How to get a THICK guitar sound?

[AndrewB]

I'm in a two-piece blues rock band. It's just drums, guitar, and vocals, so the guitar sound needs to be very thick. On our last record, we had to record bass because the guitar sound was very good, but ultimately not thick enough to take up the low end.

The perfect example of the sound I'd want would be on the album Magic Potion by The Black Keys. Very thick, but not so fuzzy that it turns into all out noise whenever I'm trying to play faster lead stuff. I also like the guitar sound on the Japandroids's last record.

What can I do in the guitar chain and in the mixing stage to help get this sound? I've been experimenting with fuzz pedals and EQ pedals and the like, but any advice would be much appreciated.

Also, would a 57 be sufficient for micing this kind of sound? I think it would be a little too thin, but I know nothing about other kinds of mics and how they could reproduce that kind of sound compared to a regular old 57.

 

[Sweetnothing]

Experiment with mic positioning, room mics, using bass cabs...dunno, cleaner sounds often sound more open with more room sound going on, like putting the mic few inches back than you'd do on high gain amps.

 

[Igor Samurovic]

Maybe try experimenting with an octaver pedal?

 

[Matula]

Try an Audix i5.

 

[Contra Studio]

Try an Audix i5.

Eww

 

[colonel kurtz]

honestly, for what you're trying to do, switching up mics is probably going to be the least effective method of trying to get where you're going

turn up the lows on the amp, use the neck pickup, roll off the tone knob, try thru a cab with 15" speakers, don't pick like a pussy, get pickups with a lot of low end output, try higher gauge strings, get a guitar with dark tonewoods...any/all of the above should help, and a lot more than just switching from a 57 to an i5 or other mic will. remember that a mic simply exists to capture vibrations...and of course they all do it differently, but if the sound isn't in the source, changing mics isn't gonna help for dick!

 

[xFkx]

I love the octafuzz sound..

If i was in such an outfit i'd definitely try an octaver pedal

 

[Fox Mulder]

Dual-track

 

[pfhuck]

I'm in a two-piece blues rock band. It's just drums, guitar, and vocals, so the guitar sound needs to be very thick. On our last record, we had to record bass because the guitar sound was very good, but ultimately not thick enough to take up the low end.

The perfect example of the sound I'd want would be on the album Magic Potion by The Black Keys. Very thick, but not so fuzzy that it turns into all out noise whenever I'm trying to play faster lead stuff. I also like the guitar sound on the Japandroids's last record.

What can I do in the guitar chain and in the mixing stage to help get this sound? I've been experimenting with fuzz pedals and EQ pedals and the like, but any advice would be much appreciated.

Also, would a 57 be sufficient for micing this kind of sound? I think it would be a little too thin, but I know nothing about other kinds of mics and how they could reproduce that kind of sound compared to a regular old 57.

I just had to deal with this exact situation a few days ago

My solution was:
Guitar into Radial ABY
ABY - (A) guitar amplifier (In this case it was a JCM*** can't remember which...)
ABY - (B) Boss ODB-3 bass overdrive, Ampeg SVPpro (transformer out), Emperical EL-9.

Here's a pic of the SVPre. Haven't changed the settings yet in case of any overdubs...

 

[wetpenny]

I love the octafuzz sound..

If i was in such an outfit i'd definitely try an octaver pedal

foxrox octron would fit the bill here perfectly

 

[AndrewB]

I just had to deal with this exact situation a few days ago

My solution was:
Guitar into Radial ABY
ABY - (A) guitar amplifier (In this case it was a JCM*** can't remember which...)
ABY - (B) Boss ODB-3 bass overdrive, Ampeg SVPpro (transformer out), Emperical EL-9.

That sounds really interesting. Do you have any clips? I'd be really interested to hear what the "B" side sounds like.

