clean tone... it's killing me...

ok, whenever I set-up a clean tone it's always very bright, to the point of being shrill and making me whince in pain. it's not just for me though, I hear other people getting the same tone. I've tried numerous guitars through numerous amps.. the only way I've found to fix it is to use the bridge pickup of my gibson, which is waaayyyy too warm and fuzzy sounding normally. I'm wondering if it's doing this because of the way I have it EQ'd? can you give me some examples of how you EQ your clean channels? some way to warm it up some and add some depth.. thanks in advance

Welcome to Tonequest 101. Lesson 1: Dialing-in a good clean tone.

Start with the tone controls set as 'flat' or 'neutral' as you can get them. The knob settings will be different for different amps. One reason I like my old Ampegs is the tone stack is an active boost/cut design which provides a wide range of adjustment. These controls have their minimum effect (no boost or cut) when the pointers are straight up (12 o'clock). Try setting your controls that way to start.

Roll your guitar tone controls down a bit; say 7 or 8 out of 10.

Start with your neck pickup. It will usually be warmer sounding than the bridge pickup, simply because the strings are less 'twangy' there. Work with one amp tone control at a time, raising or lowering the setting just a little bit, and trying that for a while. Don't make a lot of changes at once, because your ears will try to adapt to each change, and you end up getting lost. Just change one setting, just a little bit.

Then put your guitar down, and walk away for about 10 minutes. When you come back to your guitar, pay attention to your first impression of what it sounds like. Then change just one control a bit to try to correct anything that sounded 'wrong' when you first came back. Take another break to let your ears 'freshen up' again.

Again notice your first impression when you come back, and make another adjustment. You have to keep taking a break and coming back again, because your sense of hearing will always try to shift your 'normal' reference along with whatever change you make. You have to literally walk away, get into a different room, with different background ambience, in order to restore your auditory reference. Hey, if this stuff was simple and obvious, everyone would have good tone, right?

You will not get the results you want in a few tries. Not even in the first day. The next day, you may decide that the settings that were wonderful for your last session now sound like ass. Keep at it, making small adjustments. There are reasons why you will see marks on the control panels of a lot of used amps.

Happy hunting! :cool:

so it's like a trial and error thing. oh..i see. :cool:

Also, guitars with 5 way switches, you can set the switch to the 2nd position and it will warm up pretty nicely without too much bass.

perhaps it could help if you give us your current settings...

Originally Posted by: rockonn91perhaps it could help if you give us your current settings...

hold that thought...

ok, bass at 4, mids at 6, treble at about 7 (with 1 being at 7 o' clock; and 10 being 5 o' clock; and 5 being 12 o' clock)

Originally Posted by: 6strngs_2hmbkrshold that thought...

ok, bass at 4, mids at 6, treble at about 7 (with 1 being at 7 o' clock; and 10 being 5 o' clock; and 5 being 12 o' clock)

well.. raise your bass and lower you trebe. thats what makes it sound warmer
mid gives it a fuller sound. like its there, right next to you, instead of miles away.

try putting the mid to 10 and keep bass at 4 and treble at 7

or mid 10 bass 7 treble 4

I played around with it a little today. I thought that the gain knob on my line 6 spider II didn't do anything on the clean channel, so I kept it all the way down.. turns out it acts as an extra tone knob of some sort, perhaps a presence control? I dunno, but when I turned it up it warmed my sound right up! of course, this is just for this one amp, I gotta figure how to fix the same problem with my other amp now, but that one the problem wasn't as bad.

Originally Posted by: 6strngs_2hmbkrsI played around with it a little today. I thought that the gain knob on my line 6 spider II didn't do anything on the clean channel, so I kept it all the way down.. turns out it acts as an extra tone knob of some sort, perhaps a presence control? I dunno, but when I turned it up it warmed my sound right up! of course, this is just for this one amp, I gotta figure how to fix the same problem with my other amp now, but that one the problem wasn't as bad.

that sucks cause whenever you're switching to distortion from clean you have the gain setting screwed up and you have to set it again

Originally Posted by: purethat sucks cause whenever you're switching to distortion from clean you have the gain setting screwed up and you have to set it again

not on the line 6, you set all the knobs to where you want them, save the settings, and when you switch back to it it'll give you the same settings no matter where your knobs are.

come to think of it, my peavey XXX does that too...

Hm... never have had a hard time getting a nice warm, yet biting and clear clean tone out of my Stratocaster..... haha!!

To relate somewhat... I do have a Strat that I custom built into a double fat Strat.... and did some other mods to make it sound more Les Paul'ish... but I have a set of JB/'59s in it.... with one tone knob and one volume knob... I find that my bridge pickup is constantly warm as well... so what I normally do is turn the tone knob all the way to the treble side or atleast half... depending on how warm/bright I want it to sound... and play with through both pickups. This gives me a nice full sound. I try to get my sound dialed in with as little help from the amp as possible... that way when I change amps... the tone is relatively the same. String choice might also help you get some more warmth out of your bridge pickup... I use GHS ZW Boomers .10's. They sound awesome through clean settings... as well as distorted ones. They probably contribute the most character to the tone of my guitar out of any strings I've ever played... But yeah... just see what works for you

Originally Posted by: aschlemanHm... never have had a hard time getting a nice warm, yet biting and clear clean tone out of my Stratocaster..... haha!!

