amps and pedals!!!???

[jclampitt]

all right i have a story and a lot of questions

i just had a friend over and we were playing guitar and what not, he wanted me to record something he was working on cuz he'd never heard himself recorded, so i threw i mic in front of his amp and recorded what he was playing and holy shit, i still can't believe how much the recording sounded EXACTLY like it did in the room. i should also mention that the guitar playing was pretty bad, but the tone was not, somehow. it was like i had always imagined recording electric guitars should be... so i thought to myself wow, i must not suck at recording anymore, but of course, as soon as i throw the mic in front of my amp all the shittiness comes back and i'd be better off using a pod. my freind was using a boss gt-6 multi effect pedal into a tube works 6130 amp (which i guess is some sort of tube/solid state hybrid) and i'm using a fender hot rod deluxe and an ibanez sm7 distortion pedal. when we were just playing guitar i didn't think he sounded any better than me, he was getting a lot of crappy sounds out of that multi effect pedal, as well as some decent ones. but when i recorded his gear and then my own the difference was ridiculous and it's not like he's even a good guitar player by any stretch.

so here are my questions...
1. do boss multi effect pedals just kick a lot of ass?
2. do fender hot rod deluxes just suck a lot of ass?
3. do ibanez sm7s suck that bad?(i think they do, but it hasn't seemed to suck any worse than recording my amp without it)
4. are relatively cheap tube works hybrid amps just really awesome?
5. what was the point of even getting a tube amp if it's just going to get its ass kicked sound wise by a boss gt-6 that models amps, or are fender hot rod deluxes just really bad tube amps that are useless for recording?
6. what should i change as far as gear?

[Face]

Originally Posted by jclampitt

all right i have a story and a lot of questions

so here are my questions...

3. do ibanez sm7s suck that bad?(i think they do, but it hasn't seemed to suck any worse than recording my amp without it)
4. are relatively cheap tube works hybrid amps just really awesome?
5. what was the point of even getting a tube amp if it's just going to get its ass kicked sound wise by a boss gt-6 that models amps, or are fender hot rod deluxes just really bad tube amps that are useless for recording?
6. what should i change as far as gear?

This is the part of the post that you never told us about before, The reason why everything sounds like shit is your trying to run a shit fucking distortion pedal thru your tube amp......If your going to do that you might as well sell your fender and get some 200$ 120 watt crate and plug in your distortion pedal and call it a day...Your sucking any and all tone out of your amp as soon as you stomp that box.....The reason why tube amps are notorious for its tone is because of the NATURAL overdrive it gets from pusing the preamp tubes. Do your self a favor. Take that pedal and set it on fire... Grab your amp crank the volume and keep the gain at about 9olock. And record that and see what happens.

[jclampitt]

yeah i think your right about that pedal being a peice of shit, the problem is that the hod rod deluxe has pretty terrible distortion at least for what i'm playing i guess. i was actually just getting ready to go to guitar center to test out the spider valve that elmagoo has been talking about, since my 30 days isn't up yet and i can still return the hrd. i don't know though, i didn't want to end up getting a modeling amp but from clips that ive heard it seems to sound a lot better, the hrd has decent clean and what not but i have not been able to record any kind of decent distortion to save my life, pedal or not.

[Face]

Originally Posted by jclampitt

yeah i think your right about that pedal being a peice of shit, the problem is that the hod rod deluxe has pretty terrible distortion at least for what i'm playing i guess. i was actually just getting ready to go to guitar center to test out the spider valve that elmagoo has been talking about, since my 30 days isn't up yet and i can still return the hrd. i don't know though, i didn't want to end up getting a modeling amp but from clips that ive heard it seems to sound a lot better, the hrd has decent clean and what not but i have not been able to record any kind of decent distortion to save my life, pedal or not.

why did you buy the amp then?????

[jclampitt]

Originally Posted by Face

Take that pedal and set it on fire... Grab your amp crank the volume and keep the gain at about 9olock. And record that and see what happens.

ok i did crank it up and it does seem to sound a lot better when i do, before i didn't have it up real loud. i stuck it in a closet with a mic and turned it up pretty loud, barre chords sound real nice with the gain at 9 oclock. i have realized that the amps distortion isn't bad, it sounds bad ass for some of the stuff i play, but for other stuff it just doesn't sound right. i guess i'll just have to use something else if i want a heavier sound. (i do plan on lighting the pedal on fire, i just have to get some gasoline first cuz i don't think it's flammable)

Originally Posted by Face

why did you buy the amp then?????

probably because it was sounding baddass for whatever i was playing when i tested it out. i also didn't put a crappy distortion pedal in front of it and then try to record it while i was at guitar center.

[RobDanger]

I own a HR Deville and yeah the distortion isnt for harder stuff, requiring tight palm muted chugs, but the clean channel, is just beautiful to me, the only thing keeping me from selling it. I like the amp, but after a year of owning it I thought the tone needed to be tighter and a little ballsier, cuz it's got plenty of pep, but depending on what u play, can get flabby and sloppy. I got a ProCo Rat to help out with the distortion and I think the two, pedal and amp are a good match, the "grain" of the distortion is finer and tighter, but it took a lot of trial and error and fine tweaking to get things to sound the way I wanted it--and it's still not there lol. I now have my eyes on a Laney Lionheart.

I guess the moral is, you can either spend a lot of time and research trying to find an accessory of some sort to get the hot rod to sound the way you want it to, but it will most likely just be an approximation, so it might be best to get what you want for what you play.

[jclampitt]

Originally Posted by RobDanger

I own a HR Deville and yeah the distortion isnt for harder stuff, requiring tight palm muted chugs

exactly, it's those palm muted chugs that don't work, on the other hand i do like the distortion for some stuff, it sounds like the white stripes to me.

[brandondrury]

i have realized that the amps distortion isn't bad, it sounds bad ass for some of the stuff i play, but for other stuff it just doesn't sound right.

If one amp did everything, I wouldn't own so many damn amps. I've paid a lot of money to get one sound out of an amp.

what was the point of even getting a tube amp if it's just going to get its ass kicked sound wise by a boss gt-6 that models amps

Maybe you bought the wrong amp.

I own a HR Deville and yeah the distortion isnt for harder stuff, requiring tight palm muted chugs, but the clean channel, is just beautiful

This is common with the Fender amps. You need to get into Marshall or Boogie territory to really get the palm mutes to sound aggressive. Of course, there is more to it than that.

[RobDanger]

Yeah the other half (or more) is technique...took me a while to figure that out hehe

[Face]

JC try going back to your guitar center and play another fender, put it to the settings you use at home, Grab your self a couple of overdrive pedals such as the mxr ZW-44 boss sd-1, the tube screamer and whatever else they have there for overdrive pedals and play that in front of your amp with the overdrive channel CRANKED. also try putting an eq on it to, try putting in the effects loop and then try putting it in front of the amp for extra signal booster. You might then be able to achieve some (chuggable) tone.