Cut 1: http://soundclick.com/share?songid=8252089 Cut 2: http://soundclick.com/share?songid=8252183 I am testing out my new recording setup, and I thought I'd put together a demo of the neck pickup on my Strat. The tune itself is called Movable Chords and is more of an experimental piece than an actual song. I close-mic'd a Roland Cube 30, off-axis, using the clean channel. The guitar's a modified Fender Stratocaster, played through a BG Pups Vintage 60 neck pickup with some custom tweaks. The first recording is with the EQ controls at 12 oclock and no effects. Having listened to it, it seems fairly boomy. Reverb would also have helped add body to the sound, but I deliberately avoided it. For the second recording, I rolled back the bass control on the amp somewhat, as well as cutting the treble a shade. I also added a light reverb to try and add some body to the sound. This recording still seems to be a bit boomy, but it's clearly more balanced and the reverb has helped thicken things up. I think I need to play with the mic position a bit, and I don't think the tune is particularly well suited to a Roland clean tone. I'll have to try a Fender tube amp (via modeler anyway) later and see how it sounds. I'm also thinking of including an acoustic simulator in the chain, which sounds nothing like an acoustic but does tend to round out the sound somewhat. Any thoughts on the guitar, amp, tune, or overall sound are welcome. (And yes, I know the final mixes ended up way too quiet.)

From experience, it takes a long time to be able to find a guitar / amp combination / setup that you really enjoy.

I'm not sure whether or not you're already doing this, but I would recommend changing only one thing about your tone at a time - e.g. knobs on the guitar, knobs on the amp, adding effects like reverb.

I would also be careful about how you approach creating a sound with reverb. It has this mystical power where it instantly makes anything sound better, and you should make sure that reverb isn't masking any imperfections in your setup. Whenever I set up a guitar / amp, I find the sound I want first, and then add reverb.

Also, how are your pickups saddled underneath the strings? Adjusting them by using the screws on either side can help eliminate low-end boom or high-end twang.

Also, you may want to look into adjusting the individual pitons under each string. I'm not sure if it's possible with yours (I used pliers on my strat,) but adjusting those would allow you to more fully customize your sound (including bringing out your mids.)

**Note** I do not recommend using pliers on your pickups.

I play out of a Marshall 50W split-channel reverb, and I found that I liked having the volume of my guitar down (like 3 or 4,) but turning my amp up (slightly,) and having the bass / treble on my amp set to 7 and 5 respectively. This was helpful playing Jazz because when I needed to solo, I had that extra breathing room from the volume knob on my guitar, and I was able to turn up (or turn down.)

I guess I mention that because you should also set up your guitar / amp with a purpose in mind - what you intend to use it for. I primarily play Jazz, which requires a more bass-heavy sound, but must also be articulate and non-boomy. If you are interested in playing country primarily, then you might want to hold back on the bass and turn up the treble (you play a strat after all :P)

Looking for a sound, I think it's important that you find a sound that gives you the closest to what you want for chords while simultaneously giving you the closest to what you want for a solo sound.


Hope this helps,

jjandreau

The guitar setup's been meticulously tweaked, although after this recording I did raise the action on the low E string a shade to cut back on the volume. I had just lowered it the day before to see, so this was mostly just setting it back how it was. I also left the guitar tone and volume on 10 since the idea was to demo the pickup, but rolling off the tone to 8 or so would probably produce a somewhat more balanced sound.

The amp is more of a mystery to me, because I bought it with the intention of running my Vox Tonelab LE into the front-end and that's my preferred setup. I thought I'd explore the capabilities of the Cube on its own, and so far I'm impressed by its ability to pretend to be a JC-120, but I'm not thrilled with the rest of its sounds. A slight mid boost would probably help this recording further, but at the end of the day I just don't think the JC clean emulation is warm enough for what I'm doing, and a touch of tube breakup would be very helpful. My Vox can sort that out in no time. But what setting...Bassman? AC30? Have to test, but the guitar generally meshes better with a warmer amp, so maybe not the Fender.

That said, the sound is better in person than on the recording and I'm not yet sure why. I'm wondering if I should try an EQ post-mic.

Quote: Looking for a sound, I think it's important that you find a sound that gives you the closest to what you want for chords while simultaneously giving you the closest to what you want for a solo sound.

My experience so far is that sound comes from a classic Marshall with the pre-amp gain low and the power tube section cranked. (Thanks modelers -- I'm not deaf!) But the "Brit combo" setting on the Roland is poor. Again, my Tonelab could fix this easily.

Quote: **Note** I do not recommend using pliers on your pickups.

Considering they're hand-wound and I specifically requested no stagger [grin]

Quote: If you are interested in playing country primarily, then you might want to hold back on the bass and turn up the treble (you play a strat after all :P)

Ignoring the country comment (ugh), turning up the treble on this guitar is typically a mistake. The sound is very harmonically rich (combination of maple fretboard and the characteristics of the pickups themselves) and boosting the treble sends it straight into "shrill" territory. But that harmonic content is not present in the recording, and again, I don't know why not and am considering a post-mic EQ to see if I can restore the more complex sound.

This particular mic is a Sennheiser e835, and I have seen comments that suggest it improves greatly with a preamp and EQ.