To relate somewhat... I do have a Strat that I custom built into a double fat Strat.... and did some other mods to make it sound more Les Paul'ish... but I have a set of JB/'59s in it.... with one tone knob and one volume knob... I find that my bridge pickup is constantly warm as well... so what I normally do is turn the tone knob all the way to the treble side or atleast half... depending on how warm/bright I want it to sound... and play with through both pickups. This gives me a nice full sound. I try to get my sound dialed in with as little help from the amp as possible... that way when I change amps... the tone is relatively the same. String choice might also help you get some more warmth out of your bridge pickup... I use GHS ZW Boomers .10's. They sound awesome through clean settings... as well as distorted ones. They probably contribute the most character to the tone of my guitar out of any strings I've ever played... But yeah... just see what works for you

I use GHS TNT boomers .10-.52 I agree they make nice tone. I think I need to change mine though... I think they've been on there for almost 6 months!

Originally Posted by: 6strngs_2hmbkrsI think they've been on there for almost 6 months!

:eek: nuf said.

My trick is simple....I just turn the volume knob down on my guitar a bit to around the 7 or 8 position. That takes the brightness out for me without actually turning the volume down....

Originally Posted by: rockonn91:eek: nuf said.

yeah, I've had the guitar since last august, and only changed the strings once. I believe the angled neck and headstock really do prolong string life! ;)

I'll give that a try too, jfrick, see what happens.

Originally Posted by: JFRICKMy trick is simple....I just turn the volume knob down on my guitar a bit to around the 7 or 8 position. That takes the brightness out for me without actually turning the volume down....

A lot of how that works out depends on the dynamic responsiveness of your amp, and the value of your pots. Some guitars will get pretty thin and brittle sounding if it's volume knob is turned down too much. Pots with high values in the 500k to 1M will stay bright and clear, whereas pots in the 250k range will tend to get a little darker. My gutiars have 500k pots (I believe) and they remain clean and crisp with the volume rolled down, and depending on how the amp is set, can have some really nice "in between" tones. But, if I try to clean it up too much, the tone gets a little thin. I remedy this with a 250k volume pedal first thing in my effects chain. This lets me clean things up a bit, but retain some meat.

I'm not sure about the XXX combos, but with my XXX head, I used to keep my clean channel set something like Bass: 11-1 o'clock, Mid: 9-12 o'clock, and Treble: 1-3 o'clock, and the channel volume around 2 o'clock, and set the gain channels to that. Cranking the clean channels volume can help you get a little more meat out of it.

Originally Posted by: PRSplayaA lot of how that works out depends on the dynamic responsiveness of your amp, and the value of your pots. Some guitars will get pretty thin and brittle sounding if it's volume knob is turned down too much. Pots with high values in the 500k to 1M will stay bright and clear, whereas pots in the 250k range will tend to get a little darker. My gutiars have 500k pots (I believe) and they remain clean and crisp with the volume rolled down, and depending on how the amp is set, can have some really nice "in between" tones. But, if I try to clean it up too much, the tone gets a little thin. I remedy this with a 250k volume pedal first thing in my effects chain. This lets me clean things up a bit, but retain some meat.

Exactly. One common misconception about pots is that it’s always assumed that they are all linear. Linear meaning when you turn a common guitar volume pot up or down… the relation of the change in sound level is equal to the rotation of the pot from point 1 to point 10… Simply put, the volume difference measured in decibels from 1-5 is equal to the difference in decibels from 5-10. This is not true… Most pots are non-linear… meaning they’re exponential. Most people can’t tell the difference between the two unless they’re demonstrated side by side… Almost all guitar pots are non linear. This means that the change in volume measured in decibels from 1-5 is very slight… but the change in volume from 5-10 is quite a bit… it rises exponentially rather than equally like a linear pot. Volume pedals and wah pedals almost always use linear pots. They are a bit more expensive because the circuitry is a bit more sensitive. Keep that in mind when adjusting volume and tone knobs on your guitar… 5 isn’t usually the middle… somewhere around 7 is… I normally have them on 1 or 10… I suggest a volume pedal for anyone… just like PRS said.

awesome info, given me a bit of insight into my guitar :)

Not meaning to hijack the thread but quick question in relation to all of this.

Can I keep the tone knob at maximum and just adjust the tone through my amp using the amps "tone" knob? or does it matter?

I usually keep my volume at about 5 and it's quite creamy and nice when the tone on my amp is about 5 too.

Originally Posted by: suicidalmoose... Can I keep the tone knob at maximum and just adjust the tone through my amp using the amps "tone" knob? or does it matter? ...

Whatever works is good.