Guitar Effects Tube Preamp
What effects for strumming (electric guitar)?
So, if I want to improvise over a backing track with a clean sound I just throw in some reverb and chorus and I’m more or less good.
What about strumming though? No matter what I use it doesn’t sound very good. Well, the guitar is kind of not-so-expensive, to say the truth.
But still, the sound of strumming is never that “juicy” as in the songs (e.g. Hey Julie by Fountains of Wayne).
It’s always either too muddy or too jangly. Never warm, rich and succulent. Any ways to improve it?
I use a tube preamp and an audio interface.
Yes I know they usually use acoustic guitars. Some band, though, use electric guitars excluively and they still have a nice sounding rythm.
Unfortunately, a lot of the tone is going to depend on your guitar, and if you have a cheap, solid body electric guitar you are not going to get a nice full acoustic sounding rhythm. I have a Parker guitar with Fishman piezo pickups in the bridge. It gives a pretty good acoustic sound for nice clean rhythm playing, but it still doesn’t come close to the sound of a nice acoustic guitar. But, to make do with the guitar you have try this:
- use mainly the rhythm pickup and adjust the tone to bring out more of the high and mids and a bit less bass.
- use chorus and a bit of reverb as you stated
- if you have a mutli-effects pedal (I have a Zoom G2.1u), add some sustain (on the distortion settings there is an acoustic patch and you can adjust the settings on it).
- if you really want a good acoustic sound from an electric guitar and have a bit to spend to get it, try the BOSS acoustic pedal.
- Really tweak the tone. If it’s too muddy, lower the bass and add more high/mid. If it’s too twangy, cut back a bit on the high end.
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Hughes Kettner Tube Rotosphere MKII The Analog Leslie Simulator $489.99 Tube Rotosphere® MK II has all the inspirational power of the legendary Leslie® cabinets. It not only puts the response of a tube-powered Leslie at players’ toe-tips, it also boasts two rotation speeds and legitsounding deceleration & acceleration effects. Rotosphere’s spectrum ranges from clean to sizzling rock scream. In stereo mode, it serves up all the tonal complexity and dynamics of the re… |
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VOX AC50CP2 50 Watt Tube Classic Plus Combo Guitar Amp The Vox AC50CP2 Classic Plus combo is a high-gain departure from the company’s legendary chiming tube amps. This beast is capable of going from pristine clean to scorching high-gain, and its 2×12 package is loaded with Vox Custom GSH-1230 speakers. Features include dual switchable channels (including a new high-gain channel), 50-watt output from an EL34-equipped power section, DI output, and separ… |
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Guitar Amplifier Handbook – Understanding Tube Amplifiers and Getting Great Sounds (Softcover) $15.49 (Understanding Tube Amplifiers and Getting Great Sounds). Book. Softcover. 240 pages. Backbeat Books #087930863X. Published by Backbeat Books… |
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Behringer V-AMP3 Next-Generation Virtual Guitar Amplifier with USB Audio Interface And Energyxt2.5 Recording Software $108.99 If a lack of money and floor space is all that’s been standing between you and a home recording studio full of the finest vintage guitar amps and effects pedals, get ready to love the Behringer V-Amp 3 multi-effects processor. This red rocker comes loaded with 32 amp models, 15 speaker cabinet models and 16 classic effects. But that’s only the beginning you also get the UCA222 USB audio interface … |
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M-Audio 99004077600 Audio Buddy Preamp(Gold) $119.95 M-Audio Audio Buddy Microphone PreAmp… |
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Behringer PB100 Preamplifier/Volume Booster $23.99 Boost the volume and shape the sound of any instrument, or switch to turbo mode when playing solos. You can boost up piezo pickups to match regular amplifier inputs. Dedicated Gain, Bass and Treble controls are included for effortless sound shaping. We’ve included a status LED for effect On/Off and battery check, and you can run your PB100 on a 9 V battery or a DC power supply (not included). For … |
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ART Pro Channel Microphone PreampCompressorEQ Professional Tube Based Selectable VU Metering $390.00 Professional tube microphone preamp, optical compressor and EQ… |
Question about guitar distortion?
