Big Malky Posted August 29, 2006 Share Posted August 29, 2006 Hey again all, I need a bit of techy help here... OK so I have a crappy Eleca guitar and amp, good enough for messing around but now I've got used to playing clean, I need to find out how to get a decent distorted sound with the crappy amp (I'm too poor to afford a decent one lol). I have master vol, gain, bass and treble dials on the amp and 2 fender strat style tone dials on the guitar... Does anyone have any ideas without the use of pedals? My Rage Against the Machine riffs sound a bit crap the way I've set em heheh. Cheers all, Big Malky Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shoes Posted August 29, 2006 Share Posted August 29, 2006 I always try turning everything to 11 but the master volume and then slowly bringing it up to the point at which it starts to sound good. If it doesn't get there yer shopping for footwear.... pedals that is Clasic Crunch, OverDrive. I still think guitars are like shoes, but louder. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Junior 1 Posted August 30, 2006 Share Posted August 30, 2006 I know you don't have much of a budget, but right now you can go to the Musicians Friend site and get an Arion Tubulator distotion pedal fo $20 shipped!!! They sound great and hold up even though they're plastic. It improved the sound of a little practice amp I have a lot. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guitar Geezer Posted August 30, 2006 Share Posted August 30, 2006 ANd don't discount the Danelectro FAB series pedals for under 15.00. Great deal for the money (just don't stomp on them too hard) (I now have 4 of them, just 'cause they're cool to play with) Lynn G Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rw2003 Posted August 31, 2006 Share Posted August 31, 2006 I would start with the knobs on your guitar turned full up to 10 - volume and tone. Set the pickup selector to the bridge pickup. On your amp, set the Master Volume to zero, then set the other knobs, gain, treble and bass to their mid positions. Slowly turn up the Master Volume on the amp to a good (not too loud) volume - maybe 3 or 4. Then use the gain to adjust the distortion. I imagine you'll end up turning the gain close to 10 for maximum distortion. Then adjust the treble and bass to taste! Assuming that you have a solid state amp, this will be about the best distortion sound you'll get without using those pedals mentioned above. "Spend all day doing nothing But we sure do it well" - Huck Johns from 'Oh Yeah' Click to Listen to Oh yeah Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Big Malky Posted August 31, 2006 Author Share Posted August 31, 2006 Heheh, Good advice from all. RW I tried that tonight and got a great sound, but... I've decided to get a stomp box tomorrow lol. Cheers Shoes for the nudge towards a pedal... does that make you a pedal pusher? Was lookin online and like the look of either the Digitech RP100A (some nice artist presets) or the Digitech RP80, just for the fact that both have loads of effects and stuff. I would go for the new Krank stomp box, but it's a bit pricey. Think the Digitech ones will be any good? Cheers all, Malky Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rw2003 Posted August 31, 2006 Share Posted August 31, 2006 I've never played through a Digitech pedal but a friend who is a beginner bought one about a year ago and loves it. (Maybe the RP200A???) If you go this multi-effects route (as compared to just a single distortion pedal) I suggest you get a model that has an "expression" pedal built into it - it will be more fun to do things like wah wah, etc. Some models may also have a simple drum machine and/or canned bass tracks built in. Take your time in buying that first pedal... Go into you favorite store and play through a bunch of different ones that they have on display... see for yourself which one sounds good to you. "Spend all day doing nothing But we sure do it well" - Huck Johns from 'Oh Yeah' Click to Listen to Oh yeah Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Big Malky Posted August 31, 2006 Author Share Posted August 31, 2006 The RP80 has an expression pedal, chromatic tuner and drum machine, pretty cool for £60 i think mate. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kramer Ferrington III. Posted September 1, 2006 Share Posted September 1, 2006 Originally posted by Big Malky: Was lookin online and like the look of either the Digitech RP100A (some nice artist presets) or the Digitech RP80, just for the fact that both have loads of effects and stuffI dunno... I used to have a Zoom GFX II or whatever it was called and it had something like 160 patches (80 were programmable) but I found that I only used about five or six of them. I once read this interview with Brian Eno and he had a bit of a bitch about modern synths with their couple of hundred patches because they trick you into thinking that the right sound will be in there somewhere. And often enough, it's NOT. People wrote great music on violins and pianos and all sorts of instruments that only had ONE sound, really. So, cutting to the chase... try to get a decent sound out of your amp and if worse comes to worst, get yourself an overdrive. The Danelectro FAB pedals are great value for money. Band MySpace My snazzy t-shirt empire Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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