My Shitty Guitar Tone

[bassabductor]

I've been out of serious playing for about tens years. I'm kept my chops up, but my guitar rig is NOT making me happy. I've been working on several songs in Pro Tools LE as of late. I'm having trouble get a sound that cuts through, and doesn’t sound too thin. I've played with my tone quite a bit, reduced the gain, and dialed down the bass. It's still sucks. Here's my current equipment:

Tuning to Dropped D
Ibanez 540P Guitar (Alex Scolnick from Testament played this back in the day). It's got a rather "hot" passive pickup in the bridge.

Ibanes RG..somthing. Stock, cheap, pickups.

Rocktron Pro G.A.P. 2.0 Preamp/or Pro XT w/metal pack amps
Crate SPA-200 Power Amp(Solid State, Sterio)
2 Sound Tech 2X12 Cabs. With Speakers??? (stop laughing)

This was a decent sounding ring in the 90's before the tube amp craze hit. I'm miking this set with a SM57 right on the grill. Is it possible to get a decent "modern" tone without dumping this eniter setup in one shot, what single part can I do to most improve situation? A decent cabinet, EMG pickups, etc, or do I have run right out and buy a Mesa or 5150 head?

Help!

Thanks

 

[LydonB]

If I were you, I would post a clip of what your guitar sounds with the gear you currently own. That way we can give better suggestions of what kind of things you could do to improve your tone. If I had to say anything to you right now, I would say go get a new amp. So...when you get a clip or something up, bump the thread to see if it sparks anymore interest.

 

[Sinister Mephisto]

Yes! A clip would be nice. Don't be emberassed. I'm sure most people here have been there and I still am.

 

[cobhc]

Maybe a cheap tube poweramp, such as the peavey classic 50/50, heard it makes a pod sound more organic for live use, and also recording since your running the pod through a poweramp anyway, and not using the pod's cab/mic sim's. And maybe a cab switch..........well thinking about it, maybe you could keep the cab's and switch the speakers, what's in there at the moment? Are they actually guitar speakers? Or just normal PA speakers?

 

[bassabductor]

The speakers in my cabs are guitar speaker, just something no name, and not Celestions, etc. I think I'm going to put an EMG81 in the bridge of my RG. But that not the only problem.

Ok, here the clip. The song needs work. The drums are just one loop, but I'll be changing that. My big problem is the guitar tone. I think my tone is quite bass heavy with mid scooped out at about 1K. I've reduced the bass somewhat from where I play live on the amp. What is happening is that I'm EQing lot of bass out of the guitar in Pro Tools, to make room for the bass gtr and drums. I'm left with a thin sound. This clip was done with the Pro GAP, but the POD is not much better. The guitars are doubled and panned hard.

It primarily interest in the rhythm sounds. I know the other stuff needs work too. Starting at 0:38, I want these strummed chords to sound like a wall, but I want the chords to still ring though. At about 1:02 I want this stuff to sound heavy, period. Also, the guitar is low in the mix in general. I think this because I don’t like how it sounds, and I'm trying to bury it.

Truck Dynasty

 

[LydonB]

I think you should bring the guitar levels up in the mix. It sounds very distant in this mix. I also think that you should record a clip of guitar only so we can hear what it really sounds like without your EQ and such. I like the tone you have now for this song at least. It just sounds distant. Kind of reminds me of old Opeth (i.e. Morningrise). But back to your original question. The single biggest improvement you could do to your rig, in my opinion, is to get a new amp.