Recording a solid guitar amp - advisable?

floid · Post by **floid** » Mon Mar 20, 2006 2:29 pm

who says harsh can't be a good thing? love those tones on "Entertainment!", even though they came out of a craptacular solid state...then again, i guess sometimes guitar tone is like boobies - great when covered in wool

I'm Painting Again · Post by **I'm Painting Again** » Mon Mar 20, 2006 2:35 pm

I heard the word "boobies" crashes this whole board so be careful..I wont say what I like them covered in..and its totally not what your thinking..

KennyLusk · Post by **KennyLusk** » Mon Mar 20, 2006 3:15 pm

beard_of_bees wrote:I wont say what I like them covered in..and its totally not what your thinking..

Lemme guess...BEE's?

Paul Fury 161 · Post by **Paul Fury 161** » Mon Mar 20, 2006 4:30 pm

The guitars on "Ear Candy" by King's X are mainly Marshall 6100LM heads (30th anniversary three channel). The Mesa Dual rectifiers were for "Dogman" mostly, although they might be on "Ear Candy" in a few places. BTW, whoever mentioned the gibson lab series L5 amp, well, i'm a massive King's X fan, and worked in independant music stores for 10 years on and off, owned two L5's in the hope of getting the Ty tone - FORGET it. Cool amp in a JC120 sort of way, but Ty's rig has a;ways been very involved, he doesn't use the amp drive on the L5, runs it with a preamp ripped out from the Strat Elite that he used to play on the first two records, and a big rack of horrible stuff. That tone is most definitely in his fingers, my friends. He used to throw a big sheet over his gear because he was so embarrased about what was in his rig (and he used to writ estuff like"Ty-Rannousaurus" or "Ty's Tone" on it.). Sad to say it, but I think he is one of the few players around who has an instantly identifiable lead sound, which despite evolving a bit between records, is still recognisably him.
Absolutely love him though ;-p
Saw them on the "Tape Head" tour twice here in the UK, met them in Camden, nice guys, ridiculously good live.
"Dogman" is pretty much the only Mesa tone on record I like (apart from "Superunknown", maybe).

Dimebag repeatedly said in interviews that Ty was his favourite player - good enough for him.....

Take it easy yallz,

Paul Fury

dynomike · Post by **dynomike** » Mon Mar 20, 2006 7:54 pm

Wow, I can't believe those are marshalls. I have this anti-marshall grudge for some unjustified reason. Especially b/c a lot of the tones on "ear candy" aren't especially dirty... the notes have lots of sustain but also have mad definition. Very impressive. Thanks for the info Paul!

Back to solid state amps.. I've recorded my Roland Cube and even the lil peavey a few times.. the cube moreso. Its got a very mellow speaker so it works alright with the nasty clipping of the "overdrive" channel. Even here though, I think it really sounds best mic'd at a distance.

Mike

Brett Siler · Post by **Brett Siler** » Tue Mar 21, 2006 2:00 am

King Crimson uses solid state (on newer albums) and their stuff does not sound harsh at all.

I have a Marshall AVT head (SS/with a tube pre) and I A/B on a recording with a Marshall JCM 900 (all tube) and it there was really any difference in the tone. The lines are definitely getting blurred.

Guitar pedals are solid state also.

dynomike · Post by **dynomike** » Tue Mar 21, 2006 5:04 am

InvalidInk wrote:Guitar pedals are solid state also.

Usually. Hughes & Kettner, Radial, E-H all provide examples to the contrary.

UXB · Post by **UXB** » Tue Mar 21, 2006 6:42 am

I don't think the problem is specifically the solid state portion of the amp, but the digital modelling aspect. I always seem to be able to get a "real" amp tone to sit in the mix without being too harsh or loud and with less knob twiddling than the modelled amps.

Re. bass vs. guitar amps, that can be a tough comparison, sort of like comparing a semi truck with a vintage sports car. Depending on the tones you are looking for, most high end sstate bass amps (ie: Walter Woods, Glockenklang [sp?] and the like) seem to deliver very clean transcients, which wouldn't be my first grab for guitar applications, but heck, who knows?!

I'll be doing a lot of reamping this week just to not use the client's modelled guitar tracks! ARRGH!

