using similar amps in a band

[Progrockabuse]

so as you all know, i use a dual terror. my lead singer plays guitar on some tracks live and usually plays through a peavy solid state combo.

he's been thinking getting a tiny terror/dual terror as a replacement amp. he likes the sounds i get out of mine, but i'm worried we'll clash a little sound-wise.

i go for a breakup/crunchy rhythm sound and use a pedal to boost for leads with either my strat or tele.

he plays either clean or slightly distorted rhythm sounds (uses a ds-1) with an ibanez artcore.

thoughts?

[h8mtv]

I think you're over thinking it.

[James]

I'd say that for some bands it would be a problem and for others not an issue at all.

To be a bit cheesy about it, thinking of the different instruments and what they provide as different colours on a palette some bands are going to work with a blend of complimentary colours and some are going to based on contrast. Also as you mentioned guitar and pedal choices are important, too. There's a fairly famous story of Joey Santiago wanting to play a tele in the Pixies but felt he couldn't because Frank Black was already doing it and that's why he chose the goldtop.

Whether similar or contrasting guitar tones works for your band depends entirely on the sounds you want to get.

[paul_]

Odds are your different tones will make up all the difference. If you use tube amp crunch and he uses cleans and/or a DS-1 over clean settings, the fact that it's technically the same head won't matter so much because you're going to be getting very different sounds.

I like that early Stones/Dolls vibe where one guitarist always has a scoopy cleaner chunk and the other always has a dirtier midrange honk. You can tell the two guitars apart like night and day and focus on either one at any time, nothing is masked.

James's "palette" explanation isn't cheesy at all, it makes all the sense that is required for the purposes of this argument.

[Freddy V-C]

I don't think it's necessarily a help or a hindrance. In the past I've used an Orange Tiny Terror with my co-guitarist using a Fender Deluxe 85, completely different amps and we got some KOOL SONDZ. Recently I've been playing through a Laney LV100 and Lewis often uses the Laney LV300 at our practice space, which is almost exactly the same amp but we still manage to get the aforementioned KOOL SONDZ, although they are different KOOL SONDZ.

[Concretebadger]

If you're concerned about your amps sounding the same on stage, find out what speakers the other guitarist plans to run his amp is running into, and use a cab that has different speakers. In the event, I don't think you'll necessarily clash since so many other parts of your rigs (e.g. guitars and pedals) differ, so you probably won't have anything to worry about to begin with.

I don't think it'll be a problem quite honestly.

[71Smallbox]

I don't think clashing will be your problem, I think it will be a more of blending together to where you can't pick out each others sguitars, since they'd occupy the same frequency ranges more or less. I had this problem when I switched to my Super Reverb from my Marshall amp, my wife had been playing a Twin Reverb all along. I couldn't hear myself since they blended together and our parts always got lost in the mix. I switched to an AC30 and problem was solved.

[stewart]

plenty of bands ALL use orange amps, as one example. never noticed it to be a problem.

[Ankhanu]

Something to remember is that playing live, the audience isn't really going to notice one way or the other

But, yeah, what's been said has been good; it can certainly work. If your amps are set differently (which it sounds like they certainly will), they'll sound different; add in the different guitars/effects and you're in the clear. Separation might not be QUITE as great as using different models, but, again, that also depends on settings.

[Fran]

Odds are your different tones will make up all the difference.

This really.

Rob, me and you have jammed together through the same gear swapping back and forth guitars, we never sounded alike in my opinion. Chocolate Fingers and all that.

[lorez]

I first read this as his scummy peavey frank gallagher amp is being upgraded to compete with my cool looking orange tolex amp. as I believe in the god of les caburies chocolate fingers. Don't sweet it rob, remember even with a DS1 orange amps don't take pedals well

[Sloan]

I think you're over thinking it.

[71Smallbox]

Rob, me and you have jammed together through the same gear swapping back and forth.....Chocolate Fingers and all that.

[AaronGuitarDude]

same amp, different settings does not make you sound the same

[Fran]

Rob, me and you have jammed together through the same gear swapping back and forth.....Chocolate Fingers and all that.

Somebody once said "tone is in the fingers" and it went on to a chocolate fingers joke.

[benecol]

Somebody.

Somebody? Is that all I am to you now Francis? Somebody?

I believe I coined this particular pearl of wisdom.

[Thom]

Last proper band I played in, both me and the other guitarist played Marshalls and we fucking rocked
Sounded nothing like each other, but rocked nonetheless

[Fran]

Somebody.

Somebody? Is that all I am to you now Francis? Somebody?

I believe I coined this particular pearl of wisdom.

To be honest, I couldn't remember if it was you, Rob or me that first said it

[Fran]

[Brandon W]

On a record it's different. If i'm playing harmonies multi-tracked then i would use 2 amps. A rule i always use is that if i'm layering more than one guitar part then i never use the same amp and guitar for every part. I change it up. If i only have one amp then i use different effects and turn the presence or change the eq. I don't know why or who told me that to begin with but i think it gives texture and depth to the song. If it's 2 guitarist live then i don't think you could go wrong by all having the same set up or if you each have a different set up.