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Hello Active melody guitarists. I’m sorry I am not a regular contributor on the forum. I have been learning from Brian for probably 6 or 7 years. I think he has taught me 95 percent of my guitar knowledge. So, in a sense, this video is the culmination of many lessons. One thing not discussed a lot is tone. For me, tone inspires and directs my playing style. This video demonstrates some of the tones I get out of my 2017 Gibson Les Paul Traditional HP and my fly rig pedalboard. Some sloppy playing in parts but hope you can appreciate some different tones. Cheers.
Stacey
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Thanks for the post, Stacey, and welcome to the forum. I’m sure you’ve just scratched the surface here.
It seems the world of digital modelling is exploding right now. I’m confused by all the available options although the Tonex One pedal seems like a very affordable choice.
I just watched a video where two Tonex One pedals were used to pan a Vox AC30 and a Deluxe Reverb to get a pleasing tone.
I want to jump in but I like hearing an amp behind me. I’m curious about your signal chain. How are you recording this and how are you hearing it in the room?John
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Hi John. Thanks for your interest. I am running my guitar signal into my pedalboard which consists of: tuner[ >dynacomp>Boss Blues driver>Tonex One> TC electronics Plethora one>Immerse reverb pedal. From there stereo chain goes into Scarlet 4i4 and into Ableton on my laptop. The Scarlett has the option of monitoring via headphone output or 1/4 inch cable output. I ran stereo 1/4 inch cables to my monitor speaker setup. I used my laptop video camera to capture video and audio from monitor speakers. I then imported the audio from the DAW (Ableton) into video editing software (Adobe Rush) and lined up video with audio track. I hope this makes sense. Let me know if you have questions that I didn’t explain very well. Cheers.
Stacey
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That’s pretty clear, Stacey.
I’m wrestling with options to hear in the room. I’m not sure if I’ll be satisfied playing through monitors. I guess I can jump in with a modelling unit and play through monitors initially while I debate the merits of FRFR cabs or devices to power a speaker cab I already have. The choices are becoming daunting, it’s hard to commit.
Do you plug directly into a PA system for playing at church?John
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John, I also have a Two Notes Opus which has multiple amp models to choose from. Tonex is better. I also have a Fender Deluxe Reverb reissue 40 w tube amp and Boss Katana 100w. I enjoy these amps when I want to push some air but my wife is not a fan of high volume so I usually have to play through amps when she is gone. The Tonex one offers, in my opinion, a fairly realistic simulation to tube amps with incredible dynamics and chime. It takes overdrive and compression pedals well. It also has selectable noise gate, compression, modulation, reverb and delay built in. There seems to be unlimited amp model captures to choose from. I have purchased models from Tone Shepherd and Amalgamcaptures.com. As you mentioned, because Tonex One is fairly affordable, it is possible to run a signal chain with 2 different amps in stereo. The Tonex One reverb, delay and modulation outputs in stereo as well. On my flat response monitor speakers, I can run up to 100 db which is plenty loud. I also can run into my 2 amps by disabling the cab simulation in Tonex one. I also have the option of running directly into headphones when I don’t want to bug my wife. Lots of versatility and although I haven’t played through a lot of different tube amps to compare, the playing experience for me is very similar to my Fender Deluxe Reverb Reissue in regards to headroom and dynamic playing. There are so many different, high quality amp captures to choose from. Dumble, Matchless, ToneKing to name a few. These are In addition to more common Fender, Marshall, Vox I definitely recommend checking out Tonex as a reasonably priced option for amp captures. I believe Helix and Kemper are more expensive alternatives. The Amalgam captures feature YouTube videos of a guy demonstrating the tones of most of the amp captures offered through the site. This should be an example of one of their amp model packages.
You might check it out. I am not sponsored to say nice things about Tonex. I am primarily a living room player.
Stacey
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100 db is certainly loud enough. Some nice tones there, all the amps I wish I owned.
One thing I don’t understand is running the tonex amp simulation into your amp. Doesn’t the amp have it’s own tone stack. I thought you would need a power amp to power the cab only without using the amps tubes in this circuit.
John
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John, I am able to plug directly into Front of House via a DI box. We have an in ear monitoring system that runs from the mixing board back to the musicians and singers. The system works pretty well and gives the sound person a lot of control over the mix. When playing for the church band, we have drums, bass, acoustic and electric guitar, electric piano, synth and vocalists. The drum kit is isolated in a booth. I think the sound guy really likes having a fairly quiet stage and can mix the sound independent of stage noise. I have played a couple of smaller gigs with a smaller soundboard but we were still able to run out to PA speakers and also have in ear as well as a wedge monitor. It seems to work pretty well for settings where it is important to control the overall volume. I enjoy listening to music with amps and full on drum kits but I think it may be harder to optimize the mixes. The drum kit bleeds into vocalist microphones I think. Might be also hard to get the desired guitar tone without cranking up the volume on a high headroom tube amp like mine. What has been your experience? Have you played in a band like setting? I think it is a lot of fun to crank the volume on a tube amp or to push it with some overdrive pedals but it gets pretty loud. I have an attenuator for the tube amp to get pushed amp tones at lower volumes but it is a little anemic.
