Need advice on getting a good distortion sound?

[Smellybum]

Guys I think you're talking at cross purposes, or may Spud and I are just getting on a bit in age..

I was a solid Gibson player before coming here, I honestly thought the tone of a Les Paul and a Marshall was unbeatable- I was wrong,

An axis has a punchier tone, a luke has a BIGGER tone, and even a sub one sounds pretty good through a stock Marshall Combo.

As for boogies, yes they're excellent - I had a Studio 22 for many years and they're great workhorse amps,

Colin boy FX boxes like the ME50 are great if you're only planning on being int he bedroom, I don't know your gigging status, but you may want to remove the FX from the equation when seeking your tone.

I appreciate that I'm not in the top 1 zillion players of this land, but I have been doing this for a while and I've found what works for me, it's not the same for everybody but (and I picked this up early on in my guitar life)

1. - Never disrespect anyones playing, or opinion on gear becuase....
2. - You can always learn something from the other guy, whether it's how he holds his pick to him having locking tuners - there's always something to be learned.

I'm kinda sorry I kept this thread alive by posting the tone movies, perhaps Colin and the other guy should go off to music shops and try things out for themselves.... the only way to get true tone.

 

[colinboy]

dont apolygise at all my scottish friend.your spot on with your attitude and as you said respect everyones opinion because there are no rules really at the end of the day.its great to get advice from fellow guitar players like yourself so dont stop.
i have never played in a band before or in a gig.only jammed with people.but all thats going to change as i plan to start or maybe join aband so any advice for me mate is very much appreciated.
cheers

 

[Spudmurphy]

Smelly thanks for your opinion on this.

At no time did I say that the tone of a Marshall and a Les Paul was unbeatable.
I'm kinda like BP on this who doesn't like the dissing of "Iconic products" and I think that the amalgamation of a British Amp and a US Guitar is iconic, and will go down in Music History as one of the tone-drivers/leaders of the seventies and emulated by bands in latter decades on both sides of the pond.

I realise that time moves on and improvements are made to instruments and amplifiers and the Les Paul/Marshall partnership is no longer the Alpha male of the pack.

I have said many times on this forum that I have found my ideal combination,
that is, an Albert Lee guitar and a Mesa Boogie amp. I have expanded on this by saying that I never play my Les Paul anymore, I keep it, out of sentiment as it paid a lot of bills in the 70's/80's I can tell ya, and it will be passed to my son.

I have also said many times that the Mesa blows the Marshall out of the water.

What I took exception to, was rlarino's statement that
"On a sidenote, it seems like there is a really big school of misinformation out there telling people who have no experience with gear to go buy Gibsons and Marshalls... I have yet to meet a person (in real life, not on the internet) who plays that stuff that knows anything about what sounds good, or how to play well... (maybe I'm just being a pretentious jerk, what guitar player isn't?) I do not see the appeal of any of that stuff... I hate that British rock sound"
It's so condescending & supercilious saying that he has yet to meet a person ... ... ... blah blah then going on to calling Colinboy a kid blah blah blah (who by the way according to his profile is 27 years old).

Yes I am a player from the 70's who still likes some music from that era along with some of the present era - I have to because my 23 and 17 year old sons play it to me constantly.

Am I a member of a Gibson forum ? - no!
Am I a member of a Marshall Forum? -no!

but please please have some respect for what Gibson/Marshall did for music. You have said that the British Rock scene is not your scene - and that is your bag, your call - tell ya what though fella it too will go down in history - I wonder if that can be said for the present genre?

We're on thin ice here and I have a feeling that moderators would / should be looking at this thread. I'm gonna step outside of Poppas house and cool down or slug it out

 

[Nazgul666]

I'm new to EB and new to the forums. I have a JP6 and it is great at what it does, and an LP is great at what it does. I have both and I run them both through a MARshall JVM410. Tha LP is fatter for rhythm but the EBMM sings and is more comfortable and more versatile.

Horses for courses.

Now, someone on hear said that the LUKE, which I am totally unfamiliar with being new, sounds bigger than a Gibson.

What is the consensus on this?

Oh, and with reggard to the original post, since he was looking for Metallica tones, an SD1 in front of a JCM2000 with and EQ in the loop will do that. It won't do it like a Mark II c+ but it can do it.

Mike

p.s. Can't stop playing the JP6, I'm already a better player becasue I'm playing hours everyday.

 

[mesadualrec]

The easiest way is just buy a Mesa Boogie


or



Track down a Howard Dumble



Euan

 

[Smellybum]

We're on thin ice here and I have a feeling that moderators would / should be looking at this thread. I'm gonna step outside of Poppas house and cool down or slug it out

Agreed, the thread is getting a good tone out of a luke or a marshall, removing all of us from the equation (And without it getting into the pee pee up the wall contest) - What does Lucious use? WHat does tyler use.....

