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I'm in a one guitar band right now. It's the first time I've been in a band where I was the only guitar. One thing I've noticed and I don't like is when I do a lead, the bottom just drops out of the song. I have a big rhythm sound but when it come to the lead, there is a huge void. We even have a keyboard player who is very good. It's just not the same as having a second guitar. I would prefer to have another guitarist but the others think were fine the way it is. What effects if any can use to fatten my lead tone? I use my Mesa dual rectifier in this band. I've tried the delay/reverb effects. I personally don't think I will be able to substitute having a second guitar in the mix.
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Re: Big Lead Sound
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Re: Big Lead Sound
i always play in a one guitar band. i don't use effects live except the wah. my band always sounds full when i solo. here's what we do:
the bassist has his tone set up to where the fundamental is very deep. none of that "clacky" modern bass sound. he's using mesa/boogie bass 400+ througha boogie 1x15 & 2x10 cab.
my tone is set with a lot of mids, moderate bass, and minimal treble. the volume makes up for the hi end. i do a lot of clean to dirty switching in my songs, so the clean tone and distorted tone were set up at stage volume.
the bassist and i tweaked our amps together. he takes the low end, part of the lower mids and some of the treble (but not enough to have that clacky sound). i take the upper mids and some of the treble. we blended our sounds to fill out the frequencies evenly. if you heard our rigs alone you would think our sound sucks, but together it is very full and even.
when i step out and take a lead all the meat is still there because of the way we set our rigs.
just a thought.....GEAR:
some guitars...WITH STRINGS!!!! most of them have those sticks like on guitar hero....AWESOME!!!!
some amps...they have some glowing bottle like things in them...i think my amps do that modelling thing....COOL, huh?!?!?!
and finally....
i have those little plastic "chips" used to hit the strings...WHOA!!!!Comment
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Re: Big Lead Sound
I don't think the OC-2 would track very well during solos. I have the OC-3 with "polyphonic" mode, which I used until we had a bassist, and even with its improvements over the OC-2, it just couldn't keep up.
How would your bassist feel about using overdrive or distortion under your leads? It would work best if he had an ABY box and a second amp strictly for distorted parts, which would keep the clean signal through its own amp. Just a thought...Comment
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Re: Big Lead Sound
MD's got the right idea. tweak you and your bass players tone to compliment each other yet still hold their own.
you must do this at giging volumes without earplugs.
i don't think effects should be used "fix" anything. just make them sound better.
having some "grit" in the bass sound really does help fill the sound out. not neccessarily distortion, but a little gain in bass tone can really "seat" a mix.Comment
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Re: Big Lead Sound
I don't know if this helps any, but I use a slight chorus in my leads. Not enough to get the full on effect, but enough to boost and thicken it up and it usually gets across live, but the volume is also considerably more than on the rhythm channel tooComment
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Re: Big Lead Sound
If your leads are really good, the listener shouldn't miss the second guitar. I actually think the 2nd guitar makes a bigger difference on fattening up rhythm parts of a song, although it depends what style you're playing.
Whenever I get paranoid about being the lone guitarist in my band, I go back and watch some old Randy or Lynch videos and realize that a full sound with one guitar is possible.Comment
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Re: Big Lead Sound
+1,Irfaan.I do the same thing to thicken it up,but MD is right on,get your bass player to help you out also.My bass player is a nut,he will solo behind my solo and still hold the groove.But I have been playing with the same bass player and drummer for 20 years [img]/images/graemlins/laugh.gif[/img]..................Straightjacket Memories.Sedative Highs...........Comment
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Re: Big Lead Sound
MD's approach is correct, in a nutshell thats how I was doing it as well, and practice more on the parts that were an issue... the OC-2 will not fix anything, effects are usually for color, nothing more...Comment
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Re: Big Lead Sound
I just doubled the same guitar line on my demo in one lead part..I just winged it..I was pretty surprised of the results..it sounds huge..a little noisy..but pretty cool.
Live..yeah I'd do some harmonizer stuff I guess..never had much luck with those Boss Octavers tho..
The G Major has some decent presets that I would like to tweak..too lazy to open the owners manuel.. [img]/images/graemlins/tongue.gif[/img]
Mids man...boost the mids a bit in the solo..then use a more scooped or flatter tone for your rythms..I do that now.
Crybabys are GREAT too..players like Mike Amott really know how to use them..alot of "great" players SUCK at the Crybaby for some reason..this has been my observation..
I'm kinda natural on my wah..I never practice with it..I pull it out whenever required..just accenting bends and trills and shit.....some players just rock on that thing at random..and that sounds terrible."Bill, Smoke a Bowl and Crank Van Halen I, Life is better when I do that"
Donnie Swanstrom 01/25/06..miss ya!
"Well, your friend would have Bell's Palsy, which is a facial paralysis, not "Balls Pelsy" like we're joking about here." Toejam's attempt at sensitivity.Comment
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Re: Big Lead Sound
Your band must have a massive bottom end during the rhythm parts. Bass guitar should take care of that. How high are your lows turned up standardly? I'd roll'em back to around 50%. It has worked wonders for us.
Also remember that the bass doesn't need a lot of bass dialed in on the amplifier. It is already plenty low, dialing the bass up on the EQ will only muffle his sound.
Just my experience, hope this helps.
Cliff notes:
+1 MDComment
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Re: Big Lead Sound
[ QUOTE ]
i always play in a one guitar band. i don't use effects live except the wah. my band always sounds full when i solo. here's what we do:
the bassist has his tone set up to where the fundamental is very deep. none of that "clacky" modern bass sound. he's using mesa/boogie bass 400+ througha boogie 1x15 & 2x10 cab.
my tone is set with a lot of mids, moderate bass, and minimal treble. the volume makes up for the hi end. i do a lot of clean to dirty switching in my songs, so the clean tone and distorted tone were set up at stage volume.
the bassist and i tweaked our amps together. he takes the low end, part of the lower mids and some of the treble (but not enough to have that clacky sound). i take the upper mids and some of the treble. we blended our sounds to fill out the frequencies evenly. if you heard our rigs alone you would think our sound sucks, but together it is very full and even.
when i step out and take a lead all the meat is still there because of the way we set our rigs.
just a thought.....
[/ QUOTE ]
+1 Mark is 100% correct.
I also sweeten up my solo presence by using stereo cabinets stage left and right with a light panning delay for the solo's.Comment
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Re: Big Lead Sound
i agree with the above.
stereo cabs and a slight delay will fatten up your sound.
i noticed a big difference when i play with a single cab and when i play with 2 cabs split wide.Comment
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