 

[neptunian]

Just listened to Magic Potion. Sounds like an overdriven tube amp without any special effects in front of the amp. I hear a lot of room sound in that guitar, no fizz at all. It's a dark sound, and the reduced highs make the lows and mids sound thicker. If using an SM57, I would keep it away from the dust cap, like point it more toward the middle or outer edge of the cone. And then blend in a condenser room mic, or add some room reverb in the mix. Or to get it all via one mic, you could try a condenser 45 degrees off axis and 3-4 feet back and upward from the amp, to simulate what your ears hear while standing there. Once you get the fizz out, then you can EQ the rest.

 

[xTomx]

Ribbon mics

 

[bryan_kilco]

Why not just record a bass track?

I've played around with splitting guitar for bass and having the higher notes of chords constantly coming through the bass end just makes me angry.

 

[Clark Kent]

Haha.. not sure you'll get the best answers for your genre on this forum. I didn't read all the posts above but I'll give you my thoughts.

Blues/rock is still quite a broad genre so I don't know what type of crunch you're using but if you want fat crunch tones it's ALL ABOUT THE MIDS if you ask me. Not the low end nor the high end. Basically what I want for that type of tone is:

Low bass for tight response, dominating but not woolly low mids, a slight scoop under 1khz, and pretty flat all around... so that when you pick hard you have more treble and when you play soft you have more low end. This way you can do all kinds of versatile stuff with just one tone. Now that part was easy... the problem is how to get that tone. The Black Keys is all single coil guitars right?

For these tones it's not much about the mic'ing and cabinet as it is for metal. It's more about the guitar and amp itself.

 

[JakeAC5253]

Eww

I do actually like using the Audix i5 for some things, but "thick" is not what those things are. What the i5 does is thin things out, but it's a great blending mic for when that's the type of thing that you want. I use a Heil PR20 for thick tone myself, blends nicely with a 57 as well. Cascade Fathead II is a nice option as well. I do think the 57 may be a bit thin for more blues tinged rock, if you are siding with the blues end for the guitar tone.

 

[spacerobot]

I play in a two piece indie rock / metalish band. What I do for live sound and recording is play through two amps at the same time. I have a Mesa Triple Rectifier which puts out the crisp highs and heavy distortion. Then I run the guitar through a Lele ABY pedal, one side goes to the Mesa, the other side goes to a Carvin X100B head connected to a 15" bass cab. This head puts out all the lows and mids. With this head you can make it sound as beefy as you want.

 

[Loki Laufeyiarson]

My guess:
Use some heavy strings (when playing in standard E, try using .012 for instance), get a low gain tweed amp and turn the gain up to the point where it starts to break up when hitting hard but when hitting the strings gently it's still kinda clean. Single coil pups like a SPH90-1n Phat Cat by Seymour Duncan will do nicely. And use a good ol' fuzz pedal for some extra dirt. That would be a nice starting point. For getting it thicker a nice slap back tape delay should help a bit at times.
And get a ribbon mic to record it. And put the mic at least 5 cm's (or 2 inches) away from the grill so you capture a bit of room (Greg Gordon does this a lot from what I've heard).

 

[egan.]

I think you have to multi-mic for this sort of stuff. If it were me I'd throw up a 57 as normal, something else (a 121 if possible) 6-12" back, something on the back of the cab to get the low end resonance (could be a 57 or sm7) and possibly a room mic if the room sounded good. With the back of the cab mic you have to move it around to find a good spot but once you do you can being it in slowly for instant girth. Obviously you have to play with placement and polarity to get all the mics to play nicely together but unlike with metal you are actually trying to capture the full cab and all of it's dimensions. As long you aren't getting any (ugly) phase cancelation the differing arrival times actually create thickness.

 

[Grå Värld]

I just had to deal with this exact situation a few days ago

My solution was:
Guitar into Radial ABY
ABY - (A) guitar amplifier (In this case it was a JCM*** can't remember which...)
ABY - (B) Boss ODB-3 bass overdrive, Ampeg SVPpro (transformer out), Emperical EL-9.

Here's a pic of the SVPre. Haven't changed the settings yet in case of any overdubs...

What settings did you use on the Boss ODB-3?