Your Clean Sound..?

RocknRollDave

I play mostly weddings, so as often as not I use a clean setting. I was recently asked during a dep gig to rough my clean sound up a bit, as it clearly wasn't full/ warm/ punchy enough, so I'm looking again at how I go about getting my clean sound, and am interested in how others do this.
I currently use the tiniest smidgen of gain on a crunch channel, so technically it's NOT clean, but it's really not detectable in the tone other than it takes the glassy edge off my cleans compared to the actual clean channel (it's a solid state amp, so not the warmest of clean channels...)

So....
Simple question: How do you get your live clean sound?

In  as much detail as possible, please, so incude all of the elements below that apply to you:

Amp settings
Guitar tone and vol knob settings
EQ pedal
Compressor
Boosts
etc etc

EricTheWeary

I know the problem, although never really consistently got an answer. Guitar straight into amp tends to be anemic and compressors tend to be a PIA to try to get right.
Using SS amps in rehearsal rooms usually one of these got me closer:
Use the OD channel. They are usually voiced for a livelier sound and that's where all the tube fakery is going on, you just have to find the sweet spot. Although you then need a pedal for OD sounds.
Into the clean channel use an ampish OD pedal. Again tweak pedal and guitar to the happy place. Basically same answer as the first but not using up your OD channel.

stickyfiddle

For me, I aim for Voxy clean, which Twin players would no doubt call dirty

So it's a smidge of gain, with plenty of mids and top but not much bass. Most recently that's via crunch channel of a Mesa 5:25, nothing on top except a bit of compression to even it out if I'm playing jangly chords but not if it's a more picky line. Then I'll add the tiniest bit of hair with Liquid Sunshine or Hotcake for just-past clean.

midiglitch

Jtm45 clean here. How clean that is depends on the venue and how loud the amp is. I'm not playing funk where you might be strumming quite hard and still want clean so picking strength and guitar volume go a long way. 

A light modulated delay or tremolo, depending on the part I'm playing, is the secret weapon imo for adding 'interest'.

randomhandclaps

I almost always hit the front with a boost.  I don't actually use a boost with dirty but almost always with clean in front of a heavy modded (virtually rebuilt) Fender HRD.  Bass 6, Mids 4, Treble 6 (+/-).  Guitar varies but with the HRD it's mainly Tele or Strat.

 

monquixote

I have my amp set to a spanky clean and if I want a hairy clean I use a Liquid Sunshine set to very low gain.

mike_l

I find it bestest with a touch of chorus and delay, though only a little. or, as Drew said, using the crunch setting on an Boss SD-2 with everything set low. I's never considered that until he mentioned that's how he used his.

IanSavage

Personally, everything at two o'clock and then roll the guitar volume back until it cleans up sufficiently. I don't do much totally clean though  

digitalscream

My priority is my heavy rhythm sound, and I rarely use clean. When I do, it goes something like this on the Normal channel of my Jet City amps:

Gain - max

Bass - 5/9

Mid - 4.5/9

Treble - 4/9 (it's a bright amp anyway)

Presence - 0/9

For clean, it's just a case of rolling off the guitar volume. It's not perfect, but it gives a kind of slightly-dirty, bluesy clean that I can live with I almost always have a modulated delay on it as well, courtesy of my Flashback.

EricTheWeary

There was/ is a chap on YouTube who does some effects videos. His reggae clean sound had an OCD plus reverb.
I was trying to play Chase the Devil by Max Romeo and with strat into a clean amp the sound just dies on those sustained octaves and is just some polite strums on the rhythm. Crap basically. With some OD plus reverb the octave part at the intro rings out and the percussive element of the rhythm makes it sound much livelier. Clean but to the point where if you give it a good wack it distorts.

johnnyurq

I start with as pristine a clean as possible from the amp or PA if acoustic then add FX to taste inc OD/Distortion.

failed_astronaut

My clean sound is the Classic 30 clean channel and depending on pick-up configuration (humbuckers/split), I'll use a boost or compressor to even things out.