Many players (including myself) prefer the sound of distorted tube amp circuitry vs. transistor circuitry. I know the distortion is produced from the overdriven tubes, whether preamp or power amp, and adjusting the guitars volume as well as the amps volume (channel and master) will effect the distortion as well.
All this said, why then, do so many of us use distortion pedals? What exactly is the pedal doing? Is it increasing the gain of the guitar signal to overdrive the tubes, or is it processing a synthetic “distortion” tone?
Example: If a guitarist with a Marshall JCM 800 plays his guitar through its clean channel and steps on his distortion pedal, (lets say it’s a Boss OS-2) is he getting tube distortion (is the pedal now overdriving the tube by increasing the gain) or is he actually getting transistor distortion introduced into the signal via the pedals transistor circuitry?
Anyone? I’m interested in the basis for your answer as well. Thanks!
That’s a good question, I pondered the same thing a long time back. A distortion pedal does not overdrive the tubes of an amp; if this was the case then distortion pedals wouldn’t work with solid state amplifiers! And neither is it producing a ‘distortion tone’ so to speak. Rather, it is distorting the waveform that is being produced, and the resulting wave distortion creates the ‘fuzz’ that we now call ‘distortion’. Additionally, some do (as you say) increase the gain and then clip the waveform to reduce the overall volume, resulting in an altered waveform that emphasises certain tones and harmonics, though these are usually known as Overdrive pedals rather than distortion pedals (my preferred choice of pedal on top of a valve amp).
So in the case of your example, the guitarist is getting distortion introduced into the clean wave form via the pedal, which is either changing the wave form from one shape to another, or boosting and clipping it to produce an altered shape. Have a look at the following links if you want to know a bit more about distortion types and effects.
Takamine Guitar Cool Tube Preamp Overview
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Behringer V-AMP3 Next-Generation Virtual Guitar Amplifier with USB Audio Interface And Energyxt2.5 Recording Software $108.99 If a lack of money and floor space is all that’s been standing between you and a home recording studio full of wicked vintage guitar amps and effects pedals, get ready to love the V-AMP 3. This red rocker comes loaded with 32 amp models, 15 speaker cabinet models and 16 classic effects. But that’s only the beginning–you also get the UCA222 USB audio interface and free energyXT2.5 Compact software… |
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Hughes Kettner Tube Rotosphere MKII The Analog Leslie Simulator $489.99 Tube Rotosphere® MK II has all the inspirational power of the legendary Leslie® cabinets. It not only puts the response of a tube-powered Leslie at players’ toe-tips, it also boasts two rotation speeds and legitsounding deceleration & acceleration effects. Rotosphere’s spectrum ranges from clean to sizzling rock scream. In stereo mode, it serves up all the tonal complexity and dynamics of the re… |
|
|
VOX AC50CP2 50 Watt Tube Classic Plus Combo Guitar Amp The Vox AC50CP2 Classic Plus combo is a high-gain departure from the company’s legendary chiming tube amps. This beast is capable of going from pristine clean to scorching high-gain, and its 2×12 package is loaded with Vox Custom GSH-1230 speakers. Features include dual switchable channels (including a new high-gain channel), 50-watt output from an EL34-equipped power section, DI output, and separ… |
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Guitar Amplifier Handbook – Understanding Tube Amplifiers and Getting Great Sounds (Softcover) $15.49 (Understanding Tube Amplifiers and Getting Great Sounds). Book. Softcover. 240 pages. Backbeat Books #087930863X. Published by Backbeat Books… |
|
|
M-Audio 99004077600 Audio Buddy Preamp(Gold) $119.95 M-Audio Audio Buddy Microphone PreAmp… |
|
|
Behringer PB100 Preamplifier/Volume Booster $23.99 Boost the volume and shape the sound of any instrument, or switch to turbo mode when playing solos. You can boost up piezo pickups to match regular amplifier inputs. Dedicated Gain, Bass and Treble controls are included for effortless sound shaping. We’ve included a status LED for effect On/Off and battery check, and you can run your PB100 on a 9 V battery or a DC power supply (not included). For … |
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ART Pro Channel Microphone PreampCompressorEQ Professional Tube Based Selectable VU Metering $390.00 Professional tube microphone preamp, optical compressor and EQ… |
Tagged with: audio • diy • effects • electronics • guitar
Filed under: Uncategorized
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