Guitarists- How do you get that sound?

Guitar gurus help me out here. I have been trying for years to get that full on mid tone gutsy sound that is in the following sample from Flowing Tears:

Yeah, it is the ryhthm guitar sound. Yes I know there multitracking going on, but I have still never been able to replicate that sound- it almost sounds like fuzz, but it ain't.

Mr ProgFreak wrote: POD X3 Live.  If you mean the rhythm guitar tone in the chorus, you definitely need more than one amp/track to create it. The Dual Tone feature the X3 allows you to use two tones simultaneously ...

Actually telling him more about what specific amps he needs to look at may help a little more Mike than always constantly suggesting an X3Live
Not everyone needs or wants one you know

But on that note, the X3 Live does have Engl amp sims on it.

I'm actually going to buy an X3 Live eventually

But indeed, you wouldn't spend that much on an Engl amp to use an outboard distortion.
The high gain tones are Engl are amazing to say the least, if not some of the best modern high gain tones money can buy.
Very versatile amps too if you are willing to spend more on the upper range Engls.

^But the thing is, speakers are only really a small part of the equation though.
I'm not saying they aren't Celestion speakers, because Engl speaker cabs come with Celestions as standard, but Celestion make many speakers, some of which sound a lot different from each other.
For example, the the Celestion G12K100 has a pretty different frequency curve from the Celestion Gold.
Many Celestions also have different frequency ranges from one speaker to the next, so it's a bit of a broad statement to say "it reminds me of Celestion"

cobb2 wrote: Yeah, it is the ryhthm guitar sound. Yes I know there multitracking going on, but I have still never been able to replicate that sound- it almost sounds like fuzz, but it ain't. Is that you MikeEn- did you change your name?

I did change the name, but the moderators closed the thread about the name change, so people have to figure it out for themselves.

Of course HughesJB4 is right in that you're probably more interested in the amp/speakers than in the X3. However, in order to reproduce that sound the dual tone features of the X3 Live come in handy. It has a model just called "Modern Hi Gain", that should do the trick ... but you could for example use dual tone and layer two of those sounds, adding an effect like Octafuzz to one of them. You can also add a slight delay to one of the tones and/or make one of them slightly deeper (with eqs or by selecting different amp/speakers). Then, if you also pan one of the tones left and the other one right, you get a really massive tone, even if there's only one guitar playing.



Edited by Mr ProgFreak - December 06 2008 at 05:01

Thanks for the good advice everyone. I use a V-Amp 2, which has the Modern Hi-gain. Call me thick but I hadn't thought to play with the EQ on the two inputs at the mixer- I just had them both set to the same, though they are left and right panned. I'll try giving one side a bit of a low boost and keep the other side high. Thanks for the heads up on this Mr Progfreak. As always- good advice.

I like the Soldano SLO100 amp sim (Modern Hi-Gain) on my V-Amp 2 too, but my rhythm tone has always been Nu-Metal Head (which simulates the Mesa Boogie Dual Rectifier).
The Soldano SLO100 sound is more lead guitar for my use.

Well, I paid 189 Dollars for it, not bad considered they retail at 299 bucks.
For it's price it's excellent and even beat the Line 6 POD 2.0 in sound quality.
It makes for a really good practice rig when combined with my stereo system which I plug it into.

But honestly, part of the reason why I purchased it was because at the time that was all my mother was willing to spend.
If I had the money to buy an Fractal Audio Axe FX ultra, I would have bought that.
Hands down easily the best amp modeling/effects system you can buy.

cobb2 wrote: Didn't know you used a V-Amp HughesJB4. What do you think of it? Do you have the rack mount model or the desktop guitar shaped one? I was using the Numetal before, but it just didn't sound right- a little too muddy. For lead I mainly use the British Hi-Gain and push the effects up.

Ohh, didn't see your edit.

The Nu Metal is based off a Dual Rectifier, which has a reputation of not being the tightest amp you can buy.
The low end of Rectos are pretty loose, unless you use the Triple Rectifier which is a bit tighter.
The trick with Rectos, is that you never use the gain or tone controls on full, ever.
The way the EQ reacts on a Recto, is like this : turning down the treble means the mids and bass come more into play, especially the mid range knob, which becomes far more reactive the less treble you use.
More mids has the effect of making the amp feel "stiffer" and the amp will become less forgiving to bad technique.
More bass has the effect of reducing the effectivenes of the mid and treble controls, and on Recto amps, absolutely never set the bass to full, unless you want to hear mountains of mud.
Tightness also depends upon the pickups you use as well.
I use a Seymour Duncan JB bridge, which is not as loose as the pickups on stock Epiphone guitars, but it's still fairly loose nonetheless and has a better reputation of being a lead guitarists pickup than for rhythm guitar.

I plan to start using Seymour Duncan Blackouts eventually, which provide much tighter lower end, still very amazing lead guitar tones and are among the quietest pickups on the market to boot, even less hum than active EMG pickups.