The Children Of Bodom Gear Thread

Hey man, I'm using Bias FX 2 with Bias Amp tonematch. Guitar is still the a-600 with hz h2 + je-1000.

I made a quick YT video with a pic of my EQ settings. First one is without any EQ and is closest to the original HCDR tone. Second one is with a high cut and 3rd one is with the EQ setting you see in the pic. I really like the last one but with those settings, the tone is too weak and not as good as it should be withput any EQ. Each track is around 1min 10s or so...

 
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Hey man, I'm using Bias FX 2 with Bias Amp tonematch. Guitar is still the a-600 with hz h2 + je-1000.

I made a quick YT video with a pic of my EQ settings. First one is without any EQ and is closest to the original HCDR tone. Second one is with a high cut and 3rd one is with the EQ setting you see in the pic. I really like the last one but with those settings, the tone is too weak and not as good as it should be withput any EQ. Each track is around 1min 10s or so...



I think the first one, like you said sounds the closest to that HCDR album tone but I do notice the harshness a little, but I think that's just inherent to the tone. The second one is pretty good as well but it lacks a little bit of the clarity I think. Still very good though. Honestly it would probably be the one for sitting in a mix though. The 3rd one doesn't sound bad either, just a little quieter than the others. I didn't like it upon first listen but it's actually growing on me upon more listens. It sounds excellent for the lead sections, but the low end sounds a little flubby.

I haven't messed with the Bias FX a whole lot. I think overall your tone sounds really good but I too notice the things you mention. Have you thought of throwing a noise gate or compressor anywhere in the path? Mostly for the first one you showed. I think that one is really good but the hiss is noticable.

I didn't think about it until listening to the clips a few times but another thing to note is that while you're achieving basically the tone you would on the actual recordings I would imagine that these songs were at the very least double tracked or something. Maybe not the leads, but I've never really looked into that. Your lead tone sounds very good so I wouldn't worry about that too much. To my ears it sounds like it could use a little bit more low end in some places, but on the open notes on the low E string it has the perfect percussiveness. One problem we all have as guitar players is that when we're trying to emulate someone's tone we're often not taking into consideration multi-tracking, post processing, etc, and then we may have a great tone for the room but is awful in a mix. I had a guy from a band I really liked point out this same issue to me years ago when I was asking him for tips and it's helped me a lot in the recording department if that's what you're after.

What he advised was that I set my gain to where I have just the right amount to sound out my harmonics/pinch harmonics without them sounding choked out. Next I rolled back a lot of my EQ. For years I'd done the things I'd learned from here back in the day with low-end around 12:00, and Mid and Treble around 3:00. This sounded great to me for a while but after a bit it became too abrasive to my ears. What was suggested to me though was that I set each of these frequencies to around 12:00 and make very minor adjustments from there. It sounded odd to me at first but it makes sense as it's allowing the guitar to sit where it belongs in a mix more, and allows the bass to do it's job a bit.

All in all, I wouldn't worry about it too much but I know as a guitar player that it's often hard to let something like this go once you notice it. I know it may be a big pain in the ass but perhaps roll off the gain just a small amount and then try doing some recordings multi-tracked to see how it sounds in layers. I imagine your just using the BIAS FX into your DAW so this is probably much easier to do than having to mic things up and whatnot. If you have a bass also try to record a bassline under it to see if that helps.

As much as I love Alexi's tone on Hatebreeder, for example, his tone on it's own is somewhat thin in some areas. The intro riff to Downfall has that emaculate percussive sound, which is great, but some of the leads can sound somewhat nasally on other songs. Were it not for the heavily distorted bass underneath a lot of these songs I'd imagine the guitar tone would be a lot less enjoyable.

I personally really love the tone on Are You Dead Yet the most and I'm doing a build aiming for it at the moment. Something about it just sounds so perfectly full in all the right ways to me, and I think that setup he had at the time sounded even better live.

TL;DR, your tone sounds great on it's own but in the context of recording it probably just needs mixed in with other instruments.
 
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Hey, thanks for your feedback!

I have a noisegate at the beginning of the path, but if I suppress any more, I lose a lot of sustain. I sometimes use a compressor before feeding the signal into the amp, usually without any plan howthat thing works. I've never dealt with it.

In the mix, the first two variations sound horrible, but the third sounds quite good. But since I don't know anything about mixing either, it will probably always sound like shit - no matter what I do :D Over the years, I've actually always scrumbled everything together without a plan and made sure it wasn't too loud at the end.

Now that I've also found the time to simulate the sound of the Hatebreeder album, I can record a few tracks and upload them here in the next few days and if you feel like it, you can mix it the way you would. Or put an EQ over it. I would also upload a track with the mid-boost of the JE-1000 switched on so that you can hear the difference in what the gain boost can actually do.

The harshness in the video also comes from the fact that I forgot to switch off my gain boost.
 