Stacey
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John, by using the amps effects loop return input, I believe you bypass the preamp section of the amp and are dealing just with the cab and master volume on the amp. By disabling the cab sim on the Tonex pedal, I believe you are left with the preamp tones from the pedal and the cab tones from your amp. Kind of a hybrid. Not quite the same as FRFR speakers but it allows you to use your amps if you want to push some air.
Stacey
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Nicely played Stacey. I love the reverb sound you are getting.
I come from a classical guitar background originally and tone was all about fingers and positioning the hand over the sound hole. When I started getting into electric guitars I noticed all these debates about tones and equipment to get them.
Personally I dislike the sound of electric guitars without at least some reverb. They just sound flat to my ear without it. So, I need that much.
That is about the extent of my dealings with electric guitar effects. I have a multi effects unit with a nice reverb on it and I use the other effects sparingly for the most part. The whole business with effects is all so personal and, I think, that might be the reason Brian doesn’t dwell too much on that.
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We’re all searching for the perfect tone, aren’t we? You seem to be happy with your setup and the new TonexOne pedal. I looked at a few video’s on that unit and it looks pretty good for the price. It has 20 slots that you can setup in advance however you like, that is really nice.
As far as your tube amps and your wife not being happy with the loud sounds, just get her a good set of in ear sound protection or Bose noise cancelling head phones.
Go slow and practice correct technique, and your abilities will dramatically improve.
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Hi Geoff. I saw a recent video of you playing two pieces on your Classical guitar. Very nicely played. Are you using actual sheet music or tablature when playing. Using sheet music with guitar is a mystery to me. Seems that requires advanced level understanding of the fretboard. I have several acoustic guitars and I find if I can add a short acting delay (less than 200 ms) with fairly long feedback and run that into a reverb, and turning the overall volume of the effects down can create a nice ambient bed for the acoustic guitar. Take that for what it’s worth. I hope you continue to find enjoyment through playing and exploring different electric and acoustic tones. Glad you enjoyed the reverb on my piece. I used the technique of a little stereo delay into stereo reverb. I also used some chorus with the higher gain tones. Lots to explore and understand and experiment with. Yes, I believe Brian has his hands full just trying to teach us fluency of the fretboard with chords and single note scales. That is a very tall order in and of itself. Occasionally he mentions how he achieves various tones. I think he comes up with some interesting tones when playing electric guitar. I still find that exploring tones inspires me to pick up the electric guitar more often which in turn helps improve my playing as I am spending more time on the fretboard exploring scales and chords and getting some of that muscle memory that Brian talks about where the fingers just know how to do the dance on their own. I am not there fully yet but I see what he is saying.
Stacey
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Thank you for your interesting post, Stacey. Your tones sound wonderful. For the past several years I’ve been using a Line 6 Spider V 120 modeling amp with a Line 6 FBV floorboard. For many decades I used Marshalls with multiple pedals but as I got older and found that it took two of us to move my Marshall JCM-900 around, the Spider made more sense. It is light, has practically an infinite range of tones, is simple to set up and use, and is fairly inexpensive. I hear a lot of criticism from the anti-solid-state crowd (I used to be one of them.) But I have been very happy with the Spider.
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Michael, I have paired the Tonex one with the Airstep TX which is specifically designed for the Tonex one pedal. It allows me to access all 20 slots as well as turn on and off individual effects on a give preset. You can organize your presets into banks of 4. It really makes the Tonex one more useful. Here is one video link that talks about it:
Stacey
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Michael, I have been happy with the overall tone results. I admit that using software to get the pedal set up with presets and using the software for the Airstep tx is kind of a pain. Tonex has a free Tone net library that has a lot of different amp models. I found I preferred the captures from 3rd party sources (Amalgam and Tone Shepherd are the ones I use). They aren’t that expensive and I think the quality of the amp captures produces generally more dynamic tones. Again, I am in no way affiliated with any of these products. I know there are many different options out there. I think Brian uses a Kemper profiler frequently. Once the Tonex is set up, it is pretty simple to access amp captures and effects. If you don’t mind messing around with computers, I think it is a good way to go.
Stacey
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That wouldn’t be a problem for me, it’s just a matter of going through the available models and picking out the one’s I would actually use. I do have a Valeton 200 pedal board that I got recently and I honestly haven’t put a lot of time into discovering all of what it has to offer with the custom patches. I spent one day trying out various patches and couldn’t find the right amp tone. I’ll put some more time into it and see what I can come up with. Once I get the right amp tone, it’s just a matter of crafting a decent signal chain of basic effects to create variations on the basic cleanish tone.
Go slow and practice correct technique, and your abilities will dramatically improve.
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