbly degraded sound, I put my vibrato (modulation) close to the beginning of the chain:

Guitar>>compressor>>vibrato>>fuzz>>drive>>delay>>r everb

Alot of this came from my inspiration from Madison Cunningham.

The result is that the pitch shifting oscillations from the vibrato would get overdriven which emulated a degrading tape sound. It also produced a warmer sound. The compressor also adds to the saturation effect. Those three are my always on pedal. If I want to go crazy, I can turn on the fuzz but I keep it low to create sort of a bit crushed type of sound. Just enough to give it some hair, but low enough that I can still hear the notes when I'm chording. The overdrive is after it because I want that to be my base tone.

So basically my main tone is compressor to vibrato into a slight overdrive. The overdrive is set really low, just enough to create a saturation effect instead of actually driving it. The compressor also helps me reach saturation faster which is helpful for low volume playing. I keep my amp on the clean setting and turn the master and gain to taste. The rest of the effects are all extra.

I guess, in the purest sense, I could even just use a Strat and the tremolo bar or a humbucker with a bigsby into a loud tube amp.

[ghostnote]

I always start with an amp I like, then do small tweaks until I like it better. Almost always, less is more. I have lots of pedals, and I’m used to stacking them in different ways on pedal boards. A modeler is really the same thing, but the pedals are all in one box. The box IS the pedal board, but with many more options.

[Pine Cone]

Thanks to everyone for the advice and suggestions. I built some patches last week that seemed to work well at today's band practice.

Friday we play outside at a local farmer's market, followed by an indoor gig at a senior center followed by two outside performances at my city's annual festival.

I plan on more patch work tomorrow and this weekend. At least I have a better idea of what I should be doing now.

[AcouStickistNS]

Not sure if this is any help, I use a Helix and for many year used a pair of QSC K12’s. At one point I found on the internet an explanation to use the QSC with the volume control set about 2:00 and use the Helix to control the volume. I did get better tones doing that. I had issues using certain delays, and my needs changed and for electric guitar nowadays I play through either a Powercab+ or my EV-50. With the QSC’s certain delays did not appeal to me.

See if that 2:00 volume setting does anything for you, unless you already know