My lazy ass alter ego has finally managed to record something.

There are 3 tracks in the rar file, each with a different sound. Always 2 variants of the HCDR sound (with EQ and without Eq) and the HB sound (also once with EQ and once without).

All were recorded with the Je-1000 + mid-boost.

I also changed as little as possible. So no noise gate, no compressor, no limiter or anything else.

Just ignore the fact that I haven't played properly for ages and have only practiced the song briefly.

There will be a file with all the various Je-1000 settings later - I didn't have time for that now.

 
My lazy ass alter ego has finally managed to record something.

There are 3 tracks in the rar file, each with a different sound. Always 2 variants of the HCDR sound (with EQ and without Eq) and the HB sound (also once with EQ and once without).

All were recorded with the Je-1000 + mid-boost.

I also changed as little as possible. So no noise gate, no compressor, no limiter or anything else.

Just ignore the fact that I haven't played properly for ages and have only practiced the song briefly.

There will be a file with all the various Je-1000 settings later - I didn't have time for that now.


As a random guy on the internet (this makes me an expert, obviously), I'm going to say that the Hatebreeder ver1 tone sounds the best by a decent margin, at least to my ears. They're all pretty good though, so I think we may be splitting hairs a little here. The HCDR one has a little too much sizzle I think but it's probably pretty accurate to the album.

The 2 standout ones to me Git 1 HB tone ver 1 and Git 3 HB tone ver 1.

Whatever you had going on there sounds excellent.
 
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I don't know if it's just that exact guitar for sale but the tone of the fretboard is a bit light, more like a rosewood. It's made in Korea also, which I can't c comment on.. but I have a RR24 made in Indonesia and it's horrible compared to the Japanese made RR24. The neck wood really throws me off, feels like they're using their low grade materials to make these guitars.
 
Whats the difference tothe normal RR24 15 years ago?

In any case, it's scary what prices are being asked for guitars these days. Almost €2,000 for an RR24?!

I feel you man, gear prices are getting nuts.

To answer your question though, the Floyd is top-mounted, the neck heel is very slightly different (I showed this in a video I posted on the last page). Stainless steel frets instead of nickel, and an EMG-ABQ on it. The original MIJ RR24's went for about $1400 in the mid 2000's, early 2010's. Does this guitar feel like it should be $600 more? Idk if the price of the upgrades warrants that, but factored in with inflation, it makes sense. Personally the biggest sell for me was the SS frets since they're a lot smoother, don't wear down nearly as easily, and they make the sound a little brighter.

These things are all small details that don't make a huge difference though. Really it just comes down to if you think the guitar is cool enough to buy it. You'd be just as happy with an MIJ RR24 or LTD/Edwards/ESP Alexi.
 
the thing i really dislike at this price cost.. the guitar doesnt have Mother of Pearl inlays anymore, the only thing that made a Jackson look really classy... if it just had MOP i'd instantly got the guitar !
 
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the thing i really dislike at this price cost.. the guitar doesnt have Mother of Pearl inlays anymore, the only thing that made a Jackson look really classy... if it just had MOP i'd instantly got the guitar !

I agree. Unfortunately production model Jackson's haven't in a really long time. Prolly since like early 2000's.
 
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I hate how much these guitars cost nowadays (among everything else). But they seem to hold their value really well. My white RR24 Japan from a while back seems to have doubled in value used versus its new cost.

I bit the bullet on the 2023 RR MG to be a live show workhorse and it's fantastic. The arrow paint job is a bit strange and two pickups isn't ideal(although I'll be using them). Quality wise it feels as good or better than the previous Japanese RR. But for the price the frets should be stainless and the bridge should be an original Floyd. I actually really like this Gotoh bridge because you can set how tight you want the whammy to be and the fine tuners glide nicer. But like the FR-1000 it doesn't hold tuning perfectly. Need to fine tune relatively often, but maybe it's like that on the original Floyd too..don't own an original Floyd so I wouldn't know. If you can find these for like $2k that's very fair, maybe like $2,250.

Time will tell how they hold their value. Jackson doesn't release Alexi type guitars often so supply is generally low.
 
Decided I might be doing some COB covers in the near future. (If anyone wanna do vocal tracks hit me up!). First time in many years dialing in a COB sound. Probably a bit quiet. EMG81, Neural DSP Mesa, and a parallax for bass.

 
Once in a while I browse the ESP guitars Custom Shop gallery, just to see what kinds of effed up stuff people come up with.

I did find a few fun ones.
This green stripe RV

And this purple fade RV, with double pinstripe, and arrowhead inlays. Classy af.

And
This ice blue stripe RV with blue sawtooth inlays. Gives FTR vibes for sure.

There’s a few more. There’s a lefty arrowhead with a neck pickup. And a lefty one with a red stripe.
And This pearly abomination with the GL headstock.

If you had the mullah for a custom, what would it be like?
 
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