Greg
-
Posts
54 -
Joined
-
Last visited
-
Days Won
7
Greg's Achievements
Single Status Update
-
I was wondering if suggesting a lesson on amp and peddle settings would be appropriate for this forum. Not sure if other students have this issue but I randomly turn knobs in a failed attempt to find a pleasing slow jazz setting that would suit your “Blue Moon” piece I am working on. Where to set the amp gain knob versus master volume, the coordination of settings of various peddles in conjunction with the guitar volume, tone and pick up controls etc. is the issue. Usually I play around with various knobs in my search then give up and simply set the amp on clean acoustic.
The practice amp I use is the “Spark 40” from “Positive Grid” which has an endless array of digital amps and peddles which can be adjusted in so many ways with a multitude of adjustable settings accessible in the cloud which simply add to the confusion. For interest attached is a photo of my practice set up….
-
Hi Greg,
my suggestion would be to first find the sweet spot of your amp.
Common controls are bass, middle, treble, tone, gain, master where you set the first 3 to 12o'clock. Start to increase/decrease until you hear that the tone "opens up", remain just above that level. You can then increase/decrease the tone control to get a more present/darker sound and finally have more gain if you want to have more or less onset of distortion. From that basic setting you can modify to your liking which unfortunately means you have to know which sound you want to have. That is the most difficult part for me.
Maybe HP can comment on it but I think for a jazz setting it would match to role back the tone knob on your guitar (which he did not on the Blue Moon record, I guess). You should add some reverb (not too much and not too long) and maybe a bit of a flanger or chorus which can widen the sound but that should be it - but maybe I'm a but puristic :-)
Hope that gave you some input to play around with it or if the rest of the community has better suggestions, I am also happy to learn :-)
Have fun,
Volker -
Funny - I just made some main adjustments for a jazz sound with my new live-guitar today.
Well finding the right sound is quit a journey and it depends on many factors such as your guitar, the pickups, how you use the volume on the guitar and of course your playing technique. Then you also need to decide if you want your own sound or you want to go for a traditional sound. Shall it be clean or slightly distorted ? So I need more information about that.
But I can give 2 general tips :
Don't use chorus or any modulation effect - only if you really love that sound.
Put the EQ potis of your amp on a neutral position and then move from there on.
-
-
