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staemius
Junior
Username: staemius

Post Number: 18
Registered: 12-2004
Posted on Friday, February 04, 2005 - 10:12 pm:   Edit Post

Ok Bill and others! Need help with the great and last frontier...sound. What rigs do you play your Electrum through? Particularly looking for suggestions on the high end - mine is a bit thin (through a Peavy 212 Chorus, and Digitech rp7...ugh, I know).
lbpesq
Advanced Member
Username: lbpesq

Post Number: 315
Registered: 7-2004
Posted on Saturday, February 05, 2005 - 8:38 am:   Edit Post

James:

Bear in mind that my Electrum is set up with two of the wider shaped pickups (look like humbuckers, though they are not), a pan, filter, volume, Q, and standby.

I use a wireless from the guitar to my pedal board. I leave the guitar volume on "10" all the time. The last effect in my board chain is an Ernie Ball volume pedal. This sort of approximates Garcia's onboard effects loop while allowing me to remain wireless instead of being tied down by two cords. The effects always see the same volume signal.

From the pedal board I go through a Mesa Boogie Mark III 112 combo with a bubinga cab. The speaker is the EV 200 watt option offered by Mesa. I have an SF-2 in the Mesa's effects loop. (I'm thinking about experimenting with placing the SF-2 between the guitar and the amp and playing around with the adjustable gain levels - when I get the time - LOL).

The combo sits on a Mesa 112 Theile cab (closed back and ported). This has the Celestion 90 watt Mesa-offered speaker in it. I'm also thinking about setting up a stereo rig by adding a '60's blackface Fender Pro Reverb that I've had forever and just got back from a full clean-up at the amp doctor's (Thanks for the referral, Val).

Before you start spending your $ on new amps and stuff, there are a couple of things you can try to get get a fuller/warmer sound that are very inexpensive. First you might try going to a heavier gauge strings. Using 9's?, try 10's. Using 10's?, try 11's. My PRS came with 9's. I found that even going to 9 1/2's made a difference in thickening up the sound!

Next, you might try experimenting with different gauge and material picks. People often overlook the lowly pick as a factor in tone shaping.

If you want to go the effects route, an analog delay set to a very short subtle delay will often result in a dramatically thicker sound.

Finally, let me recommend the book "Getting Great Guitar Sounds - a Non-Technical Approach to Shaping Your Personal Sound" by Michael Ross, published by Hal-Leonard Corp. I first found this book after playing for more than 35 years and still learned a lot from it.

Hope this helps,

Bill, tgo
staemius
Junior
Username: staemius

Post Number: 19
Registered: 12-2004
Posted on Saturday, February 05, 2005 - 6:51 pm:   Edit Post

Thanks Bill!

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