Solo vs. Rhythm Guitar Amp Settings

[jimwilbourne]

I was curious to see what you guys do for Solo guitar settings.

do you keep them pretty much the same as your rhythms or do you have entirely different amp settings?

 

[Flat Fifth Fury]

Well I'm not Andy Sneap ... but here are my pathetic thoughts. First off whatever works, works. If you can get the lead sound that you want with the same amp and settings then call it good. That tends to not be the case for me. I like to have my amp very tight for both rhythm and leads but I want different sonic signatures so that they sit together in the mix. I like rhythm amps that are deep in the bass with lots of low mids and upper clarity but for leads that would be too much in the same sonic space. So for leads I pull the bass back, have more upper mids and roll off the presence. So in essence, rhythm = Mesa-ish, leads = Marshall-ish.

 

[Sacha]

I like em pretty different, usually have a different channel dedicated to it for live and a different bus for mixing. A lot more mids, more gain / compression, less highs, ambience if you're into that.

 

[StefTD]

+1000000 on everything Sacha said, he has an awesome lead tone on all the leads I heard from him,
no I should stop to lick your ass Sacha

 

[vaiman]

As with all things, it depends on each song and if I am bending notes or just shredding the hell out of it.
But in general I use an entirely different setup to my rhythm sound. My solo sound is probably way too thin and effect loaded for any decent rhythm work.

 

[Tommy Gun]

I'm a simple man when it comes to this. For me and my leads (live or studio) I've always used the same sound, for the most part. If I have a simple way to just get a little boost on the leads within the channel I'm using for rhythm, then that's it. If I have 2 OD channels on the head with separate volumes, then I'll voice them as much alike as I can, choose a lead channel, make that just a touch louder. I never even use my neck pickup for leads.

When tracking other guitarist, I try to go with whatever is comfortable for them, then reamp later, if it's terrible. If I have to reamp, then I try to just give them a better version of what they were looking for. As a lead guitarist, I have to say that even if your tone is as simple as mine, it's usually very important to you that it comes across the way you hear it in your head. I want the lead guitar player to be just as happy with his lead tone as the drummer is with the snare sound.

 

[DestroyTheColossus]

I tend to like taking the rhythm tone and adding just a bit more mids and gain for my lead tones. Then high passing higher in the DAW and adding a pretty thick ping pong delay. I've tried having a completely different setup before, but it doesnt seem to gel in quite the same way.