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Gregg Sartiano · 5th November 2005

It's the amp, mostly. The hardest thing to fix in the mix is a weak distorted guitar tone.

Have your guitar professionally intonated and use fresh strings. Gee, I already said this in one topic tonight, but it's sooooo true.

Less is more with distortion. ev.x got that right. Less is also more with amps. How come the DSL Marshall kick a$$ over the 3-channel TSL's, just as the 1-channel JCM 800's are classics but the 2-channels are wack pieces of s^&t? Get rid of your dang pedals, by the way, at least for basic rhythm tracks -- don't even put 'em in between your guitar and your amp. I've seen that stupid white Boss Chromatic Tuner ruin more guitar tones...dammit, just hook it up to the line out, BUT KEEP IT AWAY FROM THE AMP'S INPUT!

Having a $$$ A/D converter will help on the recording side. Distorted guitar waveforms are verrrrry complex, and lackluster conversion really hurts you down the line with distorted guitar sounds. I'd take a Mackie and a Rosetta over an $$$ pre and a Digi for heavy guitars, but that's just me. If you have access to well-maintained $$$ gear all around (guitar, amp, mic (57's are cool, though), pre, A/D), you'll be halfway there already. And I must say a lot of the other half is TUNING and TIMING.

5th November 2005	#9
Gregg Sartiano Lives for gear Joined: May 2004 Location: Lost Angeles Posts: 1,804	It's the amp, mostly. The hardest thing to fix in the mix is a weak distorted guitar tone. Have your guitar professionally intonated and use fresh strings. Gee, I already said this in one topic tonight, but it's sooooo true. Less is more with distortion. ev.x got that right. Less is also more with amps. How come the DSL Marshall kick a$$ over the 3-channel TSL's, just as the 1-channel JCM 800's are classics but the 2-channels are wack pieces of s^&t? Get rid of your dang pedals, by the way, at least for basic rhythm tracks -- don't even put 'em in between your guitar and your amp. I've seen that stupid white Boss Chromatic Tuner ruin more guitar tones...dammit, just hook it up to the line out, BUT KEEP IT AWAY FROM THE AMP'S INPUT! Having a $$$ A/D converter will help on the recording side. Distorted guitar waveforms are verrrrry complex, and lackluster conversion really hurts you down the line with distorted guitar sounds. I'd take a Mackie and a Rosetta over an $$$ pre and a Digi for heavy guitars, but that's just me. If you have access to well-maintained $$$ gear all around (guitar, amp, mic (57's are cool, though), pre, A/D), you'll be halfway there already. And I must say a lot of the other half is TUNING and TIMING. __________________ "We need to legitimize peer-to-peer sharing as a business model, because it's already a business. If [the P2P companies] are going to make money on us, we should have a chance to make money along with them." -- Perry Farrell on the failure of national intellectual property policy to keep up with the rapid evolution of online media "Every Internet transmission of a musical work constitutes a public performance of that work. " http://www.ascap.com/weblicense/webfaq.html