great speakerless tone

[Emmanuel Angel <angel2@dolphin.upenn.edu>]

A few thoughts here on guitar tone without an amp ...

I have done some home recording and gotten some remarkable results
using a Mesa Boogie V-Twin and the cheap version (sound tank) of an
Ibanez Tube Screamer.

I use the V-Twin in *clean* preamp mode and sweeten my strat tone by
adding some bass, treble, and some presence.  The output of that goes to 
the
Tube Screamer.  The added level and presence *before* the distortion of
the Ibanez (which is by nature a mild overdrive) seems to generate a
smooth raspiness from that little green and black box.  The high end
sounds kind of "tinkly" and seems to make the strat "talk" without
sounding too rough or edgy.  The setup seems to track my dynamics, and
I get just enough thick saturation when I play with the neck pickup.  The
'in-between' strat settings weigh in with a tad less saturation, which 
sounds
wonderful to my ear, and leaves me room to kick up to the former more
penetrating tone when the phrases of a building solo demand it.

The rest of my chain (optional) consists of a Yamaha
digital multi-effects box which I use *only* for its stereo chorus, and
I keep the mix of that chorus very light (maybe 25%-30%).  The
Yamaha also has some 'amp simulations' and I select the one labeled 'M'
(must mean Marshall!) which, stereotypically, seems to fatten the tone.

I take the stereo outs of the Yamaha and feed them to my Lexicon Reflex,
programmed for a relatively long (setting of 11 or 12) plate reverb and
I adjust the Mix so that its not too wet.

The sound through the headphones has been *amazing*, inspiring me to do
my best tracking when I play on top of my sequenced compositions.  The
sound in the final mix is *very* convincing.  It would be really hard to
to know that I recorded without a speaker.  The electronics in the chain
really seem to respond to my playing, almost idiosyncratically, as if
there were some real acoustic component to the sound.

My folk theory: putting my tone into a 12AX7 preamp warms it up and 
giggles it
a bit before the transistorized distortion.  This giggled up tone, with
added presence, drives the Ibanez in a more idiosyncratic way.  The rest
of my chain (all the chorus and reverb stuff) breathes more life and 
animation
into the signal.  I think the fact that each box acts as some function on 
the
signal creates a whole that is greater in complexity than the sum of the 
parts.

My ethic: fool around with stuff, experiment.  One would not normally think
(at least I didn't) of taking the signal from an expensive tube preamp 
($300)
set on clean and passing it into a cheap ($35) overdrive box.  Experiment 
with
what you have and try things that may not seem warranted by a 'hi-fi'
components view of the world, in which the quality of a chain is considered
to be its weakist link.  This approach can be used for looping or 
recording.

Mickey Angel