One guitar sound for all covers?

Evo

I think that's a valid point, the best earners are indeed good musos.

It's easy to forget when you're surrounded by great musicians that certain things shouldn't be taken for granted, and not everybody can jump on a function gig last minute and have it go well. 

I guess I can only really offer the experience i've had in the area of function work. Up until the end of last year, I'd been with the same function band for nearly 12 years. We started on the regular pub covers circuit, and worked our way into the functions, weddings, and corporate stuff. However, we definitely hit a ceiling. 

It definitely wasn't the quality of the musicians, we had some of the best musicians in the country (...and me), and we would each individually often dep with some of the bigger earning names quite regularly. But for some reason, our act seemed to be stuck at that ceiling and couldn't break through it. 

Eventually we found that many (but admittedly not all) of the high paying gigs just go to the same act or agency every year, so unless they get let down last minute then breaking that cycle is a very difficult thing to do. 

At least, that was my experience. 

Stratavarious

I got clean, slightly dirty, more dirty, then chaos with pedal options for chorus and delay or wah… but basically it is the one amp 4 Channel switching and usually one guitar all night,

So the tone base is common,, not like a modeller with completely different sounds and EQ.   It works for hundreds of tunes. 

You get a lot of variety in the touch dynamics and guitar controls esp, with clean and crunchy.

Roland

Stratavarious said:

So the tone base is common,, not like a modeller with completely different sounds and EQ.   It works for hundreds of tunes. 

You get a lot of variety in the touch dynamics and guitar controls esp, with clean and crunchy.

I think those are the key points here. You’re not the only one to mention them. A decent guitarist can get a lot of different sounds from a few pedals, and the way he/she plays the instrument. In fact it’s in the audiences interest (and the bands) that the guitar sound doesn’t leap all over the shop. @Rowby1’s gripe, if I read him right, is that the guitarist didn’t vary his sound or his playing style from song to song.

Rowby1

Roland said:

Stratavarious said:

So the tone base is common,, not like a modeller with completely different sounds and EQ.   It works for hundreds of tunes. 

You get a lot of variety in the touch dynamics and guitar controls esp, with clean and crunchy.

I think those are the key points here. You’re not the only one to mention them. A decent guitarist can get a lot of different sounds from a few pedals, and the way he/she plays the instrument. In fact it’s in the audiences interest (and the bands) that the guitar sound doesn’t leap all over the shop. @Rowby1’s gripe, if I read him right, is that the guitarist didn’t vary his sound or his playing style from song to song.

@Roland absolutely correct.

The same sound for every song. No variation at all. A sound that (to me anyway) felt appropriate for maybe 20-30% of their material at best. 

I just found it an odd way to do it…….and wondered if anyone else on here would have done that.

ESBlonde

I do mostly cover bands and use a Hot rod deluxe set clean and a pedal board with set and forget effects. Chorus, echo, tremolo, Wah, drive and klone clone. Always on mild comp plus reverb on the amp. FX are either on or off no time to faff and no one notices anyway as long as the tone combination suggests the song. I do suffer from too many guitar swaps though but that’s for my entertainment typically a strat or tele and 335. As I say a suggestion of the sound is all that’s required and in respect of drive, we’ll less is more if you’re doing pop/commercial material.

davros

I saw a band in my local where the guitarist had a different patch for every song on his Line 6 POD. While they may have been carefully matched to the record, it sounded rubbish live, some dripping in reverb, some dry, while the drums, bass and singer stayed the same throughout.

The scenario from the OP is worse though, unless all the songs are very similar styles a single tone won't work for everything.

Like others above, I have clean, crunchy and overdriven sounds, with a Tube Screamer to add a bit of oomf for solos and a booster in the loop. Enough to suit different styles but keep an overall consistent sound. I think that's the way to go.

slacker

I tend to have a base clean sound that's on the edge with pedals to add gain reverb or delay. Also it depends on the song.

A metal grind for all songs is a weird choice. Good evening ladies and gentlemen our first song is ain't misbehaving...take it away Johnny...rarrgh clang whooo!!!

Snags

@slacker I have no idea what you mean ...

slacker

That's so bad it's good

Blueingreen

What I've never been able to understand are bands where the guitarist has a pedal board the size of Wembley and uses about 3 sounds. 

Rowby1

Snags said:

@slacker I have no idea what you mean ...

But that illustrates my point entirely, the guitars are not making the same noise right through the song, there’s actually some variation. 

ScreamingDave

Kind of.  For the most part my basic clean/crunch/lead sounds come from the amp and most of the time I’m in bridge pup and crunch, with the occasional seasoning from a bit of chorus or something. 

thebreeze

Can I just ask a few novice questions?

A fair few of you are saying, “I just use my volume control and tone knobs and switch between pickups and pedals”.  

I get that that’s how to vary tone/sound/volume but what does it do to the levels that have been settled on in a sound check?  I even struggle to know how to level the sound of my general more rhythm stuff as opposed to my cranked lead.  I guess on that it’s just fine to have a louder sound whilst your soloing?