Phil_aka_Pip

Bluesbreaker with Lester: Vol 8, Bass 4, Mid 6, Treble 8, Presence 4-8 depending on venue. Pedals: tadge of chorus & digital delay ... guitar vol backed off enough to clean the sound up.

Roland

RocknRollDave said:

In  as much detail as possible, please, so include all of the elements below that apply to you:

How much detail do you want?  It used to worry me how much attention I put into these things.  Then I watched a video with Tommy Emmanuel, and another one with Thomas Blug, and decided that I hadn't got OCD after all.

For covers work I run three clean sounds: squeaky clean, warm clean, and a Bassman emulation which roughens up when the guitar volume gets above 70%. On all three amp emulations the tone controls are around:

Bass: 12 o'clock

Mid:   12 o'clock

Treble: 1 o'clock

Gain is around 10 o'clock, with the Bassman edging towards 12.

Guitar volume is between 50% and 70% for rhythm, depending on whether I'm strumming or arpeggiating. Solos are either 100%, or change amp, or kick in a drive pedal, or some combination of these.

Guitar tone is usually wide open, although I do pull it back by around 20% to take the edge off for selected songs.

Here's where Axe-FX pays off:  In addition to amp emulation I use a low level of "studio" compression, and speaker emulation.  Speaker emulation (also called Impulse Response, or IR) can soften or add an edge to the sound.  On the fly I can also add a 4dB mid boost around 950 Hz if I need the sound to cut through the mix a bit more strongly.  When I set up at a gig I adjust the output EQ depending on whether we're using the band's PA, my Mackie SRM450s as PA, Mackies as backline, or (heaven forbid) the venue's PA; and also what I'm using for monitoring.  If it isn't sounding sufficiently punchy then I'll boost the mids by a further 3 to 5 dB in the 500 to 1kHz area, and maybe 1dB at 2kHz.

Normally I play with fingers, which allows me to pull strings so that they slap back against the fret board for extra attack.  To get more aggressive sounds I have a range of picks: various plastics, brass, aluminium and even an old tortoise shell.  Picks allow me to hit the strings harder, and each type adds its own bite to the attack.

Strings are the other component.  I use 10-52s on the PRS and 11-52s on the Parker.  Opinions vary about how string weight affects the tone.  In my case it's about being to hit or pluck the strings harder without breaking or boinging out of tune. I also find that the higher tension from heavier strings brings out a better sound from the Parker.

Still awake?

Kebabkid

monquixote said:

I have my amp set to a spanky clean and if I want a hairy clean I use a Liquid Sunshine set to very low gain.

As above and sometimes it might be a Keeley TS808 with gain set at 8-9 o'clock, and that's also how I set up the Liquid Sunshine (er hem, which is for sale on the classifieds and looks to have been replaced with a Zendrive, which also achieves a similar thing).

A Keeley compressor is on all the time (10 o'clock for sustain, 12 for Level - just a tad more volume than amp) and that's just enough to feel the effect, but not so that it get's in the way, and that adds a certain something special to the clean sound. I found MXR Dynacomps to be dirty-sounding compressors and they may help but the compression effect is really noticeable.

Boosters such as both my Xotic EP and the discontinued Catalinbread Serrano Piccoso also add some girth and light grit on clean sounds. The latter is particularly good for keeping the chime and transparency whilst adding some bounce, and I'd imagine the TC Spark Booster does a similar thing and probably worth trying. From past experience, I can also say that either the Xotic RC Booster or Way Huge Pork Loin contribute nicely to clean sounds, be they in my case a valve (H&K Tubemeister 36) or a solid state (Roland Cube 60 on Black Panel setting) and with the RC, you dial in or out the EQ you want and the controls are powerful and useful.

I've been lucky with most amps that I can normally set all the dials to between 11-12 o'clock and they work for me. Matt Schofield recommends you turn the amp dials until there's a really noticeable change and leave it there and then move onto the next dial. Of course, if they're interactive, that can fail, but seems to have worked when I've tried it with hire/backline stuff. I'd also try some extreme EQ settings with your amp (BTW, what is it?) and I was amazed at the seemingly ridiculous settings I received from H&K rep/German sessioner Thomas Blug for the H&K, but they worked!

octatonic

'Clean' is largely an illusion.

