Question How does the AL handle rock???

[TonyEVH5150]

I've been considering an AL for a while. I'm am curious to find out how an AL sounds on a high gain setting.

Anyone have any vids or soundbites???

 

[fogman]

Our buddy Rob!

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=frzU-RnP5IM"]YouTube - Rob's demo the Albert Lee MM90 with gain[/ame]

Smelly goes a little heavy at the end of this clip!

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DwegLL37YAw"]YouTube - Albert Lee Musicman - Smelly's latest bad playing![/ame]

 

[grumpyoldman]

I have found that my DD AL with the MM90s handles the higher gain sounds a bit more graciously than my SSS ALs. The MM90s will provide crunch like any other "soap bar style" pickup, but don't seem to fall into the whine and squeal of the vintage ones.

The SSS AL pickups (SDs?) can take the gain during the attack, but for some reason they will howl and squeal during the note's decay - but I don't have a Silent Circuit in either of those, and I do in the DD with MM90s...perhaps that makes the difference here?

Minor positioning adjustments, as well as quick damping of strings, will handle most of the SSS setbacks, otherwise all 3 of my ALs handle the high end output quite well!

 

[glockaxis]

I personally love the sound of my sss Al w/ gain. Obviously you are not going to get the crunch of an EMG 85 (Luke bridge humbucker) but it will do good old fashioned rock n roll. The bridge coil on a sss AL is reminescent of a tele and if memory surves me correctly that's what Page used on alot of the classics including the solo to Stairway original Dazed and Confused etc...

It all depends on your amp, stomp boxes, eq etc...as well. w/o a pickup booster you won't get a humbucker tone but I use and appreciate the sound I get from my distorted sss AL.

 

[Spudmurphy]

I love the AL with Gain. I also liked it when I had a seymour Duncun pickup booster.
My mate loved the sound so much he begged to buy it off me.

I think if Strats can handle it so can the AL.

 

[beej]

I've gone noiseless in my AL- Bill Lawrence 200s. Sound excellent (and dead quiet) with any amount of gain thrown at 'em. So I can use my AL for just about anything these days.

 

[candid_x]

"How does the AL handle rock?"

I'm guessing that depends how you handle the AL.

 

[TonyEVH5150]

Thanks for the replies. It's been a decade or more since a used a SSS loaded guitar. I tend to play more classic rock and modern high gain/drop tuning stuff of late. Just wanted to see if those of you that use the AL use it to play heavier stuff.

 

[Monty Billocks]

I reloaded my DD AL MM90 with DiMarzio soapbar-sized humbuckers...I went with a Tone Zone P-90, a Virtual P-90, and another Tone Zone P-90. It screams as hot as any Tone Zone loaded guitar would!!!

 

[Axilla]

Thanks for the replies. It's been a decade or more since a used a SSS loaded guitar. I tend to play more classic rock and modern high gain/drop tuning stuff of late. Just wanted to see if those of you that use the AL use it to play heavier stuff.

Well, normally me too, I'm more at home in the heavier territory, but since my SSS (retrofit Kinmans) Pearl Lavender Silo Special and joining my current band, I tend to play more overdriven and even distorted tone with the SSS guitar. Kinda got to love the sound.

 

[Colin]

I'm a bit embarrassed by this but here goes. I had to go and interview Dr Hook years ago and was invited to the show later that night. The guitar player used an AL and it sounded great with distorted sounds. If an AL can make Dr Hook sound good then it will make anyone sound good.