Doesn’t it change the balance if you adjust the volume or can you all rely on sound engineers out front to rebalance immediately?  We just play in pubs, halls, parties etc.  Sometimes I really want to adjust the volume on my guitar because I think the song merits it but I just don’t in case it sounds to loud or too quiet at the front?

chris45

davros said:

I saw a band in my local where the guitarist had a different patch for every song on his Line 6 POD. While they may have been carefully matched to the record, it sounded rubbish live, some dripping in reverb, some dry, while the drums, bass and singer stayed the same throughout.

I play through a Helix in a classic rock covers band with live drums (that is not a digital kit) and a bit like @davros ; says, one instrument radically changing between songs while the tone of everything else is basically the same just sounds weird.  So I pick an amp and cab for my guitar and stick to that for the whole set even though I could change them to be “correct” for each song.
Reverb and delay IMHO should be used with extreme moderation live regardless of your setup as it can easily wash out everything else.

Roland

thebreeze said:

A fair few of you are saying, “I just use my volume control and tone knobs and switch between pickups and pedals”.  

I get that that’s how to vary tone/sound/volume but what does it do to the levels that have been settled on in a sound check? …

Yes, switching pickups and changing FX can change the levels. The trick is understanding by how much, and how to compensate. For example, on my Telecaster there are volume and tone differences between neck and bridge pickups, and also between individual pickups and the “both” option. I change pickups when I want a different sound, and adjust volume and tone knobs to compensate. 

When it comes to FX, they’re set with appropriate volume and mix so that the sound doesn’t get too loud or too quiet. Those volume and mix settings are tested in dress rehearsal, and adjusted if needed after a gig.

thebreeze

Roland said:

thebreeze said:

A fair few of you are saying, “I just use my volume control and tone knobs and switch between pickups and pedals”.  

I get that that’s how to vary tone/sound/volume but what does it do to the levels that have been settled on in a sound check? …

Yes, switching pickups and changing FX can change the levels. The trick is understanding by how much, and how to compensate. For example, on my Telecaster there are volume and tone differences between neck and bridge pickups, and also between individual pickups and the “both” option. I change pickups when I want a different sound, and adjust volume and tone knobs to compensate. 

When it comes to FX, they’re set with appropriate volume and mix so that the sound doesn’t get too loud or too quiet. Those volume and mix settings are tested in dress rehearsal, and adjusted if needed after a gig.

Thanks Roland.

fastonebaz

I like my bridge and neck pups to have matched output so I don't need to worry about volume differences.  I tend to solo on the neck pup for a smoother tone and rhythm on the bridge, Justin Dericco style.

flying_pie

thebreeze said:

Can I just ask a few novice questions?

A fair few of you are saying, “I just use my volume control and tone knobs and switch between pickups and pedals”.  

I get that that’s how to vary tone/sound/volume but what does it do to the levels that have been settled on in a sound check?  I even struggle to know how to level the sound of my general more rhythm stuff as opposed to my cranked lead.  I guess on that it’s just fine to have a louder sound whilst your soloing?

Doesn’t it change the balance if you adjust the volume or can you all rely on sound engineers out front to rebalance immediately?  We just play in pubs, halls, parties etc.  Sometimes I really want to adjust the volume on my guitar because I think the song merits it but I just don’t in case it sounds to loud or too quiet at the front?

I have song specific patches on my Boss GT100 so I can adjust the levels as needed in rehearsal/soundcheck but I tend to find that volume reduction on the guitar is often fine by itself because if your cleaning up the tone then it's for a quieter song and in our case our drummer will take it easier

viz

chris45 said:

davros said:

I saw a band in my local where the guitarist had a different patch for every song on his Line 6 POD. While they may have been carefully matched to the record, it sounded rubbish live, some dripping in reverb, some dry, while the drums, bass and singer stayed the same throughout.

I play through a Helix in a classic rock covers band with live drums (that is not a digital kit) and a bit like @davros ; says, one instrument radically changing between songs while the tone of everything else is basically the same just sounds weird.  So I pick an amp and cab for my guitar and stick to that for the whole set even though I could change them to be “correct” for each song.
Reverb and delay IMHO should be used with extreme moderation live regardless of your setup as it can easily wash out everything else.

That sounds sonically awesome. 

ICBM

I’ve always done the same when I’m using multi-FX - set it up like you would an amp with one or two channels, so apart from clean to overdriven there are no very drastic changes in tone, even though there are changes in type of sound and effects, if that makes sense. Having also done a fair bit of sound engineering, there’s nothing worse than a player who radically changes tone in the middle of a song, or even much between songs. (Keyboard players are often the worst culprits.) It makes it hard to get a consistent mix because perceived levels are very dependent on EQ. It only really works at pro level with two separate amps (real or emulated) each with a dedicated channel in the desk so they can be set independently.