ICBM

octatonic said:

'Clean' is largely an illusion.

Agreed. If you want to hear what actual clean is like, DI the guitar into a large PA*. 'Electric guitar clean' is always harmonically distorted even if there's no actual clipping.

I do like my clean sound completely unclipped - not even the tiniest bit of audible breakup on transients. So in general I like powerful amps, either channel-switching or with pedals for dirt. Usually I will have the bass all the way up - not because I like a very 'bassy' sounds so much as because it makes the amp feel much looser - the mids quite low and the treble and presence to wherever it sounds right. I prefer Marshall-type cleans to Fender BF-type cleans, and I prefer amps with an underdamped feel. Some old-school solid-state amps work quite well but mostly larger valve amps are best.

Usually the guitar volume and tone full up.

No compression, pedal EQ or clean boost.

*I do also sometimes DI an electric guitar, usually a semi-acosutic, and almost always the neck pickup. I actually like that almost-acoustic sound. Ideally a Rickenbacker with the stereo outputs split with the neck pickup DI'd and the bridge going to either an amp or a simulator also into the PA.

ESBlonde

It's all about context and artistic interpretation.

If the sound is a good sound and suggests itself fit for the role, it is.

So guitar on about 3/4 volume and tone either full up or knocked down a bit. My strat has the mid tone set about 3+ so that OOP with the bridge is PHAT or switch to the neck and it's clean. Vol to 10 goes dirty. Thats a good selection of tone control at the flick of a switch or volume control between 7 and 10.

Amp is a 50w marshall JMP with the chanels linked and volumes both about 3. Bass 1/4 all other tones 3/4 and some decent but subtle compression. All other drive from pedals.

I also use an HRD sometimes and set it to sound similar to the old JMP and use the low gain clean input. Again comp and dirt pedals.

mike257

I'm in a similar boat to you in that I'm mostly on wedding gigs. I decided my clean wasn't clean enough and got a second amp - an early 90's Fender Champ 25 - solid state pre, valve power amp. Sounded lovely but it wanted to be louder than was practical to sound its best and was also extra hassle to carry, mic up etc so I've ditched it for now.

I'm now back to my single channel Genz Benz Black Pearl 30. I've got my gain at around 10 o'clock and my EQ fairly flat, its quite a hairy clean. Often, once I've hit the amps built in boost I find that I like it better that way and it stays on for the rest of the gig! I've been trying to keep it cleaner than I used to for a bit more versatility so have stuck my Joyo OCD clone back on my board for an extra dirt option to compensate for what I'm not getting from the amp once its dialled back.

Oh, guitars are either a USA Tele, Yamaha SA2000 or Edwards Les Paul. Volume and tone usually maxed out. The Tele obviously comes out a bit cleaner than the humbucker equipped guitars and I'll sometimes roll off the volume (Edwards) or use the coil tap (Yamaha) if I really need to clean up. Don't tend to use any pedals as part of my clean tone except the Line 6 Verbzilla, which is pretty much always on with a subtle spring reverb.

I find those "clean but right on the edge of dirty" sounds are the hardest to achieve convincingly from an SS amp or pedals, its pretty much where I aim for with my base tone as it seems to be a good starting point for higher gain sounds and just about clean enough for most applications short of choppy funk stuff, which I like a bit cleaner again.

The Vox clean tones are on the dirtier end of the scale, would one of the various Vox sim pedals on the market (Tech 21 Liverpool, Joyo AC Tone) be worth a look?

ESBlonde

Addendum

For those super glassy cleans I kick in an aural exciter, even with a slightly clean sound it (again in context) comes across as brighter = cleaner.

 

Kebabkid

Like the aural exciter mentioned by @ESBlonde , the BBE pedals can do a similar thing or you can dirty up you amp sound to a break-up sound and then use the guitar volume to clean things up or use a Homebrew Electronics (Paul Gilbert) Detox EQ pedal to clean up your sound (can dirty it up as well if you choose)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z7nSjxb2UlI