Thicker Sound

[CPTino3001]

I've got a Gibson Les Paul Studio Plus and a Marshall DFX100 Amp and I'm trying to fatten the sound I get from my Les Paul without having to play at deafening volumes.

I'm want to get more of a thick blues tone a la Warren Haynes, but I can't seem to do it at reasonable levels. If I crank up the gain on my clean channel along with the master volume, I can get close to what I'm looking for, but nothing like it at low volumes.

I also tried light distortion, which seems to work at somewhat lower volumes, but if I go too low I get unwanted fuzz.

If there are any pedals or techniques out there that anyone knows about, I'd greatly appriciate the heads up.

[catho]

Get a BOSS GE-7 Equalizer or a pedal along those lines. Has to have more than 3 freqs though so you can notch out the highest stuff.

There's 3 setups I would recommend.

1# Get a compressor, an overdrive, and an EQ. The compressor should be used as a boost so you'll want the attack to be quite quick depending on your style. The overdrive you set as you'd like, but it sounds like you dont want the fuzz and therefore you should set the gain REALLY low and the effects volume should compensate the gain loss, so that when you turn of the overdrive you still got the same volume but clean. Last and most important, the EQ. Form a smiley face (A V shape) on the EQ, boosting the low, reducing the mids, boosting the highs. This will fatten up the sound in the best possible way. Be sure to adjust a little to the humbuckers depending on bridge or neck pickup, usually the bridge will work better, the neck PU is a little tinny, a blend works too of course. You don't have to use an exact V shape of course, you can add some mids to improve on the overdrive and remove some highs for less earcutting sound and remove some bass if it clips too much.

2# Overdrive and EQ, instead of increasing the signal before hitting the overdrive you can just increase the gain on the overdrive, this usually gives worse results though, you get less bluesy"spunk" that's really nice.

3# If you got a nice amp all you'll need is an EQ, the amp probably only got three knobs (or four) but youll need more. Get the EQ, form a v shape, adjust to the amp but make sure that the amps EQ is flat first, then if youd like you can add even more bass in the amp after the EQ (which can be really sweet).

Anyway, short conclusion.

Les Paul Bridge Pickup -> 7-5 Band Equalizer formed as a V or U with boosted highs and lows and reduced mids -> Amp with flat EQ.

All in all, there are no rules so feel free to experiment with various gear. But an EQ is really usefull, later on also because youll probably get more stuff and an EQ is critical!

[mangold]

yeh an eq is the answer, i tested that one with the flames on it, it was good.

[Dancing Ants]

where do you guys put your EQs in your chains?


I have Guitar > Whammy Pedal > EQ > Compressor > Wah > Tremolo Pedal > Amp.

Any suggestions?

[thejoe]

i would put it right where you have it

it HAS to go before your wah