Looper's Delight Archive Top (Search)
Date Index
Thread Index
Author Index
Looper's Delight Home
Mailing List Info

[Date Prev][Date Next]   [Thread Prev][Thread Next]   [Date Index][Thread Index][Author Index]

Re: (OT) Stick Distortion (was Adrenalinn - more info please)



on 4/8/02 4:14 AM, KEVIN SIMONSON at RITX075@revenue.state.il.us wrote:

> I've been trying with varying degrees of success to find distorted
> voices with the stick (treble) and have had some marginal success.  The
> problem that I typically run into is that a particular device
> configuration will sound wonderful at certain registers/positions and
> rapidly begins to sound strange when you stray too far from that
> position on the instrument.  I tend to have the best luck with a series
> of devices run in parallel with a fairly strong clean sound component in
> the resulting voice.
> 
> IMHO, after listening to years of distorted guitar I had to re-evaluate
> what I was actually wanting out of a stick voice.  I can't and shouldn't
> want my grand to sound like a pawn-shop iceman through a laney pro-tube
> and peavey (hey!) 4x12".  That's where a lot of the "amp emulation"
> based effects processors sort of fall down in my (complete hack) opinion
> - the stick is NOT a guitar, nor is it a bass.  Kudos to Trey and Co. on
> their success with the PODs, but I would bet that the custom bartolinis
> in his Warr sound hella different than a standard stick pickup.
> 
> His lead voice (on stick) on the RFSQ's "Bridge Between" and
> accompanying live video is really great, and IIRC is from a couple of
> ART boxes.  In particular, I recall him saying something about modifying
> the attack of the instrument, which is *another* big difference in how I
> hear the Stick vs. Guitar.
> 
> My first impulse was to try to find an "angry gorilla pounding on the
> gates of hell" sound with the stick, but soon realized that most of that
> aggressive quality that I appreciate in a guitar sound was really in my
> approach to playing the guitar, and less in the effects themselves.  So
> now I attempt to find the "demented craftsperson carving intricate
> scrollwork on the gates of hell" tone :)
> 
> -K 
> 
> 
>>>> sine@zerocrossing.net 04/07/02 02:50PM >>>
> Well, all I was saying was that the Stick isn't a bass and guitar
> slapped together.  The pickups sound very  different, and your standard
> 
> guitar effects just don't sound all that good on them.  Perhaps bass
> processors work better?  The only evidence of that is that I can get
> some pretty good tone out of a Behringer V-Amp, yet the stick generally
> 
> sounded bad through it.  When we went out and tried the Digitech BP-200
> 
> we found a lot of it's presets sounded fairly good with just a bit of
> tweaking.  Now, neither box would be called high end, but there was
> something about the general voicing of the BP-200 that made a big
> difference, on the high and low strings of the Stick.
> 
> So Jon, what are you using as a preamp these days?  I thought you
> sounded good when we played together, you using the Digitech 2120s.  I
> 
> also though you sounded really good when I saw you at Hush Hush in SF.
> 
> When I saw Trey last, he and the other Warr guitarist in his band were
> 
> both using Line6 Pod pros, bass and guitar models.
> 
> Mark Sottilaro
> 
> On Sunday, April 7, 2002, at 10:45  AM, Greg House wrote:
> 
>> Well, yeah, but it's the same sort of thing. He used to play
> Chapmans.
>> 
>> Tony Levin still plays Chapmans and he uses distortion, so perhaps a
>> more accurate example.
>> 
>> Greg
>> 
>> 
>> --- Mark Sottilaro <sine@zerocrossing.net> wrote:
>>> Doesn't Trey use Warr guitars?
>>> 
>>> Mark
>>> 
>>> On Friday, April 5, 2002, at 06:47  PM, Greg House wrote:
>>> 
>>>> 
>>>> --- Jonathan El-Bizri <ssrndpty@hotmail.com> wrote:
>>>> 
>>>>> Sticks don't sound so good distorted. I'd pretty much given up on
>>> the
>>>>> idea.
>>>> 
>>>> Someone better tell Trey Gunn about that... <grin>
>>> 
>> 
>> 
>> __________________________________________________
>> Do You Yahoo!?
>> Yahoo! Tax Center - online filing with TurboTax
>> http://taxes.yahoo.com/
>> 
> 
I have the same problem with distortion on my Stick.  The only thing that
I've used that worked across the wide frequency range is overdrive, like 
the
green Ibanez pedal or (believe it or not) a Marshall half stack (God bless
Tubes!!!) with the volume and gain on 7 or above.