oldmtlhed
Banned
New member
Hello tone seekers!
A little about me:
I'm an old metal head from back when it started. I grew-up on Iron Maiden, Helloween, King Diamond, Annihilator, etc.
I also had an appreciation for bands like Rush, and composers like John Williams.
My life changed when I discovered SYMPHONY X. They are simply on another level. Musical perfection, I call it.
They take the best of everything, and put it all into one super tight package of awesomeness. They have been my
favorite band for 20 years. Michael Romeo can play anything, and I mean ANYTHING, and he plays it better than anyone else.
We all have our favorites, and our influences, and Romeo is the top dog for me. I also love many other great artists such as
Alex Lifeson, Jeff Loomis, Kiko Louriero, Kai Hansen, Chuck Schuldiner, Dave Murray, etc. ( I lean towards the heavy+melodic stuff )
I always wanted to play like these guys, but I suck horribly, but it's still fun to try. I never saw the sense in spending thousands of
dollars on gear, when I am simply not very good. I have accumulated some stuff over the years, but it's a mess of things that
don't really work together like I want them to. Which brings me to my question for you experts:
I am looking to add some things to my rig, so I can use what I have, and create an all-in-one bedroom practice setup.
I will never gig, and I just play to hear myself make noise. So I don't need or want high-power stuff. I also don't want to spend
a thousand bucks trying to put it all together. Here is what I currently have:
Old ROLAND Cube-30 which I use for a good heavy rhythm sound. It has a nice cutting heavy distortion tone at low volumes,
but it sounds compressed and sterile. I also stuck a Maxon OD808 in front of it, which adds a little boost in the dynamics.
The on-board effects suck, and all I use is a tiny bit of chorus with a moderate amount of reverb. It sounds acceptable to my
picky ears, but we always want better tone. The Cube-30 is limited, because it has no EFFECTS LOOP, so I can't really use my
other stuff with it. It also uses a shared EQ for the CLEAN and DISTORTION channels, which I do not like. Basically, I want to
be able to switch between 3 separate channels: 1. clean with chorus/reverb 2. heavy rhythm 3. soaring lead with delay + effects.
I can't do it with the CUBE-30.
Other gear I have is: an old Peavey 4x12 cab with Celestion G12-(something) speakers. Cab is 300watts max, 16ohm mono.
MXR 10-band EQ pedal. Maxon OD808 pedal.
AND.... a nice old TC ELECTRONIC Gmajor rack unit. ( Which I think has AWESOME sounds in it, plus tons of functionality! )
I also have a FURMAN power conditioner I plug everything into for safety.
I want to be able to actually USE all this stuff I have, but I am not sure what I need.
I DO NOT want to spend a bunch of money. So I am looking at CHEAPER stuff that will maybe allow me to hook all this
stuff up and have some flexibility and functionality. I am very picky about my distortion tones, but my clean tone can be any
clean sound, with some effects to add spacey ambience. I love chorus, delay, etc on my cleans.
Here is what I was thinking about doing: ( options )
I could buy an ORANGE CRUSH 35RT and use the effects loop it has, plus an A/B box to switch between my CUBE-30 and the 35RT.
OR
I could buy a BOSS KATANA head, and a Roland GA-FC, use my 4x12 Peavey cab, and throw the CUBE-30 in the closet to collect dust.
OR
I could buy the ORANGE 35RT, and a high-end distortion pedal ( such as Friedman BEOD or Wampler Pinnacle Deluxe ), put the
CUBE-30 in the closet, run my Gmajor in the effects loop, along with the MXR 10-band EQ.
( I do NOT like the distortion sound of the ORANGE CRUSH, so I would have to run a pedal through the CLEAN channel. )
The COST of these options range from around $350 to $500.
I want a distortion tone that rips my face off, stays tight, is not flubby on the bottom-end and sterile everywhere else.
I am looking for the tone from JUDAS PRIEST PAINKILLER, and the SYMPHONY X Iconoclast album!
ANY SUGGESTIONS? Am I on the right track, or should I rethink this whole thing?