This'll never be settled, it's a bit like where do i get the best beer on the planet?

Each to their own, but respect the path that brought us here.


Now where are those UN fellas ?

 

[Norrin Radd]

This'll never be settled, it's a bit like where do i get the best beer on the planet?

Well, if anyone argues something other than Ireland, I'm ready for a fight!

 

[Spudmurphy]

Each to their own, but respect the path that brought us here.

Nice quote ol' son.

 

[rlarino]

hey spud, I was done with this argument but you brought it back up

all I'd like to say is that my personal experience is that lots of kids who played guitar around me while i was growing up and learning to play guitar myself had marshalls and gibsons...

from my personal experience with these kids, i know that they got marshalls and gibsons simply because of the magical status attached to the brand names... absolutely no reason other than that (because they did not know anything about tone or quality gear [I had some great mentors and learned a lot very early on... being from Long Island at the end of the 90s... there were boatloads of insane guitar players and their students in the local area... I learned from a student of JP's])... this is just my personal experience, i am not saying that marshall and gibson do not make quality gear (not at all) and i am not saying that this is always the case with people buying their gear...

what i am saying is that i think this is a very common phenomenon:

newb: "i want to get into playing guitar" [but i know nothing about it]
newb2: "yeah dude, get BLAH's gear because everybody thinks they're awesome" [even though newb2 also knows nothing about what he's talking about]
newb then proceeds to buy BLAH's gear
some time later when newb begins to get some experience under his belt and starts to know what he's doing he realizes that BLAH gear sucks for what he's trying to do with it and ditches it for some more appropriate gear

what also adds to the bad flavor in my mouth about the whole thing is the fact that when gibson has slumps in their sales they jack up the prices of their gear to make it seem more desirable simply because of the big pricetag... and it's not just gibson... harley davidson and lots of other companies out there are banking on the same old outdated and under engineered product they've been producing for 5 million years... but the pricetag keeps increasing because their fanboys are slowly turning into fanatics over the course of time... maybe in another few hundred years we'll have religions that worship gibsons and harleys in some sort of shrine... and they'll have been completely disconnected with reality, blindly believing what they've been told without attempting to think about things for themselves in a rational manner... (don't get me started on religion... completely OT)



i just think it's sad that a lot of people go and buy some certain piece of gear just because so and so uses it or used it 50 years ago and he was the coolest thing ever so it must be the best gear in existence because that's what everybody blindly believes... without going out and doing the homework for themselves and possibly realizing that there are loads of other pieces of gear out there that would much better suit them... but whatever, their loss, the general population will always behave like a mindless herd of lemmings... i guess that will never change

 

[mesadualrec]

yeah tone is subjective...like beer



but I think your question was answered ont he first page...Get a boost,cheap and effective

 

[Spudmurphy]

reply to rlarino -
But what you have said has been going on since electric guitars were invented.

Brits wanted Strats because Buddy Holly played one - in the late 50's early 60's wartime restrictions were lifted andscarcity drove the price up. This didn't put off the Brits and as a result of Hank Marvin playing a Strat this further fueled the yearning for Strats. When I was kid I drooled over the Gibson SG - why? because it looked great and my heros played them - Pete Townshend and Andy Fraser from Free.
Why did Gibson become popular in the UK? ( apart from the fact that Les Paul played one along with Mary Ford) I guess it had something to do with Clapton, Townshend, Kossoff, Page etc etc.
Commerce is a merry go round that thrives on it's association with the stars and there will be cr4p guitars sold as a result.
I think however that Fender and Gibson warrant their acclaim and I guess that's my opinion shared by a whole load of people who do know something about music.

Me - I've moved on - give me my Albert Lee guitar anyday.
My round - what ya drinking?

 

[mesadualrec]

reply to rlarino -
But what you have said has been going on since electric guitars were invented.

Brits wanted Strats because Buddy Holly played one - in the late 50's early 60's wartime restrictions were lifted andscarcity drove the price up. This didn't put off the Brits and as a result of Hank Marvin playing a Strat this further fueled the yearning for Strats. When I was kid I drooled over the Gibson SG - why? because it looked great and my heros played them - Pete Townshend and Andy Fraser from Free.
Why did Gibson become popular in the UK? ( apart from the fact that Les Paul played one along with Mary Ford) I guess it had something to do with Clapton, Townshend, Kossoff, Page etc etc.
Commerce is a merry go round that thrives on it's association with the stars and there will be cr4p guitars sold as a result.
I think however that Fender and Gibson warrant their acclaim and I guess that's my opinion shared by a whole load of people who do know something about music.

