how does your lead tone differ from your rhythm tone?

[markD]

my rhythm and lead tones are the same. i use a wah or an mxr phaser in front of the amp, but that is it. on a couple of the ballads i will use an old yamaha distortion pedal on the clean channel of my rivera m-100. my EQ is set: gain - 9, bass - 3, middle - 6, treble - 3, volume - 5, focus - 6, presence - 4. i run my amp in triode mode with full power. the output stage is putting out 30 watt of burning EL34 tone into 200 watt EVM speakers.....

i use quite a bit of power amp distortion along with moderate preamp distortion. it makes for a very singing tone that works well of rhythm and lead. i play in a one guitar band and i have no problem cutting through and filling out my area of the sonic spectrum.

[Fragle]

"I actually don't really change anything for leads. I use enough mids that I cut through regardless."
that's exactly the thing. my rhythm tone is already so midrangey - almost boxy sounding, really - that i don't really need extra mids for leads, just a volume boost and a gain boost - i use very little gain for rhythm playing.

[Shawn Lutz]

its the same most of the time, a little volume boost and depending on the amp a little more gain (stomp on SD-1). That has always been my focus as far as amps go...to get a balance between a good lead and rhythm tone.

[Dreamland_Rebel]

it only differes on the albums.

when you have good tone, there is no need for a boost or eq shift.
we use delay and reverb on all the time for both lead and rythm live.

[thebisch]

My lead and rythem tones are the same for the most part, but volume boosted. On my Legacy and Marshall 2205 I have a DOD FetPre pedal in the loop. I boost the volume, and sometimes I will tweak the pedals tone knob up a little, but rarely. On amps that I use a distortion pedal with, like my Deluxe Reverb, I will put the pre pedal, or sometimes a MXR microamp after the distortion pedal and boost that way.

[tseegert]

it only differes on the albums.

when you have good tone, there is no need for a boost or eq shift.
we use delay and reverb on all the time for both lead and rythm live.

I agree for the most part. The only reason I have a "lead" channel, is because I jam with another guitarist. We have very similar sounds, and instead of having to crank the db boost too much, it seems a little nicer coaxing some more smooth-sounding midness out of it anyways and be able to keep it at a bearable lvl.

[Sinistas]

"I actually don't really change anything for leads. I use enough mids that I cut through regardless."
that's exactly the thing. my rhythm tone is already so midrangey - almost boxy sounding, really - that i don't really need extra mids for leads, just a volume boost and a gain boost - i use very little gain for rhythm playing.

At least live, I don't even add verb or anything. My tone is well-rounded enough to do both rhythm and lead with the same exact settings, gain and all, and not get drowned out when I switch off.

[levantin]

More bass and mids, more gain, less noise gate! I refrain from using any effects except from the odd bit of delay and some wah every now and again. I play through a rocktron pre-amp and marshall power amp into any number and variety of cabs I can get my hands on!

[GWARGHOUL]

My lead tone is like
meedley meedeley wahhh wa wawa wehhh dodododododod !

My rythmm tone is kinda like eh..
Duh duh duh whachugga chugga duggah duh duh


Or maybe like my rythmm tone is foreplay of two wild tigers having sexual foreplay

and my lead tone is the main event.

[danastas]

Three quick changes to lead: cut the treble, switch to neck pickup, up the bass.

More gain is what I'd like, but I haven't outfitted my footboard yet. Ideally, I'd also like to crank up the volume on the amp, kill the volume on the guitar as much as possible...but since I mainly use the guitar knobs/switches and not the pedals, there's never enough time.

Have to work on that.

[MichaelLitvak]

my lead tone is exactly the same as the rythem.. i like things dry alltho i add reveb to lead sometimes.. depends how i feel

[Geir]

how does your lead tone differ from your rhythm tone?

When I play through my Lee Jackson, I don't change a thing. Both the other guitarist and me play Lee Jacksons, and they sound great together. We set it up for a vintage high-gain sound, and no boost is needed. Everything cuts through nicely!

However, when I use my '90 Rhoads Pro, I kick in the mid-boost!

... and I think this was a really cool thread! Cheers

[86mod5]

My lead and rhythm tone are exactly the same. I'm mostly a plug-n-play guy.

[Carbophos]

Pretty much the same. I have a bit of mid dip on graphic EQ on my Mark IV for rhythm, and I switch EQ off for lead. I gives more mid cut-thru and a bit of overall boost as well. Then a bit of wah here and there and a touch of delay also.
If I play in a one-guitar line-up, I don't even bother to switch off EQ, got enough mids for lead.

[horns666]

same tone..with a tad more volume and delay...via G Major.