A little about me:
I'm an old metal head from back when it started. I grew-up on Iron Maiden, Helloween, King Diamond, Annihilator, etc.
I also had an appreciation for bands like Rush, and composers like John Williams.
My life changed when I discovered SYMPHONY X. They are simply on another level. Musical perfection, I call it.
They take the best of everything, and put it all into one super tight package of awesomeness. They have been my
favorite band for 20 years. Michael Romeo can play anything, and I mean ANYTHING, and he plays it better than anyone else.
We all have our favorites, and our influences, and Romeo is the top dog for me. I also love many other great artists such as
Alex Lifeson, Jeff Loomis, Kiko Louriero, Kai Hansen, Chuck Schuldiner, Dave Murray, etc. ( I lean towards the heavy+melodic stuff )
I always wanted to play like these guys, but I suck horribly, but it's still fun to try. I never saw the sense in spending thousands of
dollars on gear, when I am simply not very good. I have accumulated some stuff over the years, but it's a mess of things that
don't really work together like I want them to. Which brings me to my question for you experts:
I am looking to add some things to my rig, so I can use what I have, and create an all-in-one bedroom practice setup.
I will never gig, and I just play to hear myself make noise. So I don't need or want high-power stuff. I also don't want to spend
a thousand bucks trying to put it all together. Here is what I currently have:
Old ROLAND Cube-30 which I use for a good heavy rhythm sound. It has a nice cutting heavy distortion tone at low volumes,
but it sounds compressed and sterile. I also stuck a Maxon OD808 in front of it, which adds a little boost in the dynamics.
The on-board effects suck, and all I use is a tiny bit of chorus with a moderate amount of reverb. It sounds acceptable to my
picky ears, but we always want better tone. The Cube-30 is limited, because it has no EFFECTS LOOP, so I can't really use my
other stuff with it. It also uses a shared EQ for the CLEAN and DISTORTION channels, which I do not like. Basically, I want to
be able to switch between 3 separate channels: 1. clean with chorus/reverb 2. heavy rhythm 3. soaring lead with delay + effects.
I can't do it with the CUBE-30.
Other gear I have is: an old Peavey 4x12 cab with Celestion G12-(something) speakers. Cab is 300watts max, 16ohm mono.
MXR 10-band EQ pedal. Maxon OD808 pedal.
AND.... a nice old TC ELECTRONIC Gmajor rack unit. ( Which I think has AWESOME sounds in it, plus tons of functionality! )
I also have a FURMAN power conditioner I plug everything into for safety.
I want to be able to actually USE all this stuff I have, but I am not sure what I need.
I DO NOT want to spend a bunch of money. So I am looking at CHEAPER stuff that will maybe allow me to hook all this
stuff up and have some flexibility and functionality. I am very picky about my distortion tones, but my clean tone can be any
clean sound, with some effects to add spacey ambience. I love chorus, delay, etc on my cleans.
Here is what I was thinking about doing: ( options )
I could buy an ORANGE CRUSH 35RT and use the effects loop it has, plus an A/B box to switch between my CUBE-30 and the 35RT.
OR
I could buy a BOSS KATANA head, and a Roland GA-FC, use my 4x12 Peavey cab, and throw the CUBE-30 in the closet to collect dust.
OR
I could buy the ORANGE 35RT, and a high-end distortion pedal ( such as Friedman BEOD or Wampler Pinnacle Deluxe ), put the
CUBE-30 in the closet, run my Gmajor in the effects loop, along with the MXR 10-band EQ.
( I do NOT like the distortion sound of the ORANGE CRUSH, so I would have to run a pedal through the CLEAN channel. )
The COST of these options range from around $350 to $500.
I want a distortion tone that rips my face off, stays tight, is not flubby on the bottom-end and sterile everywhere else.
I am looking for the tone from JUDAS PRIEST PAINKILLER, and the SYMPHONY X Iconoclast album!
ANY SUGGESTIONS? Am I on the right track, or should I rethink this whole thing?
