I have recently joined a new band playing some fairly heavy riff based rock. Think, black stone cherry, clutch, stone temple pilots, funeral for a friend and you have the kind of rough style we play.
overall im really enjoying it, they have some great songs and are a great bunch of lads. There is a bit of tension as the singer/guitarist is in another band and the schedules sometimes clash but otherwise no personality issues.
my problem is with the other guitarists sound. We have played a couple of gigs and at gig volume i think he uses far too much gain and bass. This means the songs/riffs/parts that he plays sound a bit muffed and just become ‘white noise’ in a loud mix. For me clarity is really important especially when you are playing original music that the audience dont know, they need to be able to make out what you are playing. I therefore tend to use the lowest amount of gain and bass i can get away with at gig volume.
I think to be honest he lacks a bit of confidence in his playing and therefore likes the security blanket of lots of gain and bass, it also means he sometimes plays his parts a bit sloppy because the sound he has is very forgiving and he gets away with it.
I want to talk to him about dialling down the bass and gain to improve the clarity of the sound which i think will then almost force him to play his parts more cleanly, again benefitting the sound. Problem is how to approach it as this could be an awkward/delicate situation. Any tips???
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Just try to phrase it in a “how about this for an idea?” sort of way, so it’s a suggestion to improve the overall band’s sound, rather than “I think your tone is shit”
Often those types cannot be convinced and it becomes a major issue- they are better off being replaced.
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He also seems to set his eq with his eyes not his ears. I had a blast through his rig a while ago and adjusted the eq (with his permission). He came back in the room and looked at the dials and said ‘you cant set those there!’ Without even hearing/playing it!
Talk about your influences and why he likes certain guitarists. No preachy stuff. Allow him to discover why/how his tone could improve.
Wait for the penny to drop.
Remember, you can lead a horse to water, but you can't make him drink.
Then you just see whether he drinks or not.
When I started out, I always turned the midrange right down because it sounded meaner that way. At the first gig we ever did with a sound man, I was told that I had to turn up the midrange because it just sounded like white noise. I was nervous, insecure, 17 and not very good, and I defensively said "that's my sound". Fucking facepalm.
But, obviously the sound man was right, it sounded absolutely terrible.
And having had that pointed out to me, I started learning what characteristics of guitar sounds made sense in the context of a band.
So, you've got to tell him, and the rest is up to him.
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I think hes playing by numbers as you say and will take some convincing if the rest of the band are willing to put up with it.
Just say "fcknell that sounds muddy how do you do that?. Try this this and this 3 versions of same song lets experiment a bit"
I actually used this once "Your amp sounds awesome when you play on your own and you need that bass etc to get that huge sound but have you noticed in the band mix it's not quite so good and rolling back the bass and boosting mids does a better job?"
Make out it's some big discovery for you too
Was it a one guitar band before? Maybe he thought he had to fill the spaces which he doesn't now - I always find it hard to say anything to the other guitarist but if it comes from the bass player or drummer it' doesn't seem so "know it all"
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Get someone else (a sound engineer) to tell him. That way, it's not you making life difficult, but someone else bringing their experience to bear on resolving an overly gainy/bassy tone.
No matter whether you are right or not, the new guy who joins a band with the attitude “this band would be better off people did things my way” is, putting it mildly, unlikely to make himself popular.