Best,
H

0xeneye · Post by **0xeneye** » Wed Apr 05, 2006 4:09 pm

I enjoy my solid state Sunn cab for some of the very big delayed guitar sounds I do live : the signal is so clean it repeats very nicely, without getting lost in mud. I also like aspect of the dynamics - tube amps are much more touch responsive somehow, but I like the SS aspect of NOT touchy feely sometimes.

Whenever people say Tubes rock, and SS sucks, I grin and think of so many bands and records that were done in SS. Neither are better, but they are different.

Finally, a large percentage of tube amps sound just plain wrong, mostly because the bias is off - not a problem with SS, they are consistent year after year after year....

JGriffin · Post by **JGriffin** » Wed Apr 05, 2006 9:34 pm

Silverjet89 wrote: Why, you ask, didn't we just use the Marshall amp? The guy wanted to use the wacky phaser that is built into the Peavey.

In that case you absolutely did the right thing.

On a recent project I did all the rehearsals with a Silvertone Solid State 100, which is like the tube 1484 piggyback but more recent and, y'know, solid state. I used the solid state model because I didn't mind leaving it at the singer's house for a month, but planned all along to bring the 1484 to the session, so I'd have a tube amp. But over the rehearsal process we got some great tones dialed in and really fell in love with the sound of the solid state amp, so I just brought it to the session and left the tube amp at home. The engineer went on about how good it sounded, everybody was really happy with the tones. Over three tunes I played a Gibson Les Paul, a Fender/Squier Venus, and an Electra MPC...so pickup quiality likely varied wildly. But all of it sounded fine. So it can be done.

Aerophone · Post by **Aerophone** » Thu Apr 06, 2006 2:24 am

InvalidInk wrote: I have a Marshall AVT head (SS/with a tube pre) and I A/B on a recording with a Marshall JCM 900 (all tube) and it there was really any difference in the tone. The lines are definitely getting blurred.

If you compare it with a jcm900, those lines definitely get blurred. Most of the dirty tone of a 900 come from solid state diode clipping. That's why 900s just suck. It's the crappiest marshall amp ever.

KennyLusk · Post by **KennyLusk** » Thu Apr 06, 2006 7:51 am

dwlb wrote:
Silverjet89 wrote: Why, you ask, didn't we just use the Marshall amp? The guy wanted to use the wacky phaser that is built into the Peavey.
In that case you absolutely did the right thing.

Over three tunes I played a Gibson Les Paul, a Fender/Squier Venus, and an Electra MPC...so pickup quiality likely varied wildly. But all of it sounded fine. So it can be done.

I love the wild tone and raw feel of the Squier Venus. Very cool, very cool! BTW, your new record rocks. "Doris Smiling" has some incredible sounds and tones!

JGriffin · Post by **JGriffin** » Thu Apr 06, 2006 8:31 am

KennyLusk wrote:
dwlb wrote:
Silverjet89 wrote: Why, you ask, didn't we just use the Marshall amp? The guy wanted to use the wacky phaser that is built into the Peavey.
In that case you absolutely did the right thing.

Over three tunes I played a Gibson Les Paul, a Fender/Squier Venus, and an Electra MPC...so pickup quiality likely varied wildly. But all of it sounded fine. So it can be done.
I love the wild tone and raw feel of the Squier Venus. Very cool, very cool! BTW, your new record rocks. "Doris Smiling" has some incredible sounds and tones!

Thank you!

Brett Siler · Post by **Brett Siler** » Fri Apr 07, 2006 9:05 pm

Aerophone wrote:
InvalidInk wrote: I have a Marshall AVT head (SS/with a tube pre) and I A/B on a recording with a Marshall JCM 900 (all tube) and it there was really any difference in the tone. The lines are definitely getting blurred.
If you compare it with a jcm900, those lines definitely get blurred. Most of the dirty tone of a 900 come from solid state diode clipping. That's why 900s just suck. It's the crappiest marshall amp ever.

ha yay! I thought it sounded pretty good for the recording. It was for a sloppy hardcore punk band. Check it out: http://www.myspace.com/disregard

Spark · Post by **Spark** » Sat Apr 08, 2006 12:00 pm

Ive heard 900's that sound great and others that sound like rat piss. Like all marshalls it seems, they all have thier own personality.

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Recording a solid guitar amp - advisable?

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