Me - I've moved on - give me my Albert Lee guitar anyday.
My round - what ya drinking?

Here Here Spud
I'll have a baileys with ice,a jack on the rocks and a slammer cheers

Euan,my round next what you havin??

 

[glockaxis]

I've got nothing to add except I'll take one of your finest Scottish single malts and drink to whatever.

 

[beej]

rlarino- I'm not sure I get the argument.

Aren't people buying Petruccis and Mesas because of JP and isn't that the same way people bought Gibsons and Marshalls because of Jimmy Page, etc? Isn't that how most gear sells?

I have no problem with any company jacking up the prices. That's capitalism- take advantage while your stock is high. If you've missed the mark your customers will go elsewhere; the market will find an equilibrium.

At the end of the day ... there are good tones to be had from all of this gear. And some pretty crappy ones as well.

 

[Jimmyb]

Pete Cornish?

 

[rlarino]

rlarino- I'm not sure I get the argument.

Aren't people buying Petruccis and Mesas because of JP and isn't that the same way people bought Gibsons and Marshalls because of Jimmy Page, etc? Isn't that how most gear sells?

I have no problem with any company jacking up the prices. That's capitalism- take advantage while your stock is high. If you've missed the mark your customers will go elsewhere; the market will find an equilibrium.

At the end of the day ... there are good tones to be had from all of this gear. And some pretty crappy ones as well.

i guess the problem i have is simply with people taking advantage of inexperienced guitar players who don't know how to get the tone they desire and convince them to buy some particular piece of gear for bunk reasons

a kid who plays progressive rock/metal and lots of lead guitar, buying some JP endorsed equipment (because the kids who listen to this stuff typically have a much better handle on what sort of tone they are looking for) is not the same thing as a kid who plays the same style but doesn't know what amp/guitar/etc to buy and is led down the road of gibson/marshall because some other guy with completely different taste, problems with hallucinations, whatever the case, told him that was the golden gear because that's what he's been led to believe his whole life...

hence the original poster's problem... he has a marshall, he's looking to get a nice high gain metal/lead tone out of his JP guitar... he's been playing for a little while so maybe his taste has just changed... but, there are a lot of other guys out there (from my experience) who were mislead before they knew what they needed to get the tone they sought after and ended up going through the typical recommended amps with much dissatisfaction


basically, my message is figure out what sort of tone you're looking for yourself; do the research and go out there and try out a ton of different gear and figure out what works best for you... don't take anybody's word for it on the internet, in store, or anywhere else

 

[Spudmurphy]

do the research and go out there and try out a ton of different gear and figure out what works best for you... don't take anybody's word for it on the internet, in store, or anywhere else

and that's the best bit of advice you've given.

 

[beej]

Hey Rob,

Overall, I totally hear what you're saying. Figure it out for yourself. But of course, that's a tough thing to do. Doesn't take more than 5 minutes at the Gear Page to figure out that most people don't know what they want ...

a kid who plays progressive rock/metal and lots of lead guitar, buying some JP endorsed equipment (because the kids who listen to this stuff typically have a much better handle on what sort of tone they are looking for) is not the same thing as a kid who plays the same style but doesn't know what amp/guitar/etc to buy and is led down the road of gibson/marshall because some other guy with completely different taste, problems with hallucinations, whatever the case, told him that was the golden gear because that's what he's been led to believe his whole life...

I'm not really sure what your beef with Marshall is (hallucinations?)- you're implying that kids today are all being misled into buying crappy Marshalls, except for the prog rock kids/JP fans who can figure out that they need a Mesa?

Marshall have made a *ton* of amps over the years for different styles. Lots of new modern stuff being made with them as well. The JVM is a huge seller right now and I think it suits a wide range of styles- overlaps with Mesa in high gain territory as well. Lots of metal bands still playing Marshall.

Specific brand aside, I think most beginners buy what their heros have. And yes, a lot listen to that buddy that says "you should have xxx". But there are just as many kids blowing money on a Road King & 4x12 for their bedroom (and playing terribly) when a small Marshall combo (or something else) might sound great.

basically, my message is figure out what sort of tone you're looking for yourself; do the research and go out there and try out a ton of different gear and figure out what works best for you... don't take anybody's word for it on the internet, in store, or anywhere else

Sure- people need to do their own homework. Applies to buying amps, cars, appliance, you name it. But there's so much stuff out there and most people don't have access to all the gear they'd like to try ... thus the need to ask friends, listen to samples, etc.

Anyway, at the end of the day it's all stuff you can sell if you don't like it. Nothing wrong with making mistakes- it's the learning that counts.

 

[colinboy]

Amen!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[GrooveHT]

1. Do what Mick says.

2. Put one of these between your guitar and the amp:

BB Preamp

Andy Timmons agrees!