HEAVY with single coils and a fender bassman

cobascis · Post by **cobascis** » Fri Jul 27, 2012 11:16 pm

How is a heavy rhythm tone best achieved? I've been turning the tone down on the eau Claire and the bass up. Tips?

Ps I won't be usin the Coronado for this.

paul_ · Post by **paul_** » Sat Jul 28, 2012 2:08 am

Spike the amp's midrange and turn your GUITAR'S tone knobs down a bit to kill teh jangle.

Thom · Post by **Thom** » Sat Jul 28, 2012 2:35 am

Don't crank the bass up too far - is a mistake I made, it kills your midrange.

Post by **Doog** » Sat Jul 28, 2012 8:52 am

If you can't get HEAVY with an ECT, I fear for the world.

chemistforhire · Post by **chemistforhire** » Sat Jul 28, 2012 4:25 pm

parametric EQ with boost. Boost the mid frequencies and tune out unwanted jangle and feedback frequencies.

Noirie. · Post by **Noirie.** » Sat Jul 28, 2012 4:44 pm

Tune down a half step and use a RAT.

cobascis · Post by **cobascis** » Sun Jul 29, 2012 12:07 am

I usually use dirt for lead, not rhythm. And when I do for rhythm it still sounds thin, so thats why I was asking. will try all these suggestions next practice.

Bacchus · Post by **Bacchus** » Sun Jul 29, 2012 12:36 am

An easy mistake to make when trying to get a heavy rhythm sound is to use too much gain and too much bass, leaving you without mids. There's that typical, fifteen year old metalhead in his bedroom sound that consists of loads of gain, loads of bass and scooped mids. It sounds wonderful at low volumes but doesn't really work for anything else.

You might not be aiming for that sort of metal-heavy tone, but even for other heavy sounds, it's worth trying to keep a realistic sort of EQ. Mids are where it's at for heavy stuff, so make sure not to compromise them with too much bass. Too much gain will make things sounds too compressed, and you'd be surprised how little gain you can get away with and still have it sounding plenty dirty.

Which pickup are you using? It's tempting to stick with the neck because it's bassier but I find with gain it can sound muddy for rhythm stuff. Try the bridge pickup. Those higher frequencies aren't necessarily a bad thing, they'll make your sound bigger and more detailed (although you're obviously not aiming for jangle).

Also, a lot of heaviness is in how you play. I'd nearly recommend to try a fairly flat EQ (say, B:5, M:6, T:6 or similar) and a little bit of crunch instead of massive dirt, and try to make that as heavy as possible by how you're playing. Get that sounding heavy, then go from there.

I always find it easier to play heavier rhythm stuff with heavier strings because the flap around less. You can dig into the chords better, like.

robroe · Post by **robroe** » Sun Jul 29, 2012 3:03 am

paul_ wrote:Spike the amp's midrange and turn your GUITAR'S tone knobs down a bit to kill teh jangle.

THIS ^^^^

this is why i love my Duckbucker pickup so much. its wound to quack not jangle. mid range mid range mid range. its not all muddy like a JB or JBJr.

http://www.seymourduncan.com/products/e ... ckers_sdb/

also fat fuckin flat strings help too

aen · Post by **aen** » Sun Jul 29, 2012 7:03 pm

Doog wrote:If you can't get HEAVY with an ECT, I fear for the world.

My recipe for recording is bridge pickup> ECT (tone blast on, timewarp off) And multi tracking. But for performance, i think being careful with the bass, and cranking them mids is going to do wonders. I think you're going to want to have the ECT on a pretty bright setting, actually. The neck pickup and the bassman should give you plenty of woof. You can rely on the fuzz (and a fairly open treble/mid setting on the amp) to put that sizzle on top. And thay sizzle/crackle is where distortion actually affects your ears, IMO.